US Barack Obama commutes prison sentences of 58 people

U.S. President Barack Obama has commuted the prison terms of 58 people, nearly a third of whom were serving life sentences, the White House said on Thursday.

Most of the convicts who will be freed early were non-violent drug offenders.

Obama said in a blog post that "it just doesn’t make sense to require a non-violent drug offender to serve 20 years, or in some cases, life, in prison."

Barack Obama to meet UK Labour leader Corbyn Today - White House

U.S. President Barack Obama will meet Jeremy Corbyn, left-wing leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, in London on Saturday (today), the White House said on Friday.

It gave no details about the meeting, which it said would be closed to the media.

Obama injects himself into contentious debate over whether Britain should exit the EU.  Obama earlier intervened in the debate over Britain's EU membership, urging Britons to vote to remain in the bloc in a June referendum and warning that if they left they would be at the back of the queue for a U.S. trade deal.

Jordan Fears Iraq Jihadist Fight May Spill over

The Sunni militant offensive in Iraq has sparked fears in Amman that they will take the fight to Jordan, which is already struggling with its own home-grown Islamists. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a powerful jihadist group that controls key areas of Syria, has seized a swathe of Iraqi territory in a lightning offensive Baghdad's forces seem powerless to halt.

Experts fear Jordan could be one of ISIL's next targets, with YouTube videos purporting to show the group threatening to take jihad there. Already reeling under the impact of hosting more than 600,000 Syrian refugees, Jordan has long faced security challenges in dealing with its own jihadists, many of whom have joined ISIL and other Al-Qaida-linked groups in Iraq and Syria.

Kidnapped Schoolgirls: "we have not extinguished man's darkest impulses" - US President

U.S. President Barack Obama issued a somber warning on Wednesday that the kidnapping of Nigerian girls and sectarian conflicts worldwide are a sign that "we have not extinguished man's darkest impulses."

Obama ac cepted a humanitarian award from director Steven Spielberg at the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation, a Holocaust museum founded by Spielberg after he made the film "Schindler’s List."

President Obama, who spoke about a variety of global conflicts including Ukraine, Syria, and the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls by the Boko Haram Islamist militant group, said "We only need to look at today’s headlines: The devastation of Syria, the murders and kidnappings in Nigeria, the sectarian conflicts, the tribal conflicts to see that we have not yet extinguished man’s darkest impulses."

White House: Russian Putin calls Obama to discuss U.S. proposal on Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin of the Russia Federation has called the U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday to discuss a U.S. proposal for Ukraine


White House confirmed his call, adding that President Obama mandated him that Russia must pull back its troops from Ukraine's boarder and not move deeper any more.