| Neymar back in charge of Brazil ahead of Olympic semifinals Posted: 14 Aug 2016 03:10 PM PDT  SAO PAULO (AP) — It might be time to put Neymar's name back on the Brazilian jersey.
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| Kurdish forces launch fresh thrust to retake Mosul from Islamic State Posted: 14 Aug 2016 01:43 PM PDT  By Saif Hameed WARDAK, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a fresh attack on Islamic State (IS) forces early on Sunday as part of a campaign to capture Mosul, the militants' de facto capital in Iraq, Kurdish officials said. The advance began after heavy shelling and air strikes by a United States-led coalition against IS forces, a Reuters correspondent reported from Wardak, 30 km (19 miles) southeast of Mosul. The militants fought back, firing mortars at the advancing troops and detonating at least two car bombs.
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| Dozens dead as warplanes pound rebel-held north Syria Posted: 14 Aug 2016 01:01 PM PDT  Syrian and Russian warplanes have launched a wave of air strikes in northern Syria, killing dozens in areas held by a rebel alliance battling to take control of second city Aleppo. The air strikes, which began Saturday and continued Sunday, killed 45 civilians in and around Aleppo and 22 in neighbouring Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The raids came as the Islamist Faylaq al-Sham Islamist faction, part of the rebel alliance, said it had begun a new offensive "to liberate" the regime-held area of Zahra on Aleppo's western outskirts.
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| Islamic State faces uphill 'branding war' in Afghanistan, Pakistan Posted: 14 Aug 2016 12:39 PM PDT  By Kay Johnson and Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The U.S. drone strike that killed Islamic State's commander for Afghanistan and Pakistan was the latest blow to the Middle East-led movement's ambitions to expand into a region where the long-established Taliban remain the dominant Islamist force. Islamic State has enticed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of jihadist fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan to switch loyalty and has held a small swathe of territory in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, where leader Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed on July 26 by a U.S. drone, Washington confirmed late Friday. Anxiety over Islamic State - also known as ISIS or "Daesh" - in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been building since the al Qaeda breakaway movement seized portions of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014 and began promoting itself worldwide.
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| Reeling from a Week in Hell, Trump Forces Try to Push Back Posted: 14 Aug 2016 10:44 AM PDT  After a week from hell in which Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suffered major GOP defections and saw his standing in the polls plummet as he wildly lashed out against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and President Obama, Trump forces engaged in damage control on Sunday to try to staunch the hemorrhaging. Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort disputed reports that the campaign was in disarray and, like Trump in a tweet this morning, blamed the news media for distorting Trump's statements last week.
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| Kurdish journalist killed in northern Iraq fighting Posted: 14 Aug 2016 09:46 AM PDT  An Iraqi Kurdish reporter was killed and another wounded on Sunday during a military operation against the Islamic State group in northern Iraq, officials said. The journalists, working together for Kurdistan TV, were following peshmerga forces involved in the assault which began early Sunday. The Kurdistan Democratic Party, which owns the channel, announced the death in a statement.
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| US-backed Syria forces say next IS target is Al-Bab Posted: 14 Aug 2016 09:39 AM PDT  US-backed Syrian forces said Sunday they have established a military council to push Islamic State group fighters out of their northern bastion of Al-Bab after ousting the jihadists from Manbij. "We announce... the creation of the Al-Bab Military Council" tasked with driving IS from the town in Aleppo province, said the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters in a statement, two days after driving the last jihadists from Manbij. The last remaining IS fighters abandoned the city of Manbij near the Turkish border on Friday after a rout that the Pentagon said showed the extremists were "on the ropes".
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| Afghan officials: IS expands presence in restive south Posted: 14 Aug 2016 08:11 AM PDT  KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — The Islamic State group, which has been building a presence in Afghanistan for more than a year, has established a recruitment and training camp in a restive southern province bordering Pakistan, Afghan officials said.
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| Arson likely in deadly Iraq maternity ward fire, govt says Posted: 14 Aug 2016 04:05 AM PDT  A fire that killed 13 children in an Iraqi maternity ward was apparently started intentionally, the health ministry's spokesman said on Sunday. Ahmed al-Rudeini had previously said the Wednesday fire at Yarmuk Hospital, one of the main such facilities in Baghdad, had been started by an electrical fault. Many of Baghdad's public hospitals are poorly maintained and offer sub-standard healthcare, forcing a number of Iraqis to seek private treatment or travel abroad.
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| Jordan instability fears as growth slows, unemployment rises Posted: 14 Aug 2016 01:11 AM PDT  DHIBAN, Jordan (AP) — Sabri Mashaaleh feels misled and angry: The 29-year-old studied counseling expecting to find a civil service job, in line with what used to be a typical life path for college-educated Jordanians.
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| Neymar comes alive as Brazil edge Colombia at Rio Olympics Posted: 13 Aug 2016 10:08 PM PDT  Neymar led Brazil into the semi-finals of the Olympics with his first goal of the competition to edge the third of a trilogy of grudge matches with Colombia in three years 2-0. The Barcelona star curled home an inch-perfect free-kick after just 12 minutes of Saturday's game, but was lucky to escape with a yellow card for chopping down Andres Roa and provoking a brawl between the two teams just before half-time. Brazil will face Honduras in Wednesday's semi-final in Rio after the Central Americans stunned South Korea 1-0 thanks to Alberth Elis's winner in Belo Horizonte.
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| Porsche training is prize for lucky few refugees Posted: 13 Aug 2016 09:54 PM PDT  Ammar Alkhouli "dreamed of owning a Porsche" when he lived in Syria, but he never imagined that he would one day get training from the German automobile giant to help build its luxury cars. Aged just 19, Ammar was one of 13 asylum seekers to be offered a place on a refugee integration scheme launched by the Stuttgart-based company in March this year, in response to the massive influx of refugees to Germany in 2015. Porsche wanted to "show the welcoming German culture and allow people to establish themselves as well and as quickly as possible," technical training director Norbert Goeggerle explains.
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| Neymar leads Brazil into men's soccer semifinals Posted: 13 Aug 2016 09:42 PM PDT  SAO PAULO (AP) — Neymar scored his first goal of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Saturday, giving Brazil a 2-0 win over Colombia and a spot in the semifinals of the men's soccer tournament.
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| Victories against IS leave Iraq's Sunni heartland shattered Posted: 13 Aug 2016 08:57 AM PDT  AMIRIYAH AL-FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) — As Iraqi political and military attention shifts north in the fight against the Islamic State group, the military victories that have put Iraqi forces on Mosul's doorstep have left behind shattered cities, towns and communities in Iraq's Sunni heartland.
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