| Bombs kill nine and wound 54 in northern Iraq Posted: 23 Nov 2013 01:55 PM PST A car bomb and a suicide bomber killed at least nine people and wounded 54 in northern Iraq on Saturday, police and medical sources said, in the latest of a wave of attacks in crowded public places. The bombings took place in the town of Tuz Khurmato, 170 km (100 miles) north of the capital Baghdad, in a region which both the central government and autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan claim as theirs. The first bomb detonated in a car in a busy market near a Shi'ite mosque after prayers and was quickly followed by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest, the sources said. Iraqi authorities are struggling with the worst violence in at least five years and say Sunni Muslim insurgents linked to al Qaeda are to blame for most of the attacks, which have killed hundreds each month since the beginning of 2013. |
| Former Kadhafi security agent shot dead in Libya Posted: 23 Nov 2013 12:18 PM PST  Benghazi (Libya) (AFP) - Gunmen on Saturday shot dead a former member of Moamer Kadhafi's security services in eastern Libya, in the latest violence to hit the region, an official said. Unidentified men with assault rifles gunned down Fares al-Zarruk in a busy street in the centre of Derna, a town that has been hit by mounting deadly unrest, the security official said. Also on Saturday, an Iraqi university lecturer went missing in Derna and was presumed kidnapped, another official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The family of Professor Khaled Hamid Heidar lost all contact with him on Saturday afternoon," said, calling the disappearance "apparently a kidnapping".
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| Sunnis close Iraqi capital mosques in protest Posted: 23 Nov 2013 12:03 PM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi Sunni religious leaders said Saturday they closed the sect's mosques in Baghdad indefinitely to protest attacks targeting clerics and worshippers, highlighting the country's deepening sectarian rift. The closures came as violence across the country killed 12 people Saturday.
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| Too pretty to fight? Army shakeup over frontline push for women Posted: 23 Nov 2013 09:18 AM PST The US Army has reassigned a colonel who suggested the military stop using pictures of pretty women in fatigues in order to help achieve new frontline gender parity demanded under the new Soldier 2020 program. Army Col. Lynette Arnhart, who had written that the Army should use photos of "average-looking women" getting dirty instead of more glamorous pictures, stepped aside Friday amid a hubbub over whether the Army is really ready to more fully integrate women into combat roles. The Army responded by saying Col. Arnhart's admonition was not policy. But the decision to remove her and Col. Christian Kubik, a public affairs officer who added commentary to the email chain, nevertheless underscored the sensitive nature of the Army's historic push to move women toward combat roles. |
| At least 15 killed in latest bout of Iraq bloodshed Posted: 23 Nov 2013 08:41 AM PST  Kirkuk (Iraq) (AFP) - Twin suicide bombings at a Shiite mosque in north Iraq were the deadliest in attacks nationwide that killed 15 people Saturday, amid a surge in bloodshed authorities have failed to quell. The violence, which has killed more than 200 people in the past week alone, has forced Iraq to appeal for international help in combatting militancy just months ahead of its first general election in four years. Officials have also voiced concern over a resurgent Al-Qaeda emboldened by the civil war in neighbouring Syria which has provided the jihadist network's front groups in Iraq with increased room to plan operations. Attacks on Saturday struck mostly in the north, although Baghdad was also hit.
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| Islamist rebels capture Syria's largest oilfield: activists Posted: 23 Nov 2013 07:04 AM PST  By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamist rebels led by al Qaeda-linked fighters seized Syria's largest oilfield on Saturday, cutting off President Bashar al-Assad's access to almost all local crude reserves, activists said. "Now, nearly all of Syria's usable oil reserves are in the hands of the Nusra Front and other Islamist units ... The regime's neck is now in Nusra's hands," said Rami Abdelrahman, head of the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. But opposition fighters, particularly powerful Islamist factions, still hold large swathes of territory in northern and eastern Syria. Foreign powers are trying to bring together the warring parties at an international peace conference, dubbed 'Geneva 2', planned for mid-December.
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| Baghdad Sunnis: Mosques closed to protest attacks Posted: 23 Nov 2013 04:29 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi Sunni religious leaders said Saturday that they have decided to close down the sect's mosques in Baghdad indefinitely to protest attacks targeting clerics and worshippers, highlighting the country's deepening sectarian rift.
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| Activists: Syrian rebels capture key oil field Posted: 23 Nov 2013 03:28 AM PST BEIRUT (AP) — A rebel group with links to Al-Qaida captured Saturday an eastern Syrian oil field that is one of the country's largest, activists said, a rare report of an opposition success in recent months that have been otherwise marked by government victories. |
| Iraq oil sales recover from lows, but still below peak Posted: 23 Nov 2013 02:29 AM PST  Iraq's oil exports in October recovered from a 19-month low, but remained far below their peak due to ongoing maintenance and sabotage of pipelines, figures released on Saturday showed. Iraq exported 69.8 million barrels of oil in October, or 2.25 million barrels per day, resulting in overall revenues of $7.16 billion (5.28 billion euros), according to the oil ministry. Most of Iraq's crude is exported via its southern terminals near the port city of Basra, but a significant portion goes through a northern pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Iraq is heavily dependent on oil exports, and the government is seeking to dramatically ramp up its sales in the coming years to fund the reconstruction of its battered infrastructure.
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| 10 things you need to know today: November 23, 2013 Posted: 23 Nov 2013 12:25 AM PST  1. America honors JFKThousands gathered in Dallas, the site of John F. Kennedy's assassination, to pay tribute to the former president on Friday. The ceremony, honoring the 50th anniversary of the president's death, featured historian David McCullough, who read excerpts from Kennedy's speeches. Many other observances were held across the nation, too.
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| Afghanistan rejects U.S. call for quick security deal Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:58 PM PST  By Jessica Donati and Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - The future of U.S. troops in Afghanistan remained in doubt on Friday after a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai rejected a U.S. call to sign a security pact by the end of the year rather than after next year's presidential election. The United States has repeatedly said it will not wait until after the April 2014 vote to seal the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) and rejected Karzai's suggestion for the signing to take place next year "properly and with dignity". Without an accord, the United States could pull out most of its troops by the end of 2014, as it did two years ago when it failed to negotiate a deal with Iraq. "We do not recognize any deadline from the U.S. side," said Aimal Faizi, a spokesman for Karzai, as Afghan tribal elders considered the pact for a second day.
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