AP - Former Sunni insurgents are signing up to fight al-Qaida, Shiite militias have toned down attacks, commerce is reviving and monthly casualty counts are falling. But the failure of Iraq’s leaders to strike power-sharing deals raises questions whether the progress can survive after America begins sending its troops home next year.
AFP - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered the government to pay one million dinars (830 dollars) to every Kurdish family displaced by Turkish bombings, his office said on Sunday.
AP - Osama bin Laden warned Iraq’s Sunni Arabs against fighting al-Qaida and vowed to expand the terror group’s holy war to Israel in a new audiotape Saturday, threatening “blood for blood, destruction for destruction.”
Reuters - Since Turkish warplanes turned
her village home into a heap of rubble last week, mother of
eight Aziya Rasheed says she has lost all hope for the future.
AFP - Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden warned Muslims against supporting Iraq’s US-backed government and promised the “liberation of Palestine,” in a new online message issued Saturday.
AP - About 2,000 Jordanians demonstrated in the capital Saturday to commemorate Saddam Hussein a year after the former Iraqi leader’s execution.
Reuters - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused
Washington of plotting to take control of Iraq’s oil and urged
Iraqis to reject efforts to rebuild a U.S.-backed national
unity government there.
AFP - British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and Anglo-Swedish peer AstraZeneca are being investigated over bribes allegedly paid to Saddam Hussein’s deposed Iraqi regime, they confirmed Saturday.
AP - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki flew to London Saturday for what one of his advisers described as a regularly scheduled medical checkup.
Reuters - U.S. and Iraqi commanders on Saturday
hailed a big improvement in security over the past year, while
al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused the Americans of
seeking to exploit Iraq’s oil wealth.