Iraq PM: No need for US ground troops

Iraq PM: No need for US ground troops

BAGHDAD

Iraq’s new prime minister ruled out stationing U.S. ground troops in his country, chiding the international community Wednesday for inaction in Syria and lamenting the “puzzling” exclusion of neighboring Iran from the coalition being assembled to fight the Islamic State group.

Haider al-Abadi has been embraced by the West as a more-inclusive leader who might heal the internal rifts that have dismembered Iraq. But his forthrightness in an interview with The Associated Press — his first with international media — suggested a man capable of parting ways on vision and holding his ground.

Al-Abadi praised the U.S. aerial campaign targeting the militants who have overrun much of northern and western Iraq and carved out a proto-state spanning the Syria-Iraq border.

But he stressed that he sees no need for the U.S. or other nations to send troops into Iraq to help fight the Islamic State.

Woman executed for boy’s starvation

HUNTSVILLE, Texas

A Texas woman convicted of the starvation and torture death of her girlfriend’s 9-year-old son a decade ago was executed Wednesday evening.

Lisa Coleman, 38, received a lethal injection about an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal to spare her. She was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m. CDT, 12 minutes after Texas Department of Criminal officials began administering a lethal dose of pentobarbital.

Coleman became the ninth convicted killer and second woman to receive lethal injection in Texas this year.

Australian PM warns of attack plan

SYDNEY

Australia’s prime minister says intelligence that Islamic State supporters were planning to carry out a killing to demonstrate its abilities led to counterterrorism raids in Sydney.

Australian police detained 15 people today in a major counterterrorism operation, saying intelligence indicated a random, violent attack was being planned in Australia.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters that “exhortations” were coming from an Australian who is senior in the Islamic State movement to support networks in Australia to “conduct demonstration killings.” He did not name the Australian.

Judge OKs $2.9M W.Va. spill settlement

CHARLESTON, W.Va.

A federal bankruptcy judge in West Virginia has approved a $2.9 million settlement to benefit 300,000 people whose water was contaminated in a January chemical spill.

Judge Ronald Pearson filed the order Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Charleston. A U.S. District Court judge’s approval also is needed.

The proposal relies on insurance proceeds from bankrupt Freedom Industries. The spill spurred a tap-water ban for days. Freedom filed for bankruptcy eight days later.

Wildfire threatens more than 2K homes

WEED, Calif.

Teams of firefighters went house-to-house Wednesday to pin down damage done by a wildfire that officials estimated had destroyed 110 homes and damaged 90 more in the small town of Weed while another Northern California blaze east of Sacramento was threatening more than 2,000 homes as it burned out of control, officials said.

A total of 2,500 firefighters were taking on the blaze that was threatening 2,003 homes and an additional 1,505 smaller structures, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. Most of the threatened homes were in Pollock Pines, 60 miles east of Sacramento.

Associated Press