Most Recent Posts

BAGHDAD (AP) — The fate of Iraq may be decided over the next week, the top U.S. diplomat said Monday, and largely depends on whether its leaders keep their commitment to meet looming deadlines to seat a new government before a Sunni insurgency sweeps away hopes for lasting peace.

It was a dire message to leaders of Iraq's bitterly divided Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political coalitions who have lived through more than three decades of dictatorship, sanctions and wars. And it sought to hold the officials to a government transition that the U.S. believes will stave off the threat of a new civil war by giving more power to Iraq's minorities.

"This is a critical moment for Iraq's future," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said at a press conference in Baghdad. "It is a moment of decision for Iraq's leaders and it's a moment of great urgency."

Kerry offered few details of his closed-door meetings in Baghdad. But he said each of the officials he met with — including Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — committed to seat a new parliament by July 1 as the constitution requires.

"The very future of Iraq depends on choices that will be made in the next days and weeks, and the future of Iraq depends primarily on the ability of Iraq's leaders to come together and take a stand united against ISIL," Kerry said, referring to the insurgency known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. "Not next week, not next month, but now."

He also said no country — including the U.S. — should try to pick new leadership for Iraq. "That is up to the people of Iraq," Kerry said.

Al-Maliki is facing growing calls for his resignation as disgruntled Sunnis say they do not believe he will give them a greater voice in the government.

After suffering together through more than eight years of war — which killed nearly 4,500 American troops and more than 100,000 Iraqis — Washington and Baghdad are trying to shelve mutual wariness to curb the very real prospect of the Mideast nation falling into a fresh bout of sectarian strife.

Sunnis frustrated with being cut out of power are increasingly joining the ISIL, a bloody insurgency that has been emboldened by battlefield successes in neighboring Syria's civil war.

Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, one of Iraq's top-ranking Sunnis, told Kerry that the insurgents pose "a threat to the entire world." Al-Nujaifi, is from Mosul, Iraq's second largest city which was overrun earlier this month by militants.

Of the insurgents, al-Nujaifi said "we have to confront it through direct military operations, political reforms so that we can inject a new hope into our own people so that they can support the political process and the unity of Iraq."

Iraqi officials briefed on Kerry's talks with the Iraqi prime minister said al-Maliki urged the United States to target the militants' positions in Iraq and neighboring Syria, citing training camps and convoys with airstrikes. The officials said Kerry responded by saying a great deal of care and caution must be taken before attacks are launched to avoid civilian casualties that could create the impression that Americans are attacking Sunnis.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the record.

President Barack Obama, in a round of television interviews that aired in the U.S., said al-Maliki and the Iraqi leadership face a test as to whether "they are able to set aside their suspicions, their sectarian preferences for the good of the whole."

"And we don't know," Obama said. "The one thing I do know is that if they fail to do that then no amount of military action by the United States can hold that country together."

Kerry arrived in Baghdad just a day after the Sunni militants captured two key border posts, one along the frontier with Jordan and the other with Syria, deepening al-Maliki's predicament. Their latest victories considerably expanded territory under the militants' control just two weeks after the al-Qaida breakaway group started swallowing up chunks of northern Iraq, heightening pressure on al-Maliki to step aside.

The offensive by ISIL takes the group closer to its dream of carving out an Islamic state straddling both Syria and Iraq. Controlling the borders with Syria will help it supply fellow fighters there with weaponry looted from Iraqi warehouses, boosting its ability to battle beleaguered Syrian government forces.

On Monday, gunmen ambushed a police convoy transferring prisoners about 85 miles (140 kilometers) south of Baghdad, killing nine policemen and 13 prisoners, according to police officials. The officials said some of the prisoners, some of whom were convicted of terrorism-related charges, were being taken to a high-security prison in the southern city of Nasiriyah 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Baghdad. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The militants' stunning battlefield successes in the north and the west of Iraq have laid bare the inadequacies of the country's U.S.-trained forces. In the north, troops fled in the face of advancing militants, abandoning their weapons, vehicles and other equipment. In some cases in the west, they pulled out either when the militants approached or when they heard of other towns falling.

Sunday's capture by the militants of crossings bordering Jordan and Syria followed the fall on Friday and Saturday of the towns of Qaim, Rawah, Anah and Rutba, all of which are in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, where the militants have since January controlled the city of Fallujah and parts of the provincial capital, Ramadi.

___

Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

BERLIN (AP) — An American exchange student who got stuck in a giant vagina sculpture was freed by firefighters in southwestern Germany.

Tuebingen fire service official Markus Mozer said Monday that the young man slipped as he tried to climb into the stone sculpture to pose for a photo.

He couldn't free himself, so the fire service was called. Four firefighters eased him out of the sculpture.

The incident happened on Friday and the student's name wasn't released.

Mozer says no damage was done to the sculpture, created by Peruvian-born artist Fernando de la Jara.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is encouraging more employers to adopt family-friendly policies by hosting a daylong summit Monday, even though the U.S. government doesn't always set the best example.

The United States is the only industrialized nation that doesn't mandate paid leave for mothers of newborns, although Obama says he'd like to see that change.

"Only three countries in the world report that they don't offer paid maternity leave — three — and the United States is one of them," Obama said in his weekly address. "It's time to change that. A few states have acted on their own to give workers paid family leave, but this should be available to everyone, because all Americans should be able to afford to care for a family member in need."

Obama's summit comes in a midterm election year focused heavily on attracting women voters, and the White House was devoting all its star power to the event — and even a surprise appearance by a celebrity to echo Obama's criticism of "Mad Men" policies in today's workplace. Christina Hendricks, who plays single mom Joan on the AMC dramatization of a 1960s ad firm, said, "In the 21st Century the only place for a story like Joan's should be on TV."

Obama planned to speak midday, have lunch with working parents and a later meeting with business leaders. First lady Michelle Obama planned to deliver a closing speech, while Vice President Joe Biden and wife Jill opened the event by talking about the value of family time. "Not all of us have the kind of flexibility that I have," Biden said.

California, Rhode Island and New Jersey have a system of paid leave, but it's unclear how Obama would fund a national system. Obama has not endorsed legislation that would create one funded by a payroll tax, and he pledged in his 2008 presidential campaign not to raise taxes on families making under $250,000 a year.

Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett said in a conference call with reporters Sunday that the president is trying to start a national conversation to explore the issue.

"Cost is an issue for any federal program and we need to make sure we do this in a way where we are not raising taxes on middle-class families," she said. "But we also know what a good investment in our workforce it would be if they had paid leave, and that investment will pay great returns."

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., has introduced legislation based on the state plans that would provide a paid leave insurance fund in the Social Security Administration, paid for by contributions from employees and employers of 0.2 percent of wages. She said she's personally encouraged the president to back it and hopes he will, despite his tax pledge.

"We're talking about 2 cents of every $10," she said in an interview at the summit. She said without such a fund, eight out of 10 workers can't take advantage of their right for family leave because they can't afford it.

While some companies offer paid family leave to attract workers, the 1993 Family Medical Leave Act only requires that employers provide unpaid leave for medical and family reasons.

When Obama came to the White House, he instituted six weeks of paid leave for his workers when they have a child, get sick or injured or need to care for an ailing family member, using his authority to set his staff's compensation under the personnel code. He does not have the power to award paid leave to other federal workers without congressional action since they are covered under a different section of law. The White House has supported the goal of legislation introduced by lawmakers to change that, but it has yet to get through Congress.

Despite the paid leave for White House staff, the challenges of balancing parenting and working still remain evident there. The president's top aides include several dads of minor children but hardly any mothers with school-age kids — National Security Adviser Susan Rice being one prominent exception.

"It is a very challenging and demanding environment" for parents, Jarrett said at a media availability hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. "And I think part of what we have to achieve here is to make it easier — that doesn't mean it's going to be easy — it's just going to be easier. And I think that's what the private sector acknowledges."

The summit being held at Washington's Omni Hotel will highlight businesses with family-friendly benefits to hold up as best practices — Obama says child care and flexible work schedules also are vital benefits. Executives representing Gap Inc., PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Johnson and Johnson, Goldman Sachs, Shake Shack, Cisco Systems and Intel Corp. are participating in panel discussions at the summit.

Obama planned to issue a presidential memorandum Monday directing federal agencies to expand flexible work arrangements when possible. Obama also planned to urge Congress to pass legislation requiring employers to accommodate pregnant employees so they can continue to perform their jobs. He also is ordering the Labor Department to create an interactive map that shows the rights of pregnant workers in each state.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler at http://twitter.com/nedrapickler

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government has acknowledged that Israeli warplanes struck targets inside its territory in its first comment on the incident.

A statement issued by the Foreign Ministry says Israeli forces carried out "a new aggression" on Sunday and Monday on positions inside Syria.

It says the air raids were a sign of the "direct and continuous support" that Israel is giving to rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

Israel carried out the strikes in response to a cross-border attack in which a teenager was killed. It was not clear if the attack was carried out by government forces or rebels.