A series of bomb blasts rocked Baghdad yesterday as insurgents targeted a police checkpoint near the government compound, killing at least two people, fired mortar bombs into a park and attacked a US patrol.
The attacks came the day before the trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was due to resume and as political parties prepared for talks on forming a coalition government the US hopes will undermine support for a Sunni Arab insurgency.
A new judge will take charge temporarily of the tribunal trying Saddam and seven co-defendants in the 1982 massacre of more than 140 Shiite men from the town of Dujail, an Iraqi official said yesterday.
A Kurd, Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman, will take charge of the trial that resumes today, replacing existing chief judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, who submitted a letter of resignation on Jan. 15 amid complaints of government criticism in the trial, said Raid Juhi, the chief investigator who prepared evidence for the Dujail case.
Juhi said Iraqi authorities were unable to resolve the standoff with Amin, also a Kurd, whose resignation was the latest complication in the case which has already seen two defense lawyers assassinated and a judge step down.
Despite increased security throughout Baghdad, a suicide car bomber struck a checkpoint into the Green Zone, close to the Iranian embassy, which staff said was not damaged in the blast.
Television pictures showed a burnt-out police vehicle still smouldering and the twisted, wreckage of the bomber's car. A foot lay among the blast debris scattered in the street.
Police said two people were killed and six wounded -- three civilians and three policemen. Minutes later a roadside bomb exploded in the al-Waziriya area, wounding two people.
Several mortar bombs fell short of the Green Zone into a park that also houses Baghdad Zoo and an amusement park. Police said no one was injured.
A car bomb blast hit a joint US-Iraqi patrol in southern Baghdad, wounding two civilians, police said.
The Interior Ministry said a security clampdown in the capital was still in force amid fears that Sunni Arab rebels, angered by the results of a Dec. 15 election that confirmed the dominance of Shiite Islamists, would launch more attacks.
"We are expecting a rise in attacks by gunmen because of the results of the election," a ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Political parties had until midnight last night to submit their complaints about the Dec. 15 election. The results were officially announced last week after allegations of electoral fraud had been investigated.
The Shiite United Iraqi Alliance led the field with 128 of 277 parliamentary seats, followed by the Kurdish Alliance with 53 seats and the Sunni National Accordance Front with 44.
Iraq's Electoral Commission will have 10 days to adjudicate on the complaints, but President Jalal Talabani said the victorious factions will begin talks on forming a new government today.
He said that no time limit had been imposed: "There is no time ceiling to form an Iraqi government. Enough time should be given for talks with the objective of letting all parties participate in the forthcoming government."
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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