AP News in Brief at 11:53 p.m. EST
Amid offensive, Iraqi Kurds cut Islamic State supply line
SINJAR, Iraq (AP) - Supported by U.S.-led airstrikes, Kurdish Iraqi troops on Thursday seized part of a highway that is used as a vital supply line by the Islamic State group, a key initial step in a major offensive to retake the strategic town of Sinjar from the militants.
The town was overrun by the extremists as they rampaged across Iraq in August 2014, leading to the killing, enslavement and flight of thousands of people from the minority Yazidi community. The U.S. later launched an air campaign against the Islamic State militants, also known as ISIL, ISIS and, in Arabic, as Daesh.
Hours into Thursday's operation, the Kurdish Regional Security Council said its forces controlled a section of Highway 47, which passes by Sinjar and indirectly links the militants' two biggest strongholds - Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq - as a route for goods, weapons and fighters.
Coalition-backed Kurdish fighters on both sides of the border are trying to retake sections of that corridor as part of Operation Free Sinjar.
"By controlling Highway 47, which is used by Daesh to transport weapons, fighters, illicit oil and other commodities that fund their operations, the coalition intends to increase pressure ... and isolate their components from each other," a coalition statement said.
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A look at the Iraqi town of Sinjar and why it's important
BAGHDAD (AP) - Kurdish Iraqi fighters launched a long-awaited offensive to retake the strategic town of Sinjar from the Islamic State group and in the first hours of the battle Thursday seized control of one the extremist group's key supply lines into the town.
Here's a look at Sinjar, which was overrun by the IS last year, and the town's importance in the overall battle against the Sunni militant group:
SYMBOLIC VALUE
Sinjar was captured by the Islamic State group in August 2014, shortly after the extremists seized Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and blitzed from Syria across northern Iraq. Once in Sinjar, IS inflicted a wave of terror against the minority Yazidi community, members of an ancient religion whom the Islamic State group views as heretics and accuses of worshipping the devil.
Since then, the name Sinjar has evoked images of tens of thousands of terrified Yazidis fleeing into the mountains, where the militants surrounded them, leaving them trapped and exposed to scorching summer heat. The crisis prompted the United States to launch aid drops to the stranded. An untold number were killed in the assault, and hundreds of men and women were abducted - the women subsequently enslaved and given to IS militants across the group's territory in Iraq and Syria. Many of the men were believed killed, others forced to convert. Some of those stranded on nearby Mt. Sinjar were rescued by Syrian Kurdish fighters, others eventually escaped after Kurdish fighters opened a corridor for them to the northeast.
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10 Things to Know for Friday
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday:
1. KURDISH FORCES ADVANCE AGAINST EXTREMISTS IN IRAQ
Backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, the fighters gain ground in a major offensive to retake the strategic town of Sinjar from the Islamic State group.
2. RUSSIA OWNING UP TO DOPING PROBLEM
The head of Russia's track federation tells the AP that he is ready to admit to some of the charges leveled against his country's athletes.
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US airstrike targets 'Jihadi John' from IS slaying videos
WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. drone strike targeted a vehicle in Syria believed to be transporting the masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John" on Thursday, according to American officials. Whether the strike killed the British man who appears in several videos depicting the beheadings of Western hostages was not known, officials said.
Mohammed Emwazi was the target of an airstrike in Raqqa, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. Officials were assessing the results of the strike, he said.
A U.S. official told The Associated Press that a drone had targeted a vehicle in which Emwazi was believed to be traveling. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
Emwazi, believed to be in his mid-20s, has been described by a former hostage as a bloodthirsty psychopath who enjoyed threatening Western hostages. Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa, who had been held in Syria for more than six months after his abduction in September 2013, said Emwazi would explain precisely how the militants would carry out a beheading.
Those being held by three British-sounding captors nicknamed them "the Beatles" with "Jihadi John" a reference to Beatles member John Lennon, Espinosa said in recalling his months as one of more than 20 hostages.
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Twin suicide blasts in Beirut's Shiite suburb kill 43
BEIRUT (AP) - Twin suicide bombings struck a southern Beirut suburb that's a stronghold of the militant Shiite Hezbollah group on Thursday evening, killing at least 43 people and wounding scores more in one of the deadliest attacks in recent years in Lebanon.
The attack was quickly claimed by the extremists Islamic State group, which is fighting in neighboring Syria and Iraq but has not had a recognized affiliate in Lebanon, though the tiny Mediterranean country has seen deadly spillovers from the civil war next door.
The explosions hit minutes apart during rush hour in an area of southern Beirut called Burj al-Barajneh, a Hezbollah stronghold. The Shiite group has been fighting in Syria along with Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces. The area has been hit in the past and Sunni militant groups have threatened to carry out more attacks there.
Along with the 43 killed, the bombings also wounded 239 people, the Health Ministry announced.
It was not immediately clear how many attackers were involved. According to a Lebanese security official, the first suicide attacker detonated his explosives' vest outside a Shiite mosque, while the second blew himself up inside a nearby bakery.
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Black students around US complain of casual, everyday racism
BOSTON (AP) - It's not always the slurs and the other out-and-out acts of racism. It's the casual, everyday slights and insensitivities.
Sheryce Holloway is tired of white people at Virginia Commonwealth University asking if they can touch her hair or if she knows the latest dance move. At Chicago's Loyola University, Dominick Hall says groups of white guys stop talking when he walks by, and people grip their bags a little tighter. And Katiana Roc says a white student a few seats away from her at West Virginia University got up and moved to the other side of the classroom.
As thousands of students took part in walkouts and rallies on college campuses across the country Thursday in a show of solidarity with protesters at the University of Missouri, many young black people spoke of a subtle and pervasive brand of racism that doesn't make headlines but can nevertheless have a corrosive effect.
There's even a word on campuses for that kind of low-grade insensitivity toward minorities: microaggression.
"It's more the daily microaggressions than the large situations," said Akosua Opokua-Achampong, a sophomore at Boston College.
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Black administrator named Missouri system's interim head
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - One of the University of Missouri's first black law school graduates was appointed Thursday to lead the four-campus system through a tumultuous period of racial unrest, drawing praise from students who said he's well-equipped to confront the problems they felt his predecessor largely ignored.
Michael Middleton, 68, has spent 30 years at the university - as an undergraduate, law student, faculty member and finally, administrator. At a news conference announcing his appointment as the university system's interim president, he vowed to take on the racial problems that inspired the protests that helped force Monday's abrupt resignation of President Tim Wolfe and another top administrator.
"I have seen the system grow and excel over the years and I look with great optimism in the future," said Middleton.
He said the university "has faced its share of troubling incidents and we recognize that we must move forward as a community. We must embrace these issues as they come, and they will come to define us in the future."
MU Policy Now, a student group made up of graduate and professional students, had been pushing for the president's role to go to Middleton, who retired as deputy chancellor of the Columbia campus in August and had been made a deputy chancellor emeritus. He had been working part-time to assist Loftin design a plan to increase inclusion and diversity on campus.
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Aging mobster acquitted in 1978 heist retold in 'Goodfellas'
NEW YORK (AP) - An aging mobster who stayed mostly in the shadows for decades by adhering to the Mafia's strict code of silence was acquitted Thursday of charges he helped plan a legendary 1978 Lufthansa heist retold in the hit film "Goodfellas."
A federal jury reached the surprising verdict at a Brooklyn racketeering trial where it heard testimony that portrayed 80-year-old Vincent Asaro as a throwback to an era when New York's five organized crime families comprised a secret society that committed brazen crimes and settled scores with bloodshed.
Asaro jumped up, pumped his fist and clapped after the verdict. When he walked out of the courthouse, he threw his hands up in the air and hollered: "Free!"
"I was shocked, I was really shocked," Asaro said outside. "I've got two years in, and I'm dying to get home."
He said he would be headed home to have a good meal with his family.
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Expert: Police shooting of boy with pellet gun was justified
CLEVELAND (AP) - A white Cleveland police officer had no choice but to fatally shoot a 12-year-old black boy carrying a pellet gun, an expert on police use of force said in a report released publicly Thursday by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office.
Retired Florida police officer W. Ken Katsaris is the third expert who has concluded that patrolman Timothy Loehmann was justified in shooting Tamir Rice outside a Cleveland recreation center Nov. 22, 2014.
The release of the latest report comes at a time when a county grand jury is hearing evidence from prosecutors to determine whether criminal charges should be filed against Loehmann, who was a rookie a year ago, and his training officer, patrolman Frank Garmback.
"This unquestionably was a tragic loss of life," Katsaris wrote. "But to compound the tragedy by labeling the officers' conduct as anything but objectively reasonable would also be a tragedy."
Katsaris testified for the prosecution at the trial of white Cleveland patrolman Michael Brelo, who was charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter for firing the final 15-rounds of a 137-shot barrage that killed two unarmed, black people at the end of a high-speed chase three years ago. A judge acquitted Brelo of the charges in May.
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Rex's place: Bills beat Jets in Ryan's return, 22-17
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) - Rex Ryan's return to the Meadowlands was a successful one - thanks to his pride and joy, the defense.
Buffalo's defense shut down Ryan's former team for much of Thursday night, and the Bills scored on offense and special teams in a 22-17 victory over the New York Jets.
Duke Williams returned a fumbled kickoff 19 yards for the go-ahead points, rookie Karlos Williams had a 26-yard touchdown catch and Dan Carpenter kicked three field goals. Buffalo (5-4) moved into the wild-card playoff picture, while the Jets (5-4) have lost three of their last four games.
Ryan was fired by the Jets after six seasons and immediately hired by Buffalo last January. His defense, had two interceptions, recovered a fumble and stopped the Jets inside the Bills 10 in the final minutes - prompting some vigorous fist pumps Ryan repeated when Bacarri Rambo clinched it with a last-minute pick.
Buffalo's offense made just enough key plays and held off a late surge by the Jets after Ryan Fitzpatrick threw for two touchdowns.