BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq’s interior minister dismissed reports of prisoner abuse at a secret Baghdad bunker on Thursday, prompting a stern response from the US embassy in an affair that threatens to aggravate sectarian tensions. Less than two hours after Interior Minister Bayan Jabor tried to justify his ministry’s actions …
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Bolton concerned at delay in questioning of Syrians in Hariri probe
Muasher refutes Washington Post article on US plans to move military equipment to Jordan to pressure Damascus THE UNITED STATES expressed concern Thursday at the delay in questioning of six Syrians about the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister, and reminded Damascus of the UN demand for full cooperation in …
Read More »Iran says satellite capable of spying on Israel
TEHRAN (AP) — They said the satellite would be purely scientific. But a month after its launch — and only weeks after the Iranian president said Israel should be wiped off the map — the head of Iran’s space programme now says the Sina-1 satellite is capable of spying on …
Read More »Credibility battle
BAGHDAD — A month before Iraq holds elections, Washington and the government it backs in Baghdad find themselves battling for credibility, rather than being able to tout progress towards democracy and human rights. With the discovery of a torture bunker at Iraq’s interior ministry in Baghdad, and the admission that …
Read More »Israeli forces kill 2 Palestinian activists in West Bank ambush
ISRAELI FORCES KILLED two Palestinian fighters Thursday during a West Bank arrest raid, riddling their car with bullets when it tried to run a roadblock outside the town of Jenin, the army said. The shooting, part of a recent increase in Israeli raids in Palestinian towns, threatened to inflame tensions …
Read More »Abbas says Al Qaeda not active in Gaza, West Bank
TUNIS (AP) — Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday denied there are Al Qaeda cells operating in Gaza or the West Bank, countering claims made by Israel’s president earlier this week. “I don’t think that there are cells of Al Qaeda in Gaza,” he told Associated Press Television News in …
Read More »New solutions in pipeline for Iraq’s crippled oilfields
KIRKUK — Northern Iraq’s oilfields are a prime target for rebels looking to disrupt the country’s economy, but now local authorities have come up with innovative ways of getting the vital liquid flowing. Oil installations and pipelines around the northern hub of Kirkuk, also an ethnically tense city riven by …
Read More »Iraq’s forgotten poor struggle to survive
PRISONER ABUSE REPORTS are dominating the news in Iraq, but poverty is also producing shocking images — of families living on rotting garbage dumps. “We are lost people. Nobody cares about us,” said Moussa Jabr, as flies swarmed around his young children’s faces near rotting food, slimy plastic bags and …
Read More »Iraq probes abuse of prisoners in gov’t bunker
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq is investigating allegations of abuse after more than 160 prisoners were found locked in an interior ministry bunker in Baghdad, many of them beaten and malnourished and some apparently tortured. The detainees were discovered on Sunday night during a raid by US troops who were searching …
Read More »Libya court delays ruling on Bulgarian nurses
TRIPOLI (Reuters) — Libya’s Supreme Court on Tuesday postponed to Jan. 31 its ruling in the final appeal of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for deliberately infecting children with the HIV virus. “The court delays the hearing to January 31 to give further time for …
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