Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• AP sources: US close to OK on arming Syrian rebels
• Islamists said to execute 15-year-old Syrian boy for heresy
• Tanks in Beirut as Syria protest leaves one dead
• U.S. snooping revelations cause trouble for allies
• Scottish author Iain Banks dies of cancer, aged 59
• Fighting intensifies in Syria's north after Assad gains
• Iraqi PM visits Kurdish north, hoping to mend ties
• Iraq's PM visits Kurdish north to melt ice
• Protester killed outside Iran's Beirut embassy
• Iraqi PM visits Kurdistan to try to ease crisis
• Suicide car bomb kills 7 in Baghdad
• Kabul demands British forces transfer prisoners within weeks
• Suicide bomber kills at least seven at Baghdad checkpoint
• Soccer-Australia's Cahill sees coaching role in distant future
• US-ARTS Summary

AP sources: US close to OK on arming Syrian rebels Posted: 09 Jun 2013 04:41 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Moved by the Assad regime's rapid advance, the Obama administration could decide this week to approve lethal aid for the beleaguered Syrian rebels and will weigh the merits of a less likely move to send in U.S. airpower to enforce a no-fly zone over the civil war-wracked nation, officials said Sunday.

Islamists said to execute 15-year-old Syrian boy for heresy Posted: 09 Jun 2013 03:41 PM PDT AMMAN (Reuters) - Members of an al Qaeda-linked Islamist group in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo executed a 15-year-old boy in front of his parents on Sunday as punishment for what the group regarded as a heretical comment, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Mohammad Qataa was shot in the face and neck a day after being seized, said the pro-opposition monitoring group, which is based in Britain and uses a network of observers across Syria. ...

Tanks in Beirut as Syria protest leaves one dead Posted: 09 Jun 2013 02:19 PM PDT By Laila Bassam BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese troops blocked streets in Beirut with tanks and barbed wire for several hours on Sunday after the killing of a protester outside the Iranian embassy raised factional tensions already inflamed by the war in Syria. The man died during a clash between rival groups of Shi'ite Muslims after militiamen from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement opened fire when protesters drew up at the embassy, the latest sign of Syria's violence spilling over to its neighbors. ...

U.S. snooping revelations cause trouble for allies Posted: 09 Jun 2013 01:27 PM PDT By Andrew Osborn LONDON (Reuters) - Revelations of a huge, secret U.S. Internet spying program have raised awkward questions for allies, forced to explain whether they let Washington spy on their citizens or benefited from snooping that would be illegal at home. U.S. officials have confirmed the existence of the secret program, codenamed PRISM, which according to documents leaked to the Washington Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper has given them access to emails, web chats and other communications from companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Skype. U.S. ...

Scottish author Iain Banks dies of cancer, aged 59 Posted: 09 Jun 2013 12:28 PM PDT By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - Novelist Iain Banks, who enlivened Scottish literature for three decades with his dark humor, has died from cancer just days before the release of his 27th and final novel "The Quarry". Banks announced he was suffering from the disease in April and said he had asked his partner, the author Adele Hartley, if "she will do me the honor of becoming my widow" - the ghoulish humor, he explained, helped them cope with his impending death. ...

Fighting intensifies in Syria's north after Assad gains Posted: 09 Jun 2013 12:13 PM PDT By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Fighting is intensifying in northern Syria, where rebels say President Bashar al-Assad's forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies are preparing an offensive after success last week in seizing a strategic town further south. The capture by Assad's forces and Hezbollah of the town of Qusair, which controls vital supply routes across Syrian and with Lebanon, is a sign of reversing momentum after the rebels seized swathes of the country in the second half of last year. ...

Iraqi PM visits Kurdish north, hoping to mend ties Posted: 09 Jun 2013 10:09 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's prime minister on Sunday made a rare visit to the country's self-ruled northern Kurdish region in a bid to melt the ice between the Kurds and the Shiite-led central government, as a suicide attack in Baghdad claimed the lives of seven people.

Iraq's PM visits Kurdish north to melt ice Posted: 09 Jun 2013 09:02 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Prime Minister on Sunday made a rare visit to the country's self-ruled northern Kurdish region in a bid to melt the ice between the Kurds and the Shiite-led central government, as a suicide attack in Baghdad claimed the lives of seven people.

Protester killed outside Iran's Beirut embassy Posted: 09 Jun 2013 08:17 AM PDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Lebanese protester was killed outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut on Sunday after gunmen from the Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia Hezbollah opened fire when anti-Hezbollah Shi'ite demonstrators approached, witnesses and officials said. The Lebanese army deployed tanks and erected roadblocks across Beirut following the shooting, fearing a flare-up in sectarian and factional hostility. Protesters had condemned Iranian and Hezbollah backing for the Syrian president in a civil war that has been spreading across Lebanon's border. ...

Iraqi PM visits Kurdistan to try to ease crisis Posted: 09 Jun 2013 08:03 AM PDT By Isabel Coles and Suadad al-Salhy ARBIL/BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited the Kurdistan region on Sunday for the first time in more than two years, in a symbolic step towards resolving a long-running dispute over oil and land that has strained Iraq's unity to the limit. Better relations with the Kurds could take some pressure off the country's Shi'ite leadership, which is facing a surge of violence it blames on Sunni Islamist insurgents invigorated by the civil war in neighboring Syria. ...

Suicide car bomb kills 7 in Baghdad Posted: 09 Jun 2013 02:42 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide car bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into an Iraqi army checkpoint in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing at least seven people and wounding 18 others, officials said.

Kabul demands British forces transfer prisoners within weeks Posted: 09 Jun 2013 02:35 AM PDT KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded on Saturday that Britain hand over within two weeks more than 80 prisoners of war being held in a British base in the south, saying the detention was against Afghan law and a breach of sovereignty. The issue of prisoner transfers is an irritant in the relationship Karzai between and his Western backers, and has become more pronounced as the NATO-led international force prepares to pull out most of its troops by the end of next year. ...

Suicide bomber kills at least seven at Baghdad checkpoint Posted: 09 Jun 2013 01:01 AM PDT BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew up his explosive-packed car at a police checkpoint outside a Shi'ite district in northwest Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least seven people and wounding 16 more, police officials said. Most of the victims of Sunday's bombing were policemen at the checkpoint to the Kadhimiya neighborhood, where an intelligence service base and the Kadhimiya Shrine, a major Shi'ite Muslim religious site, are located. Attacks and bombings on Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim areas across the country have killed nearly 2,000 people since April in the worst violence in five years. ...

Soccer-Australia's Cahill sees coaching role in distant future Posted: 09 Jun 2013 12:06 AM PDT By Ian Ransom MELBOURNE, June 9 (Reuters) - A coaching career beckons for Tim Cahill when he hangs up his boots for the last time, but Australia's attacking midfielder would rather use his head to score goals than strategise from the sidelines for a few years yet. The 33-year-old, who plays club football for New York Red Bulls, is part of an ageing core of Socceroos players who will again be counted on to secure Australia a place in a third successive World Cup. ...

US-ARTS Summary Posted: 08 Jun 2013 11:18 PM PDT Brother-in-law of Chinese Nobel winner jailed for 11 years HUAIROU, China (Reuters) - A Chinese court on Sunday sentenced the brother-in-law of jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison on charges of fraud in a case that rights activists have called another example of official retribution on the Liu family. Supporters of Liu Hui say his case was trumped up, aimed at thwarting the increasing attention by the rights community on the plight of Liu Xia, who has remained under effective house arrest since her husband Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Prize in 2010. ...

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