Krista's Current News

Iraqi Kurds vote in independence referendum Polls open in northern Iraq as Kurds cast ballots in referendum on whether to support independence from Baghdad. People in Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan are voting in an independence referendum, amid rising tensions and international opposition. Polls opened at 05:00 GMT with balloting also taking place in the disputed areas between the northern city of Erbil and the capital Baghdad, as well as the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, which is ethnically mixed. The central government in Baghdad, which strongly opposes the referendum, sought control of the  region's international border posts and airports on Sunday, in anticipation of Monday's vote. Iraq's government has also called on foreign countries to stop importing oil from the Kurdish region and to deal with them instead. In a televised  address  on Sunday, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi warned of the dire consequences of the vote and v

Donald Trump: The UN has not reached its potential 'Take a bold stand' While still a candidate for the US presidency, Mr Trump sharply criticised the UN, speaking of its "utter weakness and incompetence". "It has not reached its potential because of the bureaucracy and mismanagement," he said on Monday.He encouraged member states to take a "bold stand" to change the UN's business-as-usual approach rather than "be beholden to ways of the past which are not working".  He called on the new Secretary General, António Guterres, to make changes. Mr Guterres responded by agreeing that excessive red tape kept him up at night. "Someone out to undermine the UN could not have come up with a better way to do it than by imposing some of the rules we have created ourselves," said the Portuguese diplomat. President Trump also complained that the US was "not seeing results in line with US investment". Under pressure

IS attack on Sinai convoy 'kills 18 Egyptian police' At least 18 policemen have been killed in an attack on a convoy in Egypt's Sinai peninsula claimed by so-called Islamic State, security sources say. Militants detonated a roadside bomb near the town of el-Arish, reportedly destroying three armoured vehicles and a fourth with signal-jamming equipment. They then opened fire with machine guns at survivors of the blast. The interior ministry confirmed there had been an attack and that several policemen had been killed or injured. Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed by militants affiliated to IS since 2013, when the Egyptian military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. The jihadists have also killed dozens of people in attacks targeting Egypt's Coptic Christian minority elsewhere in the country, and claimed it planted the bomb that brought down a plane carrying tourists in Sinai in 2015, killing 224 people on board. 'As

Catholic priests in the Central African Republic accuse UN of 'deliberately abandoning' town to rebels   One Catholic priest in the Central African Republic (CAR) has accused United Nations peacekeepers of "deliberately abandoning" his town and leaving parishioners to be murdered by rebels. "You were warned, but you deliberately decided to abandon this town," said Father Jean-Alain Zembi, rector of Zemio, on the nation's border with Congo. "This community is being sacrificed, and I will hold you responsible for all those dead and preparing to die," he wrote on Facebook on 20 August.  The priest said at least 30 townspeople had been killed when armed groups attacked the police headquarters and hospital, burning houses and stealing valuables. He added that Moroccan troops from the UN-backed military mission, MINUSCA, had initially tried to protect local civilians, but had been unable to prevent "innocent women

New Hurricane Brewing in the Atlantic — and She's a Monster While Texas is still struggling to recover from Harvey, more trouble was brewing Thursday out in the Atlantic — and her name is Irma. Packing 115-mph winds and strengthening rapidly, Irma was declared a Category 3 hurricane just before 5 p.m. and was heading west at 12 mph and picking up speed, the National Hurricane Center reported. At the time, it was about 3,000 miles southeast of Miami. "Irma is forecast to become a major hurricane by tonight and is expected to be an extremely dangerous hurricane for the next several days," the Hurricane Center warned in a bulletin. Dennis Feltgen, a NHC spokesman and meteorologist, told NBC News the "rapid intensification" of Irma's strength caught everybody's attention at their headquarters in Miami. "The good news is we have lots of time to watch this develop," Feltgen said. "It's at least five or six days away from t