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BAGHDAD (AP) — France will be joining the U.S. and others in airstrikes targeting extremists in Iraq, as part of the expanding international effort to fight the Islamic State group. That word comes from Iraq's new prime minister, after talks today with French President Francois Hollande (frahn-SWAH' oh-LAWND'). The French leader was in Baghdad to bolster the new government as it tries to unite Iraq amid the rampage by Islamic State militants.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is sanctioning Russia's largest bank as part of a new round of financial penalties aimed at punishing Moscow for its support of separatists in Ukraine. The U.S. is also expanding sanctions targeting Russia's energy and defense sectors. The U.S. penalties come hours after the European Union enacted its own sanctions on Russian banks, arms makers and the country's biggest oil company. The West is moving forward on sanctions despite a fragile cease-fire between Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists.
DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — There's been an exchange of prisoners between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebel forces in eastern Ukraine. The overnight exchange involving 67 prisoners was part of a cease-fire deal that is struggling to succeed. It took place outside the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk, under the watch of international observers.
LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) — The man who police say killed his five young children, then drove around for days with their decomposing bodies before dumping them on a rural Alabama road, has waived his first court appearance in South Carolina. Lawyers say he's been treated for mental health issues in the past. Later today in Mississippi, Timothy Jones' five children, ages 1 to 8, will be remembered at a memorial. A poem will be read for each child.
BLACKSTONE, Mass. (AP) — Authorities say a woman who lived at a squalid home in Massachusetts -- where the bodies of three infants were found amid vermin and piles of soiled diapers -- is facing charges including fetal death concealment. Detectives investigating a case of reckless endangerment of children found the bodies this week at the house in Blackstone. Four other children were removed from the home two weeks earlier. Erika Murray faces arraignment today.
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