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Islamic State can draw on veteran jihadists, ex-Iraq army officers for leadership

By Michael Georgy and Mariam Karouny CAIRO/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, one of the world’s most wanted men, is counting on veteran jihadis and former Iraqi army officers who form the core of the militant movement to take over if he is killed. New questions arose over Islamic State’s leadership structure and who might succeed Baghdadi after Iraq’s military said on Sunday air strikes had hit

Taliban threaten second Afghan provincial capital as insurgency spreads

By Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) – Fighting intensified around the Afghan city of Ghazni on Monday, as Taliban militants threatened to seize a second provincial capital after briefly occupying Kunduz in the north last month. The clashes around Ghazni, some 130 km (80 miles) southwest of Kabul, underlined the worsening security situation across Afghanistan, where national soldiers and police are struggling to cope now the bulk of foreign forces have

Trump won't be next president: Obama

President Barack Obama is fairly certain of one thing when it comes to next year’s election: Donald Trump won’t succeed him in the White House. The billionaire businessman, the frontrunner in the race to become the Republican party’s White House nominee, has raised hackles with his controversial comments on immigration, gun control and women, among other issues. “I don’t think he’ll end up being president of the United States,” Obama

Zimbabwe will not charge U.S. dentist for killing Cecil the lion

Zimbabwe will not charge American dentist Walter Palmer for killing its most prized lion in July because he had obtained legal authority to conduct the hunt, a cabinet minister said on Monday. Palmer, a lifelong big-game hunter from Minnesota, stoked a global controversy when he killed Cecil, a rare black-maned lion, with a bow and arrow outside Hwange National Park in Western Zimbabwe.