| Italian Coast Guard videos show refugees pulled to safety in Mediterranean Sea Posted: 23 Oct 2016 03:32 PM PDT  Around 5,700 people were pulled to safety over the weekend as they attempted the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately, not everyone made it, as at least 14 bodies were recovered and dozens more remain missing, Italian officials said. Italy's Guardia Costiera, or Coast Guard, shared two videos on Sunday from the dozens of rescue operations this weekend in the central Mediterranean. SEE ALSO: 'Lifejacket graveyards' are stark reminders of deadly refugee crisis Officials said 2,400 people were rescued on Saturday by the coast guard, ships from nongovernmental organizations and the Irish Navy, according to ANSA, Italy's leading news agency. Migrants and refugees from Nigeria, Guinea and across North Africa are leaving Libya's coast in droves, many fleeing war or persecution and others seeking better economic opportunities. They often make the treacherous trip to southern Italy in flimsy rubber boats crammed with passengers and exposed to the elements. Italy's Coast Guard said another 3,330 people were saved off the coast of Libya on Friday in 24 operations. Around 12,700 people crossed the central Mediterranean in September, the European Union border agency Frontext reported Friday. The Libyan Coast Guard reportedly complicated Friday's rescue efforts by attacking a migrant dinghy. Sea-Watch, a German humanitarian organization, said the attacks caused multiple deaths. Libyan Coast Guard attack on Sea-Watch rescue operation causes multiple dead.Archive picture by @f_melber pic.twitter.com/B112LMPBKM — Seawatch (@seawatchcrew) October 21, 2016 More than 145,000 migrants and refugees landed in Italy from Jan. 1 to Oct. 19, 2016. That's up from more than 139,000 people over the same period in 2015, the International Organization for Migration reported Oct. 21. Some 3,654 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2016, up from 3,138 deaths this time last year. The majority of those deaths happened on the Central Mediterranean route between North Africa and Italy, although hundreds have died on the journey from Turkey to Greece via the Aegean Sea. Image: international organization for migration Around 168,800 refugees have arrived on the Greek islands so far this year, many fleeing brutal wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, according to the migration organization. That's a drastic decline from this time last year, when nearly 515,000 refugees had arrived in Greece as of Oct. 21, 2015. Tougher migration policies in Europe and efforts to settle asylum seekers in Turkey have helped ease some of Greece's migration crisis.
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| Sheikh Khalifa, deposed former ruler of Qatar, dies at 84 Posted: 23 Oct 2016 02:56 PM PDT Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, the former emir of the tiny Gulf nation of Qatar who was deposed by his son in a bloodless palace coup, died on Sunday. |
| Iraq forces press Mosul assault, hunt Kirkuk attackers Posted: 23 Oct 2016 12:47 PM PDT  Iraqi forces battled Sunday through booby-traps, sniper fire and suicide car bombs to tighten the noose around Mosul, while also hunting Islamic State group jihadists behind attacks elsewhere in the country. Kurdish forces announced a new push at dawn on Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, where some 10,000 fighters are engaged in a huge assault to take the IS-held town. Turkey said the peshmerga had requested assistance from its soldiers at a base near Bashiqa and announced it offered support with artillery and tanks.
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| Pentagon chief urges 'isolation operation' for IS-held Raqa Posted: 23 Oct 2016 11:56 AM PDT  US defence chief Ashton Carter said Sunday that an operation to isolate the Islamic State group in Syria's Raqa should begin in conjunction with the assault on the jihadists' Iraqi bastion Mosul. "We want to see an isolation operation begin around Raqa as soon as possible," Carter said during a visit to Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan to review an ongoing offensive to retake Mosul from IS. Iraqi forces launched a huge operation last week to retake Mosul, the last major city in Iraq under IS control.
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| Iraqi forces advance near Mosul as IS attacks western town Posted: 23 Oct 2016 11:09 AM PDT  KHAZER, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi Kurdish forces pushed toward Mosul on Sunday, cordoning off eight villages and coming within 9 kilometers (5 ½ miles) of the northern city held by the Islamic State group, which staged an attack in a western town hundreds of miles away in an apparent diversionary tactic.
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| French foreign minister calls for end to Aleppo 'massacre' Posted: 23 Oct 2016 11:04 AM PDT  France's foreign minister urged the international community to "do everything" to end the "massacre" in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday after fighting resumed following a 72-hour truce declared by Damascus ally Russia. Speaking in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said: "We're 150 km (93 miles) -- perhaps no further -- from Aleppo. For Syrian refugees to have the chance to return to their country, "we must do everything to stop this massacre" and resume negotiations to reach a political agreement.
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| The Latest: Aid convoy reaches Damascus suburb Posted: 23 Oct 2016 11:04 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local):
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| U.S. casualty in Iraq shows risks of shifting front lines Posted: 23 Oct 2016 11:01 AM PDT By Phil Stewart ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - New details from a U.S. military investigation into Navy Chief Petty Officer Jason Finan's death in Iraq are illustrating the twin risks of a bomb-ridden battlefield and shifting front lines in the campaign to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State. Finan on Thursday became the first U.S. military casualty in Iraq's offensive to capture the city of 1.5 million people, a highly complex operation that is expected to become the biggest battle fought in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. At the time Finan was killed, he was helping troops avoid a roadside bomb he identified while they tried to reposition further back from the fighting -- a precaution as Islamic State advanced toward Iraqi forces, a top general said on Sunday, disclosing new information about the incident. |
| WHERE THEY STAND: Clinton, Trump on the issues Posted: 23 Oct 2016 10:55 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — A look at where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump stand on three dozen issues:
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| On road to Mosul, Kurd doctors fear being overwhelmed Posted: 23 Oct 2016 10:48 AM PDT  A Kurdish peshmerga fighter lies writhing in pain, his face swollen and spattered with blood from a car bomb blast, a favoured tactic of Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in the crosshairs of an offensive to recapture the city of Mosul. The peshmerga is hurriedly connected to a drip, covered with a blanket and whisked away in an ambulance. Casualty figures for the US-backed offensive launched last Monday by Iraqi federal and Kurdish forces are hard to come by, in an apparent effort not to damage morale.
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| Pentagon chief in Irbil for closer assessment of Mosul fight Posted: 23 Oct 2016 10:43 AM PDT  IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited Irbil on Sunday for a closer assessment of the fight against the Islamic State group in northern Iraq and to hear from Kurdish leaders whose forces launched a new offensive in the operation to wrest Mosul from the militants.
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| Iraq booze ban sparks political backlash Posted: 23 Oct 2016 10:20 AM PDT  The scores of small alcohol shops in central Baghdad were already closed because of the holy Muslim month of Muharram, and now their owners and employees are fuming. "We don't have another job -- our families will lose their income," said Maytham, who owns a shop selling all kinds of locally produced and imported beers, wines and spirits in Baghdad's central Karrada district. Saturday's vote also angered several politicians who claim that the law violates an article in the constitution that guarantees the freedom of religious minorities.
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| Ask a Swedish Indie Band: What's the Deal With the Far Right? Posted: 23 Oct 2016 10:18 AM PDT Sweden can seem to liberal Americans like a social-democratic paradise. Were it not for work and family obligations, the land of universal health care, free college tuition, and 480 days paid parental leave might make a decent place to recline on a Söderhamn and ride out a hypothetical Trump presidency. And Swedish pop, from Abba to Ace of Bass to everything Max Martin touches, can sound like an outpouring of pure sonic joy from Nordic utopia. |
| Battle for Mosul can shape or break Iraq further Posted: 23 Oct 2016 09:39 AM PDT  By Samia Nakhoul, Michael Georgy and Stephen Kalin ERBIL (Reuters) - It has taken two years of training a demoralized army, backed up by the air cover and special forces of the world's greatest powers, for Iraq to mount an offensive to recapture Mosul from Islamic State. If local fighters in Mosul can be persuaded to drop their allegiance to Islamic State, there is a chance that the battle can be brought to a more speedy conclusion, and that could have major implications for the future of Iraq. Against a background of splits and rebellions in the Islamic State ranks in Mosul, some opposing commanders believe that a successful attempt to win over those local fighters could mean the battle lasts only weeks rather than months.
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| Turkey PM says its artillery hits IS positions in Iraq's Bashiqa Posted: 23 Oct 2016 09:35 AM PDT  Turkish artillery has hit jihadist positions in the northern Iraqi town of Bashiqa near Mosul after Kurdish Peshmerga forces asked for support, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in televised comments Sunday. At the base, Ankara says some 700 Turkish soldiers are training Iraqi fighters to help remove the Islamic State group from the country. It has been a week since Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga, supported by the US-led coalition, began a major offensive to recapture Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city, from IS.
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| Iraq should be exempted from OPEC oil output freeze: minister Posted: 23 Oct 2016 08:50 AM PDT Iraq should be exempt from OPEC crude output restrictions as it needs the income to fight the war on Islamic State, Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi said on Sunday. "We are fighting a vicious war," Luaibi said in a briefing for reporters in Baghdad, adding that Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer, should get the same exemption as Nigeria and Libya. OPEC says it pumped 33.39 million bpd in September. |
| Iraqi Kurds claim capture of town in advance on Mosul Posted: 23 Oct 2016 08:42 AM PDT  By Saif Hameed and Babak Dehghanpisheh ERBIL (Reuters) - Kurdish fighters said they had taken the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from Islamic State on Sunday as coalition forces pressed their offensive against the jihadists' last stronghold in Iraq. Masoud Barzani, President of the Iraqi Kurdish region, told U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter that the Kurds had succeeded in liberating Bashiqa from Islamic State.
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| Why must California National Guard vets repay their reenlistment bonuses? Posted: 23 Oct 2016 08:16 AM PDT Faced with the challenge of maintaining its all-volunteer military as wars dragged on in Iraq and Afghanistan in the mid-2000s, the Pentagon began offering its most generous incentives ever, issuing up-front bonuses to those who agreed to reenlist. Now nearly 10,000 current and retired soldiers in The Golden State have been ordered to repay all or some of the bonuses they received to incentivize their return to war. "We want somebody in the government, anybody, to say this is wrong and we'll stop going after this money," Robert Richmond told The Los Angeles Times. |
| The Latest: Turkish says its artillery aiding Iraq Kurds Posted: 23 Oct 2016 08:15 AM PDT  KHAZER, Iraq (AP) — The Latest on developments in Iraq where Iraqi forces and their allies launched a major offensive this week to retake Mosul, the country's second-largest city from the Islamic State group (all times local):
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| Two police killed, 19 people wounded in bomb in east Turkey: sources Posted: 23 Oct 2016 07:04 AM PDT Two police officers were killed and 19 people were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a passing police vehicle in the eastern Turkish province of Bingol on Sunday, security sources said. The bomb, planted by militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was detonated near the district governor's office, the security sources said. Five police officers were among the injured, they said. |
| Iraqi parliament passes bill banning alcohol Posted: 23 Oct 2016 06:19 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's parliament has passed a law forbidding the import, production or selling of alcoholic beverages in a surprise move that angered many in the country's Christian community who rely on the business.
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| Pentagon chief in Kurdistan to review Mosul offensive Posted: 23 Oct 2016 03:51 AM PDT  US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter arrived in Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan on Sunday to review the ongoing military offensive to retake the jihadist bastion of Mosul. As the Pentagon chief went into talks with Kurdish leader Massud Barzani, US officials said Kurdish peshmerga forces had almost reached their goals in the week-old offensive. The battle plan is for the peshmerga forces to stop along a line at an average of 20 kilometres (12 miles) outside of the city of Mosul, the Islamic State group's last major stronghold in Iraq.
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| Pope says he is pained by murder of innocents in Mosul Posted: 23 Oct 2016 03:48 AM PDT  VATICAN CITY (AP) — The pope says the cruelty of the fighting in the Iraqi city of Mosul "makes us cry, leaves us without words."
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