Negotiators have struck a deal to release two CBS News journalists missing in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a spokesman for Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said yesterday.
"We held talks with the kidnappers. They will be released," said Hareth al-Athari, the head of the cleric's Basra office, without giving details of when the pair would be freed.
US network CBS said on Monday two of their journalists had gone missing. Police in Basra said the men, a British journalist and an interpreter, were seized from a city centre hotel.
Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, was put under British control after the 2003 US-led invasion until security responsibility was handed over to Iraqi authorities in December. Britain retains a military base at the airport.
"We have a dispute with the British forces in Basra but that doesn't mean we have a dispute with the British people," Athari told reporters.
BRINKMANSHIP
Meanwhile, Iraqi members of parliament unanimously approved three flagship bills yesterday, including a delayed state budget for this year, ending weeks of brinkmanship that had sparked talk of a possible dissolution of parliament.
"We adopted three bills unanimously, including the budget," first deputy speaker Khaled al-Attiya told reporters after the session.
The other two bills adopted were an amnesty law and one setting out the powers of the provinces and procedures for provincial elections.
The passing of the bills had been among 18 "benchmarks" set by Washington to measure the pace of political reconciliation in Iraq.
The US$48 billion state budget had been due to be adopted before the end of last year but had been held up amid bickering between Iraq's rival Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni blocs, which each championed one of the three flagship bills.
The Kurds had said that they feared that if they supported the other two bills, other blocs would not reciprocate by backing the budget, which includes a controversial allocation of 17 percent of the spending to the autonomous northern Kurdish region.
Attiya said that in the end a compromise had been reached on the contested allocation, which will be 17 percent for this year but will be reviewed for next year on the basis of the Kurdish region's share of the population as assessed in a nationwide census to be held by the end of this year.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the