Yahoo! News: Iraq

Australia's Parliament House lifts face veil ban
Australia to deploy 200 special forces in Iraq
Oratorio raises disorienting voice for Chelsea Manning
UN warns Iraq rise in executions fuels sectarian conflict
Death penalty fuels violence in Iraq, says U.N. report
Obama's first victory in Iraq war
Suicide bomber kills 18 at Baghdad Shiite mosque
Bombings hit Baghdad Shi'te mosque, military convoy in northern Iraq
UN says Iraq has executed 60 people this year
Fiercest fighting in days hits Syrian border town
Deal agreed for Australia forces to deploy in Iraq
Roadside bomb kills six soldiers in Egypt's Sinai
Australian minister says special forces will go to Iraq
For many journalists Ebola's invisible threat scarier than war
Turkey would oppose US arms transfers to Kurds
Blast kills six security forces in Egypt's Sinai
Could Iraq's tribes provide the glue that keeps the country from falling apart?
UK adds Qatari financier to terror sanctions list
All Aboard the USS Persecution Complex
Iraq PM to visit Iran for talks on fight against IS
Israel's Yaalon in US after spat over Kerry remarks
UK grapples with delicate issue of returning jihadists
Sinai bomb kills seven Egypt soldiers: security source

Australia's Parliament House lifts face veil ban

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 04:05 PM PDT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's Parliament House on Monday lifted a short-lived ban on facial coverings including burqas and niqabs after intervention from the prime minister.

Australia to deploy 200 special forces in Iraq

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 02:07 PM PDT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia will soon deploy 200 special forces troops in Iraq to advise and assist Iraqi security forces a month after the Australians were sent to the Middle East, the foreign minister said Monday.

Oratorio raises disorienting voice for Chelsea Manning

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 01:07 PM PDT

New York (AFP) - A new artistic production aims to give new perspective on Chelsea Manning -- serving a 35-year prison sentence for the biggest document leak in US -- through an oppressive atmosphere of digital disorientation.

UN warns Iraq rise in executions fuels sectarian conflict

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 11:51 AM PDT

Baghdad (AFP) - The UN voiced alarm Sunday over the increasing use of the death penalty in Iraq in the decade since its reintroduction, warning such punishments would only fuel deadly sectarian conflict.

Death penalty fuels violence in Iraq, says U.N. report

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 11:25 AM PDT

By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - Iraq should stop its widespread use of the death penalty, which is unjust, flawed and only fuels the violence it purports to deter, the United Nations said in a report on Sunday. Sixty people were hanged in Iraq by the end of August this year, and although that is fewer than the 177 who were executed in 2013, 1,724 people remained on death row. Iraq tends to carry out the sentence in batches because President Jalal Talabani opposes the death penalty so a vice president orders executions when he is out of the country, said the report, published jointly by the ...

Obama's first victory in Iraq war

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 11:12 AM PDT

President Obama's war in Iraq, aimed at destroying the Islamic State group, won a key victory Saturday. But it was not a military one. Rather it was a victory over the major religious fault-line in the Middle East.

Suicide bomber kills 18 at Baghdad Shiite mosque

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 11:11 AM PDT

Baghdad (AFP) - A suicide bomber detonated explosives at a Shiite mosque in western Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 18 people, security and medical officials said.

Bombings hit Baghdad Shi'te mosque, military convoy in northern Iraq

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 10:28 AM PDT

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 19 at a funeral in Baghdad on Sunday as an ambush halted Iraqi forces' advance on a key northern city controlled by Islamic State fighters. A suicide bomber killed 19 and wounded 28 others outside a Shi'ite Muslim mosque, where people were attending a funeral service, in western Baghdad, a police officer and medical official said. "The attacker approached the entrance of the mosque and blew himself up among the crowd," the police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity about the attack in the affluent neighborhood of Harthiya. ...

UN says Iraq has executed 60 people this year

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 09:54 AM PDT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi authorities have executed at least 60 people so far in 2014, a United Nations report said Sunday, expressing concern that "irreversible miscarriages of justice" were taking place in some death penalty cases.

Fiercest fighting in days hits Syrian border town

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 09:13 AM PDT

By Humeyra Pamuk URFA Turkey (Reuters) - The fiercest fighting in days shook the Syrian border town of Kobani overnight as Islamic State fighters attacked Kurdish defenders with mortars and car bombs, sources in the town and a monitoring group said on Sunday. Islamic State, which controls much of Syria and Iraq, fired 44 mortars at Kurdish parts of the town on Saturday and some of the shells fell inside nearby Turkey, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said four more mortars were fired on Sunday. The month-long battle for Kobani has ebbed and flowed. ...

Deal agreed for Australia forces to deploy in Iraq

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 08:50 AM PDT

Baghdad (AFP) - Australia's foreign minister said Sunday she had reached a deal with Baghdad for the deployment of about 200 special forces to assist Iraqi troops in their fight against jihadists.

Roadside bomb kills six soldiers in Egypt's Sinai

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 08:39 AM PDT

CAIRO (Reuters) - Six Egyptian soldiers were killed by a remotely-detonated roadside bomb in the Sinai Peninsula on Sunday, the army said in a statement. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which also wounded five soldiers. The bomb exploded as a patrol responsible for protecting a natural gas pipeline passed by, security sources said. The blast occurred southwest of provincial capital Al-Arish, where two policemen were killed when their patrol car was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade three days ago. ...

Australian minister says special forces will go to Iraq

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 08:26 AM PDT

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Australia has reached an agreement with Iraq for its special forces to support Iraqi forces in their fight against Islamic State, Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Sunday. "We have reached an agreement for a legal framework and now it will be a matter for our military when our special forces will be deployed," Bishop said at the conclusion of a two-day trip to Baghdad that included meetings with senior Iraqi officials. ...

For many journalists Ebola's invisible threat scarier than war

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 08:03 AM PDT

Paris (AFP) - You can't see shells falling, guns pointed or identify the bad guys: for many journalists the invisible threat of Ebola is more unnerving than covering a war.

Turkey would oppose US arms transfers to Kurds

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 07:22 AM PDT

SURUC, Turkey (AP) — Turkey wouldn't agree to any U.S. arms transfers to Kurdish fighters who are battling Islamic militants in Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying Sunday, as the extremist group fired more mortar rounds near the Syrian-Turkish border.

Blast kills six security forces in Egypt's Sinai

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 06:58 AM PDT

CAIRO (Reuters) - At least six Egyptian security force personnel were killed by a remotely detonated roadside bomb in the Sinai Peninsula on Sunday, medical and security sources said. The bomb exploded as a patrol responsible for protecting a natural gas pipeline passed by, the sources said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The blast occurred southwest of provincial capital Al-Arish where two policemen were killed when their patrol car was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade three days ago. ...

Could Iraq's tribes provide the glue that keeps the country from falling apart?

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 05:00 AM PDT

In recent weeks, the self-styled Islamic State has inched toward Baghdad, putting Iraq's army and government under increasing pressure and challenging their ability to preserve any semblance of a cohesive Iraqi state.

UK adds Qatari financier to terror sanctions list

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 03:21 AM PDT

The British government has banned a Qatari financier it accuses of funding al-Qaida from doing business in the U.K. The Treasury says Abd al-Rahman bin Umayr al-Nuaymi has been added to a financial sanctions ...

All Aboard the USS Persecution Complex

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 02:45 AM PDT

Cruising the Caribbean, enjoying beaches... Enduring Persecution as an American Christian sounds horrible.

Iraq PM to visit Iran for talks on fight against IS

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 02:33 AM PDT

Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi is to visit Iran on Monday for talks on Baghdad's battle against the Islamic State group, which holds swathes of the country, his office said.

Israel's Yaalon in US after spat over Kerry remarks

Posted: 19 Oct 2014 01:18 AM PDT

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon sought to calm fresh tensions with Washington on Sunday as he began a five-day trip to the United States.

UK grapples with delicate issue of returning jihadists

Posted: 18 Oct 2014 11:22 PM PDT

London (AFP) - Do you lock them up, or try to rehabilitate them? Britain has taken a hard line on citizens returning from fighting in Syria and Iraq, but anti-extremism groups and experts say more good might come from trying to help them.