US visa exemption rules in Republican crosshairs

Congressional Republicans sounded an alarm Wednesday over rules allowing millions of Europeans to travel to the United States without a visa, warning that jihadists could exploit weak links in the program.The Islamic State and Al-Qaeda extremist groups "have incurred great losses in Syria and Iraq," Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told a hearing on the security of the US Visa Waiver Program . "Yet as the territory under their control shrinks, we are seeing an exodus of foreign fighters returning to their homelands," he said.

Schiff makes new push for ISIS war authorization

The California Democrat introduced a new version of his bill for a formal Authorization for Use of Military Force against ISIS, al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Schiff's bill would repeal the 2001 and 2002 war authorizations still used to fight terrorism across the globe with a measure that expires after three years and makes it easier for Congress to put a check on the Executive Branch's use of ground combat forces in the terror fight.

With Trump, the “Elders” have found their man

A debate is under way about how best to respond to North Korea's belligerence, says Richard Haass, President of The Council of Foreign Relations. Ideas range from a cyber attack to weaken North Korean political and military assets to relisting the country as a state sponsor of terrorism, presumably accompanied by new sanctions.

Risk of deeper involvement as U.S. weighs its options in Afghanistan

As President Donald Trump's administration drafts an Afghanistan policy, U.S. officials are seeking a way to reverse gains by militant groups without wading deeper into a 15-year-long war that has no end in sight. In the past month, three U.S. service members have been killed in operations against Islamic State militants near Afghanistan's porous border with Pakistan, where armed groups still find sanctuary.Officially, the U.S.-led international force in Afghanistan ceased combat operations at the end of 2014, but the conflict has proved difficult to exit without risking the overthrow of the government in Kabul.

MOAB strike: Dozens of ISIS casualties – and no civilians

The first deployment of the most powerful conventional bomb has succeeded in its mission , according to both US and Afghan sources, without any civilian casualties. The post-attack bomb damage assessment tallies up 36 ISIS-K casualties in Nangarhar and the destruction of caves and tunnels used for transit and subterfuge by the terrorist group, an offshoot of the so-called Islamic State in Syria.

ISIS bomb maker deported to Kuwait

A captured Kuwaiti explosives expert of the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria was deported on Friday to his home country where he has been a fugitive and where he faces charges for planning bomb attacks. Kuwaiti national Husayn AlDhafiri and Syrian national Rahaf Zina are presented at a press conference at the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila on April 6, 2017.

Russia Bashes Trump Policy as Putin Weighs Tillerson Meeting

Russia pushed back against demands that it abandon Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad over a chemical-weapons attack as the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin is likely to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Putin complained that relations with the U.S. are worse than under President Barack Obama, while Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized the Trump administration's "ambiguous and contradictory" foreign policy at the start of talks with Tillerson in Moscow Wednesday.

APNewsBreak: FBI is reviewing terrorism-related tips

The FBI has been reviewing the handling of thousands of terrorism-related tips and leads from the past three years to make sure they were properly investigated and no obvious red flags were missed, The Associated Press has learned. The review follows attacks by people who were once on the FBI's radar but who have been accused in the past 12 months of massacring innocents in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub, injuring people on the streets of New York City, and gunning down travelers in a Florida airport.

FBI reviews handling of terrorism-related tips

The FBI has been reviewing the handling of thousands of terrorism-related tips and leads from the past three years to make sure they were properly investigated and no obvious red flags were missed, The Associated Press has learned. The review follows attacks by people who were once on the FBI's radar but who have been accused in the past 12 months of massacring innocents in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub, injuring people on the streets of New York City, and gunning down travellers in a Florida airport.

United Nations council weighs compromise on Syria gas attack probe

"Putin views the USA strikes on Syria as aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of worldwide law", Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said in a statement disseminated by Russian state TV early Friday. Their compromise text would drop demands that Syria hand over information on its military operations on the day of the strike, replacing them with language from a previous resolution urging cooperation on chemical weapons investigations, diplomats said.

AP News in Brief at 12:03 a.m. EDT

The United States vowed Friday to keep the pressure on Syria after the intense nighttime wave of missile strikes from U.S. ships, despite the prospect of escalating Russian ill will that could further inflame one of the world's most vexing conflicts. Standing firm, the Trump administration signaled new sanctions would soon follow the missile attack, and the Pentagon was even probing whether Russia itself was involved in the chemical weapons assault that compelled President Donald Trump to action.

In Syria, Trump and Obama faced same issue – and found different solutions

More than four years ago, President Barack Obama vowed action if Syria crossed a "red line" and used chemical weapons on its own people. But when hundreds of Syrians died in a chemical weapons attack in the Ghouta region outside Damascus in 2013, Obama failed to act.

Guerrilla Lobs Bombs at Romanticized History of ’70s Violence

Before we get to everything else about Showtime's Guerrilla -how it's intelligent, insightful, resonant, well-acted and all that-let's deal with the mysterious question of why a show about an underground black-nationalist terrorist group of the 1970s, written and produced by Americans, would be set in Great Britain. To be sure, London had its share of political terrorism in the 1970s.

Ultherapy treatment banishes wrinkles on the decolletage

Trump fires 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Homs airfield where Assad launched his horrifying chemical attack, prompting Syria to declare the US a 'partner of ISIS and terrorist organisations' Furious Putin calls US airstrikes an 'illegal act of aggression' and halts agreement to avoid clashes with American fighter jets over Syria Republicans including John McCain and Ted Cruz praise Trump for Syrian airstrikes but Democrats say any further military action needs to be run past Congress Netanyahu leads worldwide praise of Trump's airstrikes on Syria and says he hopes they will be heard from Iran to North Korea 'No child of God should ever suffer such horror': Trump explains why he launched air strikes on Syria in the wake of chemical gas attack US alerted Russian military 30 minutes before Syria airstrike but made NO direct contact with Putin as Tillerson accuses Moscow of being ... (more)

Gothenburg finds being tall can increase risk of stroke

Trump fires 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Homs airfield where Assad launched his horrifying chemical attack, prompting Syria to declare the US a 'partner of ISIS and terrorist organisations' Furious Putin calls US airstrikes an 'illegal act of aggression' and halts agreement to avoid clashes with American fighter jets over Syria Republicans including John McCain and Ted Cruz praise Trump for Syrian airstrikes but Democrats say any further military action needs to be run past Congress Netanyahu leads worldwide praise of Trump's airstrikes on Syria and says he hopes they will be heard from Iran to North Korea How Trump unleashed awesome arsenal on Assad: Tomahawk missiles launched from US destroyers 150 miles away with pinpoint accuracy without endangering American pilots or enraging neighbouring allies US alerted Russian military 30 minutes before Syria airstrike but made NO direct ... (more)

Terrorists for Turkey, heroes for US and Russia

When the insignia of the People's Protection Units , a red star on a yellow triangle - a version of the symbol of many left-wing militant organizations around the world - first appeared as badges on the arms of the U.S. Special Forces in Syria in May 2016, the Turkish government was furious about it. The speculation then was that the U.S. Central Command had deliberately allowed those photos to be leaked to the press so that the Turkish army would not hit the YPG militants who were collaborating with U.S. forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant , or DEASH in Arabic.