Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki clamped a curfew on the shrine city of Karbala yesterday after gunbattles in its crowded streets turned a Shiite pilgrimage into a bloodbath with 52 people dead.
Maliki accused members of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's regime of fomenting the violence and said Iraq's security forces had now taken control of the city, still smouldering from a night of bitter fighting.
The indefinite curfew took effect from 11am and applies to people and vehicles, Iraqi state television quoted Maliki as saying during a visit to Karbala.
Security force reinforcements had been sent to the city, which lies 110km south of Baghdad, and were now in control, Maliki said in an earlier statement.
An AFP correspondent in Karbala said battles between gunmen and police which broke out on Tuesday raged through the night, but died away early yesterday.
Gunmen were seen at dawn encamped in a square near the old city, which houses shrines to two Shiite saints, Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas, the focus of Tuesday's pilgrimage.
Tuesday's clashes sent hundreds of thousands of pilgrims fleeing in panic. They had been streaming into the city from across the country to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of eighth-century Imam Mohammed al-Mahdi.
Karbala police chief Brigadier General Hamid Raad Shaker said that the clashes erupted when gunmen shot at police who returned fire, and that several mortar rounds struck near the Imam Hussein mausoleum.
Several buildings were burned down during the night while ambulances were smashed and a police checkpoint destroyed, the correspondent said.
Medical officials said at least 52 people had been killed. Approximately 300 people were wounded, with at least 60 of them sent to hospitals in the nearby city of Najaf for treatment.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique