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A Chinese official said on Friday that class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China will never send military forces to the scene of an increasingly ugly spat with Vietnam over an oil rig in the South China Sea and accused Hanoi of trying to force an international lawsuit. A senior U.S. official in Washington dismissed the Chinese statement as "patently ridiculous" and said Beijing had been using air force and navy as well as coastguard assets "to intimidate others." Scores of Vietnamese and Chinese ships, including coastguard vessels, have squared off around the rig despite a series of collisions after the Chinese platform was towed into disputed waters in early May.   true       Vietnam has accused class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China of sending six warships, but Yi Xianliang, deputy director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, said that Beijing had never sent military forces. "I can tel

Some of the schoolgirls abducted by militant group Boko Haram may never return home, Nigeria's influential former president Olusegun Obasanjo said, in some of the most pessimistic comments yet on their fate from a member of the country's elite. Obasanjo said President Goodluck Jonathan's administration had taken too long to respond to the April mass abduction. Once Jonathan's mentor and one of his strongest political allies, Obasanjo turned against him last December. "I believe that some of them will never return. We will still be hearing about them many years from now," Obasanjo told the BBC's Hausa-language radio service on Thursday, in comments echoed in an interview with Nigeria's Premium Times website.   true       The warning from Obasanjo, who stepped down in 2007 and nurtured Jonathan's own rise to power, will dismay parents who have now waited 60 days for any news of their daughters, taken from a school in the village of Chibok in nor

Chinese police said on Friday they had arrested a prominent human rights lawyers on charges of causing a disturbance and illegal access to personal information, in a case that has sparked an outcry among rights workers in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China and the West. Pu Zhiqiang, one of China's most outspoken dissidents, was detained last month after he attended a meeting in a private home to commemorate the bloody suppression of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Police also detained four other activists but later released them.   true       Beijing police had formally arrested Pu on "suspicion of the crimes of causing a disturbance and illegal access to the personal information of citizens after approval from the prosecutors", the police said on their official microblog. "As for Pu Zhiqiang's other alleged crimes, the public security organs will conduct further investigation," the police said. Pu's lawyer, Zhan

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has not altered her view that Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker should become president of the European Commission, a government spokesman said on Friday. _0"> "The German chancellor has very clearly said, including in her recent speech to parliament, that she is in favor of Jean-Claude Juncker becoming the next European Commission president and that she will work towards him getting a majority," Steffen Seibert said, adding that "nothing has changed" in this regard.   true       (Reporting by Stephen Brown and Michelle Martin)

Dozens of aircraft briefly vanished from air-traffic control radars in Austria, class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Germany , the Czech Republic and Slovakia this week and last in separate incidents that Slovak authorities blamed on military electronic warfare exercises. _0"> Air-traffic controllers in Austria and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Germany said data about the planes' position, direction, height or speed went missing on June 5 and June 10, but the outages posed no serious danger to people on the aircraft travelling at high altitude. Their Czech and Slovak counterparts also encountered cases of vanishing aircraft on the same days. "The disappearance of objects on radar screens was connected with a planned military exercise which took place in various parts of Europe on June 5 and 10 and whose goal was the interruption of radiocommunication frequencies," the Slovak state Air Traffic Services company said in a statement.   true    

The leader of South Africa's AMCU union said on Friday a wage deal with the top three platinum producers was imminent, signalling a possible end to a crippling five-month strike that has disrupted global output of the metal. Workers from the Association of Mineworkers and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Construction Union (AMCU) begged leader Joseph Mathunjwa on Thursday to end the country's longest mining strike and sign the latest offer - an increase of about 20 percent, or 1,000 rand ($93) a month. Mathunjwa told Johannesburg radio he would take the offer to more AMCU members at mines on Friday, before meeting with management at Lonmin ( id="symbol_LMI.L_0"> LMI.L ) ( id="symbol_LONJ.J_1"> LONJ.J ), Anglo American Platinum ( id="symbol_AMSJ.J_2"> AMSJ.J ) and Impala Platinum ( id="symbol_IMPJ.J IMPJ.J ) later or over the weekend to relay the response of his miners to their offer.   true       _3"> "

Croatia's Supreme Court has confirmed a guilty verdict against former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader for taking a bribe from Hungarian oil group MOL in exchange for allowing it a dominant position in Croatian oil firm INA. _0"> The ruling will not automatically annul a disputed INA shareholder agreement that Zagreb and MOL reached in 2009, but may serve as a legal basis for Croatia to start a new court process to render it null and void. "This verdict confirms our view that the Croatian interests were not protected in the process of INA's sale to MOL. It also confirms that the talks (with MOL) the government initiated and the arbitration procedure before international bodies were fully justified," class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Economy Minister Ivan Vrdoljak said in a statement.   true       The ruling was confirmed by Zagreb county court spokesman Kresimir Devcic. "The Supreme Court has modified the original verdict to eight years and six mo

class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Egypt is expected to unveil a new cabinet by Sunday, three officials said on Friday, with the class="mandelbrot_refrag"> finance minister and others likely to keep their posts following the election of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. _0"> Keeping the main ministers could allow Sisi to quickly implement the types of reform urged by the United Arab Emirates - one of the Gulf states that gave billions of dollars in aid after Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was ousted by the army. Sisi, the former army chief who was inaugurated last Sunday reappointed Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb last week.   true       Consultations on the cabinet lineup are ongoing, state radio reported on Friday. Mehleb has said the current government would stay on in a caretaker role until he forms his cabinet. The new cabinet is expected to be sworn in on Sunday, two ministers said, speaking on condition of anonymity. It is likely to convene f

Thailand's military government lifted a curfew nationwide on Friday, citing the absence of any violence and the need to support the country's tourism sector. _0"> "As the situation has improved and there have been no incidents that can lead to violence ... and in order to improve tourism, the curfew will be lifted in all remaining provinces," the ruling military council said in a televised announcement. The curfew had been in place from midnight to 4 a.m. in 47 provinces including the capital Bangkok. It had lifted the curfew in 30 provinces, which include the country's main tourist hotspots, over the past week. (Reporting by Amty Sawitta Lefevre; Writing by Maertin Petty; Editing by Ron Popeski)

The Ukrainian flag fluttered over the regional government headquarters in the strategic port city of Mariupol on Friday after government forces reclaimed the city from pro-Russian separatists in heavy fighting and said they had regained control of a long stretch of the border with Russia. The advances are significant victories for the pro-European leadership in a military operation to crush the rebellion, which began in east Ukraine in April, and hold the country together. Parallel peace moves are moving slowly, however, and Russia is threatening to cut gas supplies to Ukraine from Monday in a row over prices. In central Mariupol, police cordoned off several streets, where roadblocks of sandbags and concrete blocks, once manned by rebels, were riddled with bullet holes, and the burnt-out hulk of an armoured personnel carrier with rebel insignia smouldered. "At 10:34 a.m. (0734 GMT), the Ukrainian flag was raised over City Hall in Mariupol," Interior Minister Arsen Avakov

Israeli forces are searching for three Jewish teenagers who went missing in the occupied West Bank late on Thursday, the military said on Friday. As media speculated that the three youths might have been abducted, large numbers of Israeli soldiers scoured the countryside around the flashpoint city of Hebron, carrying out house-to-house searches in neighboring villages and blocking roads. Local media said the three youngsters had last been seen trying to hitch-hike home from a religious seminary in the Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion, to the north of Hebron. "Forces are conducting a widespread operation to locate the individuals," the military said in a statement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a special meeting of security ministers and said in a statement that Israel held President Mahmoud Abbas's Western-backed Palestinian Authority responsible for the safety of the three. But Adnan al-Dmairi, a spokesman for Palestinian security services in the West

Tunisia is set to hold separate parliamentary and presidential elections at the end of the year after political parties resolved a dispute over the election date on Friday, political sources told Reuters. _0"> Tunisia's national assembly approved a new electoral law in May to help the country move to full democracy after the 2011 uprising that inspired the "Arab Spring" revolts. Boussairi Bou Abdeli, a politician who participated in a dialogue between the parties, told Reuters they had "agreed to hold parliamentary before presidential (elections) this year". Another source confirmed the agreement. Whether the presidential and parliamentary elections should be held separately or together was the last point of disagreement between the Islamists and secularists. The agreement allows electoral authorities to set an official date for the first election since the North African state adopted a new constitution that has been praised as a model of democrati

Wisconsin county clerks who issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples over the past week could face charges for breaking the state's marriage laws, the state's attorney general said on Thursday. The warning from Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, a Republican, comes six days after U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb declared Wisconsin's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. The ruling was followed by hundreds of same-sex couples rushing to county offices throughout the state to wed. County Clerks who issue the licenses are doing so without proper authority, said attorney general spokeswoman Dana Brueck in an email. "It is, and has been, the attorney general's position that Wisconsin's marriage law is still in full force and effect," Brueck wrote. Milwaukee County Deputy Clerk George Christenson said his office was told by its lawyers it had legal authority to issue the licenses based on Crabb's ruling. "The court has ruled. He should cal

Federal officials in Utah are deciding whether to outlaw the increasingly popular daredevil pastime of swinging on ropes dangled from towering sandstone arches and cliffs after one man died and another was badly hurt in the activity. The U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management also is taking into account growing complaints from hikers angry at having the solitude of Utah's deserts disturbed by the whoops and hollers of thrill-seekers swinging from the landmark arches. Corona Arch, near the Colorado River in east-central Utah, has become a particularly popular spot for the rock-swinging crowd, and also the scene of a fatal accident involving one enthusiast in 2013 and a more recent mishap that left another man with a severe head injury. In both cases, the victims jumped from the arch with ropes that had too much slack. “We're trying to determine if these activities are appropriate in these places,” Rock Smith, supervisory outdoor recreation planner at the

A Texas man has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $1 million in damages from two doctors he said were responsible for removing his healthy kidney and leaving a cancerous one in his body. _0"> According to a lawsuit filed this week in Tarrant County, Glenn Hermes underwent surgery last year at a Fort Worth hospital and was informed after the procedure that doctors had removed the wrong kidney. Hermes was "greatly shocked, stunned and depressed," court documents said. He will likely need to be on dialysis or receive a kidney transplant, his lawyer said. About a month after the initial surgery, Hermes underwent surgery at a Dallas hospital to remove the cancerous growth. (Reporting by Jana J. Pruet in Fallas; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Sandra Maler)

A German tourist was killed when his kayak capsized on the Colorado River in Arizona's Grand Canyon National Park, authorities said on Thursday, the second German visitor to die in the park this week. _0"> Park officials said Hans Uhl, 43, was on the first day of a commercial rafting trip on Wednesday when he was unable to right himself after his kayak overturned on a section of the river called Badger Rapids. When a rescue boat reached Uhl, he was initially responsive, officials said. But he soon lost consciousness, and efforts to resuscitate him by members of his group and park service medical personnel were unsuccessful.     The National Park Service and the Coconino County Medical Examiner are investigating the death. It was not immediately clear where in Germany Uhl came from. On Wednesday, park officials said a 64-year-old German tourist collapsed and died on Monday from unknown causes at the popular Desert View Campground in the Southern Rim part of the canyon

Florida drivers caught on camera running red lights before 2010 could qualify for refunds on their tickets under a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday. The court invalidated early efforts by two Florida cities to create red-light ticket ordinances. It does not affect tickets issued since a state law establishing standards for the traffic cameras took effect on July 1, 2010. Controversy is growing over the use of automated cameras to fine drivers who enter an intersection on a red light. Critics say red-light cameras are more of a revenue-generating gimmick for local governments than effective tools for public safety. The Florida Legislature this spring considered banning red-light programs, but a bill failed to pass. Local governments have been hotly debating their use. The 5-2 ruling by the Florida Supreme Court focused on two red-light programs established from 2008 to 2010, before state rules were in place, in Orlando and Aventura, located north of Miami. “The Or

A 45-year prison sentence leveled against a serial bank robber, who once appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show as a "bank robbing pimp," was too harsh and must be reconsidered, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled on Thursday. _0"> Arthur Payton 47, had twice been sentenced to 10-year prison terms for previous bank robbery sprees in San Diego and Detroit when he was convicted in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan of robbing four banks in a third spree. Payton typically found women who were drug addicted or engaged in prostitution to rob the banks on his behalf and then split the proceeds with his accomplices, the appeals court said. Prosecutors asked a judge to sentence Payton to at least 25 years in prison, while his lawyers requested a sentence within the federal guidelines, which called for 17-1/2 to 22 years in prison based on his past and present convictions. Judge Lawrence Zatkoff, citing Payton's brazen recidivism and threat to the public, senten

Alabama Republicans, who offered a $1,000 reward for substantiated reports of voter fraud in this month's primary elections, said on Thursday they plan to forward credible evidence of wrongdoing to state prosecutors. Republicans argue that voter fraud is a central problem in U.S. elections. Democrats say Republican complaints about voter fraud are a smokescreen for Republican efforts to put in place measures like strict voter identification laws intended to make it unduly difficult for voters who tend to vote Democratic like minorities, young people and the elderly to cast ballots. "It's not just a rumor or a wives' tale, it is actually happening," said Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead. "Anyone talking advantage and creating fraud at a polling place needs to be prosecuted." The allegations collected by Alabama Republicans include a candidate improperly offering to assist voters in filling out their ballots, a woman who was wrongly to

Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who spent five years as a Taliban prisoner of war before being released on May 31, left a U.S. military hospital in Germany on Thursday headed to San Antonio, where he will receive further treatment, the Pentagon said. Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said Bergdahl left Ramstein Air Base in Germany aboard a military plane on Thursday afternoon and was due to arrive early on Friday in San Antonio, where he will receive additional care at the Brooke Army Medical Center. "Our first priority is making sure that Sergeant Bergdahl continues to get the care and support he needs," Kirby said in a statement. Bergdahl was handed over to U.S. forces in Afghanistan on May 31 in exchange for the release of five Taliban leaders held at Guantanamo prison in Cuba. Bergdahl's initial release sparked a wave of euphoria that was quickly replaced by a political uproar over the release of the senior Taliban members. Lawmakers criticized the Oba

A Sears employee in northern New York has died of injuries suffered when storage racks at the store collapsed and pinned him underneath, authorities said. _0"> Josh Quintilliani, 35, was organizing the racks on Saturday in the Sears store warehouse at the St. Lawrence Center Mall in Massena when the shelves gave way, according to a statement released by the New York State Police. The racks held plywood, glass and metal materials, the police said. Quintilliani, of Waddington, New York, was air-lifted to Fletcher Allen Medical Center in Burlington, Vermont, where he died late on Wednesday, police said. "We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the Quintilliani family," Sears Holdings said in a statement on Thursday. "We take the safety of our employees very seriously and we are currently investigating this matter." Massena lies on the south shore of Lake St. Lawrence, just south of the Canadian border and about 86 miles (138 km)southwest of Montreal. (E

An advocacy group for public employees sued the Bureau of Land Management on Thursday, seeking documents detailing the agency’s actions during an armed standoff with militia in a dispute over a Nevada rancher’s grazing rights. BLM agents faced off with armed supporters of the rancher, Cliven Bundy, during the altercation, which took place in April near Bunkerville, about 80 miles (130 km) northeast of Las Vegas. After more than four hours, the agents backed down, citing safety concerns, and returned hundreds of Bundy's cattle which they had rounded up because of his failure to pay for grazing. In the federal lawsuit filed in Washington, attorneys for the group - Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEEP) - want a federal judge to make the BLM release details about the events surrounding the standoff. The lawsuit also seeks information about BLM directives for handling similar situations involving armed individuals and details about actions taken to keep BLM agen

Several industry groups representing U.S. food makers on Thursday asked a federal judge in Vermont to block that state's new law that will require labels on food products made with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The legal challenge was widely expected and Vermont created a "food fight fund" in anticipation of the move because it was the first state to pass a GMO labeling law that did not require other states to go first. The fight over GMOs in the United States comes as more than 60 countries around the globe already require labeling of genetically engineered foods. GMOs have fallen out of favor with many U.S. consumers but products made with them are still abundant in the aisles of most U.S. supermarkets. Connecticut and Maine last year passed GMO labeling legislation similar to that of Vermont, but it is on hold until several other states enact such legislation. Challengers to the Vermont law, set to take effect on July 1, 2016, are the Grocery Manufactur

The Occupy movement, which withered after clampdowns on protest encampments in U.S. cities, may now legally erect a tent city in Idaho after a federal court order barred the state from enforcing a ban, citing free speech rights, an attorney for protesters said on Thursday.     The ruling by a U.S. judge in Boise on Wednesday caps a two-year fight between Idaho officials and Occupy Boise protesters over a tent encampment they created near the state capitol in 2012 before being evicted under a hastily crafted measure approved by lawmakers that barred camping on state property.     The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho filed a lawsuit in 2012 against Republican Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter and others on behalf of Occupy Boise, contending the camping measure and another rule limiting protests to seven days were unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill last year found the camping ban violated constitutional guarantees of free speech and on Wednesday issued a permanent

A federal judge in Nevada has ordered a competency evaluation for a woman charged with throwing a shoe at former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during an April speaking appearance in Las Vegas, according to court papers released on Thursday. _0"> Alison Michelle Ernst is accused of getting past security at an event at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Hotel where Clinton was speaking and hurling a soccer shoe and several papers at Clinton from the audience. A video of the incident posted on the website of CBS News shows Clinton ducking as a shoe flies over her head. "Is that somebody throwing something at me? Is that part of Cirque de Soleil?" Clinton said. "Thank Goodness she didn't play softball like I did." The evaluation will consider whether Ernst may have been "legally insane" at the time of the incident as well as whether she is fit to stand trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen said in issuing the order. The evaluation was m

The Jamaican government has decided to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, joining the trickle of countries moving to soften laws on the drug known on the Caribbean island as "ganja." Minister of Justice Mark Golding made the announcement at an afternoon news conference on Thursday saying that Jamaica's Dangerous Drugs Act would be formally amended this summer. The cabinet of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller made the decision on June 2, he said. "Cabinet approved certain changes to the law relating to ganja. These relate to possession of small quantities of ganja for personal use, the smoking of ganja in private places and the use of ganja for medical-medicinal purposes," he said. "Approval has been given also to a proposal for the decriminalization of the use of ganja for religious purposes," he said. Uruguay recently became the latest country to legalize marijuana use, joining several countries in Europe as well as

A federal judge in Nevada has ordered a competency evaluation for a woman charged with throwing a shoe at former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during an April speaking appearance in Las Vegas, according to court papers released on Thursday. _0"> Alison Michelle Ernst is accused of getting past security at an event at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Hotel where Clinton was speaking and hurling a soccer shoe and several papers at Clinton from the audience. A video of the incident posted on the website of CBS News shows Clinton ducking as a shoe flies over her head. "Is that somebody throwing something at me? Is that part of Cirque de Soleil?" Clinton said. "Thank Goodness she didn't play softball like I did." The evaluation will consider whether Ernst may have been "legally insane" at the time of the incident as well as whether she is fit to stand trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen said in issuing the order. The evaluation was m

Nextdoor CEO Nirav Tolia, whose social networking website espouses neighborhood safety and community, pleaded no contest Thursday in a San Mateo court to a misdemeanor for leaving the scene of a highway accident that a driver says Tolia caused. Tolia will pay a $239 fine, spend 30 weekend days in a county program in lieu of 30 days' jail time, serve two years' probation, and will be responsible for restitution to the victim, said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. Tolia originally faced felony criminal charges, but Wagstaffe said he reduced them to a misdemeanor "hit and run causing injury" because of Tolia's forthrightness in admitting his role in the accident. "I’m glad he accepted responsibility right up front and never tried to lie about what happened or avoid responsibility," he told Reuters. The work program includes activities such as picking up litter or trimming weeds along public roads and at schools, Wagstaffe said. “I

Two days after a teenaged gunman shot dead a classmate and took his own life, a Oregon high school held a graduation ceremony marked by grief, bewilderment and vows to move forward. Tuesday's shooting, the third outburst of gun violence to shake a U.S. high school or college campus in less than three weeks, unfolded on what was supposed to be the second-to-last day of classes at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. Instead, school officials canceled the last day of classes on Wednesday, along with final exams, and arranged for grief counselors to be made available for students. The disruption continued at a senior class commencement ceremony on Thursday evening, with nearly 500 students, as well as parents and teachers battling mixed emotions: the joy of graduation and the lasting mark of tragedy. The crowd observed a moment of silence in memory of 14-year-old Emilio Hoffman, who was killed, and later erupted in cheers and applause for Todd Rispler

The great-grandson of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller was killed on Friday when his small plane crashed in fog and rain shortly after taking off from a suburban New York airport, a family spokesman and the Federal Aviation Administration said. Dr. Richard Rockefeller, 64, of Falmouth, Maine, was piloting the Piper PA-46 aircraft when it went down about 10 minutes after takeoff from Westchester County Airport in Purchase, 23 miles (37 km) north of New York City, family spokesman Fraser Seitel and the FAA said. He was the only person on board, according to an FAA statement. Rockefeller flew to New York on Thursday to have dinner with his father, banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller, who was celebrating his 99th birthday, and was returning home to Maine, Seitel said. Conditions at the airport on Friday morning were poor, and visibility was low, said Peter Scherrer, the airport's manager, at a news conference. "There were foggy conditions outside. You can only see abo

U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who spent five years as a Taliban prisoner of war before being released on May 31, was in stable condition at a military hospital in Texas and has not yet met with his parents, military officials said on Friday. Bergdahl, who arrived in the pre-dawn hours of Friday on a military flight from Germany, was in a good enough physical condition to meet with debriefers but has not been informed of the controversy surrounding his capture, the officials said. "What we are trying to do is get him to recognize that the coping skills he used to survive this long, five-year ordeal may not be healthy and functional now," Colonel Bradley Poppen, an Army psychologist, told a news conference held near the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio where Bergdahl will receive care. No timeline has been set for his recovery, said officials who declined to give any further details about contacts between Bergdahl and his family to respect their privacy.

A federal judge said LinkedIn Corp ( id="symbol_LNKD.N_0"> LNKD.N ) must face a lawsuit by customers who claimed it violated their privacy by accessing their external email accounts, downloading their contacts' email addresses and soliciting business from those contacts. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, found that while customers consented to LinkedIn's sending an initial "endorsement email" to recruit contacts, they did not agree to let the professional networking website operator send two reminder emails when the initial email is ignored. This practice "could injure users' reputations by allowing contacts to think that the users are the types of people who spam their contacts or are unable to take the hint that their contacts do not want to join their LinkedIn network," Koh wrote in a 39-page decision released on Thursday. "In fact," she added, "by stating a mere three screens before the disclosure

President Barack Obama on Thursday threatened U.S. military strikes in Iraq against Sunni Islamist militants who have surged out of the north to menace Baghdad and want to establish their own state in Iraq and Syria. Iraqi Kurdish forces took advantage of the chaos to take control of the oil hub of Kirkuk as the troops of the Shi'ite-led government abandoned posts, alarming Baghdad's allies both in the West and in neighboring Shi'ite regional power Iran. "I don’t rule out anything because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria," Obama said at the White House when asked whether he was contemplating air strikes. Officials later stressed that ground troops would not be sent in. Obama was looking at "all options" to help Iraq's leaders, who took full control when the U.S. occupation ended in 2011. "In our consultations with the Iraqis, there will be some short-term imm