A roadside bomb killed one police officer in Baghdad while a mortar round killed a man at the Interior Ministry yesterday as Iraq's prime minister held meetings aimed at finding new defense and interior ministers.
The roadside bomb in southern Baghdad killed one police officer and wounded four. In the Interior Ministry killing, police said a car loaded with mortar rounds and explosives suddenly exploded, scattering shells over a large area.
One landed in the Interior Ministry and killed one man, while another landed on a soccer field and injured three city workers, police Captain Mohammed Abdul-Ghani said. The car, which was empty, was thought to have been used by insurgents.
PHOTO: AP
Police found the bodies of three blindfolded and handcuffed men who had been tortured and shot in the head. The bodies were found in central and southern Baghdad, police Captain Jamil Hussein said.
A CBS reporter was listed in critical but stable condition one day after a car bomb attack killed her two man crew, a US soldier and an Iraqi contractor. She was flown to a US military hospital in Germany.
CBS cameraman Paul Douglas, 48, and soundman James Brolan, 42, both Britons, died while network correspondent Kimberly Dozier, 39, was critically wounded. US officials said she was first taken to the US military hospital in Balad, 80km north of Baghdad.
Dozens of journalists have been injured, killed or kidnapped in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The death of the US soldier came as the US marked Memorial Day. It brought to 2,467 the number of US military members who have died since the war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Iraq's parliament debated the deteriorating security situation in the capital and some of its outlying provinces, but failed to set up a commission to deal with the problem because of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's inability to appoint ministers of defense and interior.
Al-Maliki was expected to hold a series of meetings with political leader yesterday to find a way out of the impasse. More than a week after al-Maliki's unity government took office, Iraq's ethnic, sectarian and secular parties are struggling to agree on who should run the crucial interior and defense ministries, which control the various Iraqi security forces.
The Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry, which controls the police forces, has been promised to that community. Sunni Arabs are to get the defense ministry, overseeing the army.
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
A Japanese city would urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties. The limit — which would be recommended for all residents in Toyoake City — would not be binding and there would be no penalties incurred for higher usage, the draft ordinance showed. The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues... including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said yesterday. The draft urges elementary-school students to avoid smartphones after 9pm, and junior-high students and older are advised not
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) attended a grand ceremony in Lhasa yesterday during a rare visit to Tibet, where he urged “ethnic unity and religious harmony” in a region where China is accused of human rights abuses. The vast high-altitude area on the country’s western edge, established as an autonomous region in 1965 — six years after the 14th Dalai Lama fled into exile — was once a hotbed for protest against Chinese Communist Party rule. Rights groups accuse Beijing’s leaders of suppressing Tibetan culture and imposing massive surveillance, although authorities claim their policies have fostered stability and rapid economic development in
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