Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Jury convicts husband in Iraqi woman's death
• Iraqi-American man convicted of killing wife in California
• US: Case against a Blackwater guard in jeopardy
• Gov't: Case against a Blackwater guard in jeopardy
• Two Bidens, a presidential selfie, and a big announcement about 2016
• Iowa Senate race suddenly more competitive
• Islamist militants kill 30 in attacks around Iraq
• Iraq policeman dies shielding recruits, attacks kill 21
• Beau Biden, son of U.S. VP, to run for governor of Delaware
• Putin talks tough on Ukraine but says he hopes for peace
• Beau Biden Announces a Bid for Governor in 2016, Assuring a Biden on the Ballot
• Iraqi Kurds entrench political faultline with Syria border ditch
• Gunmen attack Iraq military base, kill 10 soldiers
• Germany investigates suspected Syria radical
• Iraq's draft child marriage law seen as political stunt - and sign of times
• Jordanian jihadis returning from Syria war rattle U.S.-aligned kingdom
• GSK, facing bribery claims, battles to build new sales model
• Refugee crisis threatens to topple Jordan's economy
• A year after marathon bombs, Boston hospitals apply lessons learned
• Putin says trust lost in ties with U.S. before Ukraine crisis
• Little government response to bombing a year later

Jury convicts husband in Iraqi woman's death Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:52 PM PDT EL CAJON, California (AP) — A jury convicted an Iraqi immigrant Thursday of bludgeoning his wife to death in a case that was initially considered a hate crime.

Iraqi-American man convicted of killing wife in California Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:08 PM PDT By Marty Graham SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - An Iraqi-American man was found guilty by a San Diego jury on Thursday of bludgeoning his wife to death in a killing that was first investigated as a hate crime because of a threatening note found at the scene. Kassim Alhimidi, 49, was convicted of first-degree murder by the seven-man, five-woman San Diego Superior Court jury after a two-week trial and single day of deliberations. Alhimidi's wife, 32-year-old Shaima Alawadi, was found by her daughter bloodied and dying in the kitchen of the family's home in suburban El Cajon on March 21, 2012. El Cajon police and the FBI initially investigated the killing as a possible hate crime because of a threatening note found at the scene.

US: Case against a Blackwater guard in jeopardy Posted: 17 Apr 2014 02:27 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S government says its criminal case against a former Blackwater security guard is in jeopardy as a June 11 trial looms on charges stemming from the shootings of dozens of Iraqi citizens in an incident in Baghdad nearly seven years ago.

Gov't: Case against a Blackwater guard in jeopardy Posted: 17 Apr 2014 02:12 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The government says its criminal case against a former Blackwater security guard is in jeopardy as a June 11 trial looms on charges stemming from the shootings of dozens of Iraqi citizens in an incident in Baghdad nearly seven years ago.

Two Bidens, a presidential selfie, and a big announcement about 2016 Posted: 17 Apr 2014 01:33 PM PDT It's official, Biden is running in 2016. Beau Biden, the elder son of Vice President Biden, announced Thursday that he's not running for reelection as Delaware's attorney general this fall and instead will run for governor in 2016. The younger Mr. Biden has long been seen as the political heir to his father, and Thursday's announcement has revived the chatter. In 2008, Attorney General Biden was about to deploy to Iraq, and thus not available for a temporary appointment to his father's Senate seat when Dad became vice president.

Iowa Senate race suddenly more competitive Posted: 17 Apr 2014 01:29 PM PDT DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A catchy political ad and a gotcha video have raised Republican hopes of capturing a U.S. Senate seat in Iowa, enhancing the party's chances of regaining control of the chamber.

Islamist militants kill 30 in attacks around Iraq Posted: 17 Apr 2014 11:54 AM PDT By Raheem Salman BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Suspected Sunni Muslim militants killed at least 30 people around Iraq on Thursday including 12 soldiers in an assault on a remote army base in the north, deepening insecurity with a national election just two weeks away. Sectarian bloodshed has increased since the Shi'ite Muslim-led Baghdad government began an offensive against insurgents, some of them affiliated with al Qaeda, dug in around Falluja and Ramadi in the western province of Anbar. Early on Thursday morning, gunmen disguised in Iraqi military uniforms drove armored vehicles, including Iraqi army Humvees, up to a small military base outside Mosul and opened fire, killing 12 soldiers and wounding about a dozen, army and police officers said on condition of anonymity. The region around Mosul has been a stronghold of the al Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group.

Iraq policeman dies shielding recruits, attacks kill 21 Posted: 17 Apr 2014 10:06 AM PDT An Iraqi policeman sacrificed himself to shield army recruits from a suicide bomber northeast of Baghdad on Thursday, as attacks mainly targeting security personnel killed 21 people nationwide, officials said. The violence comes as Iraq suffers a protracted surge in bloodshed that has killed more than 2,650 people this year despite wide-ranging security operations against militants. In Baladruz, northeast of Baghdad, policeman Raad Kadhim Hattab threw his arms around a suicide bomber who was trying to target an army recruitment centre, the interior ministry said.

Beau Biden, son of U.S. VP, to run for governor of Delaware Posted: 17 Apr 2014 10:02 AM PDT At least one member of the Biden family will be seeking higher office in 2016. Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, the son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, said on Thursday he plans to run for governor of the Mid-Atlantic state. In a message to voters posted on his website, Biden, a Democrat like his father, said he would not be seeking re-election to a third term as Delaware attorney general. Beau Biden was elected attorney general in 2006, and in 2010, he decided not to run for the U.S. Senate seat from Delaware once held by his father.

Putin talks tough on Ukraine but says he hopes for peace Posted: 17 Apr 2014 09:29 AM PDT By Alissa de Carbonnel and Alexei Anishchuk MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine's leaders on Thursday of committing a "grave crime" by using the army to try to quell unrest in the east of the country, and did not rule out sending in Russian troops. But, addressing Russians in his annual televised phone-in, Putin said he hoped he would not need to take such a step, and that diplomacy could succeed in resolving the standoff, the worst crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War. The former KGB spy's rhetoric on the United States was, as is customary for him, firm and uncompromising, but he also gave clear signals that he did not want to get into a spiraling war of words with Washington. He said Russia has no interest in reviving Cold War-era divisions, even if it felt threatened by NATO's eastward expansion and was angered by U.S. interventions in Iraq, Libya and Syria that had gone ahead over the Kremlin's objections.

Beau Biden Announces a Bid for Governor in 2016, Assuring a Biden on the Ballot Posted: 17 Apr 2014 08:56 AM PDT Vice President Joe Biden's son Beau released a statement on Thursday announcing that he plans to run for governor of the state of Delaware in 2016 according to NBC Philadelphia. And so, the Biden name will live on in American politics, as expected. Beau Biden, currently his home state's attorney general, rose to national attention in 2008 after his father was chosen as President Obama's running mate. His pre-election deployment to Iraq with the Delaware Army National Guard got a lot of media play;

Iraqi Kurds entrench political faultline with Syria border ditch Posted: 17 Apr 2014 08:29 AM PDT By Isabel Coles ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurds are digging a 17-km (10-mile) trench on their border with Syria, reinforcing a political faultline between the two rival parties that dominate on either side of the frontier. Iraqi Kurdish authorities say the ditch, which is approximately 3 meters deep and 2 meters wide, will help reduce smuggling and keep Islamist militants out of their relatively stable region as war grinds on in Syria. But the Kurdish group that controls the Syrian side of the border says the ditch is designed to tighten a blockade against its enclave, and force it to submit to the authority of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraq. Whatever the motive, the ditch is highly symbolic, fortifying one of the frontiers regarded by many Kurds as a historic injustice that carved their ethnic homeland up into four parts spread across Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria.

Gunmen attack Iraq military base, kill 10 soldiers Posted: 17 Apr 2014 08:29 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Militants launched a brazen attack on a military base in a restive area in northern Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 10 soldiers and wounding 12, officials said.

Germany investigates suspected Syria radical Posted: 17 Apr 2014 07:40 AM PDT BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors say they're investigating an alleged member of a hard-line Islamic group in Syria and two suspected accomplices accused of helping him procure money and supplies.

Iraq's draft child marriage law seen as political stunt - and sign of times Posted: 17 Apr 2014 06:54 AM PDT Based on Shi'ite Islamic jurisprudence, the Ja'afari Law's advocates say it would bring regulation of personal status - comprising family law, wills and inheritance - into line with sharia religious law. Iraq's own clerical establishment does not back the bill, making its chance of success very slim. Critics say the draft is all about short-term political advantage, as Shi'ite Islamist parties compete with each other for votes in the run-up to April 30 elections in a highly-charged sectarian atmosphere. "It's a completely shameless political stunt," said Haider Ala Hamoudi, associate professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh who writes on Iraqi, Middle Eastern and Islamic Law.

Jordanian jihadis returning from Syria war rattle U.S.-aligned kingdom Posted: 17 Apr 2014 06:43 AM PDT By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordanian Islamist Ahmad Mahmoud fought with rebels in Syria for six weeks earlier this year, then slipped back across the border to seek treatment for a war wound - even though the authorities had warned him not to return. Within a week the bearded 23-year-old fighter found himself in the dock at a military court, facing terrorism charges filed by authorities who are taking an increasingly tough stance against homegrown militants fighting in Syria's civil war. Amman treats returning jihadists as a security threat to be nipped in the bud and, with an eye to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's potential to tough out the uprising against him, wants to keep channels open to a government with which it retains diplomatic and trade ties. Three years into Syria's civil war a growing number of Jordanian jihadists are coming home, some disillusioned by infighting within rebel ranks, others seeking a break from a draining and largely inconclusive conflict.

GSK, facing bribery claims, battles to build new sales model Posted: 17 Apr 2014 06:41 AM PDT Following a decision to cut commercial ties with outside doctors, GSK expects to increase its in-house team of physicians by 10-20 percent over the next year or so from around 1,500 at present, Chief Medical Officer James Shannon told Reuters. GSK is now investigating claims that bribes were paid to doctors in Poland, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, following a much larger case of alleged bribery in China. Chinese authorities in July accused GSK of funneling up to 3 billion yuan ($483 million) to doctors and officials to encourage them to use its medicines in a case that the company has described as "shameful". The firm aims to become the first in the industry to stop paying outside doctors to promote its products, end payments for medics to attend conferences and delink incentives for sales representatives from individual sales targets.

Refugee crisis threatens to topple Jordan's economy Posted: 17 Apr 2014 06:20 AM PDT Over the last two years, Jordan's budget deficit has risen by two-thirds, to $19 billion and 80 percent of gross domestic product. The bad news only gets worse with an explanation: Jordan is buckling under the burden of accepting more than half a million Syrian refugees in just three years' time. The way our correspondent in Amman sees it, Jordan faces two choices: "either economic collapse, or the country shuts its border" to the 800 or so Syrians who cross each day. Closing the border would cause less direct damage to the economy, but would make Jordan a pariah and dry up what little funding it is receiving for its humanitarian efforts.

A year after marathon bombs, Boston hospitals apply lessons learned Posted: 17 Apr 2014 05:03 AM PDT By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) - The homemade bombs that ripped through the crowd at the finish line of last year's Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring 264, showcased the city's medical talent but also taught valuable lessons in responding to a mass disaster. By all accounts, Boston's hospitals performed well after the attacks on April 15, 2013. Looking back, a year after their hospitals were packed with blast victims, Boston officials have tweaked how they prepare for a disaster, now requiring city emergency medical personnel to carry tourniquets and developing a standard method for one city agency to track disaster victims in hospitals.

Putin says trust lost in ties with U.S. before Ukraine crisis Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:54 AM PDT President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that trust between Russia and the United States had been damaged before the crisis in Ukraine, but that he wanted to restore their cooperation. "To a certain extent trust has been lost, but we do not think we are to blame," Putin said in a televised phone-in with the nation. He said it was U.S. hypocrisy that had brought relations to their worst level since the Cold War: "The United States can act in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya but Russia is not allowed to defend its interests." The two countries have been at odds over a range of issues, from U.S. missile defense plans to NATO expansion and the civil war in Syria. To improve ties, Putin said, the United States should respect others' interests and international law.

Little government response to bombing a year later Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:01 AM PDT BOSTON (AP) — A year after homemade bombs ripped through the Boston Marathon, state and federal officials have enacted virtually no policy changes in response to the attack, a dramatic departure from previous acts of terrorism that prompted waves of government action.

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