ABC News Videos
Ferguson Shooting Eyewitness: It Was 'Shots Going Everywhere'

Michael Brown’s family on Thursday condemned the shooting of two police officers in Ferguson as “senseless.”

At the time of the shooting, the cops were standing in front of the Ferguson Police Department across the street from protestors, who gathered following the Ferguson police chief’s resignation on Wednesday.

“We reject any kind of violence directed toward members of law enforcement. It cannot and will not be tolerated,” the Brown family said in a statement.

Brown family members reiterated that they want to bring about positive changes to the criminal justice system through nonviolent means.

“We specifically denounce the actions of stand-alone agitators who unsuccessfully attempt to derail the otherwise peaceful and non-violent movement that has emerged throughout this nation to confront police brutality and to forward the cause of equality under the law for all,” the statement reads.

The death of their 18-year-old son at the hands of then-Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9 inspired widespread protests against law enforcement.

A Department of Justice report, released last week, confirmed many of the protesters’ grievances about systemic racism within the Ferguson Police Department.

Nevertheless, the Brown family said everyone must “work together to bring peace to our communities” and extended sympathies to the wounded officers and their families.

One of the victims, a 32-year-old police officer from nearby Webster Groves Police Department, suffered a gunshot wound to the face.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the bullet entered the officer under his right eye and got lodged beneath his right ear.

The other victim, a 41-year-old police officer from the county’s police department, was hit in the shoulder with a bullet that exited through his back.

Both officers were treated and released from Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis on Thursday morning.

The shooting reignited the #BlueLivesMatter hashtag campaign for people to lend police their support. Simultaneously, activists questioned the official statements about the incident provided by police.

President Barack Obama took to Twitter to denounce the shooting and let the country know that he is praying for the victims.

“Violence against police is unacceptable. Our prayers are with the officers in MO. Path to justice is one all of us must travel together,” he wrote.

The White House ✔ @WhiteHouse Follow Violence against police is unacceptable. Our prayers are with the officers in MO. Path to justice is one all of us must travel together. –bo 11:09 AM - 12 Mar 2015 1,055 RETWEETS 859 FAVORITES

Attorney General Eric Holder released a statement calling the incident a “heinous assault” that is both inexcusable and repugnant.

“Such senseless acts of violence,” it reads, “threaten the very reforms that nonviolent protesters in Ferguson and around the country have been working towards the past several months.”

The massive numbers of Syrians fleeing the civil war has stretched the resources of neighboring countries and raised fears of violence spreading in the region. The U.N. estimates there are nearly 2.7 million Syrians registered in neighboring countries, with more than 67,500 more awaiting registration.

There also are hundreds of thousands who are not registered. Syria had a prewar population of 23 million.

A look at Syrian refugees in neighboring countries:

LEBANON

Lebanon is officially home to more than 1 million refugees, with many more not on the books scattered around the country in informal tent settlements, old construction sites and underground parking garages. UNHCR says Lebanon, whose population is about 4.5 million, has the highest per capita concentration of refugees recorded anywhere in the world in recent history. Despite grave risks to its own stability, Lebanon has kept its border open to the refugees. But the sheer numbers are straining health, education and housing services to the brink of collapse.

JORDAN

Jordan has nearly 600,000 registered refugees, and the numbers are growing daily. Most are in two encampments near the northern border with Syria; a third, Azraq, opened Wednesday. The largest is Zaatari camp, with a population exceeding 120,000, where refugees are under direct care of the U.N. and the Jordanian government. Azraq, which was built to host 130,000 people, will outstrip Zaatari once full.

TURKEY

Turkey has more than 722,000 registered refugees. Ankara has been funding and managing the refugees, who have been sheltered in 22 camps complete with schools, medical centers and other social facilities. While Turkey's border with Syria remains open, it is carefully managing the flow, processing the new arrivals as more facilities become available.

IRAQ

Iraq has more than 221,000 registered refugees, the majority of them ethnic Kurds from Syria who found shelter in the autonomous Kurdish region in the north. Tens of thousands live in a camp of tents and cinderblock shacks near the border, while the rest have found jobs and homes in towns. The local Iraqi Kurdish government allows them to move around freely. Some have also sought refuge in Iraq's restive western province of Anbar, but the exact number is not known. They are believed to be mostly Sunnis who dominate the revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

EGYPT

Egypt is home to more than 136,000 registered refugees, although officials estimate there are hundreds of thousands who are not registered.

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On the Net:

http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php

Fox Business Videos
Mistake for U.S. to work with Iran in fight against ISIS?

By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The radicalization of Americans by Islamic State and other groups, particularly through sophisticated use of social media, is a top concern for the FBI as it grapples with evolving terrorism threats, Director James Comey said on Thursday.

Like other militant groups, Islamic State, also known as ISIL, has called for lone wolf attacks in Western countries and has specifically encouraged attacks on soldiers, law enforcement officers and the intelligence community, Comey said at an appropriations subcommittee budget hearing.

Comey referred to the group's efforts to recruit Americans to join Islamic State fighting in Syria and Iraq, then have them return to the United States to commit acts of terrorism.

"ISIL's widespread reach through the Internet and social media is most concerning as the group has proven dangerously competent at employing such tools for its nefarious strategy," Comey told the panel as he presented his $8.48 billion budget request for fiscal year 2016.

"This poses an enormous challenge to us: to find the people who are responding to that siren song," Comey said.

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FBI Director James Comey takes a question from a reporter during a news conference at the FBI office …

U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper said early this month that about 180 Americans have traveled to Syria to join Islamist militants and about 40 have returned to the United States.

Comey called the threats posed by such foreign fighters and from homegrown violent extremists "extremely dynamic." He did not cite updated figures on American foreign fighters before the panel recessed to go into classified session.

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asked Comey about a more tangible piece of that threat: that known or suspected terrorists are not banned from buying guns in the United States.

She cited a General Accountability Office report that, from 2004 to 2014, 91 percent of the 2,233 known or suspected terrorists on the federal terrorism watchlist who tried to buy a firearm were successful in passing a background check.

"We can have people come into this country meaning to do us harm and they can go in and buy a weapon to carry it out. That's simply unacceptable," said Feinstein.

"Your biggest concern is the lone wolf. The lone wolf can come in unarmed, he can buy the explosives, he can buy the gun. This must be stopped."

She asked where the Obama administration stood on legislation to prevent the sale of firearms and explosives to people on the watchlist. Comey replied that he did not know.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Bill Trott and Christian Plumb)

By Fred Weir, Correspondent MARCH 12, 2015

A telephone poll conducted by a German firm among Crimeans in January found that over 80 percent of respondents were happy to be newly-minted Russians.

A far more rigorous survey, conducted on the ground in Crimea by two US professors working with the independent Levada Center in Moscow, arrived at nearly identical results. Despite the transitional troubles of the past year, 84 percent of Crimeans regard the annexation as "the right thing to do."

However, it also found that indigenous Crimean Tatars, who make up about 10 percent of the population, are much more opposed to joining Russia than ethnic Russians and Ukrainians. Tatars were far more likely to say that Crimea was moving in the wrong direction.

Yet the world’s view is that Russia violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity – and therein lies the conundrum. "Russia’s annexation of Crimea was an illegal act under international law [but] it is also an act that enjoys the widespread support of the peninsula’s inhabitants," the survey's authors write.

That's exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin says he knew for sure before he gave the go-ahead to annex Crimea last year.

"We found out that 75 percent of respondents in Crimea wanted to join Russia," after conducting a secret poll, he told a soon-to-be-broadcast TV documentary. The film reveals just how deeply Mr. Putin was involved in planning the rapid and casualty-free seizure of a Ukrainian province with a garrison of 18,000 troops.

Operational lies

Some of the fibs dispensed by the Kremlin at the time are disposed of. Russian media staunchly claimed that the "little green men" with modern arms and equipment who seized Crimea were local people, though Putin later admitted they were actually Russian troops. The Kremlin also insists to this day that Russian-speakers – a huge majority in Crimea – were under threat, although there is little evidence of that.

"I told my colleagues that the situation in Ukraine has evolved in such a way that we have to start work on returning Crimea to being a part of Russia. We couldn't abandon the territory and people who live there, couldn't just throw them under this nationalist bulldozer,” Putin says he told an urgent Kremlin meeting on Feb. 22, 2014. Pro-Russian Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych had just been overthrown.

"The ultimate goal was not to seize Crimea or annex it,” Putin said. “The ultimate goal was to let people express their opinion on how they wanted to live further.”

The operational lies told by the Kremlin at the time still divide experts.

"When the president of a country declares publicly that our army isn't behind certain events, and then we find out that our troops basically orchestrated a referendum in a foreign territory, it does tend to harm the reputation," says Alexander Konovalov, president of the independent Institute of Strategic Assessments in Moscow. "He told lies, and that led to serious violations of international law, how can that not hurt Russia's image?"

But Sergei Mikheyev, director of the independent Center of Political Technologies in Moscow, says it's no worse than former US Secretary of State Colin Powell offering false testimony about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction at the UN.

"Russia did what it had to do. It's international practice, and there's no reason to single Russia out. If we hadn't taken these steps, we might have lost our naval base at Sevastopol," he says.

Lagos (AFP) - The Nigerian Army and its allies have claimed a series of successes against Boko Haram, on the face of it handing President Goodluck Jonathan a trump card in upcoming elections.

But experts say the apparent territorial gains may not translate into votes at the ballot box on March 28, with the situation still uncertain on the ground and tensions between the militaries involved.

Jonathan has been seen in combat fatigues congratulating troops after the recapture of Baga in northern Borno while the military has widely publicised its claimed gains on social media.

He told Voice of America in an interview published on Wednesday that Yobe and Adamawa state would be rid of Boko Haram by next week, and Borno within three weeks.

Earlier in the day, his government said 36 towns had been recaptured since a military coalition involving Cameroon, Chad and Niger began a concerted regional fight-back last month.

Ordinarily, a leader should be able to make political capital out of the successes, but with Nigeria outgunned and out-manoeuvred for so long by Boko Haram, the situation is not so clear-cut.

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Handout picture by State House Photo on February 26, 2015, shows Nigerian President Goodluck Jonatha …

"A lot of this (the military campaign) is coming almost as too little, too late," political commentator Chris Ngwodo told AFP.

"People are willing to applaud the Nigerian Army for what it's doing but not willing to extend the applause to the president, the commander-in-chief.

"I don't think it (the military campaign) is going to have the sort of dramatic, knock-on effect in the campaign."

- Good publicity -

Nigerians had been due to vote on February 14, with Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) facing an unprecedented challenge from Muhammadu Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC).

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A roadside restaurant features on March 12, 2015, a poster of main opposition All Progressives Congr …

An Afrobarometer poll at the end of January put Jonathan and Buhari neck-and-neck on 42 percent, with the prospect that the PDP could lose the presidency for the first time since 1999.

Buhari, a former army general who headed a military government in the mid-1980s, has been seen as better placed to tackle Boko Haram, whose rebellion has killed more than 13,000 since 2009.

The military under Jonathan has been repeatedly criticised for failing to stop the violence, compounded by a series of previously misleading or untrue statements.

Thomas Hansen, from Control Risks consultants, described the military successes as "relatively credible" but with no independent verification, fears of propaganda persist.

For Imad Mesdoua, the military offensive has given a potential advantage to Jonathan and the PDP in terms of publicity.

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Workers sit beside campaign posters of Nigerian President and presidential candidate of ruling Peopl …

"It certainly works in his favour and his party's favour," said Mesdoua, a political analyst specialising in West Africa at the Africa Matters consultancy in London.

"The president and his camp can point to genuine successes... The narrative was very negative. That's kind of reversed entirely."

But Nigeria's military has still had to face down claims from Niger and in particular Chad that their troops have played a major role in the recapture of towns previously under rebel control.

Questions remain, too, about overall election security, with a recent rise in suicide attacks and bombings by Boko Haram, which last weekend pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

A longer term strategy once the military operation is over has yet to be outlined, including what happens to the presence of foreign troops on Nigerian soil.

- Voting intentions -

The controversial six-week extension to the election campaign was seen as favouring the PDP, allowing them to regain the momentum from the APC using the power of incumbency, including finances.

Since the delay was announced, both parties have campaigned less on the stump at large rallies and indulged more in mud-slinging against opponents and their backers.

Successful presidential candidates in Nigeria secure the mandate of both the Muslim-majority north and the Christian-dominated south.

Identity politics has seen the Boko Haram conflict largely ignored outside the northeast, with other factors -- including the current parlous state of the economy or corruption exercising voters more.

"The key now would be for the government to really consolidate the gains it has made against Boko Haram in the northeast," suggested Control Risks' Hansen, a senior West Africa analyst.

"My gut feeling is that the security issue will only play a prominent role in the voting in the areas most affected by security issues," added Mesdoua.

"The way the vote is won is often attributable to a whole range of complex factors. It can be from the region you're from to your ethnic group to your age range."