Iraq

Baghdad, December 07: U.S. commanders are donating up to $30 million worth of passenger vehicles, generators and gear to Iraq from each facility they leave, as they scale back deployments, up from a previous cap of $2 million, the Washington Post reported in its Monday editions.

The new limit applies at scores of posts that the U.S. military is expected to quit as it leaves about 280 facilities for six large bases and a few small ones by the end of next summer, the Post said.

Taiwan, December 07: Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, a propoenent of closer ties with China, ordered a review of weekend local election results that saw his party lose support as his own approval ratings fell, the party said on Monday.

Ma’s Nationalist Party (KMT) lost a county east of the capital to the anti-China opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Once robust support thinned in other cities and counties that voted in the first mid-term elections since the president took office in 2008.

Baghdad, December 03: Iraq’s vice president said Thursday he remains open to talks to break an impasse on holding parliament elections scheduled for next month, but that he stands by his demand that minority Sunnis have a greater voice in the voting.

A long delay of the elections could complicate the withdrawal timetables for U.S. forces, and chances appear to be dimming quickly for Iraq to hold the elections as scheduled on Jan 16.

Tehran, December 03: Iran’s Parliament will review the Islamic republic’s relations with countries that voted against its nuclear activities at the International Atomic Energy Agency last week, the speaker said on Thursday.

“Iran had proper cooperation with the agency’s board of governors, but the recent resolution calls for careful studies on the vote in Parliament’s national security committee,” Ali Larijani was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency.

“Parliament will review Iran’s relations with those countries that voted for the recent resolution against us.”

Baghdad, December 03: An Iraqi security official says a bomb at a roadside market in northern Baghdad killed one and wounded six people.

The official says the bomb was hidden inside a juice cart when it went off on Thursday morning in the primarily Sunni neighbourhood of Azamiyah.

The official says the explosion targeted civilians stopping at the makeshift market to buy juice and other items. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information.

Baghdad, December 03: Members of Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) discuss the electoral laws in Baghdad on November 17, 2009.
The United Nations has called on the Iraqi politicians to put aside their differences and work together to set a final date for the country’s elections.

In a Wednesday statement, the world body said a new feasible election date was February 27, 2010.

The UN call follows doubts expressed by Iraq’s electoral officials who said it was unlikely the country could hold the crucial vote before the end of January, as stated in the constitution.

Baghdad, December 02: A Camp Pendleton Marine officer whose criminal charges of failing to investigate the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians were dismissed must clear one final hurdle before retirement.

An administrative military panel will begin an inquiry Wednesday to determine if Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, of Rangely, Colo., should be demoted in retirement — something his attorney says could cost Chessani millions of dollars in lost pension, health and retirement benefits.

Paris, December 02: An Iraqi reporter imprisoned for throwing his shoes at US President George W Bush found himself on the receiving end of a similar footwear attack in Paris on late Tuesday.

Muntazer al-Zaidi, whose flare-up against Bush last December turned into a symbol of Iraqi anger, was speaking at a news conference to promote his campaign for victims of the war in Iraq when a man in the audience hurled a shoe at him.

It hit the wall next to his head and a scuffle ensued in the audience, television footage showed.

Tehran, December 01: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is still awaiting information from Iran on the ten additional nuclear sites that the country plans to build, the IAEA’s spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday announced plans for the uranium enrichment plants as a reaction to a resolution by the IAEA’s governing board last week which censured Tehran for having secretly started to build such a plant at Fordu.

Iran, November 22: Iranian air defence forces this week began training manoeuvres involving simulated attacks on the country’s nuclear sites, state media reported.

The manoeuvres were announced by Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani, head of army air defence, who said the aim was to thwart threats on the country’s nuclear facilities posed by an imaginary enemy.

The war games would also help improve cooperation among different units, he added.

Tehran, November 22: Iran has jailed former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi for six years on charges linked to protests over June’s presidential election, a moderate conservative website reported late on Saturday.

Abtahi, who was a close aide of reformist president Mohammad Khatami, was arrested with scores of opposition figures shortly after the publication of official results giving hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term.

He has remained in custody ever since.

Baghdad, November 22:A man detonated explosives packed into his car as he approached a police checkpoint north of the western Iraqi city of Falluja Sunday, killing a policeman, authorities said.

Health officials said five policemen and three civilian bystanders were injured.

Police said many military vehicles were been badly burned by the explosion.

Baghdad, November 19: Iraqi lawmakers will vote Saturday on how to break a deadlock over a key election law after a vice president vetoed the legislation, causing a crisis that could delay a national vote scheduled for January.

Lawmakers are looking at two options — sending the same law back to the three-member presidency council, where it is likely to be vetoed again — or amending the law to address concerns of Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi.

Under the constitution, parliament can override a second veto with a three-fifths majority.

Baghdad, November 19: Iraq’s general election maybe be delayed after a law governing the planned January vote was vetoed on Wednesday.

The war-torn nation’s electoral commission said it was stopping work at least for the time being, meaning that the ballot, the second national poll since the US-led invasion of 2003, is likely to be delayed.

Iraq’s presidential council, composed of President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and two vice presidents, one Sunni Arab and one Shiite, has demanded a greater say in the election for minorities and for nationals living abroad.

Kabul, November 19: Foreign Minister SM Krishna came face to face with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi Thursday at a luncheon here after Hamid Karzai was sworn-in as Afghanistan President for a second term.

Krishna and Qureshi were seated next to each other at the luncheon hosted by Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, also attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The two are here to attend the swearing in ceremony of Karzai, who was administered the oath of office for a second five-year Presidential term today.

Paris, November 18: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Wednesday promised major deals — including large oil contracts — to French business chiefs keen to restore their place as Iraq’s top business partners.

To warm applause, the Iraqi leader gave Baghdad’s strongest hint yet that it would grant French energy giant Total development contracts for two of its major oil fields at a rights auction next month.

“Iraq is a very promising basket for investors,” Talabani told a meeting with France’s influential MEDEF employers’ association.

Baghdad, November 18: Iraq’s Sunni Arab vice president said on Wednesday he had vetoed part of an election law over the allocation of seats to displaced Iraqis, throwing fresh doubt over plans for general elections in January.

Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said he objected to Article One of the law approved by parliament this month because it did not give a voice to Iraqis abroad, many of whom are Sunni Muslims who fled during sectarian fighting after the U.S-led invasion in 2003.

—-Agencies

Baghdad, November 17: At least three people were killed and two injured Monday when a bomb exploded in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said.

The bomb tore through a street in the al-Tahrir neighbourhood of eastern Mosul, police said, adding that the two injured civilians had been brought to hospital.

Soon after, prosecuting judge Rabia Abdel-Karim Mohammed Sadiq survived an assassination attempt in the west of the city. The judge’s hand was injured in the shooting attack, but his driver, who was also injured, managed to get the two to safety, police said.

Baghdad, November 16: Thirteen people were killed when men dressed in Iraqi military uniforms sprayed homes west of Baghdad with machine-gun fire early Monday morning, police and villagers said.

Villagers and local police said that men wearing Iraqi army uniforms – but driving civilian cars – attacked houses in the village of Zaidan, on the outskirts of Baghdad, Monday morning.

Leading members of the local government-allied Sahwa, or ‘Awakening’, militia and the Iraqi Islamist Party, and their children were among those killed, they said.

Baghdad, November 09: Iraq’s national airline plans to resume direct flights between Baghdad and Paris after 20 years, the government said on Monday, prompted by demand following a drop in violence levels and a rise in investor interest.

State-owned Iraqi Airways will sign an agreement with French authorities in mid-November to resume weekly flights between Baghdad and Paris, Iraq’s cabinet said in a statement.

Tehran, November 09: The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has questioned Tehran about evidence that Iran has experimented with an advanced nuclear detonation technology. According to a new report by the Guardian, the technology would allow Iran to make smaller and simpler warheads than would be possible with first-generation nuclear weapons.

Baghdad, November 09: After nearly a dozen delays and a final, rowdy session, Iraq’s parliament on Sunday passed a law setting national elections for January, averting for now a political crisis that threatened to unravel the country’s slow progress toward stability.

Approval of the law eases a growing source of concern for the Obama administration. President Barack Obama is considering sending 34,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan , and successful elections here are key to a major reduction in U.S. combat forces in Iraq by next summer.

Baghdad, November 09: Iraq’s parliament ended weeks of debate Sunday and passed a long-delayed law paving the way for the planned January election to go forward, sidestepping a crisis that could have delayed the U.S. troop withdrawal.

The decision appeared to resolve a key sticking point — who will be allowed to vote in the disputed, oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The issue had threatened to delay Iraq’s key parliamentary elections, which in turn would affect how quickly American combat forces could leave the country.

Baghdad, November 09: Iraqi MPs on Sunday approved a law to govern the country’s general election in early 2010, paving the way to finalize a date for a vote seen as crucial ahead of a US military exit from the country.

The law was passed after weeks of delays and following huge pressure from the United Nations, religious leaders and the United States, with intense lobbying at Parliament on Sunday from American ambassador Christopher Hill.

US President Barack Obama congratulated the MPs, saying the law is an important step toward ensuring a lasting peace.

Tehran, November 07: Two Iranian businessmen working at a Dubai-based firm were linked to video surveillance devices sold to Sudan and used in unmanned drones in Darfur in violation of a U.N. arms embargo, a U.N. report said.

The 94-page report by the so-called U.N. “Panel of Experts,” published on Friday, details arms violations by all parties in the Darfur conflict, which began in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels revolted in 2003 after accusing Khartoum of neglecting Darfur.