WORLD_ AP News in Brief at 5:58 p.m. EDT

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AP News in Brief at 5:58 p.m. EDT

The Associated Press
September 23, 2014

Only the start: Syria airstrikes the beginning of a campaign against expanding terror threat

WASHINGTON (AP) — The one-two-three punch of American and Arab airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq was just the beginning, President Barack Obama and other leaders declared Tuesday. They promised a sustained campaign showcasing a rare U.S.-Arab partnership aimed at Muslim extremists.

At the same time, in fresh evidence of how the terrorist threat continues to expand and mutate, the U.S. on its own struck a new al-Qaida cell that the Pentagon said was "nearing the execution phase" of a direct attack on the U.S. or Europe.

"This is not America's fight alone," Obama said of the military campaign against the Islamic State group. "We're going to do what's necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group, for the security of the country and the region and for the entire world."

Obama said the U.S. was "proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder" with Arab partners, and he called the roll: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar. Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon's press secretary, said four of the five had participated in the strikes, with Qatar playing a supporting role.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Turkey, too, is joining the coalition against the Islamic State group and "will be very engaged on the front lines of this effort." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in New York for U.N. meetings, said he was considering expanding support of NATO operations against the Islamic State to include military involvement.

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Airstrikes alone may not be enough to defeat Islamic State group in Syria, Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — In their Syrian strongholds, extremists from the Islamic State group had been moving into civilian apartment buildings for cover days before the U.S. and its allies began pounding them before dawn Tuesday, activists say. It's just one sign of the difficulties in trying to destroy the group by relying mainly on airstrikes.

Breaking the militants' hold over the cities they have captured in both Iraq and Syria will be complicated because the group can easily melt into the population. In the Iraqi city of Mosul, the extremists have enough support among the mainly Sunni Muslim population that they have reduced the presence of their fighters in the streets without apparent worry about their grip on power.

Another problem is that there are no allied forces on the ground poised to move in to control territory should the militants retreat under the aerial bombardment.

That's particularly the case in Syria, where rebels opposed to the Islamic State group have been almost completely driven from areas it controls. Across a broad stretch of eastern Syria, the only forces that could conceivably capitalize on the airstrikes at the moment are a few remaining units of President Bashar Assad's military, holed up in isolated bases in the Deir el-Zour and Hassakeh areas. But the Obama administration says it still wants Assad's ouster and doesn't want to help him regain ground.

So far, the coalition also has resisted calls by Kurds in Syria for arms, training and air cover. Those Kurdish forces, fighting in a group known as the YPG, had successfully pushed back the Islamic State group for two years in a band of territory that hugs the Syrian-Turkish border in the north and northwest. In recent days, however, the extremists have made gains in the area near the town of Kobani, forcing more than 130,000 people — mostly Kurds — to flee into Turkey.

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Obama urges other nations to join US in wide-ranging effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In the first international test for his climate-change strategy, President Barack Obama pressed world leaders Tuesday to follow the United States' lead on the issue, even as a United Nations summit revealed the many obstacles that still stand in the way of wider agreements to reduce heat-trapping pollution.

"The United States has made ambitious investments in clean energy and ambitious reductions in our carbon emissions," Obama said. "Today I call on all countries to join us, not next year or the year after that, but right now. Because no nation can meet this global threat alone."

But none of the pledges made at Tuesday's one-day meeting was binding. The largest-ever gathering of world leaders to discuss climate was designed to lay the groundwork for a new global climate-change treaty. It also revealed the sharp differences that divide countries on matters such as deforestation, carbon pollution and methane leaks from oil and gas production:

— Brazil, home to the Amazon rainforest, said it would not sign a pledge to halt deforestation by 2030.

— The United States decided not to join 73 countries in supporting a price on carbon, which Congress has indicated it would reject.

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Worst-case scenario: US warns that Ebola could infect at least 1.4 million before it's over

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials Tuesday laid out worst-case and best-case scenarios for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, warning that the number of infected people could explode to at least 1.4 million by mid-January — or peak well below that, if efforts to control the outbreak are ramped up.

The widely varying projections by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were based on conditions in late August and do not take into account a recent international surge in medical aid for the stricken region. That burst has given health authorities reason for some optimism.

"I'm confident the most dire projections are not going to come to pass," CDC chief Dr. Tom Frieden said in releasing the report.

About 5,800 illnesses and over 2,800 deaths have been counted since the first cases were reported six months ago. But international health authorities have warned that the crisis is probably far worse in reality, with many corpses and infected people hidden or unreported.

The CDC, for example, estimated that the real number of cases, reported and unreported, could reach 21,000 by Sept. 30 in just two of the hardest-hit countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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Anger renewed as fire destroys memorial where Michael Brown was killed by Ferguson police

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Anger spilled over Tuesday after fire destroyed one of two memorials on the street where Michael Brown was killed, a site that has become sacred to many in Ferguson and others nationwide focused on interactions between minorities and police.

How the fire happened wasn't immediately clear, but it stoked fresh resentment among those who question whether the shooting of the unarmed, black 18-year-old by a white Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9 is being adequately investigated.

"It's the same as if somebody came and desecrated a grave," Anthony Levine of Florissant, another St. Louis suburb, said as he studied the charred scene and shook his head.

Many who gathered at the site Tuesday blamed police for the blaze, even as the chief said officers did everything they could to keep the stuffed animals and other items from burning.

More than six weeks after Brown's death, residents and others remain upset about the way his body lay in the street for more than four hours while police investigated the shooting. Many insist he was trying to surrender, with his hands up.

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Palestinians seek $3.8B in aid for Gaza

NEW YORK (AP) — Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said Tuesday he has asked for $3.8 billion in urgent aid to help rebuild Gaza following its devastating 50-day war with Israel this summer.

Hamdallah told The Associated Press that Saudi Arabia has pledged $500 million and other nations have indicated they would join in. He spoke at the end of a donor meeting lead by Norway on the sidelines of a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.

The aid request comes as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas Abbas is preparing to submit a resolution to the U.N. Security Council seeking a three-year timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank.

Palestinian officials said the resolution will be handed in immediately after Abbas speaks at the U.N. General Assembly on Friday.

The recent Gaza war has weakened Abbas domestically, with Hamas enjoying a surge of popularity among Palestinians for fighting Israel. He is under pressure at home to come up with a new political strategy after his repeated but failed attempts to establish a Palestinian state through U.S.-mediated negotiations with Israel.

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For Obama, Arab role in Syria strikes bolsters coalition-building efforts at United Nations

NEW YORK (AP) — For President Barack Obama, the participation of five Arab nations in airstrikes in Syria has shifted the tenor of his three-day diplomatic mission at the United Nations, allowing him to use the unexpected cooperation to mobilize reluctant other nations to join the fight against Islamic State militants.

It's a marked change for a president who has been on the defensive about his ability to form a coalition and who had been expected to show up at the U.N. with few public commitments from allies around the world.

"The strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that this is not America's fight alone," Obama said at the White House before departing for New York. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain all launched airstrikes alongside U.S. planes, with Qatar playing a supporting role.

Senior administration officials said the coalition was quietly solidified in recent days following Secretary of State John Kerry's flurry of meetings with regional partners and Obama's phone calls to the monarchs of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Obama gave the go-ahead for the Pentagon to launch strikes in Syria for the first time last Thursday after being briefed by military leaders at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida.

While officials said the timing of the strikes was not intended to coincide with the start of the annual U.N. gathering, the military action quickly became a focal point as Obama and other world leaders arrived in New York.

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Secret Service twice interviewed accused intruder before Army vet scaled White House fence

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secret Service agents in Virginia and Washington earlier this summer twice interviewed an Army veteran accused of climbing over a White House fence during the weekend and running into the executive mansion in the two months before the embarrassing security breach, a federal law enforcement said Tuesday.

In both cases, the official said, the Secret Service concluded there was no evidence that Omar J. Gonzalez was a security threat.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of an ongoing investigation, said agents interviewed Gonzalez after he was arrested during a traffic stop in southwestern Virginia in July. State troopers there said Gonzalez had an illegal sawed off shotgun and a map of Washington tucked inside a Bible with a circle around the White House, other monuments and campgrounds. The troopers seized a stash of other weapons and ammunition found during a search of Gonzalez's car after his arrest.

Agents in Washington spoke to him again in late August after Gonzalez was found near a White House fence with a small hatchet in his waistband.

The official said the agents in Washington searched his car and found camping equipment, two other hatches and empty gun cases but no guns or ammunition.

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Syrian president vows to keep fighting jihadis, says he backs all efforts to fight terrorism

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — President Bashar Assad said Tuesday he supports any international effort against terrorism, apparently trying to position his government on the side of the U.S.-led coalition conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria.

Assad's remarks came hours after the opening salvo in what the United States has warned will be a lengthy campaign to defeat the extremists who have seized control of a huge swath of territory spanning the Syria-Iraq border. Damascus said the U.S. informed it beforehand that the strikes were coming.

One Syrian activist group reported that dozens of Islamic State fighters were killed in the pre-dawn strikes, but the numbers could not be independently confirmed. Several activists also reported at least 10 civilians killed.

Some Syrian rebels fighting to oust Assad welcomed the American-led strikes, but others expressed frustration that the coalition was only targeting the Islamic State group and not the Syrian government.

One rebel faction that has received U.S.-made advanced weapons, Harakat Hazm, criticized the airstrikes, saying they violate Syria's sovereignty and undermine the anti-Assad revolution.

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Police: UPS gunman had been fired the day before killing 2, then himself at Alabama warehouse

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A man wearing his work uniform started shooting at his former colleagues inside a UPS sorting facility in Alabama a day after he was fired from the company, killing a supervisor and another employee before committing suicide, police said Tuesday.

Neither the gunman nor his two victims have been named, and Lt. Sean Edwards said police were still trying to reach their families.

UPS spokesman Steve Gaut would not say what the shooter's job duties had been.

The UPS warehouse, a sand-colored building sitting on a hill with company logos on the front and side, is used to sort packages and send them out on trucks. About 80 drivers had already left on their routes, and a small number remained when the shooter drove up in a private vehicle Tuesday morning and walked inside through a truck dock door in the back of the building, Gaut said.

The building has a parking lot surrounded by barbed wire.

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