Los Angeles / AFP Two California men went on trial on charges of conspiring to join the IS group for which they allegedly hoped to die as martyrs. Nader Elhuzayel and Muhanad Badawi, both 25 and from Anaheim, were arrested in May of last year by federal agents when Elhuzayel attempted to board a plane in Los Angeles to …

  Washington / AFP The United States underestimates the long-term impact of civilian deaths on its military missions and is failing to implement lessons learned from 15 gruelling years in Afghanistan, a report found. While the US military frequently stresses it does all it can to prevent civilian casualties, the report said poorly planned air strikes, misidentified targets, unexploded ordinance …

  Bloomberg Japanese banks, known for the risk-aversion that spared them the worst of the credit crisis, have quietly grown into some of the world’s largest energy lenders. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s largest bank, disclosed last month it has become one of the biggest oil and gas lenders with 9.2 trillion yen, or about US$85 billion, in exposure …