Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Following Fidel: Memories of Cuba from Reuters correspondents
• Iraq's parliament adopts law legalizing Shiite militias
• Top official resigns, 3 arrested in Iran's train crash
• Kuwaitis head to the polls to vote for members of parliament
• Overshadowed by coalition, Iraqi aviation takes on IS
• Rouhani urges Iran-Turkey joint efforts in Iraq, Syria
• Iraqi parliament passes contested law on Shi'ite paramilitaries
• Kuwaitis vote in austerity-focused poll, energized by opposition
• Paraguay: the China of South America?, The liberal world order needs a new leader, Can we stand alone?, Striving for greatness, How to stem the exodus
• In northern Iraq, Yazidis risk all to flee Islamic State
• Australia asks Turkey to extradite top IS terror suspect
• Australia attempts to extradite IS suspect from Turkey

Following Fidel: Memories of Cuba from Reuters correspondents Posted: 26 Nov 2016 04:34 PM PST Reuters first established a presence in Havana before the Second World War and covered every major story of the Fidel Castro era since his 1959 Cuban revolution, from the Bay of Pigs invasion to his sickness in old age. Following Castro's death on Friday, three former Reuters Havana correspondents – Frances Kerry, Andrew Cawthorne and Anthony Boadle – share some memories of reporting on him.

Iraq's parliament adopts law legalizing Shiite militias Posted: 26 Nov 2016 03:13 PM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Rekindling sectarian rivalries at a sensitive time, Iraq's parliament on Saturday voted to fully legalize state-sanctioned Shiite militias long accused of abuses against minority Sunnis, adopting a legislation that promoted them to a government force empowered to "deter" security and terror threats facing the country, like the Islamic State group.

Top official resigns, 3 arrested in Iran's train crash Posted: 26 Nov 2016 01:43 PM PST The head of Iranian Railways resigned Saturday after three of his employees were arrested over a collision between two trains that left at least 44 people dead. Mohsen Poor-Seyed Aghaie, a deputy minister in the transport ministry and head of the state-owned railway company, appeared on state television late Saturday and announced his resignation "as a social responsibility and out of sympathy for the survivors of this accident". The crash took place on the main line between Tehran and Iran's second city Mashhad.

Kuwaitis head to the polls to vote for members of parliament Posted: 26 Nov 2016 09:46 AM PST KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Kuwaitis voted Saturday for representatives in the tiny, oil-rich country's parliament as the Gulf nation struggles to cope with a slump in oil prices that is straining public finances.

Overshadowed by coalition, Iraqi aviation takes on IS Posted: 26 Nov 2016 07:47 AM PST Iraqi army pilot Hossam Jassim banked his helicopter sharply to the left as a Russian-made Mi-35 gunship flying alongside unleashed a missile at a suspected Islamic State group target. "It was a pickup truck with a heavy machine gun," he said later as he emerged from the cockpit at Qayyarah base, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of jihadist bastion Mosul. Down on the ground Iraqi forces are battling to wrest back Mosul, tightening the noose in the surrounding desert and grinding their way street-by-street through residential neighbourhoods.

Rouhani urges Iran-Turkey joint efforts in Iraq, Syria Posted: 26 Nov 2016 06:43 AM PST Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on Saturday for greater cooperation between regional rivals Iran and Turkey to help establish stability in Syria and Iraq. "Today when the region is in a critical condition, cooperation and consultation by Tehran and Ankara in resolving issues can make a difference," Rouhani told visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported. "If major regional powers stand together, problems in Iraq and Syria will be resolved without the need for foreign powers," Rouhani added.

Iraqi parliament passes contested law on Shi'ite paramilitaries Posted: 26 Nov 2016 05:40 AM PST Iraq's parliament approved a law on Saturday that will transform Popular Mobilisation forces, a mostly Iranian-backed coalition of Shi'ite militias that played a role in fighting Islamic State, into a legal and separate military corps. Disagreements over the paramilitary units are complicating efforts to pull Iraq together as forces battle to defeat Islamic State, the ultra-hardline Sunni group that overran a third of the country in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" that spans parts of Syria. Popular Mobilisation, or Hashid Shaabi in Arabic, was accused of abuses against Sunni civilians in towns and villages retaken from Islamic State, according to international human rights groups and the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner.

Kuwaitis vote in austerity-focused poll, energized by opposition Posted: 26 Nov 2016 04:10 AM PST By Sami Aboudi and Ahmed Hagagy KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwaitis voted on Saturday in an election energized by the participation of opposition candidates for the first time since 2012 and focused on recent government austerity measures aimed at tackling the oil-rich nation's deficit. The parliament of Western-allied Kuwait was due to run until July 2017, but the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, dissolved it in October, saying "security challenges" in the region - an apparent reference to wars in Iraq and Syria - should be met by consulting the popular will. "I hope we will have a better parliament than the previous one," said a 22-year-old Islamic Waqf Affairs ministry employee after she voted for the first time at a girls' school in the upper middle class al-Rawda district in southern Kuwait City.

Paraguay: the China of South America?, The liberal world order needs a new leader, Can we stand alone?, Striving for greatness, How to stem the exodus Posted: 26 Nov 2016 03:00 AM PST "Brazilian manufacturers are discovering that Paraguay ... has cheap electricity and labor, as well as fewer taxes.... It should come as no surprise, then, that following the political and economic crisis that Brazil has recently suffered ... Brazilian businesses are contemplating the advantages of moving their plants to Paraguay.... [O]ur government needs to guarantee legal and social security for the investors ... [and] for the workers of our country, so that the fruits of progress also fall onto the table of Paraguayans. Recommended: How socially inclusive is Latin America? "President Woodrow Wilson ... declared war on Germany and sent soldiers to Europe to secure victory for the Western democracies – and the United States assumed the leadership of the Western world.... One hundred years later: Trump.... Trump, who preaches American nationalism, isolation.... The leaders of the West, minus America, face monumental tasks ahead.

In northern Iraq, Yazidis risk all to flee Islamic State Posted: 26 Nov 2016 01:13 AM PST By John Davison DUHOK, Iraq (Reuters) - When shells began crashing around the town of Tal Afar as Shi'ite militias brought the fight to Islamic State in northern Iraq, Abu Faraj saw his chance to escape captivity. The group, which included women and children, walked overnight through the desert and hours later reached Kurdish-controlled territory -- and safety. "I remember the exact time we decided to flee, it was 6:50 p.m.," said Abu Faraj, 23, who had waited more than two years for that moment.

Australia asks Turkey to extradite top IS terror suspect Posted: 25 Nov 2016 08:05 PM PST Australia is seeking the extradition of its most wanted Islamic State terror suspect who was thought to be dead but has been caught alive by Turkey, the government said Saturday. The announcement followed a New York Times report that so-called Islamic State group operative Neil Prakash had been caught by Turkish forces several weeks ago as he tried to enter their country from Syria. "An individual we believe to be Neil Prakash has been arrested and detained in Turkey," a government spokesperson said in a statement.

Australia attempts to extradite IS suspect from Turkey Posted: 25 Nov 2016 08:04 PM PST CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia is attempting to extradite from Turkey a man suspected of being a high-profile Australian recruiter for the Islamic State movement, the government said on Saturday.

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