| Saudi Arabia and Qatar in 'war on Iraq': Maliki Posted: 08 Mar 2014 01:26 PM PST  Saudi Arabia and Qatar are supporting militant groups in Iraq and have effectively declared war on the country, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said as nationwide violence left 15 dead Saturday. The rare direct attack on the Sunni Gulf powers, with Maliki also accusing Riyadh of supporting global terrorism, comes with Iraq embroiled in its worst prolonged period of bloodshed since 2008, with more than 1,800 people killed already this year, ahead of parliamentary elections due next month. The bloodletting in Iraq, which shares a long border with Saudi Arabia, has been driven principally by widespread discontent among the country's Sunni Arab minority and by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
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| Iraqi women protest against proposed Islamic law in Iraq Posted: 08 Mar 2014 10:37 AM PST  By Suadad al-Salhy BAGHDAD (Reuters) - About two dozen Iraqi women demonstrated on Saturday in Baghdad against a draft law approved by the Iraqi cabinet that would permit the marriage of nine-year-old girls and automatically give child custody to fathers. The group's protest was on International Women's Day and a week after the cabinet voted for the legislation, based on Shi'ite Islamic jurisprudence, allowing clergy to preside over marriages, divorces and inheritances. "On this day of women, women of Iraq are in mourning," the protesters shouted. "We believe that this is a crime against humanity," said Hanaa Eduar, a prominent Iraqi human rights activist.
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| A look at the rights of Arab women Posted: 08 Mar 2014 10:18 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Here is a look at women's rights across the Arab world:
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| Syria government forces take village near Lebanese border Posted: 08 Mar 2014 09:46 AM PST  By Alexander Dziadosz BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces seized a village in the central Homs province on Saturday, state media and a monitoring group said, as part of a push for control of areas along the Lebanese border. The village of al-Zara, west of the city of Homs, fell after "heavy clashes" between government and rebel forces, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, although the number of casualties was not immediately clear. In a statement on state news agency SANA, Syria's armed forces said they had established complete control over the village and killed and captured a "large number of terrorists", using state media's customary term for rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. The victory gave government forces control over a route connecting central Syria to the Mediterranean coast and which had been used as "a primary route for terrorist groups coming from Lebanese territory to neighboring areas to carry out criminal operations", it said.
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| Meet the Teen Amputee Going for Gold in the 2014 Paralympics Posted: 08 Mar 2014 09:15 AM PST This weekend, a bevy of athletes are taking over the Black Sea town of Sochi to participate in the 20th Paralympic Games. Despite the international crisis among Ukraine, the U.S., and Russia, the games showcasing athletes with physical and intellectual disabilities will definitely go on as they have been since 1960. Events include cross-country skiing, sled hockey, wheelchair curling, and biathlon (cross-country skiing and rifle shooting). But at just 15 years old, Brody Roybal is the youngest. |
| Iraq attacks kill 13, including parliament candidate Posted: 08 Mar 2014 08:42 AM PST  Attacks across Iraq killed 13 people on Saturday, including a parliamentary candidate and four children, officers and medical sources said, as the country suffers its worst violence in years. Iraq has been hit by a year-long surge in bloodshed that has reached levels not seen since 2008, driven principally by widespread discontent among its Sunni Arab minority and by the civil war in neighbouring Syria. In Sharqat, north of Baghdad, gunmen shot dead Mohammed Hussein Hamid, who was standing in parliamentary elections scheduled for next month on Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak's list. In Samarra, also north of Baghdad, a shooting at a checkpoint killed two secondary school students and a policeman, while a roadside bomb blast in a village south of Sharqat killed two children.
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| Suicide bomber uses Iraq police Humvee in attack Posted: 08 Mar 2014 08:40 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber in a stolen police Humvee passed through a military checkpoint in Iraq before detonating his explosives, part of a series of assaults across the country Saturday that killed seven people, authorities said.
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| A death in Istanbul Posted: 08 Mar 2014 05:48 AM PST No matter the weather along Istanbul's coast road, the homeless man Ramazan Ercan was there. With his thick, cascading gray-white beard and dark wooly hat, Ramazan made a home on the basalt boulder breakwater just below road level, a few steps from the water. The long sidewalk that passed by Ramazan's slap-together "dwelling" is one of the longest and flattest pavements in Istanbul. Istanbul is a city of ever-rising glass buildings, brimming with cultural energy and packed with ancient delights and endlessly fascinating architecture. |
| Beat the crowd: Middle East, North Africa hotspots tout for tourists Posted: 08 Mar 2014 04:15 AM PST  It's a tough sell, but tour operators from locations considered among the world's most dangerous have been trying to drum up interest at the world's biggest travel fair, the ITB Berlin in the German capital. "OK, you cannot visit all places in Yemen," conceded Ibrahim Mohamed Al-Attab, deputy marketing manager of the Yemen Tourism Promotion Board. Al-Attab, like his counterparts from Iraq and Libya, tried to stress the cultural and natural attractions of his country, ravaged by conflicts in the past half century and well off the beaten track for most travelers.
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| Today in History Posted: 07 Mar 2014 09:00 PM PST Today is Saturday, March 8, the 67th day of 2014. There are 298 days left in the year. Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday at 2 a.m. locally. Clocks go forward one hour. |
| U.S. Army general's accuser gives tearful account of alleged sex crimes Posted: 07 Mar 2014 08:29 PM PST  By Colleen Jenkins FORT BRAGG, North Carolina (Reuters) - A U.S. Army general twice forced a female captain to engage in oral sex when she tried to break off their illicit sexual relationship during their deployment in Afghanistan in 2011, the woman said during an emotional account on Friday at his military trial. The junior officer testified that Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair grabbed her by the back of the neck and sexually assaulted her after she tried to explain she was fed up with their adulterous affair and needed to move on. Sinclair is also accused of grabbing her genitalia against her will and of having sex with her in public places, including a parking lot in Germany and military offices in Afghanistan. The rare court-martial of a high-ranking U.S. military official is unfolding in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, amid a growing debate among U.S. lawmakers over how best to curb sexual assault in the military.
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