| CAIR to Hold News Conference After Trump Signs 'Muslim Ban' Executive Orders Posted: 24 Jan 2017 05:47 PM PST WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, January 25, the Council on American-Islamic-Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, will hold a news conference at it Capitol Hill headquarters in Washington, D.C., to offer reaction to executive orders expected to be signed tomorrow by President Donald Trump restricting immigration from Syria and six other Middle Eastern and African countries.President Trump is also expected to temporarily bar most refugees from entry to the United States. ... |
| Exclusive: Trump expected to sign executive orders on immigration Posted: 24 Jan 2017 04:48 PM PST  By Julia Edwards Ainsley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign several executive orders on Wednesday restricting immigration from Syria and six other Middle Eastern or African countries, according to several congressional aides and immigration experts briefed on the matter. In addition to Syria, Trump's orders are expected to temporarily restrict access to the United States for most refugees. The restrictions on refugees are likely to include a multi-month ban on admissions from all countries until the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security can make the vetting process more rigorous.
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| Exclusive: Trump expected to sign executive orders on immigration Posted: 24 Jan 2017 03:48 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump was expected to sign several executive orders restricting immigration on Wednesday, at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to several congressional aides and immigration experts briefed on the matter. Trump's orders were expected to involve restricting access to the United States for refugees and some visa holders from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, said the aides and experts, who asked not to be identified. ... |
| Trump's talk of taking the oil sparks questions in US, Iraq Posted: 24 Jan 2017 02:09 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — No one knows how seriously to take President Donald Trump's threat to seize Iraq's oil.
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| Trump to address joint session of US Congress February 28 Posted: 24 Jan 2017 01:58 PM PST  US President Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress late next month, accepting House Speaker Paul Ryan's traditional invitation to deliver the speech to lawmakers and the nation. The White House and both chambers of Congress are now controlled by Republicans. Trump will come to Congress as a change agent, but he has entered the White House with poor national approval ratings.
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| Iraq clears east Mosul, amid fears for civilians in west Posted: 24 Jan 2017 01:47 PM PST  Iraqi forces retook the last area of Mosul east of the Tigris River Tuesday, 100 days into an offensive whose next phase aid groups warned could have dire consequences for civilians. Army units flushed out fighters of the Islamic State group from a rural area on the northern edge of Mosul, completing an important step in Iraq's largest military operation in years. Commanders from the elite Counter-Terrorism Service that has done most of the fighting and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had already declared east Mosul "liberated" last week.
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| What Does It Mean That Trump Is 'Leader of the Free World'? Posted: 24 Jan 2017 11:57 AM PST  The presidency of Donald Trump, and the prospect of a new and radically different vision of U.S. foreign policy, has raised the question of whether the United States is still the leader of the free world. The commentator Anne Applebaum, for example, concluded that the West might be nearing the end of its shelf life, and that "Under President Trump, we cannot assume that America is still the leader of the free world." But what does the term even mean—and is it still useful?
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| Who's who in the Syria conflict Posted: 24 Jan 2017 11:30 AM PST  Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to bolster a fragile truce in Syria after two days of talks in the Kazakh capital Astana aimed at ending the country's nearly six-year war. The three powers also agreed that armed rebel groups should take part in a new round of talks to be hosted by the United Nations in Geneva next month. Key regime backer Russia began an air campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad in September 2015 and has helped Damascus recapture several key areas, including Aleppo city.
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| Iraqi PM: Eastern Mosul 'fully liberated' from Islamic State Posted: 24 Jan 2017 11:01 AM PST  MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Iraq's prime minister on Tuesday declared eastern Mosul "fully liberated" from Islamic State group militants after a day of fierce fighting and more than three months after a massive U.S.-backed operation to retake the city began.
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| Syria strikes kill 11 fleeing IS town: monitor Posted: 24 Jan 2017 10:11 AM PST  At least 11 people, including two children, were killed Tuesday in Syrian government air strikes as they fled a northern town held by the Islamic State group, a monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported 12 civilians and 15 IS fighters were killed in air strikes and shelling in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor. The monitor said the group of 11 were fleeing the embattled IS-held town of Al-Bab, near the northern border with Turkey, when they were hit in a government air strike.
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| The Latest: US welcomes attempt to reduce violence in Syria Posted: 24 Jan 2017 10:04 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — The latest developments on Syria following two-day talks in Kazakhstan between the Damascus government and rebel factions (all times local):
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| Kuwait to deliver message to Iran on dialogue with Gulf Arab states Posted: 24 Jan 2017 09:56 AM PST  Kuwait's foreign minister will make a rare visit to Tehran on Wednesday to deliver a message to President Hassan Rouhani on a "basis of dialogue" between Gulf Arab states and arch-rival Iran, Kuwait's state news agency reported. The visit comes days after Rouhani said countries including Kuwait had offered to mediate in the escalating feud between Shi'ite Muslim Iran and Sunni power Saudi Arabia.
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| PM Abadi says Iraq's oil is for Iraqis, in reaction to Trump Posted: 24 Jan 2017 09:10 AM PST  Iraq's oil is the property of Iraqis, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday, in reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump who argued that the United States should have taken possession of the nation's crude reserves. In a speech to CIA officials on Saturday, Trump suggested the United States should have taken Iraq's oil in reimbursement for the 2003 invasion that put an end to Saddam Hussein's rule. Trump also suggested that taking Iraq's oil would have prevented Islamic State from rising up, by removing a source of the group's funding, according to a Huffington Post report of the encounter.
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| U.N. 'racing' to prepare aid for civilians ahead of battle for west Mosul Posted: 24 Jan 2017 08:02 AM PST  By Maher Chmaytelli BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Tuesday it is "racing against the clock" to prepare emergency aid for hundreds of thousands of endangered civilians in Mosul with an Iraqi army offensive looming to oust Islamic State from the western half of the city. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi confirmed on Tuesday that government forces had taken complete control of eastern Mosul, 100 days after the start of the U.S.-backed campaign to retake Iraq's second largest city from Islamic State (IS) insurgents who seized it in 2014.
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| Evolution, Climate and Vaccines: Why Americans Deny Science Posted: 24 Jan 2017 07:24 AM PST  Those numbers, all gleaned from recent Pew and Gallup research polls, might suggest that Americans are an anti-science bunch. "The whole discussion around scientific denial has become very, very simplified," said Troy Campbell, a psychologist at the University of Oregon. The presentations are occurring today (Jan. 21) at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) in San Antonio.
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| East Mosul Iraqis crave stability as army defeats Islamic State Posted: 24 Jan 2017 06:44 AM PST  By Michael Georgy MOSUL (Reuters) - The teenage Islamic State militants who took over Mohamed Abdel Wahab's house and terrorized his family for three months are gone. Like hundreds of other anxious Iraqis, he and his family walked for several kilometers past demolished buildings on Tuesday to return to homes that were taken over by Islamic State. Many neighborhoods were destroyed, first by Islamic State and then by the Mosul offensive designed to retake the militants' last stronghold in Iraq.
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| Saudi Arabia warns destructive computer virus has returned Posted: 24 Jan 2017 06:36 AM PST DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia is warning that a computer virus that destroyed systems of its state-run oil company in 2012 has returned to the kingdom, with at least one major petrochemical company apparently affected by its spread. |
| Bomb classes and gun counts: trauma of Mosul children under Islamic State Posted: 24 Jan 2017 06:00 AM PST  By Girish Gupta MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Schools in the east of the Iraqi city of Mosul are seeking to return to a semblance of normality after two years under Islamic State rule when they were either shuttered or forced to teach a martial curriculum that included lessons in bombmaking. Around 40,000 students - most of whom have been kept at home by their parents since the militants captured Mosul in 2014 - will attend around 70 schools in the coming weeks after the buildings have been checked for unexploded bombs. U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have retaken most eastern districts of the city and are preparing to push into the western part of Mosul, the largest city held by Islamic State across its self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
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| Egypt committed to repaying $3.5 bln to foreign oil firms: petroleum minister Posted: 24 Jan 2017 05:50 AM PST  By Ahmad Ghaddar and Julia Payne LONDON (Reuters) - Egypt is committed to repaying the $3.5 billion it owes in arrears to foreign oil companies but a foreign currency shortage has made the drawing down of those debts more difficult, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said on Tuesday. "We are committed and we will continue decreasing the numbers as we have done over the last three years," El Molla told Reuters. Insufficient foreign currency reserves mean that the repayment schedule was taking time, he said.
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| Russian planes strike IS targets in Syria's Deir al-Zor: defense minister Posted: 24 Jan 2017 05:27 AM PST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Six Russian warplanes launched a coordinated strike on Islamic State targets in the Syrian province of Deir al-Zor, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday, citing the Russian defense ministry. The defense ministry said the Russian Tu-22 bombers flew from an air base in Russia over the territory of Iraq and Iran to make the strike. (Reporting by Alexander Winning; editing by Jack Stubbs) |
| Syrian aid conference appeals for $8 billion in aid Posted: 24 Jan 2017 05:01 AM PST  HELSINKI (AP) — As talks between Syrian factions and the government concluded in Kazakhstan, U.N. agencies and non-governmental groups at an aid conference in Finland appealed Tuesday for more than $8 billion in funding to help millions of displaced people inside Syria and those who have fled the conflict to neighboring countries.
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| U.N. to need $8 billion this year to help Syrians at home and abroad Posted: 24 Jan 2017 04:58 AM PST By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Tuesday it will need a total of $8 billion this year to provide life-saving assistance to millions of Syrians inside their shattered homeland and to refugees and their host communities in neighboring countries. The first part, a $4.63 billion appeal for 5 million Syrian refugees - 70 percent of whom are women and children - was launched at a Helsinki conference. A separate appeal for an estimated $3.4 billion to fund its humanitarian operation to help 13.5 million people inside Syria after nearly six years of war, is being finalised. |
| Children head back to school in east Mosul: UN Posted: 24 Jan 2017 02:24 AM PST  Thousands of Iraqi children are heading back to school in east Mosul after weeks of fighting and more than two years of jihadist rule, the UN children's fund UNICEF said Tuesday. Iraqi forces launched a massive operation to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State group 100 days ago and have ousted the jihadists from all the central neighbourhoods of east Mosul. "As fighting subsides in east Mosul, 30 schools reopened on Sunday with help from UNICEF, allowing over 16,000 children to resume their education," it said in a statement.
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| Chechens serving as Russian military police in Aleppo: Kadyrov Posted: 24 Jan 2017 02:21 AM PST  Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov on Tuesday confirmed that troops from the mainly Muslim Caucasus region were serving as Russian military police in the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo. "The soldiers said with pride that they have been given the honour of serving to protect peace and public order in Aleppo, defending the civilian population from terrorist attacks," Kadyrov wrote on his account, which has 2.3 million followers.
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| UN warns west Mosul civilians at 'extreme risk' Posted: 24 Jan 2017 12:32 AM PST  The estimated 750,000 people living in jihadist-controlled west Mosul are in grave danger, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, 100 days into a massive Iraqi operation to retake the city. "We are relieved that so many people in the eastern sections of Mosul have been able to stay in their homes," the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Iraq Lise Grande said in a statement. On October 17, tens of thousands of Iraqi forces launched an offensive -- Iraq's largest military operation in years -- to retake the country's second city from the Islamic State group.
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| Pet pigeons take flight in Iraq's Mosul as militants retreat Posted: 23 Jan 2017 10:09 PM PST  MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — For the first time in over two years, flocks of white and grey pigeons can be seen circling Mosul's rooftops.
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| Today in History Posted: 23 Jan 2017 09:01 PM PST Today in History |
| UN seeks nearly $5 bn for Syria refugees Posted: 23 Jan 2017 04:47 PM PST  UN agencies and aid groups appealed on Tuesday for $4.63 billion (4.31 billion euros) in 2017 to help Syrians who have fled their country's war and sought refuge in neighbouring countries. The appeal is on top of the $3.4 billion that the UN estimates is needed this year for the 13.5 million people still in Syria who have been affected by the conflict. "Syrian refugees and host communities need our support now more than ever," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told an international aid conference in Helsinki.
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| Firebrand Iraq cleric warns US on Israel embassy move Posted: 23 Jan 2017 04:29 PM PST  Moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be a declaration of war on Islam, influential Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said Tuesday. "Transferring the US embassy to Jerusalem would be a public and more-explicit-than-ever declaration of war against Islam," he said in a statement. In a break with previous administrations, new US President Donald Trump has pledged to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocate the US embassy there from Tel Aviv.
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