Suicide attack at Iraq campaign meet kills 25
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The assault raises further questions over the credibility of the election, Iraq’s first since 2010, and comes some 10 years after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein and aimed to usher in a stable democracy but instead unleashed brutal violence which continues to plague the country. Supporters of Muthanna Ahmed Abdulwahid, a Sunni Arab candidate for the Azimun Ala al-Bina (Determined to Build) party, a small local list, had been gathered at around lunchtime in the restive city of Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad. As they were meeting, a militant threw a grenade before a suicide bomber then blew himself up, a police colonel and a medic at Baquba hospital said. At least 25 people were killed and 60 others were wounded, the officials said, though Abdulwahid appeared to have been unharmed. Diyala province, of which Baquba is the capital, is among Iraq’s most violent 560 people were killed there last year, according to Britain-based NGO Iraq Body Count, which said it suffered the highest per capita rate of civilian deaths in the country. Iraq has been plagued by attacks against election candidates ahead of provincial council polls due on April 20, with 12 hopefuls killed already, according to an a news agency tally. Diplomats have also raised concerns over a government decision to postpone elections in two provinces which, combined with the fact that four were never slated to vote, means that just 12 of Iraq’s 18 provinces will cast ballots. The polls will be the latest in Iraq since a March 2010 parliamentary election, and the first since the withdrawal of US forces at the end of 2011. They come with the country mired in a political crisis that has pitted Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against several of his erstwhile national unity cabinet partners, and amid more than three months of anti-government protests by the Sunni Arab minority. Also on Saturday, a civilian was killed and two anti-Qaeda militiamen were wounded in a bomb blast northwest of Baghdad, and security forces found the body of a policeman who had been kidnapped near the capital a day ear.
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Tammam Salam named new Lebanese PM
7 04 2013
Lebanon’s President Michel Suleiman has officially asked
Tammam Salam to form a new government after the Sunni Muslim politician
and former minister of culture received broad support from lawmakers to
become the country’s new prime minister, Media reports. Salam to
succeed Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who resigned two weeks ago
following a two year stint in office which was defined by growing
sectarian tensions and the economic repercussions from the civil war in
neighboring Syria.
Salam will be tasked with preparing for parliamentary elections if
he is able to form a new cabinet. Elections are set for June, though the
parliamentary poll is likely to be delayed.
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US Afghanistan Talk on withdrawal
7 04 2013Gen. Martin Dempsey,American commander arrives to Afghanistan to talk withdrawal.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin
Dempsey has arrived in Afghanistan to meet with US and foreign
commanders to discuss US troop withdrawals this and next year. Dempsey
will also meet with the new overall commander of coalition forces, Gen.
Joseph Dunford, and talk with soldiers in the field. Some 34,000
American troops are expected to leave Afghanistan within one year.
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Italy approves €40 billion private sector debt payback
7 04 2013
Italian caretaker government has approved an urgent
decree to reimburse a debt of 40 billion to private companies, the
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Saturday. The move is meant
to provide the country’s firms with vital liquidity and stimulate growth
in the recession-stricken Italian economy that shrank by 2.4 percent in
2012.
This payments, amount to 422,000 euro on average and encompass some
215,000 companies, could begin as early as Monday, Italy’s Finance
Minister Vittorio Grilli said, although the final approval by the
country’s parliament is still needed. The Italian state owes two-thirds
of those debts to medical companies supplying the public health sector.
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Tehran may suspend high-grade uranium enrichment :Saeed Jalili
7 04 2013
Iran may suspend its uranium enrichment plan in order to
increase confidence of the six world powers, but demands recognition of
its right to enrich uranium as a key point, said Secretary of Iran’s
Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili. “I have said before,
that the enrichment is part of the rights of the Iranian people, whether
it is 5 per cent or 20 per cent. The Iranian people will continue to
stand up for their rights,” he said at a news briefing. The United
States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany have called on Iran
to halt its enrichment of uranium over 5 per cent, but failed to reach
an agreement after two-day talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, came to an end. “The parties are ready to maintain contacts and hold a new round of talks” said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.
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15 killed in Aleppo air strike
7 04 2013
At least 15 people have been killed, including nine children, in
an air strike on the majority Kurdish district of Sheikh Maksoud in the
Syrian city of Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights. “The number of people killed in an air strike on the western
edges of Sheikh Maksoud has risen to 15…
Among them were nine children aged under 18 years and three women,” according to the London based watchdog. Aleppo and Damascus are Syria’s two largest cities and key fronts in the two-year civil war between the government of President Bashar Assad and the rebels trying to overthrow his regime.
Among them were nine children aged under 18 years and three women,” according to the London based watchdog. Aleppo and Damascus are Syria’s two largest cities and key fronts in the two-year civil war between the government of President Bashar Assad and the rebels trying to overthrow his regime.
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British tourist woman found dead in Srinagar
6 04 2013
British tourist woman nearly 23 yr found dead in Srinagar
. A panic spread at dalgate area after a British tourist Sara
Elizabeth was found dead inside a houseboat in Dal Lake on Saturday
morning
With local media reports Police have arrested a Dutch tourist who was staying in another room of the Houseboat. He was arrested near Qazigund on Srinagar-Jammu highway when he was on way to Jammu. “We have arrested the Dutch tourist on the basis of suspicion. He was trying to flee the Valley.” a police officer said. J& K police reports preliminary investigators say the woman may also have been raped before she was killed.A team of forensic experts is combing the scene for evidence. Police believe the woman had been living on the houseboat for about a month. The Dutch tourist arrested on suspicion of murder as Officers say the man had stayed in a room adjacent to that of the victim, and was detained as he apparently tried to flee, leaving behind all his belongings.
With local media reports Police have arrested a Dutch tourist who was staying in another room of the Houseboat. He was arrested near Qazigund on Srinagar-Jammu highway when he was on way to Jammu. “We have arrested the Dutch tourist on the basis of suspicion. He was trying to flee the Valley.” a police officer said. J& K police reports preliminary investigators say the woman may also have been raped before she was killed.A team of forensic experts is combing the scene for evidence. Police believe the woman had been living on the houseboat for about a month. The Dutch tourist arrested on suspicion of murder as Officers say the man had stayed in a room adjacent to that of the victim, and was detained as he apparently tried to flee, leaving behind all his belongings.
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