Just days ago, the generals were trumpeting plans to knock ISIS out of its most important stronghold in Iraq. Now, those plans are on indefinite hold.
The U.S. military’s goal to retake Iraq’s second largest city from the self-proclaimed Islamic State has been pushed back several months at least, defense officials told The Daily Beast. That’s a major shift for the Pentagon, which recently announced that the first major ground offensive in the war against ISIS could come in the next few weeks.
It’s a good day for proponents of an open internet: The Federal Communications Commission just approved its long-awaited network neutrality plan, which reclassifies broadband internet as a Title II public utility and gives the agency more regulatory power in the process. And unlike the FCC’s last stab at net neutrality in 2010, today’s new rules also apply to mobile broadband.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler laid out the basic gist of the plan earlier this month — it’ll ban things like paid prioritization, a tactic some ISPs used to get additional fees from bandwidth-heavy companies like Netflix, as well as the slowdown of “lawful content.” But now Wheeler’s vision is more than just rhetoric; it’s something the FCC can actively enforce.
Kurdish militia pressed a big offensive against ISIS in northeast Syria on Wednesday, cutting one of its supply lines from Iraq, as fears mounted for dozens of Christians abducted by the hardline group that recently beheaded 21 Egyptian Copts.
At least 90 Assyrian Christians were seized from villages in Hasaka province in a mass abduction coinciding with the offensive in the same region by Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led air strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict.
A Facebook post with an image of two dead dogs allegedly shot by a Texas fireman has caused a viral uproar on the social network.
Tim Conatser, a volunteer firefighter with Union Valley Fire Department in Royse City, posted an image on Facebook of two dead dogs.
Facebook user Kimberly Jones uploaded a screenshot of the post, which has been shared more than 62,000 times in less than a day.
This booking photo provided by the Seminole County Public Affairs shows George Zimmerman on Jan. 10, 2015.
The Justice Department said its independent investigation found “insufficient evidence” to charge George Zimmerman with federal civil right violations in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the evidence did not meet the “high standard for a federal hate crime prosecution,” but the decision should not end efforts to explore racial tensions in the justice system. The decision closes the federal investigation.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presides over an expanded meeting of the Central Military Committee of the Workers’ Party in this KCNA photo released on Feb. 23, 2015. (KCNA-Yonhap)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for full combat readiness and a change in the machinery of his troops, as he chaired a key session of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, Pyongyang’s media reported Monday.
Kim delivered a “historic speech” at the extended meeting of the party’s Central Military Commission, the first of its kind in 10 months, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Zambia’s Director of Public Prosecutions Mutembo Nchito (C) chats with former president Rupiah Banda’s lawyers Erick Silwamba (R) and Patrick Mvunga (L) as they leave the Lusaka magistrates’
Zambia’s top prosecutor on Friday stunned a magistrate when he refused to prosecute himself on charges of abuse of office and declared himself a free man.
“I am the director of public prosecution of the republic of Zambia and I have decided to enter a nolle prosequi against all the charges,” Mutembo Nchito told the magistrate from the dock, using the Latin term for refusing to pursue a case.
Ten people were injured in southern Mexico after an attempt to attack the Coca-Cola company’s offices in the southern state of Guerrero.
The violence occurred in the state capital of Chilpancingo late on Wednesday.
The Guerrero state government said protesters tried to attack the Coke offices “to damage the facilities”.
Jefferson Parish law enforcement officials said Wednesday that they do not suspect wrongdoing on the part of an undercover sheriff’s deputy filmed last week punching a high school student in the face repeatedly as he attempted to detain the drunken teenager after a parade.
A widely circulating cellphone video, viewed tens of thousands of times online, raised questions about the degree of force used by the deputy, Detective Nicholas Breaux, who delivered four right hooks to the teen’s face as he lay on the ground, allegedly resisting arrest. A booking photo of the teen, 17-year-old Brady Becker, a student-athlete at St. Charles Catholic High School in LaPlace, showed two black eyes and other injuries to his face in the fracas.
Brain Cage 