Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• White House Wavers on Hagel, Considers Others for Defense
• Syrian Christians fear bleak future after Assad
• Iraqi protestors block highway to Jordan, Syria
• Video games and shooting: Is the NRA right?
• Iranian businessman denies EU sanctions-busting accusation
• Syria's war-battered pound floats on rebel funds
• Republicans Aren't the Only Gun-Control Obstacle
• Democrats’ Wishy-Washy Gun-Control Caucus

White House Wavers on Hagel, Considers Others for Defense Posted: 23 Dec 2012 11:30 AM PST Besieged by criticism from right and left, and considerable skepticism from his former Senate colleagues, Chuck Hagel appears to be following the path of Susan Rice as a trial-balloon nominee who finds himself quickly losing altitude in Washington. And as happened with Rice, the White House  is now signaling that it may soon puncture Hagel's hopes.

Syrian Christians fear bleak future after Assad Posted: 23 Dec 2012 10:43 AM PST BEIRUT (AP) — With Christmas just days away, 40-year-old Mira begged her parents to flee their hometown of Aleppo, which has become a major battleground in Syria's civil war.

Iraqi protestors block highway to Jordan, Syria Posted: 23 Dec 2012 07:06 AM PST FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) — Thousands of protesters demonstrated Sunday in Iraq's western Sunni heartland following the arrest of bodyguards assigned to the finance minister, briefly blocking the main highway linking Baghdad with neighboring Jordan and Syria.

Video games and shooting: Is the NRA right? Posted: 23 Dec 2012 06:16 AM PST After a week of silence following the Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 20 first graders and six staff in Newtown, Conn., the National Rifle Association blamed the entertainment industry – specifically the producers of violent video games for inciting what has become a pattern of gun violence in the United States.

Iranian businessman denies EU sanctions-busting accusation Posted: 23 Dec 2012 06:12 AM PST DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iranian businessman named by the European Union for breaching sanctions against Iran denied any wrongdoing on Sunday, saying his bank and other companies did not work for the Iranian government. "This is a mistake," Babak Zanjani told Reuters, speaking in his office in a high-rise tower in a financial district of Dubai a day after the sanctions came into force. Neither his Malaysia-based First Islamic Bank nor his more than 60 other companies had done anything wrong, he said. ...

Syria's war-battered pound floats on rebel funds Posted: 23 Dec 2012 05:01 AM PST AMMAN (Reuters) - In Syria's eastern town of Deir al-Zor, a rebel commander flush with cash was swapping his dollars for Syrian pounds to pay fighters battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Money changers said that influx of foreign currency earlier this month helped push the pound's black market rate in the impoverished town up by at least 10 percent. Hundreds of kilometers away in Damascus, panicked Syrians bracing for more violence sold pounds for dollars, driving the pound, which has lost half its value since the anti-Assad uprising erupted in March last year, the other way. ...

Republicans Aren't the Only Gun-Control Obstacle Posted: 23 Dec 2012 01:34 AM PST Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the state Sen. Mary Landrieu represents. It is Louisiana.

Democrats’ Wishy-Washy Gun-Control Caucus Posted: 23 Dec 2012 12:05 AM PST President Obama's call for Congress to show the "courage" to consider new gun-control laws was aimed at Republicans, but he faces challenges with members of his own party who have a history of cowering from the gun debate.

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