Exclusive: Russian troops join combat in Syria - sources
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By Gabriela Baczynska, Tom Perry, Laila Bassam and Phil Stewart
Nicknamed 'naked guy', pictured, in a nod to 'ugly naked guy' from the American sitcom, the man has been baring all to staff at the office on Trinity Way, Salford, for the last three months.
US hostage Kayla Mueller was murdered by the so-called Islamic State, and not killed in a coalition airstrike as IS claims, according to a Yazidi woman who escaped the group.
Trump, Cruz pair up against Iran deal at Capitol rallyby By STEVE PEOPLES and JULIE BYKOWICZ
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Wednesday predicted the murder of "countless" Americans and Israelis should the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran go through, a graphic warning expected to be echoed by GOP front-runner Donald Trump at a Capitol Hill rally....
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led coalition targeted Islamic State with 17 air strikes in Syria and Iraq on Tuesday, including one that destroyed the militant group's operating base near Ramadi that was a key supply hub, according to the U.S. military.
Israeli Embassy reopens in Cairo, 4 years after previous site was attacked by Egyptian rioters
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Protesters return to the streets of the Lebanese capital Beirut angered by the continued political paralysis in the country and lack of basic services.
Migrants finding little sympathy in Hungary for their plightby By SHAWN POGATCHNIK and ALEXANDER KULI
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Regime change not aim of possible UK strikes on Syria, says defence secretary by Patrick Wintour Political editor
Philip Hammond says any British involvement in military action would be to limited to disrupting Isis leadership in Raqqa
Bashar al-Assad could remain as Syrian president for up to six months during a transition process as long as his sponsors Iran and Russia agree to require his eventual departure, according to the UK foreign secretary.
Philip Hammond also repeatedly stressed that the aim of any British involvement in military action in Syria would be limited to disrupting Isis in Raqqa, in northern Syria, and would not be to change the balance of power in the deadlocked four-year civil war.
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Wish you weren't here: Migrants finding little sympathy in Hungary for their plight
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Head Graham Daniels (pictured outside today's hearing) and Bethan Thomas committed 'professional misconduct' by fornicating at Bryntawe Comprehensive School in Swansea.
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Moscow Confirms Presence of Russian 'Military Experts' in Syria by webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Russia has confirmed that members of its military are present in Syria, amid growing concerns in the West that the Russian military is becoming more deeply involved in supporting the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement Wednesday that "Russian military experts" are in Syria to help its military master the use of Russian weaponry and other equipment. Russia, she said, has never made a secret of its...
The U.S. has learned of more indications that Russia is setting up a forward operating base for air operations in Syria, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.
About 100 Russian marines have been spotted at Assad International Airport near Latakia, and at least one more transport aircraft has arrived, U.S. officials told Martin. Over the past few days, three giant Russian Condor transport aircraft have flown into the airfield, Martin reported Tuesday.
The marines appear to be a base security force, the U.S. officials said. Additional housing units are being assembled at the airfield. Housing units already built at the airfield can hold more than 1,000 people.
The troops and equipment are coming out of southern Russia, the U.S. officials said. The first passenger flight flew over Bulgaria and Greece, but after that route was shut down all subsequent flights have gone over the Caspian Sea and through Iran and Iraq.
A couple of Russian amphibious ships have also unloaded equipment at its naval base in Tartus, Syria, which is about 60 miles away from Latakia.
Moscow, which has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the nation's 4 1/2-year civil war, said its military experts are in Syria to train its military to use weapons supplied by Russia.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the West of creating "strange hysteria" over Russian activities there, saying that Moscow has been openly supplying weapons and sending military specialists to Syria for a long time.
"Russia has never made a secret of its military-technical cooperation with Syria," she said, adding that she could "confirm and repeat once again that Russian military specialists are in Syria to help them master the weapons being supplied."
President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have sought to cast weapons supplies to Assad's regime as part of international efforts to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and other militant organizations in Syria.
On Friday, Putin didn't rule out a bigger role. Asked if Russia could deploy its troops to Syria to help fight ISIS, he said "we are looking at various options."
By playing with the idea of joining the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, Putin may hope to reset ties with the West, which were shattered by the Ukrainian crisis, and also protect Moscow's influence in Syria. But the U.S. and its allies have seen Assad as the cause of the Syrian crisis and Washington has warned Moscow against beefing up its presence.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov over the weekend to express concern, warning that if reports about the Russian military build-up in Syria were accurate, it could further escalate the conflict, increase refugee flows and raise the threat of confrontation with the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov and Kerry again discussed Syria on Wednesday, with Lavrov emphasizing the role of the Syrian government troops in confronting extremists groups and the need to take consolidated action.
© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Officials say about 100 Russian marines have been spotted at Syrian airfield
A hearse carrying Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz passes through in Antioch, Ill., on Sept. 7, 2015.(Photo: Patrick Kunzer, AP)
Police officials are voicing fear that anti-cop protests across the country have sparked shootings of law enforcement officers and created a climate of distrust between the public and police.
“The opportunity for officers to let down their guard, maybe show a little more empathy – that is all lost when you have these situations,” said Terrence Cunningham, police chief in Wellesley, Mass., and first vice president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “That becomes very, very difficult when officers see their brother and sister officers essentially being assassinated and being ambushed.”
Recent shootings include:
– A Las Vegas officer shot in the hand Sunday while sitting in his car at an intersection, on his way to a call. The suspect was captured nearby without police firing back.
– The Sept. 1 death of Fox Lake, Ill., Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, who was investigating suspicious activity. His death sparked a massive hunt for three men by 400 federal, state and local police, and the search continues.
– The Aug. 28 death of Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Darren Goforth while he was refueling his patrol car at a Houston-area gas station. Shannon Miles, 30, has been charged with capital murder, accused of emptying a 15-round handgun into Goforth’s back and head.
Donald Charles Hummer, an associate professor of criminal justice at Pennsylvania State University, said motives of the various gunmen might never be known, but that violence is usually localized and personal.
“Random violence strikes a chord with people because it’s hard to rationalize,” Hummer said. “These perpetrators had to have a buildup of anger compounding resentment before the past few weeks.”
The deaths have spurred public sympathy for police. A 16-year-old boy, McKinley Zoellner, offered to protect Harris County Deputy Tommi Kelley while she pumped gas recently – and a selfie of the pair has been shared on Facebook more than 220,000 times.
The shootings of police came during a year when cities such as Houston, St. Louis, New Orleans, Baltimore each had significant spikes in homicides – after years of plummeting crime statistics, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. Los Angeles, Chicago and New York each saw more violence, too, according to the analysis.
The latest shootings also followed waves of protests after the deaths during police confrontations of Freddie Gray in Baltimore in April 2015; Tamir Rice in Cleveland in November 2014; Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014; and Eric Garner in New York City in July 2014.
Six officers have been charged in Gray’s death, but police haven’t been charged in the other cases. Baltimore announced a $6.4 million settlement Tuesday with Gray’s family, and New York reached a $5.9 million settlement in July with Garner’s family.
Cunningham, the police chief, said tensions are highest in his 35 years of police work in part because some police critics have urged people “to pick up the pitchforks” rather than break down barriers between police and communities.
“I do think there is some of that Ferguson effect where some of the officers are afraid to do their job,” he said. “They are afraid to use force when necessary and appropriate.”
Steps to better protect police include wearing bulletproof vests and traveling in pairs.
Local police noted that crime statistics fell after federal funding for extra staffing, called Community Oriented Policing Services, peaked at $1.3 billion a year in the late 1990s, but support has declined in recent years.
The Obama administration proposing $250 million for COPS hiring grants next year. While negotiations continue, the House voted to eliminate the hiring grants, which the administration said would eliminate 1,300 positions, and instead supported $50 million for an initiative to improve community trust in police through programs such as body cameras for officers.
Another Justice Department program has provided local police with 1.2 million bulletproof vests worth $393 million since 1999. Lawmakers heralded the latest grants during the last week as part of $18 million spent on 48,705 vests so far this year.
“Every day when our first responders report for duty, they don’t know what they will face,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said in announcing $142,000 for her state.
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Puerto Rico is bracing for widespread spending cuts after the government released a long-awaited fiscal reform plan on Wednesday that would reduce much of the island's $72 billion public debt and calls for restructuring the remainder at the expense of bondholders.
The five-year plan proposes that the government cut subsidies to municipalities and the University of Puerto Rico, offer early retirement and reorganize or merge state agencies. It also calls on the government to extend until 2021 legislation that would freeze new hires, salary increases and collective bargaining agreements.
Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla acknowledged in a televised address that Puerto Ricans already have had to endure new taxes, an increase in utility bills and layoffs during a nearly decade-long economic stagnation.
"Our island faces an unprecedented fiscal and economic crisis," he said. "We have asked our people for many sacrifices."
During a background briefing late Tuesday, members of the group that worked on the plan said Puerto Rico's Government Development Bank would run out of money by the end of this year if action is not taken and warned that the government would face a liquidity crunch next year if the plan is not implemented.
It is unclear how creditors and bondholders will react to the plan, which addresses only $47 billion of the island's public debt and still requires approval by Puerto Rico's legislature and governor. Garcia has said the $72 billion public debt is unpayable and needs restructuring.
Even if the plan is implemented, officials warned the government would still face a $14 billion financing gap from 2016 to 2020, and that it would not be able to meet debt payments as scheduled because it could affect essential services. Officials warned that a compromise with creditors is needed to avoid what they called a disorderly default and legal morass.
"The plan itself will not get us out of the hole we find ourselves in," Garcia said. "It's time that creditors come to the table and share in the sacrifice."
One of the plan's main proposals is the creation of a control board, whose five members would be appointed by the governor but would take into account suggestions from creditors and potentially the federal government. The board would oversee implementation of the plan and have oversight of most public corporations including the Government Development Bank, but not the power or water and sewer companies.
The group suggested that the board could impose sanctions, including a ban on entering into contracts, automatic expense cuts and automatic hiring freezes if the government does not comply with the plan.
Among the other proposals in the nearly 80-page plan are government investment in public-private partnerships, creation of an earned income tax credit, reduction of nominal corporate tax rates and a 10-year waiver from future minimum wage increases for workers younger than 25 to help increase the number of job offers.
The plan also calls for further consolidation of public schools, with some 135 closures already implemented, as well as for subsidy cuts to municipalities to begin in 2018, while allowing cities and town to change their property tax structure and amend license fees if needed.
The plan states that Puerto Rico should seek equal treatment from the U.S. government regarding tax incentives and health care reimbursements.
It is unclear how many of these suggestions would be implemented. Officials said they anticipate an intense debate in Puerto Rico's House and Senate and noted that 2016 is an election year.
The economic crisis has sparked an exodus of Puerto Ricans to the U.S. mainland, with an estimated 144,000 people leaving the territory between 2010 and 2013. About a third of all people born in Puerto Rico now live in the U.S.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition air strikes destroyed an Islamic State operating base at a stadium near Ramadi that was a key supply hub used to store weapons and explosives, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia has sent two tank landing ships and additional aircraft to Syria in the past day or so and has deployed a small number of naval infantry forces, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, in the latest signs of a military buildup that has put Washington on edge.
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