"BAGHDAD — The crisis gripping Iraq escalated rapidly on Thursday with a re-energized Islamic State in Iraq and Syria storming new towns in the north and seizing a strategic dam as Iraq’s most formidable military force, the Kurdish pesh merga, was routed in the face of the onslaught."
"The United States and Europe kicked off a joint effort on Tuesday intended to curb Russia’s long-term ability to develop new oil resources, taking aim at the Kremlin’s premier source of wealth and power in retaliation for its intervention in Ukraine."
"BOGOTA, Colombia — Cesar Florez is often hesitant to answer his phone because there might be another death threat at the end of the line. Sometimes the threat comes in a phone call, other times in a text message or an email. In April, flyers were posted in the restroom stalls at Florez’s workplace, declaring him and his colleagues 'permanent military targets.'"
"Iraq's government has lost control of a former chemical weapons facility to 'armed terrorist groups' and is unable to fulfill its international obligations to destroy toxins kept there, the country's U.N. envoy told the United Nations."
"Security analysts in London and Baghdad say control of rivers and dams has become a major tactical weapon for ISIS""
"The Defense Department needs to better prepare for the potential impact of climate change, a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warns."
"BAGHDAD — Sunni militants have hung their black banners on watch towers at Iraq's largest oil refinery, a witness said Thursday, suggesting the vital facility had fallen to the insurgents in control of vast territories across the country's north. A top Iraqi security official, however, said the government still held the facility."
"ISIS attacks in Iraq have sent oil prices soaring and cast further doubt on long-term growth in Iraq's oil sector. As recently as February, oil production in Iraq was booming -- a sign of economic progress that traders worry will be reversed."
"Somewhere in China, a man typed his user name, 'ghost,' and password, 'hijack,' and proceeded to rifle the computers of a utility in the Northeastern U.S."
"An unnamed U.S. utility was recently breached by cyberattackers who gained access to the utility's operational control system, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security reported this week."
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