Author: Sunfire

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IZVARYNE, Ukraine (AP) — Thousands of Ukrainians in cars stuffed with belongings lined up Thursday at the eastern border to cross into Russia, with some saying they felt betrayed by their government and vowing never to return.

A commander at the rebel-controlled border post southeast of the city of Luhansk said 5,000 people had left by evening, joining a stream he said has continued unabated through a shaky cease-fire set to expire on Friday.   Continue reading “Thousands flee Ukraine for Russia; truce nears end”

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BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s vice president called on parliament Thursday to convene next week, taking the first step toward forming a new government to present a united front against a rapidly advancing Sunni insurgency that threatens to spread across the region.

Britain’s top diplomat, visiting Iraq, urged its leaders to put aside their differences for the good of the nation. And in Paris, Secretary of State John Kerry met with the United States’ top Sunni state allies in the Mideast to consider how to confront the growing turmoil.   Continue reading “Iraqi parliament to meet in step to form new govt”

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Nearly three-quarters of Germans oppose having permanent NATO military bases in Poland and the Baltic states as a buffer against Russia, a new poll reveals. The opinion reflects a growing trend within Europe opposing further NATO eastern expansion.

In the Forsa poll for the Internationale Politik magazine’s latest edition slated for Friday, 74 percent of those surveyed were against the idea, while only 18 percent supported it, Reuters reports. Opposition to NATO expansion in Eastern Europe remains highest in former Communist eastern Germany, Forsa said.   Continue reading “74% of Germans oppose permanent NATO bases in Poland and Baltics”

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Despite saving wounded Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell in Afghanistan and helping ‘Lone Survivor’ make tens of millions in profits at the box office, Mohammad Gulab is struggling to protect his family from an endless stream of Taliban attacks.

In 2005, the rural village dweller lived in a small town in the mountainous Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan, along the contentious border with Pakistan. While in the wilderness near his home, Gulab discovered the severely wounded Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell.Shot in the leg and suffering from fractures in three vertebrae, Luttrell desperately needed water and medical care after his unit was involved in a firefight with the Taliban. He was the sole survivor from his unit of four.   Continue reading “Afghan hero behind ‘Lone Survivor’ film being hunted down by Taliban”

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The wealth gap in the US has been widening since the Great Recession despite the 2008 financial crisis destroying billions of dollars in wealth. The recovery saw the richest restore much of their losses – unlike average Americans, researchers found.

The wealthiest 5 percent of Americans had 24 times the wealth of the average household in 2013, up significantly from 16.5 times as much in 2007, AP said, quoting a study by the University of Michigan.   Continue reading “US wealth gap widens since Great Recession – study”

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MADRID (AP) — A Spanish judge moved closer Wednesday to indicting Princess Cristina, the sister of newly proclaimed King Felipe VI, in a corruption and embezzlement investigation centering on her husband.

Wrapping up a four-year pre-trial investigation, Palma de Mallorca investigative magistrate Jose Castro kept her on a list of suspects he thinks should stand trial. He said Cristina is suspected of two counts of cooperation in tax fraud and one of money-laundering. The judge said her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, is accused of embezzlement and fraud. Neither has been formally charged.   Continue reading “Court moves closer to indicting Spanish princess”

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As the insurgency in Iraq threatens the stability of the Shiite-led government there, only 18 percent of Americans think the Iraq War was worth the costs, according to a new poll.

The CBS/New York Times poll asked if the costs of the Iraq invasion, including monetary and loss of American lives, were worth it. A record 75 percent of those surveyed said that it wasn’t worth the costs, up from 67 percent in November 2011 (just before the final withdrawal of US troops) and 45 percent in August 2003, five months after the invasion began.   Continue reading “Was Iraq War worth the cost? 75% of Americans say no – poll”

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Unidentified bombers have reportedly launched an air strike on ISIS positions in the northern Iraqi city of al-Qaim. Iraqi television has claimed they are US planes, but the Pentagon has denied responsibility.

US planes were identified by Iraqi television, but the Saudi Al-Arabiya network claims that the raid was carried out by Syria, citing local tribal chiefs.   Continue reading “Unknown planes bomb ISIS positions in N. Iraq, Pentagon denies it’s US”

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BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — For Queen Elizabeth II, one throne is enough.

The United Kingdom’s 88-year-old monarch toured the Belfast sets of the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones” and met many of its stars Tuesday beside the show’s sword-covered seat of power, the Iron Throne.   Continue reading “On set: Queen Elizabeth declines to sit on Iron Throne”

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TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A debris field at the bottom of Lake Michigan may be the remains of the long-lost Griffin, a vessel commanded by a 17th-century French explorer, said a shipwreck hunter who has sought the wreckage for decades.

Steve Libert told The Associated Press that his crew found the debris this month about 120 feet from the spot where they removed a wooden slab a year ago that was protruding from the lake bottom. Libert believes that timber was the bowsprit of Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle’s ship, although scientists who joined the 2013 expedition say the slab more likely was an abandoned fishing net stake.   Continue reading “Explorer says Griffin shipwreck may be found”

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — This is what it’s like to live in Denmark, a nation with a narrower wealth gap than almost anywhere else: You’ve been jobless for more than a year. You have no university degree, no advanced skills. You have to pay a mortgage. And your husband is nearing retirement.

You aren’t worried. If you’re 51-year-old Lotte Geleff, who lost her job as an office clerk in January 2013, you know you’ll receive an unemployment benefit of 10,500 kroner ($1,902) a month after taxes for up to two years. You’re part of a national system of free health care and education for everyone, job training, subsidized child care, a generous pension system and fuel subsidies and rent allowances for the elderly.   Continue reading “What wealth gap? Danish welfare narrows disparity”

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OKYO (AP) — The new robot guides at a Tokyo museum look so eerily human and speak so smoothly they almost outdo people — almost.

Japanese robotics expert Hiroshi Ishiguro, an Osaka University professor, says they will be useful for research on how people interact with robots and on what differentiates the person from the machine.   Continue reading “Woman or machine? New robots look creepily human”

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Nearly three years after an American drone strike in Yemen killed United States citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki, the official Department of Justice memorandum that justified the attack has finally been released.

A redacted version of the July 16, 2010 memo from the DOJ’s office of Legal Counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder was published on Monday this week, for the first time revealing the exact legal justification that the White House secretly relied on to authorize the done strike that killed Al-Awlaki, a suspected New Mexico-born Al-Qaeda official.   Continue reading “New York court releases government memo justifying drone killing of American citizen”

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United States Senator Rand Pal (R-Kentucky) says jihadist wonderlands are sprouting up abroad, and American foreign policy is to blame.

The possible 2016 presidential contender was discussing the escalating crisis in Iraq on camera with CNN host Candy Crowley over the weekend when he condemned the notion that the American military should intervene further.   Continue reading “Rand Paul: US created ‘jihadist wonderland’ in Syria, Libya and Iraq”

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After more than six years of failures and billions of dollars spent the US missile defense system managed by Boeing has successfully hit a mock enemy warhead over the Pacific, the US Defense Department confirmed.

“This is a very important step in our continuing efforts to improve and increase the reliability of our homeland ballistic missile defense system,” said Missile Defense Agency Director Vice Admiral James Syring, after a successful test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system – the only US defensive system theoretically capable of intercepting intercontinental ballasting missiles midcourse.   Continue reading “First in 6 years: Troubled US missile defense system hits test target”

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US Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington is “not responsible” for either the crisis in Libya, or violence in Iraq, where militants of the Al-Qaeda offshoot group ISIS are capturing cities one by one.

“The United States of America is not responsible for what happened in Libya, nor is it responsible for what is happening in Iraq today,” said Kerry at a press conference in Cairo after a short visit to Egypt for talks with its newly elected President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as part of his Middle East tour.   Continue reading “Kerry: US ‘not responsible’ for crisis in Iraq, Libya”

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PINE HILL, Ala. (AP) — Burdened with Alabama’s highest unemployment rate, long abandoned by textile mills and furniture plants, Wilcox County desperately needs jobs.

They’re coming, and from a most unlikely place: Henan Province, China, 7,600 miles away. Henan’s Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group opened a plant here last month. It will employ more than 300 in a county known less for job opportunities than for lakes filled with bass, pine forests rich with wild turkey and boar and muddy roads best negotiated in four-wheel-drive trucks.   Continue reading “Ni hao, y’all: US hinterlands woo Chinese firms”

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s top court weighed in Monday on the country’s longstanding fight over the word “Allah,” saying non-Muslims cannot use it to refer to God. But the government said hours later the judgment applied only to one newspaper at the center of the case, adding still more confusion to a deeply divisive debate over religious freedom in the Muslim-majority country.

In a 4-3 ruling, the Federal Court upheld a government ban on the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims in a case against The Herald, a Catholic Malay-language weekly. The court did not elaborate on the implication of its ruling, but the government issued a tersely worded statement saying it only applied to The Herald and that Malaysian Christians can still use the word Allah in churches.   Continue reading “Malaysia court upholds ‘Allah’ ban for non-Muslims”

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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts mayor is calling for an end to refugee resettlement in his city, saying Somali families are putting pressure on already strained services in Springfield, a onetime industrial center where nearly a third of the population lives below the poverty line.

Mayor Domenic Sarno is the latest mayor to decry refugee resettlement, joining counterparts in New Hampshire in Maine in largely rare tensions with the State Department, which helps resettle refugees in communities across America.   Continue reading “Massachusetts mayor: Stop sending my city refugees”