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Iraqi constitution almost ready

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq said Wednesday its post-Saddam constitution would be ready within two weeks despite sustained rebel attacks that saw the killing of two Sunni members of the charter’s drafting committee. Another 15 people lost their lives on Wednesday, including eight killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up …

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Israel assassinates Hamas leader

GAZA CITY — Israel assassinated a Hamas leader in southern Gaza yesterday amid fears that a full-scale invasion of the Strip was back on the cards. Rockets were also fired at a car in northern Gaza, and six Israelis were injured by Palestinian mortar fire at Israeli targets in and …

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Islamists, Abbas on tightrope

RAMALLAH — Islamic group Hamas and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas are treading an all-out collision course that could move from rhetoric to the battlefield, Palestinian analysts warn. An informal truce brokered by Abbas and the main armed factions last March is unravelling amid esclating violence, putting mounting Israeli pressure on …

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Threats driving Shiites out of homes

BAGHDAD — From his poor farm community on the outskirts of Baghdad, Hassan Melhan could feel the heat rising. Dozens of fellow Shiites in other villages had been frightened out by threats from Sunni militants, and he had heard some had even been killed. When traveling to Shiite holy places …

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Kurdish rebels deny role in deadly blast

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish police boosted security at popular resorts on the Aegean Coast and detectives arrived in the beach town of Kusadasi to investigate a minibus bombing that killed five people, including a British and an Irish tourist, officials said Sunday. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, …

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Scotland Yard investigators in Cairo

CAIRO (AFP) — Scotland Yard investigators were in Cairo Sunday attempting to determine whether or not an Egyptian biochemist detained earlier this week was the bomb-maker behind the deadly July 7 London attacks. “Anti-terrorist experts from Britain are at work to follow the investigation but not take part in the …

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Iran vows to curb violence

TEHRAN (AP) — Iran promised Sunday it would help curb raging violence in Iraq, saying it has been cracking down on Al Qaeda militants on its soil — with arrests as recent as last week — and agreeing on closer security cooperation with Iraq’s visiting Shiite prime minister. Iraq’s Ibrahim …

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Bombing blitz as Saddam indicted

BAGHDAD (AP) — Suicide bombers killed 22 people in the Baghdad area Sunday, as insurgents stepped up a relentless campaign that claimed more than 90 lives a night before in a horrific bombing south of the capital. The government filed its first criminal case against Saddam Hussein for a 1982 …

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