Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Obama says US will target Islamic State militants with airstrikes 'wherever they exist'
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a major reversal, President Barack Obama moved Wednesday night to deepen the U.S. military role in the volatile Middle East, vowing to wage an unrelenting counterterror effort using airstrikes to target Islamic State fighters in both Iraq and Syria.
Obama was to outline his strategy, which also includes training and arming Syrian rebels, in a high-stakes address to the nation. In excerpts released in advance by the White House, Obama said the objective is to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State group.
"This counterterrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground," Obama said, using an alternative name for the group.
Until now, the U.S. launched airstrikes against the group only within the borders of Iraq, whose government invited the American military to take that step. But officials have said in recent days that the Islamic State, which also controls territory in Syria, must be viewed as one group, not two separate entities split by a border.
Ahead of Obama's remarks, congressional leaders grappled with whether to support his request to arm the Syrian opposition and if so, how to get such a measure through the fractured legislature before the November elections.
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AP Newsbreak: Law enforcement official says he sent video of Ray Rice to NFL 5 months ago
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — A law enforcement official says he sent a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee to an NFL executive five months ago, while Commissioner Roger Goddell has insisted the league didn't see the violent images until this week.
The person played The Associated Press a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number on April 9 confirming the video arrived. A female voice expresses thanks and says: "You're right. It's terrible."
The law enforcement official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, says he had no further communication with any NFL employee and can't confirm anyone watched the video. The person said he was unauthorized to release the video but shared it unsolicited, because he wanted the NFL to have it before deciding on Rice's punishment.
The NFL has repeatedly said it asked for but could not obtain the video of the Baltimore Ravens running back hitting Janay Palmer — who is now his wife — at an Atlantic City casino in February.
The league says it has no record of the video, and no one in the league office had seen it until it was released by TMZ Monday. When asked about the voicemail Wednesday, NFL officials repeated their assertion that no league official had seen the video before Monday.
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Islamic State group: A fearsome jihadi outfit, but not an unstoppable juggernaut
BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State group is often described as the most fearsome jihadi outfit of all: a global menace outweighing al-Qaida, with armies trembling before its advance.
But while the group has been successful at seizing parts of Iraq and Syria, it is no unstoppable juggernaut. Lacking the major weaponry of an established military, it wields outsize influence through the fanaticism of a hard core of several thousand, capitalizing on divisions among its rivals, and disseminating terrifying videos on social media.
President Barack Obama is outlining plans Wednesday for an expanded military and political effort to combat the group in Syria and Iraq, ushering in what is likely to be a long-term engagement by the U.S. and its allies to destroy the militants in those countries.
It is useful to remember, though, that while it is a formidable force that controls roughly a third of Iraq and Syria, there also has been an inclination to exaggerate the group's capabilities.
"I think sometimes there's been a tendency to sort of overestimate the technical sophistication of the Islamic State," said Charles Lister, visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center.
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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has weathered many controversies in 8-year tenure
NEW YORK (AP) — The Ray Rice story is not the first controversy Roger Goodell has faced during his eight-year tenure as NFL commissioner. Here's a look at some of them:
RAY RICE
Goodell suspended the Ravens running back for two games, then made it indefinite after video of Rice punching his then-fiancee (now wife) in an elevator was released Monday. Goodell said to his knowledge, no one at the league office had seen the video before Monday. But a law enforcement official told the AP he sent the video to the league five months ago, and played a voice mail from an NFL office number confirming it was received.
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Scientists say ozone layer is recovering, credit phase-out of aerosol chemicals since the '80s
WASHINGTON (AP) — Earth's protective ozone layer is beginning to recover, largely because of the phase-out since the 1980s of certain chemicals used in refrigerants and aerosol cans, a U.N. scientific panel reported Wednesday in a rare piece of good news about the health of the planet.
Scientists said the development demonstrates that when the world comes together, it can counteract a brewing ecological crisis.
For the first time in 35 years, scientists were able to confirm a statistically significant and sustained increase in stratospheric ozone, which shields the planet from solar radiation that causes skin cancer, crop damage and other problems.
From 2000 to 2013, ozone levels climbed 4 percent in the key mid-northern latitudes at about 30 miles up, said NASA scientist Paul A. Newman. He co-chaired the every-four-years ozone assessment by 300 scientists, released at the United Nations.
"It's a victory for diplomacy and for science and for the fact that we were able to work together," said chemist Mario Molina. In 1974, Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland wrote a scientific study forecasting the ozone depletion problem. They won the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work.
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Israeli army opens its own investigation into Gaza war in attempt to dissuade outside probes
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli military said Wednesday it has opened criminal investigations into two high-profile cases involving Palestinian civilian casualties in this summer's Gaza war, in an apparent attempt to head off international investigations into its conduct.
By investigating the killing of Palestinian children on a Gaza beach and the shelling of a United Nations school, Israel looks to be trying to send a signal that it can police itself as it faces the specter of international war crimes probes.
More than 2,100 Palestinians, three-quarters of whom were civilians, were killed in the fighting, according to Palestinian and U.N. estimates. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and six civilians died.
Israel said it went to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties, but the high death toll has sparked international condemnation. Several incidents in the war, including the two that Israel is now investigating, have attracted special attention.
As fighting raged, military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz ordered a committee to examine "exceptional incidents" that resulted in Palestinian civilian casualties. As a result, 44 cases are being reviewed and dozens more are in the pipeline. So far, 12 cases have already been examined by the military's top legal officer.
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British Prime Minister Cameron implores Scots not to break his heart by leaving the UK
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — The British political establishment descended on Scotland on Wednesday to plead for a united United Kingdom, after polls suggested the once-fanciful notion of Scots voting to break from Britain has become a real possibility in next week's referendum.
The leaders of the three main London-based parties — all of them unpopular in Scotland — wooed skeptical Scottish voters with the fervor of a rejected lover. But some Scots seemed unmoved, and increasingly confident independence leader Alex Salmond accused his opponents of succumbing to panic.
In a rare display of cross-party unity, Prime Minister David Cameron, Labour leader Ed Miliband and Liberal Democrat chief Nick Clegg all pulled out of a weekly House of Commons question session to make a campaign dash to Scotland, as polls indicated the two sides are neck-and-neck ahead of the Sept. 18 referendum.
Cameron said Scottish independence would break his heart, in a personal plea aimed at preserving the 307-year-old Anglo-Scottish union — and preventing himself from going down in history as the last prime minister of Great Britain. He is likely to face pressure from his Conservative Party to step down if Scots vote to secede.
"I would be heartbroken ... if this family of nations is torn apart," Cameron told an invited audience at the Edinburgh headquarters of the Scottish Widows insurance firm.
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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford admitted to hospital with suspected tumor
TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been admitted to a hospital and is believed to have a tumor in his abdomen, health officials said Wednesday.
Dr. Rueben Devlin from Humber Regional Hospital said Ford had been complaining of abdominal pains and that an examination has resulted in a working diagnosis of a tumor.
He said Ford had been suffering from stomach pains for at least three months and they had worsened in the last 24 hours.
"It became unbearable for him," he said.
The mayor became an international celebrity last year after he acknowledged using crack in a "drunken stupor" following months of denials. Ford returned to work in June after a rehab stint for drug and alcohol abuse and is running for re-election on Oct. 27.
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Highway shutdown averted at Ferguson protests as police arrest demonstrators
BERKELEY, Mo. (AP) — Protesters have dispersed after a failed attempt to block part of Interstate 70 near the St. Louis suburb where a police officer fatally shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown.
The planned rush-hour traffic shutdown fell through Wednesday after a wall of officers in riot gear blocked demonstrators from walking onto the highway.
Officers from the city, county and Missouri Highway Patrol warned the roughly 150 demonstrators to stay off a road near a highway on-ramp. Those who refused were arrested.
Sgt. Al Nothum of the state Highway Patrol says 35 people were arrested. Nothum also says protesters threw rocks, concrete blocks and bricks.
Organizers said the protest was designed as an act of nonviolent civil disobedience.
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Regulators reject US expert's call to shut down California nuclear plant for seismic study
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday rejected a senior federal expert's recommendation to shut down California's last operating nuclear power plant until the agency can determine whether its twin reactors can withstand powerful shaking from nearby earthquake faults.
In a decision written by Executive Director for Operations Mark Satorius, the agency concluded there is no immediate or significant safety concern at the Diablo Canyon plant, which sits on a seaside bluff midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Michael Peck, who for five years was Diablo Canyon's lead NRC inspector, said in a confidential report disclosed by The Associated Press last month that no one knows whether the plant's equipment can withstand strong shaking from those faults — the potential for which was realized decades after the facility was built.
Peck, now a senior reactor instructor for the NRC in Tennessee, argued the NRC is not applying safety rules it set out for the plant's operation.
Blair Jones — a spokesman for plant owner Pacific Gas and Electric Co. — said in a statement the NRC decision reaffirms that the plant "has been and continues to be seismically safe."
