| Trump hits 'corrupt' Hillary Clinton; Mrs. Obama hugs her Posted: 27 Oct 2016 05:05 PM PDT  WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Trailing with time running out, Donald Trump denounced both Hillary and Bill Clinton Thursday as creatures of a corrupt political system who would use another pass at the Oval Office to enrich themselves at the expense of American families. Clinton turned to popular first lady Michelle Obama to rally voters in North Carolina, a state that could deliver a knockout blow to Trump.
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| Satellite images reveal toxic clouds enveloping northern Iraq Posted: 27 Oct 2016 04:52 PM PDT  As Iraqi forces fight to retake Mosul from the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), clouds of toxic fumes are spreading across northern Iraq. The acrid smoke, which is so significant it is visible from space, is threatening to harm Iraqis' health just as hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing Mosul for their lives. Militants from the Islamic State blew up the Al-Mishraq sulfur processing plant over the weekend and set fire to 19 oil wells in an effort to hamper the advance of Iraqi and U.S. forces. SEE ALSO: The battle for Mosul is being live streamed on Facebook NASA released new images on Thursday showing sulfur dioxide plumes dispersing across northern and central Iraq as early as Oct. 20. Large concentrations of sulfur dioxide can permanently damage the respiratory system and make breathing difficult. Depending where it is located in the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide can also contribute to acid rain and act as a temporary cooling influence on the climate. Ozone monitoring equipment detected plumes from burning oil wells and sulfur plants near Mosul, Iraq, Oct. 24, 2016. Image: NASA earth observatory According to Al-Jazeera, at least two Iraqi civilians have died from toxic fumes, and nearly 1,000 people were being treated for breathing problems as of Oct. 22. NASA said the sulfur dioxide was initially in lower parts of the atmosphere, but shifting winds pushed it higher, enabling the particles to travel longer distances. The agency's ozone monitoring equipment detected two streaks of plumes. The white-gray streak, from the sulfur plant, is rich with sulfate aerosols and droplets of light-reflecting sulfuric acid. Black plumes from the Qayyarah oil field are rich with black carbon and other light-absorbing aerosols. NASA satellite images show the two toxic smoke plumes near Mosul, Iraq, Oct. 24, 2016. Image: NASA Earth observatory ISIS has ruled Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, for more than two years. The push to retake Mosul from the militants is the largest operation launched by Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The Al-Mishraq sulfur facility was also set ablaze that year. The fire, which burned for nearly a month, release some 21 kilotons of sulfur dioxide per day, according to NASA satellite data gathered in 2003. U.S. soldiers exposed to the fire suffered serious lung damage. Nineteen personnel had open lung biopsies and were diagnosed with constrictive bronchiolitis, a disease similar to asthma that restricts the airway, the Department of Veterans Affairs said in 2010. Oil wells blaze near Mosul, Iraq, spewing toxic sulfur dioxide into the air, Oct. 21, 2016. Image: UN Environment program NASA has not yet calculated the total output of this month's toxic fires near Mosul, a city of more than a million. But the agency said the sulfur dioxide emissions have already been significant. Simon Carn, an atmospheric scientist at Michigan Technological University, said that if the sulfur dioxide was coming from a volcano rather than a fire, it would already be among the largest volcanic eruptions of 2016, he noted in an Oct. 25 tweet. SO2 from the #Iraq sulfur fire, Oct 25. If fire = #volcano, it would be among the largest eruptions of 2016 (a quiet year so far) @NASANPP pic.twitter.com/TGJak3Pxcr — Simon Carn (@simoncarn) October 25, 2016 The World Health Organization said Wednesday that 700,000 people were expected to flee Mosul as Iraqi forces continued their advance, a battle that is expected to take weeks, if not months. The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.
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| The Latest: Clinton raised nearly $53 million in 19 days Posted: 27 Oct 2016 03:42 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. presidential race (all times EDT):
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| Russia says Syria should look at gas attacks, dimming sanctions hopes Posted: 27 Oct 2016 03:23 PM PDT By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria should investigate accusations that government forces carried out chlorine gas attacks and Islamic State militants used mustard gas, Russia said on Thursday, dimming Western hopes that U.N. sanctions could be imposed on those responsible. The 15-member council met behind closed doors to discuss the findings of an inquiry by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which blamed the Syrian government for three toxic gas attacks. |
| Russia opposes Syria sanctions after UN gas attacks probe Posted: 27 Oct 2016 03:16 PM PDT  Russia on Thursday dismissed as "unconvincing" the findings of a UN-led investigation showing that Syrian forces had carried out three chemical attacks, and said no sanctions should be imposed. It's simply not there," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters following a closed-door Security Council meeting. A joint United Nations-Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) panel concluded that government forces carried out three chlorine gas attacks on villages in 2014 and 2015.
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| Turkey says gives U.S. new documents on Gulen extradition request Posted: 27 Oct 2016 02:56 PM PDT By Julia Harte WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Turkey has handed over to the U.S. Justice Department further documents to back its request for the extradition of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara accuses of orchestrating a failed July 15 coup attempt, Turkey's justice minister said on Thursday. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that in a meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in Washington on Wednesday he gave U.S. authorities three new folders of evidence they had sought over Turkey's accusations against Gulen. Bozdag described his meeting with Lynch as "fruitful," saying it helped the two sides better understand each other's positions. |
| Why Trump says the state of US military is a 'diasater' Posted: 27 Oct 2016 02:28 PM PDT It is a reliable applause line that Donald Trump delivers often. The state of the military is a "disaster," it is "depleted," and as president he will "rebuild" it. Put simply, Mr. Trump wants to add more troops and ships and planes. |
| Iraqis find bomb factory, tunnels on long road to Mosul Posted: 27 Oct 2016 01:58 PM PDT  KHAZER, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi forces explored a network of tunnels and uncovered a bomb-making facility on Thursday in a village near Mosul that was recently retaken from the Islamic State group, offering a glimpse of the challenge they will face as they move closer to the city.
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| UN says school attack in Syria may be potential war crime Posted: 27 Oct 2016 01:24 PM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Thursday for an immediate investigation of an attack on a school in Syria's Idlib province that the U.N.'s children's agency is calling one of the deadliest of its kind in the country's six-year war.
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| IS trickling out of Mosul as losses mount: US general Posted: 27 Oct 2016 01:22 PM PDT  Islamic State group fighters are trickling out of Iraq's Mosul as the jihadists suffer heavy casualties, the general overseeing American military operations in the region told AFP on Thursday. Army General Joseph Votel, head of the US military's Central Command, said groups of half a dozen or fewer IS fighters have been seen slipping out of the city as US-backed Iraqi and Kurdish peshmerga forces close in. Some of them dump weapons and try to look like civilians, making it hard for coalition drones and planes to track them, Votel said, but some presumably are headed toward Raqa, the IS group's Syria stronghold.
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| Putin slams claims Russia meddling in US polls as 'hysteria' Posted: 27 Oct 2016 01:08 PM PDT  President Vladimir Putin slammed as "hysteria" Thursday claims that Russia has tried to interfere in the upcoming US presidential elections by hacking US political institutions including the Democrats behind frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Russia has been accused of favouring Republican candidate Donald Trump -- who has praised Putin and called for better relations with Moscow -- over the more hawkish Clinton.
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| Up to 900 jihadists killed in Mosul battle, US says Posted: 27 Oct 2016 12:17 PM PDT  The United States said Thursday up to 900 Islamic State group jihadists have been killed in the offensive to retake Iraq's Mosul, as camps around the city filled with fleeing civilians. The offensive, launched on October 17, is seeing tens of thousands of Iraqi fighters advancing on Mosul from the south, east and north in a bid to retake the last major Iraqi city under IS control. General Joseph Votel, who heads the US military's Central Command, told AFP the offensive was inflicting a heavy toll on the jihadists.
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| The Latest: Russia says Syrian rebels kill 3 kids in Aleppo Posted: 27 Oct 2016 12:09 PM PDT BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local): |
| Residents of Iraq town want answers on deadly strike Posted: 27 Oct 2016 11:51 AM PDT  Residents of the Iraqi town of Daquq on Thursday demanded answers about who is responsible for an air strike on a Shiite place of worship that killed 15 people last week. The US-led coalition that is carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq said it had "definitively" determined that it did not carry out the strike in the northern town. "The government sent an investigation committee to check the site and obtained the remaining pieces of the missile... and its serial number," said Aryan al-Bayati, who lost his mother, sister and niece in the bombing.
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| The real scandal behind the supposed ‘quid pro quo’ over a Clinton email Posted: 27 Oct 2016 11:51 AM PDT  Behind the latest controversy dragging U.S. national security officials into the middle of a hyperpartisan presidential campaign in ways that could have troubling repercussions long after the election.
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| Iraqi villagers celebrate freedom from Islamic State, but still haunted by terror Posted: 27 Oct 2016 11:48 AM PDT  By Michael Georgy FADILIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - When Kurdish fighters cleared Islamic State from the northern Iraqi village of Fadiliya, some residents celebrated by passing around cigarettes - an act that would have earned them a public whipping under the group's reign of terror. Peshmerga forces took the village on Thursday as they advanced towards Mosul, Islamic State's last main stronghold in Iraq which lies about four km (2.5 miles) away.
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| The Latest: Obama, Erdogan talk Turkey's role in Mosul fight Posted: 27 Oct 2016 11:36 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Iraq (all times local):
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| Mosul Today: Iraqi forces find bomb factory, tunnels Posted: 27 Oct 2016 11:33 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi special forces probed a network of underground tunnels and uncovered a bomb-making facility on Thursday east of Mosul as their allies battled Islamic State militants in a push toward the city from the south. |
| Iraqis dispense what they call justice for alleged militants Posted: 27 Oct 2016 10:52 AM PDT  QAYARA, Iraq (AP) — At a checkpoint south of Mosul, men who once suffered under the harsh rule of the Islamic State group are now screening displaced civilians to identify any fleeing fighters, and some are dispensing what they call justice.
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| Sulfur Dioxide Plume Moving Across Iraq, Satellite Images Show Posted: 27 Oct 2016 10:30 AM PDT  New images released by NASA show a dangerous sulfur plume moving across northern Iraq in the wake of the battle to retake Mosul. As the Iraq military announced its operation to capture Mosul, which has been under ISIS control for over two years, ISIS set fire to the Al-Mishraq sulfur plant and Qayyarah oil field south of the city in an effort to provide cover from coalition airstrikes. NASA said its ozone monitoring instruments detected a large sulfur dioxide plume dispersing across northern and central Iraq as early as last week.
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| U.S. Airman Reaches Out to Wounded Warrior Project Posted: 27 Oct 2016 10:16 AM PDT JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Oct. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In her almost 200-day deployment to Logistics Support Area Anaconda in Balad, Iraq, U.S. Airman Jessica Daubenmire's base was attacked 149 times – three were rocket attacks, and the rest were from mortars. "I remember one evening in July of 2007, I heard the sirens signaling an incoming attack while I was in my bunk," Jessica said. The mortar struck the trailer directly beside the one Jessica was in. |
| France says Syria or Russia responsible for strike on school in Syria's Idlib Posted: 27 Oct 2016 10:04 AM PDT French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said either Russia or the Syrian government were responsible for an air strike on Syria's Idlib province that led to the deaths of 26 civilians, most of them school children. It's either the Syrians - the regime of (President Bashar) al-Assad - or the Russians," Ayrault told a news conference. "It's yet another demonstration of the horror of this war, which is a war against the Syrian people, which we cannot accept." Russia's foreign ministry said earlier on Thursday that Moscow was not responsible for the attack on Idlib. |
| Putin says Russia does not plan to get militarily involved in Iraq, Libya Posted: 27 Oct 2016 09:53 AM PDT KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia had no plans to intervene militarily in the Middle East beyond Syria. Asked whether Russia might intervene in Iraq and Libya in the same way as it had in Syria, Putin told a forum in southern Russia: "No, we don't plan this anywhere." (Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Andrew Osborn) |
| Group: Somalia least likely to punish media murders Posted: 27 Oct 2016 09:46 AM PDT NEW YORK (AP) — For the second year in a row, Somalia topped the list of countries where the killing of journalists is most likely to go unpunished, a prominent media watchdog said. |
| Armed with faith: Gibson film shows WWII feats of medic Posted: 27 Oct 2016 09:31 AM PDT  NEW ORLEANS (AP) — When Desmond Doss climbed up Hacksaw Ridge — a 400-foot high escarpment on the island of Okinawa with a wall of dug-in Japanese soldiers at the top — he carried his Bible, his combat medic supplies and the weight of his moral convictions, but no weapon.
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| Iraqi army aims to reach site of Islamic State executions south of Mosul Posted: 27 Oct 2016 09:13 AM PDT  By Stephen Kalin and Maher Chmaytelli SOUTH OF MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - The Iraqi army was trying on Thursday to reach a town south of Mosul where Islamic State has reportedly executed dozens to deter the population against any attempt to support the U.S.-led offensive on the jihadists' last major city stronghold in Iraq. Eleven days into what is expected to be the biggest ground offensive in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, army and federal police units were fighting off sniper fire and suicide car bombs south of Hammam al-Alil, the site of the reported executions, an Iraqi military spokesman said. The executions were meant "to terrorize the others, those who are in Mosul in particular", and also to get rid of the prisoners, said Abdul Rahman al-Waggaa, a member of the Nineveh provincial council.
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| Sakharov Prize a condemnation of IS 'criminal inhumanity': Murad Posted: 27 Oct 2016 09:13 AM PDT  The European parliament awarded Murad and fellow Yazidi Lamia Haji Bashar the prestigious human rights prize for their courage in the face of IS atrocities against their people in Iraq and Syria. "This acknowledgement of the suffering of the Yazidi women and the Yazidi people is a profound message to the ISIS terrorist group that their criminal inhumanity is condemned and their victims are honored by the free world," Murad said in a statement, using an alternate acronym for the jihadist group.
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| US official calls for vigilance against IS refinancing Posted: 27 Oct 2016 09:00 AM PDT  Vigilance must be maintained against the Islamic State group's ability to finance itself even as it loses territory in Iraq, a senior US treasury official said in Riyadh on Thursday. Tens of thousands of Iraqi fighters are advancing on the city of Mosul, the last major city under control of the Sunni extremists in that country. If Mosul falls, Syria's Raqa will be the only significant city in either Syria or Iraq under IS control, the vestige of a cross-border "caliphate" the jihadists declared after seizing large parts of both countries in mid-2014.
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| Iraqis search for loved ones at camp for displaced Posted: 27 Oct 2016 08:53 AM PDT  Hassan says his brother, sister-in-law and their three children were finally able to flee the village, Bazwaya, as Iraqi forces advance in a major offensive to retake Mosul, IS's last major stronghold in Iraq. Hassan, who lives in Kurdistan, has had little contact with his brother since mid-2014 and is anxious to see him again. "The IS men stopped them from contacting us, though sometimes they managed to get a bit far away, find a signal and quickly call us," says Hassan, 61, dressed in traditional Kurdish garb.
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| At Iraqi village, victory is fraught with risks in Mosul offensive Posted: 27 Oct 2016 08:32 AM PDT  By Michael Georgy FADILIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish peshmerga fighter Germad Yihya stood on a small berm overlooking a village where he said Islamic State militants had taken a beating. A day earlier, a suicide bomber had rushed out of the thick green vegetation and killed five of his comrades after Kurdish forces had fought for 10 days to gain the upper hand in Fadiliya, where 1,000 people remain trapped, surrounded by roadside bombs. On Monday, Kurdish forces fired mortars at the outskirts of the village and there were several exchanges of gunfire.
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| Villagers say they were forced to walk to Mosul as human shields for Islamic State Posted: 27 Oct 2016 08:32 AM PDT Islamic State fighters forced women, children and the elderly to walk alongside them for days as human shields to cover their retreat to Mosul, separating out older boys and fighting-aged men along the way for an unknown fate, villagers said. Children and the elderly were released when they arrived in Mosul on Tuesday and told to stay with relatives, they said, speaking by phone from one of the few places where there is still mobile coverage, on the city's edges. A resident of Mosul, Rayyan, said he saw the families when they arrived in the city, "their bare feet bleeding and covered with dust as if coming from under the rubble." "We cried when we saw them," he said. |
| Putin says Russia has no option but to clear Aleppo of militants Posted: 27 Oct 2016 08:28 AM PDT  KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had no other option but to clear out what he called "a nest of terrorists" from Syria's Aleppo despite the fact that civilians were also present in the city. Putin said civilian casualties in conflicts should be mourned everywhere, not just in Aleppo, pointing to what he said were civilians killed around Mosul in Iraq. "Bells should toll for all innocent victims. Not just in Aleppo," said Putin. (Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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| Facts on Iraq's Yazidi minority Posted: 27 Oct 2016 08:13 AM PDT  Iraq's Yazidi minority is in the spotlight Thursday after two women from the community won the European Parliament's Sakharov human rights prize. Nadia Murad and Lamia Haji Bashar have spearheaded a movement to protect Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion with more than half a million Kurdish-speaking believers concentrated in northern Iraq. Mainly living in remote corners of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Yazidis adhere to a faith that emerged in Mesopotamia more than 4,000 years ago.
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| Yazidi survivors of IS torture win Europe rights prize Posted: 27 Oct 2016 08:05 AM PDT  Two Yazidi women who survived a nightmare ordeal of kidnapping, rape and slavery at the hands of Islamic State jihadists won the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on Thursday. Nadia Murad and Lamia Haji Bashar have become figureheads for the effort to protect the Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion with more than half a million believers concentrated in northern Iraq. "They have a painful and tragic story" but "they felt compelled to survive to bear witness," European Parliament chief Martin Schulz told the assembly in Strasbourg.
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| Gunmen who killed Saudi security officers linked to other attacks: government Posted: 27 Oct 2016 08:05 AM PDT Gunmen who shot dead two security officers in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Dammam on Tuesday were connected to previous militant attacks in the region, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday. "The results of investigations show a link between the targeting of the security officers in Dammam and other terrorist attacks in Qatif and Dammam," the ministry said on Twitter. Two other policemen were shot dead in Dammam in September. |
| US Elections 2016: Arab Public Opinion Poll Posted: 27 Oct 2016 07:45 AM PDT WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Arab Center Washington DC (ACW) will be releasing the results of an Arab public opinion survey vis-à-vis the U.S. presidential elections on November 1, 2016 at the National Press Club.Many questions have been raised in recent months about the impact of the US presidential campaign on relations with the Arab world. ... |
| Offensive on IS 'capital' Raqa more complex than Mosul Posted: 27 Oct 2016 07:17 AM PDT  As Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition inch towards the Islamic State group in Mosul, experts and security sources warn that any assault on the jihadists' main Syrian stronghold of Raqa would be even more difficult. The US and British defence ministers said on Wednesday they expected an assault to drive IS from its de facto capital of Raqa to begin in the next few weeks. If Mosul falls, Raqa will be the only major city in either Syria or Iraq under IS control, the vestige of a cross-border "caliphate" the jihadists declared after seizing large parts of both countries in mid-2014.
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| Rapid Response: Elite Iraqi force advancing on Mosul Posted: 27 Oct 2016 07:14 AM PDT  Iraq's elite Rapid Response Division, which is now at the forefront of the southern advance on Mosul, has emerged as a key assault force in the country's war against jihadists. Backed by artillery and trained in a programme influenced by American special forces, the interior ministry unit has played a major role in other battles against the Islamic State (IS) group, including in Fallujah. Now, Rapid Response is "the first force nominated to storm the city of Mosul from the southern front" and is "advancing the units on this front", its commander, Major General Thamer Mohammed Ismail, told AFP.
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| Where are journalists under threat? Posted: 27 Oct 2016 07:12 AM PDT With 24 journalists killed without recourse over the last decade, Somalia topped the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) annual list of the world's most dangerous places for journalists. Titled "Getting Away With Murder - 2016 Global Impunity Index," the report was released on Thursday, and identifies the 13 countries where journalists face the most danger in their profession. In countries where the law does not protect reporters, media experts say that journalists' lives are not all that is at stake - so are central values of freedom of the press and truth in reporting. |
