U.S. wage growth brakes in second-quarter; consumer sentiment slips

A worker gestures at the General Motors Assembly Plant in Arlington, Texas June 9, 2015.

REUTERS/MIKE STONE

U.S. labor costs in the second quarter recorded their smallest increase in 33 years as workers earned less in commissions and bonuses, in what appeared to be a temporary wage growth setback against the backdrop of diminishing labor market slack.

The surprisingly smaller rise reported by the Labor Department on Friday did little to temper expectations that the Federal Reserve is set to raise interest rates later this year. The job market is fast approaching full employment.

"Labor market fundamentals are improving, job openings are at record highs, and slack on a steady downtrend. This is precisely how the Fed will interpret this report, even if the numbers here are atrocious," said Eric Green, chief economist at TD Securities in New York.

The Employment Cost Index, the broadest measure of labor costs, edged up 0.2 percent in the second quarter, the Labor Department said. That was the smallest gain since the series started in the second quarter of 1982 and followed a 0.7 percent rise in the first quarter.

The weakness in compensation was concentrated in sales, information and wholesale trade, occupations where workers are likely to receive incentive pay. Commissions and bonuses helped lift worker compensation at the start of the year.

Excluding commissions, compensation was up 0.6 percent in both the first and second quarters, according to TD Securities.

Economists had forecast the employment cost index, widely viewed by policymakers and economists as one of the better measures of labor market slack, rising 0.6 percent in the second quarter.

At 5.3 percent, the unemployment rate is close to the 5.0 percent to 5.2 percent range that most Fed officials consider consistent with full employment.

That tightening of the labor market, which is expected to eventually translate into faster wage growth, has helped to hold consumer sentiment at lofty levels over the past eight months.

SENTIMENT STILL HIGH

In a separate report, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index slipped to 93.1 in July from 96.1 in June. Still, the index was up 13.8 percent compared to July of last year.

Households expected their incomes to rise over the next two years, in sharp contrast with another confidence survey published earlier this week that had suggested a deterioration in consumers' perceptions of the labor market.

"On balance, the Michigan survey suggests that consumer sentiment remains broadly stable," said Jesse Hurwitz, an economist at Barclays in New York.

Stocks on Wall Street were marginally higher, while the dollar fell against a basket of currencies. Prices for longer-dated U.S. Treasury debt rose.

In the second quarter, wages and salaries, which account for 70 percent of employment costs, rose 0.2 percent. That was also the smallest increase on record and followed a 0.7 percent increase in the first quarter.

Private sector compensation failed to rise for the first time on record. Compensation in the services sector nudged up 0.1 percent in the second quarter after rising 0.6 percent in the prior period.

Compensation in the goods producing sector rose a solid 0.7 percent after increasing 0.5 percent in the first quarter.

"If we took this as a sign of things to come in the labor market, we might have to rethink the timing and pace of Fed rate hikes. However, this report seems to be out of tune with other indicators and anecdotal evidence," said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York. 

In the 12 months through June, labor costs rose 2.0 percent, the smallest 12-month increase since last year and a further slip below the 3 percent threshold that economists say is needed to bring inflation closer to the Fed's 2 percent medium-term target.

Benefits rose 0.1 percent in the second quarter, but economists said that was mostly because of changes to the definition of retirement benefits.

A third report from MNI Chicago showed factory activity in the Midwest jumped to a six-month high in July. The Chicago Business Barometer rose to 54.7, the first gain since April, from June's reading of 49.4. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the region's manufacturing sector.

Both production and new orders expanded at the fastest pace since the beginning of the year. A special survey question on wage growth showed that 40 percent of respondents said wages had grown by 1 percent to 2 percent over the past year.

About 19 percent of respondents reported wages were up 3 percent to 4 percent and nearly a quarter said that wage growth was unchanged over the year.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: Reuters

Bush not a candidate? Super PAC's spending reveals otherwise

Jeb Bush takes questions at a town hall meeting in Reno, Nevada, May 13, 2015.

REUTERS/JAMES GLOVER II

The first report of Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s Super PAC, made public Friday, reveals for the first time, election lawyers say, just how much the group, Right to Rise, functioned as a kind of shadow campaign for Bush.

The group shelled out $5.4 million from January through June for all the workaday line items, from travel to catering to political consulting, that have traditionally been paid for by candidates' campaign committees.

The Super PAC's filing also reveals the gilded roster of Bush's top donors, a formidable collection of some of the world's most powerful and influential billionaires and GOP grandees, such as Coral Gables resident and private equity king Miguel Fernandez, who, with $3 million, was Bush's top donor.

San Franciscans William Oberndorf and Helen Schwab each gave about $1.5 million and 20 other people gave at least $1 million apiece.

With its $103 million haul, the Super PAC has smashed the fundraising totals of every other candidate, making Bush the clear leader in the money race, though not the polls, for the November 2016 election.

All Super PAC filings are due at the Federal Election Commission by midnight Friday (0400 GMT Saturday), but Bush's Super PAC was the first, and so far only one, to file.

The dramatic shift in spending patterns, campaign finance lawyers say, is the starkest sign yet of a new order in money in politics, one no longer dominated by small-dollar bundlers beholden to federal campaign finance regulations but rather by a new, anything-goes era featuring largely unregulated Super PACs and the billionaires, looking to influence U.S. policy, who fund them. It is indicative of a new playbook for how parties nominate, and pay for, their candidates.

"These new numbers show how Jeb Bush has outsourced his campaign to a Super PAC raising potentially corrupting and unlimited sums of money from special interests and wealthy donors," said Paul S. Ryan, senior counsel with the Campaign Legal Center, which has filed complaints with both the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice.

As Reuters has written, the FEC, by the admission of its own Democratic commissioners, has been rendered ineffectual by partisan gridlock. And the DOJ is unlikely to take up the issue during a campaign season, department sources have said.

Right to Rise, in a statement, said it "takes a conservative approach to FEC rules and we are in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Our expenditures for six months of ... fundraising costs and fundraising events are minimal given the scale of our support from donors who have been drawn to Governor Bush's conservative record of reform."

The Bush campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment but has said it observed all campaign finance regulations.

THE "NON" CANDIDATE CANDIDATE

Starting in January, and right up until he announced his official candidacy June 15, Bush crisscrossed the country at a frenetic pace in what aides described as a "shock-and-awe" fundraising push to raise a record war chest from lobbyists, billionaires and old Bush family friends.

But all the while, Bush insisted he wasn't a candidate, a distinction that enabled him to operate outside the fray of federal campaign finance regulations, which limit individual campaign donations to $2,700.

Super PACs, by contrast, can accept any amount from anyone and are widely criticized by campaign finance reform advocates as tilting American democracy in favor of plutocrats with the biggest checks.

"There are now literally 100 people financing the bulk of our presidential elections," said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen, which advocates for consumers before Congress, the executive branch and the courts.

The report also shows the Bush camp's taste for the luxe and exclusive, with payments to the likes of the Four Seasons Palo Alto, the St. Regis in Atlanta and Houston, the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles, the Mandarin Oriental in San Francisco and the Union League of Philadelphia.

The Super PAC, now that Bush is an official candidate, is barred from coordinating with the campaign, but Bush’s favorite longtime strategist and top political adviser, Mike Murphy, is working for the Super PAC, not the campaign.

(Reporting by Michelle Conlin; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Source: Reuters

Debris Found On Island Appears To Be Same Kind Of Plane As Missing MH370

French officials are investigating plane wreckage that on Wednesday washed ashore on the island of Reunion, near Madagascar, for possible links to a Malaysian airplane that vanished without a trace in March 2014. 

American air safety investigators say the debris found on Reunion appears to be from the same type of plane as the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 aircraft. An unnamed U.S. official told the Associated Press that investigators have a "high degree of confidence" that a photo of the wreckage found in Reunion shows a wing component unique to the Boeing 777.

The investigators identified the component as a "flaperon" from the trailing edge of a 777 wing.

"Police in Reunion examining the wreckage say that it looks like it's been in the water for around a year, which again would fit with MH370. We can't say for certainty, but we do think there is a chance that this is it," Xavier Tytelman, a French expert in aviation security told The Telegraph earlier on Wednesday.

He added, "But if the flaperon does indeed belong to MH370, it's clear that the reference will be swiftly identified. In a few days we will have a definitive answer."

In a press conference on Thursday, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said the discovery of the airplane fragment was being viewed as a "major lead" in the search for MH370.

"It's the first real evidence that there is a possibility that a part of the aircraft may have been found," Truss said.

The piece of debris had a number stamped on it that could help speed verification.

"This kind of work is obviously going to take some time although the number may help to identify the aircraft parts, assuming that's what they are, much more quickly than might otherwise be the case," Truss said.

Similitudes incroyables entre le flaperon d'un #B777 et le débris retrouvé ce matin à #LaReunion... #MH370 ? pic.twitter.com/GDkzRLwi2h

— Xavier Tytelman (@PeurAvion) July 29, 2015

On March 8, 2014, 239 people boarded the flight in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, destined for Beijing. About an hour and a half after takeoff, Flight MH370 vanished from radar screens.  A multi-nation search scoured a large expanse of the southern Indian Ocean off Australia.

No plane wreckage has ever been found, and in January, Malaysian authorities officially declared that all on board were presumed dead. 

Malaysia said on Wednesday a team was on its way to Reunion. "I have sent a team to verify the wreckage ... we hope that it can identify (the wreckage) as soon as possible," Malaysia's Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said during a visit to the United Nations in New York. "Whatever wreckage found needs to be further verified before we can ever confirm that it is belonged to MH370," he added. 

Malaysia Airlines said it was too early to speculate on the origin of the debris. 

Malaysia Airlines statement on wreckage found: 'Working with the relevant authorities to confirm the matter' #MH370 pic.twitter.com/b1Vq4EzAhT

— Dan Linden (@DanLinden) July 30, 2015

France's Air crash Investigations Agency (BEA) cautioned on Wednesday it was not possibly yet to specify the origins of the debris. "The part has not yet been identified and it is not possible at this hour to ascertain whether the part is from a B777 and/or from MH370," a spokesperson for the agency said, according to Reuters. 

 

"It is entirely possible that something could have drifted from our current search area to that island."However, the location of the debris on Reunion would be consistent with the theory that the plane crashed within the 46,000 square mile search area, Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan told the Associated Press. "It doesn't rule out our current search area if this were associated with MH370," Dolan said.

Boeing said in a Wednesday statement to Agence France-Presse that it remains "committed to supporting the MH370 investigation and the search for the airplane. We continue to share our technical expertise and analysis. Our goal, along with the entire global aviation industry, continues to be not only to find the airplane, but also to determine what happened -- and why."

Source: The Huffington Post  

Rick Perry: Allowing Guns In Movie Theaters Would Prevent Shootings

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) claimed that if people could bring their guns to the movies, they could have prevented the movie theater shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana, Thursday evening.

"These concepts of gun-free zones are a bad idea. I think that you allow the citizens of this country -- who have been appropriately trained, appropriately backgrounded, know how to handle and use firearms -- to carry them," he told CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday. “I believe that, with all my heart, that if you have the citizens who are well trained, and particularly in these places that are considered to be gun-free zones, that we can stop that type of activity, or stop it before there's as many people that are impacted as what we saw in Lafayette."

Such a provision “makes a lot of sense” under the Second Amendment, the 2016 presidential hopeful said.

When Tapper asked if that solution would be more effective than strengthening gun control laws, Perry pushed argued that the problem in Lafayette and the recent shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, is a lack of enforcement.

“We need to enforce the laws that are on the books,” he said. “Somebody didn't do their job in the standpoint of enforcing the laws that are on the books."

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) similarly called for better enforcement of gun laws, stressing that John Russell Houser, the shooter who had a history of mental illness, should not have been able to obtain a gun.

"Every time this happens, it seems like the person has a history of mental illness. We need to make sure the systems we have in place actually work," he said on CBS’ "Face the Nation." “We need to make sure that background system is working. Absolutely, in this instance, this man never should have been able to buy a gun."

Houser legally purchased the gun used Thursday at a pawn shop in Alabama last year, according to law enforcement officials. He had previously been denied a pistol due to a prior arrest and reports of domestic violence.

Source: The Huffington Post

Senate GOP Leaders Want To Put Ted Cruz In A Time Out

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republican leaders spent a rare Sunday session scolding Ted Cruz.

The leaders wagged their fingers at the younger senator, accusing him of using his pedestal in the upper chamber to "pursue personal ambitions."

Cruz, a Texas senator who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, drew the ire of his colleagues for claiming the top Republican in the Senate lied to him. He accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) of going back on a promise he claims McConnell made to him about the contentious Export-Import Bank. 

On Friday, McConnell set up an amendment vote to reauthorize the bank, which provides loans to those purchasing American exports. That didn't sit well with Cruz -- a strong opponent of the bank -- who said he could not "believe [McConnell] would tell a flat-out lie."

In an attempt to get a vote on additional amendments to legislation currently before the Senate, Cruz utilized a procedural tool to overturn McConnell's decision to "fill the tree" on amendments. By filling the tree, McConnell is able to control more closely which amendments get a vote, and limit the amount.

On Sunday, the Senate voted on only the two amendments McConnell set up, blocking movement on one that sought to repeal Obamacare, and advancing one on the Ex-Im Bank in a 67-26 vote.

Ahead of Sunday's votes, three senior senators came to McConnell's defense, and argued others should not join Cruz in an effort to overturn the rules of the chair.

"If we render ourselves lawless, how can we expect our fellow Americans to respect and follow the rule of law?" Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Sunday in response to Cruz's actions. "He will create a precedent that destroys the orderly consideration of amendments. There will be unlimited amendments; there will be chaos."

In an impassioned 12-minute speech, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who serves as pro tempore of the Senate, took to the floor to scold Cruz for his comments about McConnell. 

"We are not here on some frolic, or to pursue personal ambitions," Hatch said. "We serve the people, not our own egos."

Hatch didn't stop there, adding Cruz's "misuse of the Senate floor must not be tolerated."

"We must ensure that the pernicious trend of turning the Senate floor into a forum for advancing personal ambitions, for promoting political campaigns, or for enhancing fundraising activities comes to a stop," he said.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R), Cruz's senior senator from Texas, also joined in on the scolding. He warned that if senators sided with Cruz to overturn current procedure, the Senate would descend into chaos and not be able to function.

Cruz shot back that his speech on Friday was consistent with Senate decorum because he was speaking the truth.

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act," Cruz said, referencing a quote often attributed to author George Orwell. "It is unlike any speech I have given in this chamber, and it is one I was not happy to give."

Cruz again accused McConnell of promising him and the rest of the caucus that he would not allow a vote on the Export-Import Bank. 

"That promise was made and that promise was broken," Cruz said, adding that the pledge was also made to the press. 

In fact, McConnell has long said he would be open to allowing a vote on the bank's reauthorization, working out a deal with Democrats during the lengthy debate over President Barack Obama's trade agenda. Over the July Fourth recess, McConnell also said he expected the vote to be attached to a long-term highway funding bill. 

Cruz maintained Sunday he was told otherwise, and noted that it isn't unusual for a senator to try to overturn Senate procedure, citing 14 times McConnell did so as well. 

Cruz's fight with McConnell is the second example of Republican infighting in a matter of months. Earlier this year, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) stirred up his own tiff with the majority leader over a vote on NSA reforms, sending shockwaves through the party. 

The Senate defeated Cruz's motion Sunday afternoon, refusing to allow it a roll call vote.

Source: The Huffington Post

Cosby Accusers Speak Out In Powerful NYMag Photo Series

The magazine interviewed 35 of Cosby's 46 accusers.

"Another Cosby Victim Comes Forward"
"Three More Women Accuse Bill Cosby Of Rape"
"Cosby's Long List Of Accusers"

Odds are, you've spent the past several months reading headlines like these over and over again. Bill Cosby, once beloved as a comedy icon and cultural patriarch, has been publicly accused of sexual assault by at least 46 different women, many of whom were teenagers at the time of the alleged attacks. Despite the mounting evidence against him, Cosby denies he ever did anything wrong. 

 New York Magazine interviewed 35 of these women. The result of these interviews is apowerful series of photos and videos, each one detailing the abuse the women describe suffering at the hands of the embattled comedian, as well as the reactions they faced once they came forward.

"When I see a Jell-O pudding, it comes flooding back," said Sammie Mays, a writer who says Cosby attacked her in 1986 at a television convention. "Bill Cosby, that encounter, that one time, played a major factor in the direction my life took, toward the dark side."

Former supermodel Janice Dickinson and journalist Joan Tarshis are also among the subjectsof the visual series.

The women have assembled in what Tarshis calls "a sorrowful sisterhood," each using the others' claims as proof she should stand by her own. 

  

Below are photos of some of the women involved. Check out NYMag's  full story here. 

Source: The Huffington Post

See Dick Cheney And The White House React To 9/11

Newly released pictures of the White House staff shows what went on behind closed doors on the day that changed history.

On September 11, 2001, the country was irreparably changed.

The terrorist attacks on that day killed more than 3,000 people and set in motion the course of events that would result in a war on terror that has left hundreds of thousands dead and still continues to this day.

Newly released photos from the U.S. National Archives show former Vice President Dick Cheney, senior White House staff and the president himself on the fateful day.

The U.S. National Archives

Secretary of State Colin Powell in the President's Emergency Operations Center.

The U.S. National Archives

The U.S. National Archives

Vice President Dick Cheney with senior staff at the President's Emergency Operations Center.

The U.S. National Archives

Vice President Dick Cheney with senior staff at the President's Emergency Operations Center.

The U.S. National Archives

Vice President Dick Cheney with senior staff at the President's Emergency Operations Center.

The U.S. National Archives

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Secretary State Colin Powell in the President's Emergency Operations Center.

The U.S. National Archives

CIA Director George Tenet Listent to President Bush's address in the President's Emergency Operations Center

See more at The Huffington Post

Obama Speaks Out For LGBT Rights In Kenya

"The idea that they are gonna be treated differently or abused because of who they love is wrong, full stop."

President Barack Obama spoke out forcefully in favor of LGBT rights during a press conference with Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi on Saturday, saying that the idea that a "law-abiding citizen" could be treated differently under the law was simply wrong.

Some African leaders had warned Obama not to raise the issue of LGBT rights on the trip. Being gay is illegal in Kenya.

Asked about the status of LGBT Kenyans on Saturday, Obama did not hesitate to speak out in favor of equality.

"I believe in the principle of treating people equally under the law, and that they are deserving of equal protection under the law and that the state should not discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation," Obama said.

"I'm unequivocal on this," he continued. "If somebody is a law-abiding citizen who is going about their business and working in a job and obeying the traffic signs and doing all the other things that all citizens are supposed to do, and not harming anybody, the idea that they are gonna be treated differently or abused because of who they love is wrong, full stop."

President Barack Obama spoke out forcefully in favor of LGBT equality during a press conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (L) in Nairobi on Saturday. | SAUL LOEB via Getty Images

 Obama also warned that when one group is denied equal rights by a government, others can be affected as well.

"When a government gets in the habit of treating people differently, those habits can spread. And as an African-American in the United States, I am painfully aware of what happens when people are treated differently under the law," Obama said. "All sorts of rationalizations that were provided by the power structure for decades in the United States for segregation and Jim Crow and slavery and they were wrong."

Kenyatta seemed unmoved by Obama's comments, saying that LGBT equality was not a priority for most Kenyans right now and that it was not a value shared with the United States.

"There are some things that we must admit we don't share. Our culture, our societies don't accept. So it's very difficult for us to be able to impose that which they themselves do not accept," Kenyatta said. "This is why I repeatedly say that for Kenyans today, the issue of gay rights is really a non-issue. We want to focus on other areas that are day-to-day living for our people."

Among those issues, Kenyatta said, are including women in the economy, health, infrastructure and entrepreneurship.

"Maybe once we overcome some of these challenges, we can begin to look at new ones," Kenyatta said.

Source: The Huffington Post

Red-state Democrats fret about leftward shift

Getty Images

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W. Va. — Centrist Democrats were wiped out in the 2014 elections and in their absence emerged a resurgent liberal movement, embodied most recently by the surprisingly competitive presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

But the suddenly ascendant left — its populist overtones becoming part of the mainstream Democratic pitch — is worrying Democrats who want to compete on Republican-leaning turf. The party lost every competitive gubernatorial and Senate race in the South last year. And Democrats didn’t fare much better in the heartland.

Story Continued Below

Now, as Bernie Sanders’ surge foreshadows a new burst of progressivism, moderate Democrats are looking to their counterparts in Washington with a plea: Don’t freeze us out.

“The national Democratic Party’s brand makes it challenging for Democrats in red states oftentimes and I hope that going forward, the leaders at the national level will be mindful of that and they will understand that they can’t govern the country without Democrats being able to win races in red states,” said Paul Davis, who narrowly failed to unseat Republican Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback last year.

Davis and his ilk were partly victims of a historically dismal year for Democrats, who saw their gubernatorial ranks fall to 18. Their candidates were weighed down by perceptions that President Barack Obama was too liberal. Now, Democrats in red states are worried that the party’s shift toward an even more polarizing, populist tone could turn off the swing voters they need to mount a comeback in 2015 and 2016, when a handful of GOP-tilted states with Democratic governors are on the ballot.

“It’s important that the Democratic party be ‘big-tent,’” said Vincent Sheheen, who lost last year to South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. “So if the result of that kind of rhetoric is an antagonism toward or a hostility toward the moderate elements of the Democratic Party then yeah, it’s big trouble and big problems.”

“We’ll never take back Congress unless we can win in the South. We’ll never take back governorships unless we can win in the South,” he added.

Though his state is fairly reliable for Democrats, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell told POLITICO he worries that overemphasizing liberal themes to turn out the Democratic base will backfire.

“There are still more self-described conservatives than there are self-described liberals,” he said. “I think relying on a strategy where all you’re trying to do is turn out your base of liberal Democrats is not a very compelling electoral strategy. I think what we need to do is we need to have a message that is compelling to Democrats, to independents, and even to some Republicans.”

Georgia Democrat Jason Carter, the grandson of former president Jimmy Carter and the narrow loser of his state’s 2014 governor’s race, said the party would do well to preserve its inclusive image.

“Democrats in the South are the only truly ‘big tent’ party left,” he said, adding that he expects that mentality to pay off in the near future. “The only real litmus test we have is that you have to want to be in the fight with all different kinds of people — and not exclude folks because of one or two issues.”

Though Sanders has largely come to represent the restive left, supplanting liberal beacon Elizabeth Warren, the fear among moderate Democrats is not that he’ll win their party’s nomination — they’re still confident Hillary Clinton will be the party’s nominee — only that his supporters will tug the party so far away from the middle that there’s no place for Southern moderates or Midwestern centrists.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/red-state-democrats-leftward-shift-120605.html#ixzz3gwueukCw

Turkish Air Force Strikes Kurds In Iraq, Islamic State In Syria

A still from cockpit video released by Turkey's state media agency reportedly shows Turkish warplanes striking Islamic State targets across the border in Syria. Turkish jets in Iraq also targeted the Kurdistan Workers' Party, whose affiliates have been effective in fighting the Islamic State. | ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish jets struck camps belonging to Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, authorities said Saturday, the first strikes since a peace deal was announced in 2013, and again bombed Islamic State positions in Syria.

The strikes in Iraq targeted the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, whose affiliates have been effective in battling the Islamic State group. The strikes further complicate the U.S.-led war against the extremists, which has relied on Kurdish ground forces making gains in Iraq and Syria.

A spokesman in Iraq for the PKK, which has been fighting Turkey for autonomy since 1984 and is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara and its allies, said the strikes likely spelled the end of the peace process.

"Turkey has basically ended the cease-fire," Zagros Hiwa told The Associated Press. He said the first wave of strikes launched overnight Saturday didn't appear to cause casualties.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced a few hours later that he had ordered "a third wave" of raids against the IS in Syria and a "second wave" of strikes against the PKK in northern Iraq — which were ongoing.

"Turkey's operations will, if needed, continue until the terror organizations' command centers, all locations where they plan (attacks) against Turkey and all depots used to store arms to be used against Turkey are destroyed," Davutoglu said.

He accused the PKK of not keeping a pledge to withdraw armed fighters from Turkish territory and to disarm.

Turkey's Prime Minister announced a third round of strikes against the Islamic State, and a second round against the PKK. | ASSOCIATED PRESS

 The government statement earlier said the first strikes targeted seven areas including the Qandil mountains, where the PKK's command is based. The statement did not detail Islamic State targets but described the airstrikes in both Syria and Iraq as being "effective."

Hiwa said the jets struck villages on Qandil although the PKK base was not hit.

Turkey's military also shelled Islamic State and PKK positions in Syria from across the Turkish border, the government said. It vowed to press ahead with operations against the PKK and IS, saying it was "determined to take all steps to ensure peace and security for our people."

Turkish police meanwhile proceeded with a major operation against the Islamic State, the PKK and the far-left DHKP-C for a second day. Close to 600 people were detained in raids in 22 provinces, Davutoglu said.

Tensions flared with Kurds after an Islamic State suicide bombing in the southeastern Turkish city of Suruc on Monday killed 32 people. Kurdish groups held the Turkish government responsible, saying it had not been aggressive in battling the Islamic State group.

On Wednesday, the PKK claimed responsibility for killing two Turkish police officers near the Kurdish majority city of Sanliurfa, near the Syrian border.

In other attacks, seven police officers were wounded after suspected PKK militants hurled a small bomb at a police station in Bismil, near the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, the Dogan news agency reported Friday. Another small bomb was thrown at officers in a police vehicle in Semdinli, near the border with Iraq, the agency said.

On Friday, Turkey announced that it was allowing its air bases to be used by the U.S.-led coalition forces for operations against Islamic State extremists.

Turkey had been reluctant to join U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State group. It had long insisted that coalition operations should also target Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, which Ankara blames for all ills in Syria, and it also pressed for the establishment of a no-fly zone inside Syria, along the Turkish border.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Saturday did not confirm Turkish news reports that claimed that the United States and Turkey had agreed to establish a secure area in Syria, saying safe zones would be automatically formed in Iraq and Syria once the IS threat disappears.

"At the end of this efficient fight against IS, areas that have been cleared of IS (militants) will become safe zones," Cavusoglu said.

On Friday, three F-16 jets struck Islamic State targets that included two command centers and a gathering point near the Turkish border in Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine Islamic State militants were killed in the raids. The extremists have yet to comment on the strikes.

The Syrian government has so far refrained from commenting on Turkish strikes inside Syrian territory, but Syria's main political opposition group, which is backed by Ankara, welcomed Turkey's move.

___

Associated Press writers Bram Janssen in Irbil, Iraq, Vivian Salama in Baghdad and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

 Source: The Huffington Post