Pentagon lays out plan to defeat IS

Pentagon lays out plan to defeat IS

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter laid out broad plans Wednesday to defeat Islamic State militants and retake the group’s key power centers in Iraq and Syria. And he announced that a special commando force has arrived in Iraq.

Speaking to troops from the 101st Airborne Division who soon will deploy to Iraq, Carter also said he would meet in Paris next week with his defense counterparts, mainly from Europe, and will challenge them to bring more capabilities to the fight.

He said he will be meeting with defense leaders from France, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and “will not hesitate to engage and challenge” them to get them to do more.

Suicide bomber registered as refugee

ISTANBUL

The suicide attacker who detonated a bomb that killed 10 German tourists in the heart of Istanbul’s historic district had registered as a refugee just a week earlier, Turkish officials said Wednesday, raising questions over whether extremists are posing as asylum-seekers to inflame anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe.

Turkish authorities identified the assailant in Tuesday’s attack as a Syrian man who was born in 1988, and said he was affiliated with the Islamic State group. Turkish media, including some close to the government, identified him as Nabil Fadli and said he was Saudi-born. The extremist group has not so far claimed the attack.

Meanwhile, Turkish police arrested five people suspected of direct links to the bomb attack that took place just steps from the historic Blue Mosque in Istanbul’s storied Sultanahmet district. The suspects were not identified.

Al Jazeera network in US to shut down

PASADENA, Calif.

The Al Jazeera America cable news network said Wednesday it will shut down 21/2 years after its launch, a victim of a rough business environment and political headwinds it could not conquer.

The channel, an offshoot of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera cable network, had trouble persuading cable and satellite companies to carry it, and viewers to watch. It failed despite a promise to offer serious-minded journalism and some award-winning work.

The cable network will shut down April 30. It launched in October 2013.

Regulators take action after quakes

OKLAHOMA CITY

Operators of 27 oil and natural-gas wastewater- disposal wells in northwest Oklahoma must reduce volume due to the swarm of moderate earthquakes in the past week, state regulators said Wednesday.

The implementation of the Oklahoma Corp. Commission’s plan calls for changes in the operation of wells about 100 miles northwest of Oklahoma City near Fairview. The commission said the total reduction in wastewater-injection volume will be 54,859 barrels daily – or about 2.3 million gallons – a drop of about 18 percent.

3 US volunteers die in bus crash

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras

Two New York college students and a U.S. health-care worker died Wednesday in this Central American nation when their bus crashed while taking them to the airport to fly home after a volunteer mission helping poor Hondurans.

Isa Alvarado, spokeswoman for the Public Ministry morgue in Honduras, said the dead were three American women age 20, 21 and 45. Their identities were not immediately released.

Associated Press