| Trump meets Ohio victims, environment pick slammed Posted: 08 Dec 2016 03:54 PM PST  President-elect Donald Trump sought Thursday to comfort victims of an apparent jihadist-inspired attack in Ohio while under fire for picking a global warming skeptic as his new environment chief. The 70-year-old property tycoon, who has never previously held elective office, has spent the majority of his time since his November 8 defeat of Hillary Clinton sequestered in his New York headquarters building his cabinet. On Thursday he announced Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, infuriating many Democrats and climate change experts, then unveiled fast food executive Andy Puzder as labor secretary.
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| U.N. Syria mediator says he plans to meet Trump team members Posted: 08 Dec 2016 03:29 PM PST By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday he planned to meet "people around the team" of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to discuss the nearly six-year conflict in the country. "The plan is to meet some people around the team of President (elect) Trump," de Mistura told reporters, adding that meetings would take place in New York and Washington. De Mistura briefed the U.N. Security Council behind closed doors on Thursday afternoon and said he would remain in the United States until Tuesday. |
| Wedding in Mosul displaced camp defies IS rule Posted: 08 Dec 2016 02:41 PM PST  Well-wishers danced in defiance of the Islamic State group on Thursday at the wedding of a bride and groom among families who fled the jihadists' brutal rule in Iraq's Mosul. "In Mosul, I would never have been able to do this," said the groom, 35-year-old Jassem Mohammad, in the Hasan Sham camp east of Mosul. Music, dancing and partying were banned at weddings under IS rule in Mosul, the jihadists' last remaining stronghold in Iraq.
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| Pentagon works to ease Kurdish-Turkish tensions in Syria Posted: 08 Dec 2016 02:08 PM PST  The US military is working to ease simmering tensions between Syrian Kurdish rebels and Turkey, both fighting the Islamic State group in northern Syria, US defense officials said Thursday. A US-led coalition has trained and armed the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces -- most of whom are Kurdish -- to attack the IS group. Turkey, a key NATO ally, has also entered Syria, where it, too, is fighting the jihadist group.
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| Factbox: Trump fills top jobs for his administration Posted: 08 Dec 2016 01:54 PM PST (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Andrew Puzder, chief executive of fast-food chain operator CKE Restaurants Inc, as his choice for labor secretary, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The following is a list of Republican Trump's selections for top jobs in his administration. All the posts but that of national security adviser require Senate confirmation: TREASURY SECRETARY: STEVEN MNUCHIN Mnuchin, 53, is a relatively little-known but successful private equity investor, hedge fund manager and Hollywood financier who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs before leaving in 2002. |
| US official: 50,000 Islamic State militants killed to date Posted: 08 Dec 2016 01:42 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S.-led coalition has killed 50,000 Islamic State militants in the last two years in Iraq and Syria, a senior U.S. military official said Thursday, describing a conservative total that is a bit larger than what others have stated before.
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| At least 50,000 IS fighters killed in Iraq, Syria since 2014: US official Posted: 08 Dec 2016 01:42 PM PST  At least 50,000 Islamic State jihadists have been killed by the US-led coalition since it began operations in Iraq and Syria in late 2014, a senior US military official said Thursday. A relentless operation using planes and drones from a dozen or so members of the anti-IS coalition since August 2014 has conducted some 16,000 air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria -- two-thirds of them in Iraq.
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| Trump under fire over environment pick Posted: 08 Dec 2016 12:33 PM PST  President-elect Donald Trump came under fire Thursday for picking a global warming skeptic as his new environment chief, ahead of a visit to the American Midwest that helped him win the White House. The 70-year-old property tycoon, who has never previously held elective office, has spent the majority of his time since his November 8 defeat of Hillary Clinton sequestered in his New York headquarters building his cabinet. The transition team says his pace of appointments outstrips that of any modern US administration, but opponents hounded Trump for nominating an ally of the fossil fuel industry to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
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| A lethal mistake leads to a harrowing ambush in Iraq's Mosul Posted: 08 Dec 2016 11:52 AM PST  As Iraqi forces advanced toward the al-Salam hospital in Mosul earlier this week, encountering only light resistance from Islamic State fighters, commanders decided to seize the facility instead of sweeping ...
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| Chaos, desperation at first U.N. aid distribution inside Mosul Posted: 08 Dec 2016 11:32 AM PST By Isabel Coles MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi police fired shots in the air and threatened to whip crowds with a hose as residents tried to overrun the first distribution of aid by UN agencies inside Mosul on Thursday, a scene of the desperation in areas retaken from Islamic State. Fifty-six year old Saad Salih came in an electric wheelchair but the battery was flat and there is no power in Mosul to re-charge it, so a neighbor pushed him along. |
| Iraqi troops pull out from Mosul hospital after fierce battle Posted: 08 Dec 2016 11:04 AM PST  By Ahmed Rasheed, Saif Hameed and Isabel Coles BAGHDAD/MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi troops who briefly seized a Mosul hospital believed to be used as an Islamic State base were forced to withdraw from the site, but managed to establish a base for army tanks nearby after days of fierce back-and-forth fighting, residents said. The rapid advance into the Wahda neighborhood where the hospital is located marked a change of tactic after a month of fighting in east Mosul in which the army has sought to capture and clear neighborhoods block by block. The ferocity of the fighting reflects the importance of the army's push from southeast Mosul towards the center, their deepest advance in a grueling seven-week offensive to crush Islamic State in Iraq's largest northern city.
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| Islamic State makes advances towards Palmyra: monitor Posted: 08 Dec 2016 11:01 AM PST The Islamic State group in Syria attacked the Syrian army near the city of Palmyra on Thursday, killing dozens of soldiers and advancing to within four kilometers (2.5 miles) of the city, a war monitor said. The Syrian army, backed by Russian jets, recaptured Palmyra, the site of a Roman-era city and spectacular ruins, from Islamic State in March after the jihadist group seized it in May 2015. On Thursday the jihadists gained control over Qasr al-Halabat, to the southwest of Palmyra, Jabal Hayan, to the west, South Sawamea to the northeast and the Hawaisis region to the northwest, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. |
| No respite for Libya after Islamic State driven from coastal city Posted: 08 Dec 2016 09:57 AM PST  By Aidan Lewis TUNIS (Reuters) - As Islamic State's last defenses crumbled this week in their Libyan bastion Sirte, dozens of women and children used as human shields stumbled dazed and dust-caked from the rubble. Fighters from the armed groups that defeated the jihadists feted the end of a punishing six-month battle by flying Libyan flags over the Mediterranean city, once known mainly as the home town of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, more recently as the main stronghold outside Syria and Iraq of Islamic State's caliphate. Celebrations have been muted by the risk of jihadist counter attacks and the potential for renewed war among Libya's military factions.
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| Harry Reid: A sculptor of partisanship, who was also molded by it Posted: 08 Dec 2016 09:41 AM PST When retiring Sen. Harry Reid was first elected to the House in 1982, Ronald Reagan was president and Tip O'Neill was the speaker. Back then, the newbie from Nevada was a conservative Democrat who swelled with pride over meeting Reagan. "Independent Like Nevada" was an early campaign slogan. |
| Africa Goes off the Grid to Bring Power to Rural Villages Posted: 08 Dec 2016 09:22 AM PST  Despite the United Nations' Millennium Development Goal of universal access to electricity by 2030, half of Africans are without power, most living in remote villages that are unlikely to be connected to the grid in the foreseeable future. Off-grid electricity typically means a stand-alone solar home system or a microgrid (generally up to 100 kilowatts) built in the center of a community with distribution lines radiating out to houses, hospitals, and stores. "A real revolution is happening," said Michael Franz, manager of the Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme in Brussels.
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| Status of main battle fronts in Iraq and Syria Posted: 08 Dec 2016 09:21 AM PST  Syria's army battled to take more ground from rebels in east Aleppo after President Bashar al-Assad said victory for his troops would be a turning point in his country's five-year war. Three weeks into a major offensive to retake all of Aleppo, government troops have captured about 85 percent of territory rebels controlled in the city's east. The UN reiterated its call for an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo, warning that as many as 500 sick and injured children desperately needed to be evacuated from the besieged last pockets of rebel-held areas.
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| IS calls for attacks on US bases in uneasy island of Bahrain Posted: 08 Dec 2016 09:14 AM PST  DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Islamic State group is calling on its followers to launch attacks in Bahrain and to target American military personnel stationed on the tiny island ahead of a visit by the U.S. defense secretary.
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| Slowing of Earth's Spin Revealed in Ancient Astronomers' Tablets Posted: 08 Dec 2016 09:06 AM PST  Each century, the length of the solar day, or the time it takes the planet to do a full rotation, grows by 1.8 milliseconds, according to a new study using astronomical observations going back to 750 B.C. Researchers have known that the planet's rotation is slowing because of friction caused by the tides, as water that's being tugged on by the moon's gravity sloshes against the solid Earth. The difference between 2.3 milliseconds and 1.8 milliseconds over a century may seem trivial, said study researcher Leslie Morrison, who worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory for nearly 40 years. Morrison and his colleagues have been working on measuring the Earth's rotation for decades.
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| Russia's Lavrov rejects 'myth of a Russian threat' in Europe Posted: 08 Dec 2016 07:49 AM PST  Moscow's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov on Thursday denounced the "myth of a Russian threat" and accused Western powers of destabilising Europe, at a meeting in Germany of OSCE nations. "We are sure such a review will convincingly dismantle the myth of a Russian threat and demonstrate where the real risks are coming from," Lavrov told Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe nation foreign ministers at an annual meeting in the northern city of Hamburg.
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| British spy chief says Islamic State plotting attacks as Russia makes 'desert' of Syria Posted: 08 Dec 2016 06:03 AM PST  By Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) - Islamic State militants are using turmoil sown by Russian President Vladimir Putin's bombing in Syria to plot attacks against the United Kingdom and her allies, Britain's foreign intelligence chief said on Thursday. In his first major public speech since winning the top job at the Secret Intelligence Service in 2014, MI6 chief Alex Younger said Russia and Bashar al-Assad were hindering the defeat of militants by attempting to make a "desert" out of Syria.
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| Iraq's parliament speaker demands inquiry into deadly Qaim air strikes Posted: 08 Dec 2016 05:49 AM PST  By Saif Hameed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament speaker called on Thursday for a government inquiry into air strikes on an Islamic State-held western border town which local politicians said had killed around 60 people, mostly civilians. Hospital sources and two parliamentarians said the air strikes killed dozens of civilians, including 12 women and 19 children on Wednesday in a market district of the town of Qaim, close to the border with Syria.
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| Iraq's parliament speaker says airstrike killed civilians Posted: 08 Dec 2016 04:36 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's parliament speaker says an airstrike targeting the Islamic State-held town of Qaim near the Syrian border killed and wounded "dozens" of civilians, and that he is holding the Iraqi government responsible.
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| Tigris lioness: Iraqi militiawoman fights for revenge against Islamic State Posted: 08 Dec 2016 04:10 AM PST  By Isabel Coles MAKHMUR, Iraq (Reuters) - Wearing a camouflage cap over her headscarf, Miaad al-Jubbouri cuts an unusual figure among the hundreds of men fighting to retake a village from Islamic State in northern Iraq. The mother of five was the sole woman among a joint force of Iraqi army and tribal militias who attacked the village of Kanous on Wednesday - one of multiple fronts in a campaign to drive the insurgents from their remaining strongholds in Iraq. Like the men around her, Jubbouri said her motive for taking up arms was hatred of Islamic State, which overran large parts of the country more than two years ago, meting out brutal punishments and killing its opponents, including several of her cousins.
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| Correction: Japan-US-Reconciling the Past story Posted: 08 Dec 2016 03:51 AM PST  In a story Dec. 6 about world leaders visiting war sites of former enemies, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Shinzo Abe will become the first Japanese prime minister to visit Pearl Harbor ...
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| Yazidi leader seeks protection for community after genocide Posted: 08 Dec 2016 02:42 AM PST  By Maher Chmaytelli SHIKHAN, Iraq (Reuters) - The spiritual leader of Iraq's Yazidis said his people need international help to recover from the worst atrocities they have suffered in more than a century and to reintegrate thousands of women who were enslaved by Islamic State. Khurto Hajji Ismail, the Yazidi Baba Sheikh, or religious leader, said an edict he issued to reintegrate former captives has helped overcome traditional resistance to accepting back women who were raped or members who converted to another faith, even if it was under force. Hundreds of women freed from captivity, either by escaping or in return for ransoms, have been baptized as Yazidis again in the spring that runs under temple of Lalesh, a ceremony that symbolized admission into the community.
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| The Cynical Gambit to Make ‘Fake News’ Meaningless Posted: 08 Dec 2016 01:30 AM PST For a term that is suddenly everywhere, "fake news" is fairly slippery. Is "fake news" a reference to government propaganda designed to look like independent journalism? Or is it any old made-up bullshit that people share as real on the internet? Is "fake news" the appropriate label for a hoax meant to make a larger point? Does a falsehood only become "fake news" when it shows up on a platform like Facebook as legitimate news? What about conspiracy theorists who genuinely believe the outrageous lies they're sharing? Or satire intended to entertain? And is it still "fake news" if we're talking about a real news organization that unintentionally gets it wrong? (Also, what constitutes a real news organization anymore?) |
| Trumps taps retired Marine general for homeland security Posted: 08 Dec 2016 12:13 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly carved out a reputation as a highly respected, but often outspoken commander who could roil debate with blunt assessments or unpopular directives on issues ranging from women in combat to the treatment of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
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| U.N. chief to appoint New Zealand lawmaker as South Sudan envoy Posted: 07 Dec 2016 11:26 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to name New Zealand lawmaker David Shearer as head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, which has been wracked by violence since 2013. Ban notified the 15-member Security Council on Wednesday of his decision to choose Shearer to succeed Ellen Loj of Denmark, who stood down at the end of November. Ban said Shearer would bring to the role "extensive political and humanitarian experience." He is currently New Zealand's opposition Labour party spokesman for foreign affairs and was Labour party leader in opposition between 2011 and 2013.
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| IS video shows kidnapped Briton Cantlie alive in Mosul Posted: 07 Dec 2016 04:27 PM PST  The Islamic State group has released a video showing John Cantlie, a British journalist kidnapped in Syria four years ago, alive in the Iraqi city of Mosul. The propaganda video by the IS-affiliated Amaq network shows an emaciated Cantlie speaking in English to the camera in the style of a news report similar to previous videos in which he appeared. The footage was not dated but the destroyed bridges seen behind Cantlie in the video suggest it was shot in recent weeks.
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