| Islamic State faces major assaults on two fronts in Iraq, Syria Posted: 01 Jun 2016 12:36 PM PDT  By Maher Nazeh and Phil Stewart SOUTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF FALLUJA, Iraq/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Islamic State insurgents faced major assaults on two fronts in both Iraq and Syria on Wednesday in what could prove to be some of the biggest operations to roll back their caliphate since they proclaimed it in 2014. In Syria, U.S.-backed militia with thousands of Arab and Kurdish fighters were reported to have captured villages near the strategically-important Turkish border after launching a major operation to cut off Islamic State's last access route to the outside world. In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider Abadi ordered his troops to slow an advance at the gates of Falluja, Islamic State's closest redoubt to the capital Baghdad, to limit harm to civilians, two days after the army poured into rural areas on the city's outskirts.
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| U.S.-backed forces open major front in Syria war Posted: 01 Jun 2016 04:36 PM PDT  By Phil Stewart and John Davison WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thousands of U.S.-backed fighters opened a major new front in Syria's war, launching an offensive to drive Islamic State out of a swathe of northern Syria it uses as a logistics base and appearing to make swift initial battlefield advances. A small number of U.S. special operations forces will support the push on the ground to capture the "Manbij pocket" of territory, acting as advisers and staying back from the front lines, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military planning. The operation will also count on air power from the U.S.-led coalition, which pounded Islamic State positions near Manbij with 18 strikes on Tuesday, including six militant tactical units, two headquarters facilities and a training base.
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| South China Sea set to dominate Singapore security summit Posted: 01 Jun 2016 04:27 PM PDT  By Marius Zaharia and Greg Torode SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Roiling tensions in the South China Sea are set to dominate Asia's biggest security summit starting in Singapore on Friday, exposing a deepening rivalry between the United States and China ahead of a landmark legal ruling in the Hague. The unofficial Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) is the last chance for the two powers to drum up support before a decision from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in a case brought by the Philippines. Manila is contesting Beijing's claim to an area shown on its maps as nine-dash line stretching deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, covering hundreds disputed islands and reefs.
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| U.S. military sees Afghan talks with new Taliban leader unlikely Posted: 01 Jun 2016 01:26 PM PDT  By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military spokesman said on Wednesday that talks with the Afghan Taliban on ending the war in Afghanistan are unlikely any time soon after the militant group chose a conservative religious scholar as its new leader. It was the first time that an American military official has publicly voiced doubts that U.S. President Barack Obama will realize a key foreign policy goal of bringing the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table after years of war before he leaves office in January. Last week, the Afghan Taliban selected Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader after the United States killed their former chief, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in a drone strike in Pakistan.
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| Magnitude 6.5 quake felt off Indonesia's Sumatra: USGS Posted: 01 Jun 2016 04:35 PM PDT An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 was recorded off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The quake was centered about 155 km (95 miles) south of the Sumatran port city of Padang at a depth of about 50 km (30 miles), the USGS said. It had originally been reported with a magnitude of 6.2. |
| Al Shabaab car bomber strikes hotel in Somali capital, at least 15 dead Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:08 PM PDT  By Abdirahman Hussein, Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber crashed into a gate outside a hotel frequented by lawmakers in the center of the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday and the attack was followed by gunfire, killing 15 people, police said. Police said among the dead were two lawmakers. "Lawmakers Mohamud Mohamed and Abdullahi Jamac died in the hotel.
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| Uber raises $3.5 billion from Saudi investment fund Posted: 01 Jun 2016 04:41 PM PDT  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Uber said Wednesday it is getting a massive cash infusion from Saudi Arabia.
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| France, Britain push UN on Syria airdrops Posted: 01 Jun 2016 04:38 PM PDT  France and Britain urged the United Nations on Wednesday to begin humanitarian aid airdrops in Syria ahead of a Security Council meeting called to discuss the crisis in besieged areas. The call for action came despite land deliveries of aid supplies to two towns besieged by Syrian government forces where civilians are facing food shortages. Russia's Ambassador Vitaly Churkin welcomed the aid deliveries as a positive step and suggested that plans to airdrop humanitarian relief could be put on hold for now.
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| First residents return to fire-ravaged Canadian city Posted: 01 Jun 2016 04:31 PM PDT  The first convoys of weary, anxious residents returned to wildfire-ravaged Fort McMurray on Wednesday, a month after they were forced to flee the Canadian oil city due to the inferno. "To the people of Fort McMurray heading home -- we will be with you every step of the way," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a Twitter message.
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| English football clubs surpass £4bn mark - study Posted: 01 Jun 2016 04:24 PM PDT  English football's financial might was demonstrated anew on Thursday as business analysts Deloitte revealed that England's 92 professional clubs generated record £4 billion ($5.8 billion, 5.2 billion euros) revenues in 2014-15. Fired by the all-powerful Premier League, which saw revenues climb three percent to £3.3 billion, England's professional clubs breached the £4 billion threshold for the first time. Premier League clubs generated £1.5 billion more than their nearest rivals in Germany's Bundesliga and with a new £5.14 billion television rights deal due to kick in this year, their dominance is set to continue.
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| Column: Pros fighting in Rio a lousy idea on many levels Posted: 01 Jun 2016 04:19 PM PDT  Manny Pacquiao won't be there, passing up a chance to win the first Olympic gold medal for the Philippines.
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| Damning new 'Trump University' documents unsealed Posted: 01 Jun 2016 04:15 PM PDT  Newly unsealed court documents in a case against White House hopeful Donald Trump's "university" reveal allegations that the now-defunct business preyed on the uneducated and misled consumers with aggressive marketing that amounted to fraud. "While Trump University claimed it wanted to help consumers make money in real estate, in fact Trump University was only interested in selling every person the most expensive seminars they possibly could," former Trump University staffer Ronald Schnackenberg wrote in a statement unsealed Tuesday. The business offered several courses in entrepreneurship, under the famous Trump brand.
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| Genes of slain Cincinnati gorilla to live on Posted: 01 Jun 2016 04:11 PM PDT  After shooting dead a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo to save a 3-year-old boy, zoo officials said they had collected a sample of his sperm, raising hopes among distraught fans that Harambe could sire offspring even in death. "Currently, it's not anything we would use for reproduction," Kristen Lukas, who heads the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Gorilla Species Survival Plan, said on Wednesday.
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| Residents return to fire-damaged western Canadian oil city Posted: 01 Jun 2016 04:00 PM PDT  FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta (AP) — Residents of the Canadian oil sands city of Fort McMurray began cleaning up their homes and property Wednesday as people who fled a massive wildfire at the start of May returned to see what's left.
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| Talks ongoing in Monsanto, Argentina government GMO soy dispute Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:52 PM PDT  By Hugh Bronstein and Maximiliano Rizzi BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Monsanto Co, eager to get royalties from growers in Argentina on genetically modified soybeans, said on Wednesday it was still trying to resolve a dispute with the government over inspections, while an agricultural ministry source said a deal may be reached in the coming days. Monsanto and the government have been at loggerheads over the company's request that Argentine exporters inspect soybean shipments to ensure growers pay royalties. The country's government has decreed it must approve such inspections.
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| Murder-suicide triggers lockdown at California campus Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:52 PM PDT  Two men died Wednesday in a murder-suicide at the University of California's Los Angeles campus, prompting a lockdown and a massive security deployment at the sprawling facility. Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck said both victims were found with gunshot wounds in an office on campus. "At about 10:00 this morning a homicide and a suicide occurred in the engineering facility... of the UCLA campus on the south side," Beck told reporters.
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| Prosecutor puts former Haiti officials on travel ban list Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:34 PM PDT PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Nine former Haitian electoral officials and 11 Cabinet ministers in former President Michel Martelly's administration have been forbidden to leave the country. |
| U.S.-backed Syrian force to reach IS-held town in days: Kurdish source Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:28 PM PDT A U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian militias will reach Islamic State-held Manbij within days after advancing to within 10 km (6 miles) of the town in a major offensive against the group near the Turkish border, a Kurdish source said on Thursday. The source said Islamic State defenses stationed on the west bank of the Euphrates river had collapsed at the start of the campaign by the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance this week, but it was too soon to say how the Manbij battle would go. The SDF includes the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and allied Arab groups. |
| Top Asian News 10:24 p.m. GMT Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:24 PM PDT BUENG KAN, Thailand (AP) — As Thailand's ousted prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra made her way through a line of fans, some cried, others screamed and a few embraced her. "She touched my hand! She touched my hand!" one woman yelled at a Buddhist temple in the rural northeast where several hundred people came to see her Monday. This was not a political campaign stop. If it had been, the generals who ousted Yingluck two years ago never would have let it happen. She's banned from politics, and the military government has banned the entire country from trying to sway voters, who will decide Aug. |
| UN strongly condemns failed North Korea missiles launches Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:24 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday strongly condemned three recent North Korean missile launches which failed, calling them "a grave violation" of a ban on all ballistic missile activity that contributed to the country's nuclear weapons program. |
| Philippines won't be 'lackey' to anyone: incoming foreign minister Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:23 PM PDT  By Manuel Mogato and Karen Lema MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines will not distance itself from its long-time security ally, the United States, but neither will it be a lackey to any foreign power, incoming Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay told Reuters on Wednesday. In his first interview with the foreign media since being appointed by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, the lawyer by training sought to underline the Philippines' independence in dealing with disputes with China over the South China Sea. "We should not be a lackey of any nation," Yasay said in Manila, the day after Duterte named his cabinet.
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| France train chaos as labour unrest spreads Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:19 PM PDT  Transport chaos hit France on Wednesday as rail workers downed tools, and a tug of war between government and unions showed no sign of abating ahead of the Euro 2016 football tournament. The turmoil was set to drag on Thursday with staff at railway operator SNCF vowing to continue their strike and subway workers and employees at nuclear power stations also planning walk outs. Dozens of trains were cancelled as SNCF workers launched their eighth strike in three months for better pay and working conditions.
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| Wanted Taiwanese fugitive dies in car accident in California Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:14 PM PDT  LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former tycoon who was one of Taiwan's most wanted fugitives was in the middle of a decade-long fight to stay in the United States when he was killed in a California car accident, federal court records show.
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| The new Big 3 on a big roll going into Memorial Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:11 PM PDT DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — The top three players in the world are on top of their games going into the Memorial. |
| Retrial sought after casino shootout conviction tossed Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:08 PM PDT RENO, Nev. (AP) — Washoe County prosecutors have decided to retry an ex-motorcycle gang member on murder charges after the state Supreme Court overturned his conviction in a 2011 shootout with rival gang leaders at a northern Nevada casino. |
| Some Paralympic athletes more at risk in Rio than Olympians Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:07 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Some Paralympians face more risks than Olympic athletes from the Zika virus and filthy water in Rio de Janeiro, the medical and scientific director of the International Paralympic Committee told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.
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| Brazil protesters, police clash outside presidency office Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:03 PM PDT  SAO PAULO (AP) — Militants of Brazil's Homeless Workers Movement protesting cuts in low-income housing projects have clashed with police in front of the presidency's regional office in Sao Paulo.
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| Human rights question prompts scolding from China minister Posted: 01 Jun 2016 03:00 PM PDT OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — China's visiting foreign minister publicly berated a Canadian journalist on Wednesday for asking a question about his country's human rights record. |
| Syrian opposition wants clarity over attacks by U.S.-backed force Posted: 01 Jun 2016 02:59 PM PDT By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have attacked armed groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad and sometimes appear to have interests aligned with the Syrian government, a Syrian opposition negotiator said on Wednesday. Basma Kodmani, a member of the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition group at U.N.-mediated peace talks, told reporters that the HNC wanted clarity on the objectives of the SDF. The SDF is an umbrella group of fighters from the Kurdish YPG militia and Syrian Arab groups, some of which fought alongside it in a campaign that drove Islamic State from wide areas of northern Syria last year. |
| Four found dead in flash floods in France, Germany Posted: 01 Jun 2016 02:55 PM PDT  Four bodies were found floating in homes in France and Germany Wednesday in flash floods that also left water lapping at the doors of one of the Loire Valley's most famous chateaux. Heavy rains lashing parts of France, Germany and Austria cut roads, stranded people on rooftops and forced schools to close their doors. Three people who had been trapped in a house at Simbach am Inn in southern Germany were found dead, local authorities said, while the body of an 86-year-old woman was found in her flooded house in Souppes-sur-Loing in central France.
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| Family will not sue Cincinnati zoo over child-gorilla incident Posted: 01 Jun 2016 02:54 PM PDT  By Ginny McCabe CINCINNATI (Reuters) - The family of a 3-year-old boy who fell into an animal enclosure, prompting the killing of an endangered gorilla, said on Wednesday that it would not sue the Cincinnati Zoo over the incident. The family, whose name has been withheld by police, said through a spokeswoman, Gail Myers, that the boy was doing well. A 17-year-old western lowland silverback gorilla named Harambe was shot and killed by zoo staff on Saturday after the boy fell into its enclosure.
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| Latest Ebola outbreak in Guinea is over: WHO Posted: 01 Jun 2016 02:32 PM PDT  The latest outbreak of Ebola in Guinea has ended, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, warning that a recurrence of the killer tropical disease remained a threat. "WHO commends the government of Guinea and its people on ending this Ebola outbreak," said Abou Bekr Gaye, the UN agency's representative in Guinea. The coordinator of the country's fight against the virus, Sakoba Keita, said that 3,814 confirmed cases and 2,544 deaths had been registered since the beginning of the outbreak at a Conakry ceremony.
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| Ivory Coast ex-first lady claims she suffered rape attempt Posted: 01 Jun 2016 02:30 PM PDT  Ivory Coast's former first lady Simone Gbagbo on Wednesday denied charges of crimes against humanity during political violence in 2010 and said she had suffered attempted rape while in detention. "I stand before this court on the demand of the government and for crimes that I did not commit," Gbagbo said as her trial went into its second day. The wife of former president Laurent Gbagbo, nicknamed Ivory Coast's "Iron Lady", also said she suffered a rape attempt when she and her husband were arrested on April 11, 2011.
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| Murder-suicide kills two at UCLA, shuts down campus Posted: 01 Jun 2016 02:25 PM PDT  By Alex Dobuzinskis and Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A murder-suicide killed two people at the University of California, Los Angeles on Wednesday, shutting down the campus for two hours as officers in camouflage and tactical gear responded to reports of a shooting. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck confirmed one man shot another and then himself in the engineering building and that police recovered a gun at the scene. "There are no suspects outstanding and no continuing threat to UCLA's campus," Beck told reporters without offering further details about the victims.
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| Finland holds Euro favorite Belgium to 1-1 draw Posted: 01 Jun 2016 02:22 PM PDT  BRUSSELS (AP) — Romelu Lukaku scored two minutes from time to give a dominating Belgium only a 1-1 draw against Finland and avoid a major upset ahead of the European Championship.
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| Royal Troon set to allow female members to join club Posted: 01 Jun 2016 02:17 PM PDT TROON, Scotland (AP) — Royal Troon Golf Club, the host of this year's British Open, is set to end its male-only membership policy after more than three quarters of members in a survey backed allowing in women. |
| No food in first aid convoy to reach Syrian town since 2012 Posted: 01 Jun 2016 02:15 PM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — A humanitarian convoy reached a starved suburb of Syria's capital for the first time since 2012 on Wednesday but did not bring any food, as the opposition called for a countrywide cease-fire for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and aid access for all Syrians.
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