MANILA / AP A suspected Indonesian militant was killed and one of Southeast Asia’s top terror suspects was seriously wounded as the Philippines launched airstrikes using South Korean-made fighter jets for the first time in combat, the military chief said on Sunday. Military Chief of Staff Gen. Eduardo Ano said the body of the suspected Indonesian militant, known by ...
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Trump bars refugees entry for 4 months, citing terrorism
WASHINGTON / AP President Donald Trump has barred all refugees from entering the United States for four months, and indefinitely halted any from Syria, saying the ban is needed to keep out “radical terrorists.” The order immediately suspended a program that last year resettled in the US roughly 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice. ...
Read More »Trump faces GOP pressure over Russia sanctions
Bloomberg A group of Republicans in the U.S. Senate is intensifying calls on President Donald Trump to keep sanctions on Russia in place ahead of his planned call with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio and others were responding to media reports that Trump administration officials are considering taking executive actions to lift sanctions imposed ...
Read More »EU migrants ‘impasse’ weighs on Merkel
BERLIN / AP German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that there’s no solution yet to the problem of how to fairly share the burden of migration in the European Union, an issue that has weighed on Berlin’s relations with other members of the 28-nation bloc ever since the migrant influx of 2015. The impasse has given ammunition to ...
Read More »May’s mission to woo Trump a success, but makes some uneasy
WASHINGTON /Â AP Prime Minister Theresa May went to Washington, and President Donald Trump extended the hand of friendship. Literally. May left Washington after a 24-hour visit as Saturday’s British newspapers splashed front-page photos of the two leaders touching hands as they walked at the White House before a strikingly collegial news conference. May wanted her meeting, Trump’s first as ...
Read More »France’s hard left faces off against center left in primary
PARIS /Â AP Hard-left Socialist rebel Benoit Hamon heads into France’s left-wing presidential primary runoff as a surprising favorite to beat pro-business pragmatist Manuel Valls, in a vote that will realign France’s unpredictable presidential campaign. Hamon is the favorite in Sunday’s vote after arriving in pole position in the first round with 36 percent of the votes. He proposes a ...
Read More »Iraqi forces discover chemical warfare agent in Mosul
MOSUL /Â AP An Iraqi officer says Iraqi forces discovered sulfur mustard, a chemical warfare agent, in Mosul alongside a cache of Russian surface-to-surface missiles. Iraqi special forces Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil said French officials tested the chemical agent this week and confirmed it was sulfur mustard. Iraqi forces showed journalists a tank of the chemical agent and a warehouse ...
Read More »Trump’s immigration actions mark sharp shift in US policy
WASHINGTON / AP President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging executive actions tightening border security— and the prospect of additional measures restricting refugee flows — mark a sharp shift away from Washington’s elusive efforts to forge comprehensive immigration legislation. “We do not need new laws,†Trump said Wednesday during remarks at the Department of Homeland Security. “We will work within the existing ...
Read More »Yemeni army captures air defence base from rebels
AL MOKHA / WAM With the support of the Arab Coalition, Yemen’s national army, has captured the air defence camp and continued its push in Al-Muhajir area, east of Al Mokha city, west of Taiz Governorate. Yemen’s official news agency quoted a military source as saying, “The army launched a major offensive on Al Houthi militia and Saleh group’s air ...
Read More »Austrian police arrest 8 over alleged IS links
VIENNA/ AP Austrian police arrested eight suspected terrorists on Thursday in a series of early-morning raids in the country’s two largest cities that mobilized heavily armed SWAT teams and hundreds of officers supporting them. A statement from the public prosecutor’s office in Graz, one of the cities involved, said those detained were suspected of involvement with the IS extremist ...
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