Russia strikes IS-held city in Syria amid Aleppo fight

Russia strikes IS-held city in Syria amid Aleppo fight

BEIRUT

The Russian military sent long-range bombers to strike a series of Islamic State targets in the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa on Thursday – a fresh round of airstrikes that Syrian activists said killed at least 20 civilians and came amid Turkish calls for greater cooperation with Moscow against the extremist group.

The offer by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to coordinate with Russia on operations against IS followed a meeting between the Russian and Turkish leaders earlier this week in which they agreed to mend ties.

Ukraine puts troops on combat alert

MOSCOW

Ukraine put its troops on combat alert Thursday along the country’s de-facto borders with Crimea and separatist rebels in the east amid an escalating war of words with Russia over Crimea.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko issued the order after Moscow accused his country of sending several groups of “saboteurs” to carry out attacks in Crimea and said that two Russians died while fending off their incursions. Ukraine has denied the claim.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 after a hastily called referendum, and a conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces flared up in eastern Ukraine weeks later. The conflict in the east has killed more than 9,500 people and is still raging.

Judge orders man free after 28 years, cites unfair trial

WILMINGTON, N.C.

A judge on Thursday ruled that a North Carolina man who was convicted of murder as a teenager and was imprisoned 28 years ago did not get a fair trial and allowed him to go free.

North Carolina Superior Court Judge W. Douglas Parsons ruled Thursday that there was not enough evidence to justify 43-year-old Johnny Small’s conviction for a 1988 murder.

The judge said he didn’t see proof of Small’s innocence but was persuaded that prosecutors must decide if there was enough evidence to put him on trial again.

“I don’t know if Mr. Small did this or not. Whoever did this is a monster,” Parsons said. “What I’m here to decide is, did he receive a fair trial? ... It is more than abundantly clear that he did not.”

Muslim woman sues Chicago officers

CHICAGO

A young Muslim woman on Thursday sued Chicago police who mistakenly identified her briefly as a potential “lone wolf” terrorist as she was leaving a city subway station last year on the Fourth of July wearing a headscarf, face veil and carrying a backpack.

Itemid Al-Matar says officers violated her civil rights by pulling off her religious garb as they arrested her on subway station stairs, then strip-searched her later at a police station, according to the federal lawsuit filed in Chicago on her behalf.

“Several [officers] ran up the stairs and grabbed the plaintiff and threw her down upon the stair landing, then pulling at her and ripping off her hijab,” it says.

The fact that Al-Matar was wearing a headscarf, known as a hijab, and the face veil, called a niqab, “was the impetus behind the actions” of the officers, the court filing alleges.

Associated Press