WASHINGTON (AP) — The suicide rate among 18- to 29-year-old men who've left the military has gone up significantly, the government said Monday.

The rate for these veterans went up 26% from 2005 to 2007, according to preliminary data from the Veterans Affairs Department. It's assumed that most of the veterans in this age group served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

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Lufthansa May Resume Baghdad Flights After 20 Years (Update2)

By Tom Lavell

Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe’s second-largest airline, may resume flights to Baghdad after 20 years as economic-growth prospects boost air-travel demand.

The carrier has applied for traffic rights to serve the Iraqi capital and northern city of Erbil, and is looking at how to ensure smooth operations including flight security, said Boris Ogursky, a spokesman at Lufthansa’s main hub in Frankfurt.

“The demand goes in both directions,” and the airline aims to start service in mid-2010, Ogursky said, adding that it’s too early to specify a number of flights. The Iraq destinations would be served from Frankfurt and Munich.

The carrier, which began flying to Baghdad in 1956, said in a statement that it halted flights in 1990 because of the Gulf War, when U.S.-led forces reversed Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Lufthansa was flying twice weekly to Baghdad

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January 12, 2010 | 10:03 am

When Baghdadis awoke this morning to find their streets sealed off and the city under virtual lockdown, the rumors began to fly.

Army officers had staged a coup in the Green Zone, one version said. No, it was Baathists loyal to the former regime who had taken over, according to another.

Mostly, the rumors concerned the Sunni lawmaker Saleh Mutlak, who has been recommended for disbarment from the upcoming March elections by the former De-Baathification Committee, now known as the Accountability and Justice Committee.

Wire1_kvxbtwnc Mutlak had been assassinated, according to the most widespread rumor, a variation of which had Mutlak staging the coup in the Green Zone. The Mutlak rumors reached Kurdistan, where anxious travelers fretted over whether it would be safe to fly back to Baghdad.

At midday, government officials appeared on television to calm the capital.

"The security forces can't stage a coup. Our security forces are professional," military spokesman Mohammed Askari told a news conference. "The era of coups is gone."

Rather, he said, the government had received information that car bombings and suicide attacks were being planned against civilian targets, and the lockdown had been ordered to allow security forces to search for the explosive devices and those involved.

Mutlak himself showed up alive and well at the Iraqi parliament, wearing a marigold in his lapel, after being awakened early in the morning by people calling to see if he was OK. He laughed off the rumors. "They tried to assassinate me politically, and now physically," he cracked.

But the panic showed just how jittery the city is in the run up to the March elections. Though most roads were reopened by midmorning, schools were closed and some neighborhoods were sealed off into the evening. By nightfall, streets that would normally be bustling with traffic were almost deserted.

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This man, Mr. Campbell, is a dangerous indivdual. He was in on all the lies of the Blair government and likely the coordinator of the smears against the deceased Dr. David Kelly, the BBC source for the Dossier. Why believe anything this man says.

Timetable Of Dossier Row

11:02pm UK, Sunday July 20, 2003
The inquiry into the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly began on August 11.Here is a timeline of the events leading up the opening of the Hutton Inquiry...
May 29: Andrew Gilligan, a BBC defence correspondent, says in a report on Radio 4's Today programme that a source - a senior British official - informed him that last September's dossier on Iraq was "sexed up" to make a more convincing case for war.

June 1: In an article in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Gilligan alleges that Tony Blair's director of communications, Alastair Campbell, was responsible for adding to the dossier the claim that Saddam Hussein could launch his weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

June 19: Mr Gilligan gives evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee looking into the decision to go to war.

June 25: Mr Campbell appears before the committee and denies that he was responsible for adding the disputed information to the dossier. He demands an apology from the BBC.

June 27: The BBC rejects an apology and defends the integrity of the Today report. Mr Campbell says the BBC has "not a shred of evidence for their lie".

Snip

August 4: Downing Street is accused of mounting a smear campaign after a "senior Whitehall source" tells The Independent Dr Kelly was a "Walter Mitty" like fantasist.

Number 10 insists the phrase did not originate there but later admits the briefing did come from one of its unnamed officials.

August 5: The Prime Minister's official spokesman Tom Kelly confirms he used the phrase and apologises "unreservedly" to Dr Kelly's family.

August 6: Dr Kelly's funeral takes place at St Mary's Church in the Oxfordshire village of Longworth.

August 10: Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith breaks his silence to demand an apology from Tony Blair for the smear.

There were more than 2,400 noncombatant deaths in 2009, the highest toll in eight years. But the proportion attributed to Western and Afghan security forces fell sharply under new engagement rules.

By Laura King

January 13, 2010 | 7:20 a.m.

Kabul, Afghanistan - War's violence claimed the lives of more than 2,400 Afghan civilians in 2009, the United Nations said today, the largest annual death toll for noncombatants since the U.S.-led invasion eight years ago.

But the proportion of civilian deaths attributed to Western and Afghan security forces dropped sharply in the wake of strict new rules of engagement issued over the summer by U.S. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of Western forces in Afghanistan.

Citing the public fury stirred up by civilian deaths, and the resulting corrosive effect on the Western war effort, McChrystal ordered troops to break off engagements with insurgents if there is a risk of killing or injuring civilians, taking only measures needed for self-defense.

However, the report by the human rights division of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan illustrated the extraordinary dangers faced by Afghans in their daily lives. The overall toll represented a 14% increase over civilian casualty rates in 2008.

In cities, towns and villages across the country, the pace of suicide attacks and roadside bombings has accelerated steadily, and ordinary activities like driving to work or shopping in a street market have become increasingly perilous.

The pattern of deaths also mapped the reach and intensity of the conflict. Almost half of the civilian casualties occurred in a swath of the country's south, where the insurgency is strongest and fighting has been fiercest. But violence crept upward in some previously calm areas, such as the country's north.

Military officials acknowledge that fighting is likely to escalate in coming months with the arrival of about 30,000 more U.S. troops and another 7,000 from NATO allies and other countries. Some of the reinforcements will push into previously insurgent-held areas, which will translate into more battlefield activity, commanders have said.

As with civilian deaths, military casualties have also reached record levels over the last year. Military officials today reported the deaths of two more American service members from a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, and a third military death, also in the east, in which the soldier's nationality was not immediately disclosed.

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bbc 13 January 2010

Attacks by militants in Afghanistan have left four US and one French soldier dead, with the US death toll for 2010 now 14.

Nato said that one American had died in fighting in the east while another succumbed to wounds suffered in a roadside bombing in the south.

Little information was given about a bomb which killed two more US soldiers.

A roadside bomb attack to the north-east of the capital, Kabul, killed one French soldier.

Six international soldiers were killed in Afghanistan as a result of attacks on Monday, the deadliest day for foreign troops there in two months.

They were identified as three Americans, a Briton and two French soldiers. One of the French soldiers was mortally wounded, and died on Tuesday.

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Posted: 14 January 2010 1148 hrs
afp

LONDON: United States forces are to take over the main role in southern Afghanistan from the British in a shake-up of the region's command structure, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The arrangement for the vast area known as Regional Command South is to change following the arrival of some 21,000 US troops in the area last year, said the Times which cited an unnamed source.

Thousands more American servicemen are due to arrive in the south of the war-torn country in 2010, as part of a buildup in forces to battle a fierce Taliban insurgency.

The command currently switches every year between Britain, the Netherlands and Canada, with a permanent American deputy commander, the paper said.

This structure will be replaced by two division-sized commands of about 30,000 servicemen each in the southeast and southwest, according to the Times.

The new structure will be in place in the second half of this year, the paper said.

Britain's Ministry of Defence is considering whether to push for a rotating command in the southwest section that will include its forces in Helmand province, the report added.

Referring to this, a source told the paper that "the overall structure... is a work in progress."

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

Army charges single mom who refused deploymentThe Army said Wednesday it has filed criminal charges against a single-mom soldier who refused to deploy to Afghanistan last year, arguing she had no family able to care for her infant son.

Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, a 21-year-old Army cook, could face a prison sentence and a dishonorable discharge if she is convicted by a court-martial. But first, an officer will be appointed to decide if there's enough evidence to try a case against her.

Hutchinson's attorney, Rai Sue Sussman, said she still hopes the case can be settled without a military trial. She said the Army should consider Hutchinson's reason for not deploying overseas — that she was afraid of what would happen to her baby.

"There are other routes if they really want to punish her," Hutchinson's attorney, Rai Sue Sussman, said Wednesday. "I don't think the situation was serious enough to warrant a criminal matter."

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Steve Hynd at Newshoggers unspins the spin

here http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5468.shtml
and lols here
http://groups.google.com/group/paknationalists/web/indias-ridiculous-mumbai-evidence-vs-pakistans-concrete-waziristan-proof
--
Hongpong.com

By Hannah Allam | McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD — U.S. troops stationed at an outpost in southern Iraq heard a chilling whistle, and then a 60-pound airborne bomb punched through a concrete blast wall and sent shrapnel flying, wounding three Americans.

Explosions are commonplace in Iraq, but this was no ordinary attack. The U.S. military said Friday that militants who launched the Jan. 12 attack on a joint U.S.-Iraqi compound used an unusual weapon called an IRAM, for Improvised Rocket-Assisted Munition. Sometimes called "flying IEDs," IRAMs are a potentially deadlier incarnation of the garden-variety Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq and Afghanistan — they're short-range projectiles that catapult toward unsuspecting targets.

Two IRAMs flew into the outpost in the city of Amarah in a puzzling reappearance of a weapon that's been used only 14 times since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, according to the U.S. military. Most of the earlier attacks occurred in eastern Baghdad more than 18 months ago, at the height of violence related to Shiite Muslim militias. The more recent attacks, however, were launched in southern Iraq's Maysan Province, which borders Iran.

In the most recent incident, only one of the IRAMs exploded, leaving a 12-foot crater in the ground, said Maj. Myles Caggins, a spokesman for the 4th Brigade of the Army's 1st Armored Division, which is based in Fort Bliss, Texas, and is operating in Maysan.

The other was a dud that's now being investigated by American and Iraqi forensics teams to determine its components and origins. Previous IRAMs have been linked to the Mahdi Army of volatile Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr and other Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

"Violent Shiite extremist groups typically receive influence from Iranian origins," Caggins said, noting that so far there's no direct evidence that ties the latest attack to Iran. "The Iraqi police we advise are aggressively seeking to root out these networks of terrorists, smugglers and financiers who import and assemble these weapons."

In June 2008, the Long War Journal, an online publication about counterterrorism issues, reported that what most media had referred to as a car bomb that killed at least 16 people and wounded 29 in eastern Baghdad that month was actually a premature detonation of an IRAM. The report said the IRAMs were "of Iranian manufacture" and were propelled by 107mm rocket charges.

The Washington Post reported in July 2008 on a flurry of rocket-propelled bomb attacks on U.S. installations in eastern Baghdad, also quoting military sources who said that Iranian-backed militias were responsible for the weapons. One system that failed to ignite included nine IRAMs, each packed with 200 pounds of explosives, the Post reported.

Details about the latest attack are classified pending a U.S. military investigation, and there's still little awareness of IRAMs, even among U.S. soldiers.

"I'd never heard of it — not before it blew up on us," said Spc. Robert B. Walsh, 27, of Venice, Fla., who survived an IRAM blast last summer at the same place as the latest attack.

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Anthony Shadid | Baghdad | January 15

NYT - A knot of young men stood Friday outside the Umm Al Qura Mosque, once a nest of insurgent fervor where a year of relative tranquillity has softened the jagged edges of nearby bullet holes. They were angry, frustrated and quick to punctuate their denunciations of a decision to bar scores of Sunni candidates from Iraqi elections in March with a single word: sharaiyya, Arabic for legitimacy.

“We’re not going to boycott because our candidates were disqualified,” said one of them, Suheil Najm. “We’ll boycott because the elections won’t be legitimate.”

The decision to disqualify nearly 500 candidates, many of them Sunni Muslim, plunged Iraqi politics into turmoil on Friday. Leading candidates vowed a boycott of the vote, perhaps the most important since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Protests were threatened, and anger rippled through Iraq’s Sunni communities.

But beyond the din of recriminations, the decision posed an even greater challenge to Iraq’s nascent body politic, lawmakers, officials and residents say. A hard-won legitimacy of Iraq’s political process that had finally turned elections into an arena of contest for virtually all factions here looked dangerously tattered on Friday, they said.

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“The absence of any US-Iran bilateral channel...may have the perverse effect of reinforcing Iranian interest in progressing in the nuclear realm so that the US will be forced to take it seriously and engage it directly." ~ Richard Haass

16 Jan 2010 14:16:25 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Holbrooke says new program is "good plan"

* Allies hope plan will be unveiled before London meeting

* Previous Taliban reintegration efforts failed

By Sue Pleming

KABUL, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan said on Saturday a new Afghan plan to reintegrate thousands of Taliban fighters could not be worse than past efforts and Washington supported the program.

Afghanistan's government is expected this month to announce details of the plan, which diplomats said would include jobs training and economic incentives to lure fighters from the hills.

Speaking to reporters on a visit to Kabul, U.S. special representative for the region, Richard Holbrooke, said he discussed the issue with President Hamid Karzai on Saturday and that he believed it was a "good plan".

"We are ready to support it," he said, declining to offer any details of the program, which was hammered out in meetings in Abu Dhabi earlier this week between international donors and the Afghan government.

Previous efforts to win over Taliban fighters failed miserably because little attempt was made to offer protection or financial incentives.

The new program comes at a time when the insurgency is at its strongest since the Taliban were ousted from power in late 2001, and fighters who think victory is in sight may be less interested in any offer.

Holbrooke said the latest initiative would be different, although he did not specify how. "It can't be worse (than previous efforts)," he said.

He described a visit he took to eastern Afghanistan several years ago when he interviewed five fighters who had turned themselves in.

"It was a failure. They did not think promises were kept. We have to learn from the past. That is what we are here for."

Western allies hope the Afghan government's reintegration strategy will be announced before an international conference in London on January 28, when seed money is expected to be put into a reintegration fund to help pay for the new program.

Holbrooke said many Taliban would return to civilian life if given the chance.

"There are a lot of people out there fighting for the Taliban who have no ideological commitment to the principles, values or political movement led by Mullah Omar," he said, referring to the Taliban leader.

"This is not easy to do but if you don't do it, you give people only two choices, kill or get killed," he said.

NEW APPROACH

Western allies have been working with the Afghan government for weeks to devise a new strategy, which will include job creation programs and vocational training, particularly in agriculture, as well as some protection.

The goal was to try and reward whole communities rather than just fighters who put down their arms.

"This is a balancing act," said a U.S. official in Kabul who requested anonymity. "We don't want to alienate people or communities who did not take up arms against the government."

The hope is that by reintegrating Taliban fighters, it will put pressure on the leadership to enter into reconciliation talks with Karzai.

"We hope that reintegration done well is a confidence builder that encourages reconciliation," said the U.S. official.

However, Afghan political analyst and former finance minister Hamidullah Tarzi was pessimistic that the plan would work because of deep suspicions among the Taliban about the Afghan government's intentions.

"The Taliban does not have faith in Karzai. They think he will betray them if they come in and then give them to the foreign powers," Tarzi told Reuters.

Many of the Taliban fighters were being supported by people in the provinces because they delivered services the government failed to offer, he said. (Additional reporting by Peter Graff; editing by Noah Barkin) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)

16 Jan 2010 13:16:56 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Corrects constitutional minimum age for ministers to 35 from 34 in paragraph 5)

* 10 of 17 candidates thrown out

* Two of three female candidates vetoed

* One candidate found to be underage

(Adds final result of voting)

By Golnar Motevalli

KABUL, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The Afghan parliament rejected over half of President Hamid Karzai's second slate of cabinet nominees on Saturday, including two out of three women, dealing him a second major political blow in as many weeks.

Several key ministers were confirmed, including for Foreign Affairs, Justice and Counter-Narcotics, but 10 out of 17 candidates were voted down, meaning Karzai is still without confirmed leaders for over a third of his ministries.

..

The second round of vetoes will prolong the turmoil at a time when the insurgency is worsening and after a year when record numbers of foreign troops and civilians were killed.

In an embarrassing development, it also emerged on Saturday that the nominee for the ministry of rural development was underage, a government official said. The candidate was 31 years old while under the constitution the minimum age is 35.

Karzai has been under intense pressure from his Western backers, and frustrated Afghans, to choose ministers deemed clean and competent. Those who were approved in the first round of voting were mostly liked by foreign diplomats.

The second round of picks are less well-known but there was widespread unhappiness about the choice of Zarar Ahmad Muqbel, a former Interior Minister who international diplomats lobbied hard to have excluded from earlier cabinets.
...

DISAPPOINTMENT FOR WOMEN

The rejection of two women, out of a record three nominated for the cabinet, was a disappointment to activists and women who had praised Karzai for a bold choice.

"It's probably still too early to expect this much from a parliament that is led by conservative elements," said Orzala Ashraf Nemat, an activist and member of the Afghan women's network, which was co-founded by rejected Women's Affairs Ministry nominee Palwasha Hassan.

"I'm sure the reason they didn't vote for her is that they are too scared of women's empowerment," Nemat added of Hassan. The only woman approved was Amena Afzali as minister for martyrs and disabled.

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BBC
Ali Hassan al-Majid, a former Iraqi official known as Chemical Ali, has been sentenced to death for ordering the gassing of Kurds.
It is the fourth time that Majid, an enforcer in Saddam Hussein's regime, has been sentenced to death.
He has also been convicted of the killings of Shia Muslims in 1991 and 1999 and for his role in a campaign of genocide against Kurds in the 1980s.
His latest sentence is for a gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988.
'nuff said

Sunday, January 17, 2010

daily times/afp

PESHAWAR: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakeemullah Mehsud released a new audio recording on Saturday, saying he was alive and well after reports emerged that he was killed in a US drone strike.

Missiles fired from a US drone killed at least 15 terrorists at a training camp in South Waziristan on Thursday, and security officials said Hakeemullah might have been among the dead.

The recording came a day after the TTP released a similar audio file in which Hakeemullah said he was alive but did not mention the specific strike on Thursday targeting him and that triggered rumours of his death.

“Today, on the 16th of January, I am saying it again — I am alive, I am well, I am not injured. I was not present in the area at the time of the drone strike,” the TTP chief said..

Reporters familiar with the TTP chief said the voice appeared to be his.

Meanwhile, Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said the US did not know if Hakeemullah was dead, but condemned the terrorists.

“I’ve heard every conceivable version of what’s happened and I don’t know,” Holbrooke said.

“If he (Hakeemullah) is still alive, he is one of the worst people on earth, one of the most vicious,” Holbrooke told reporters in Kabul. afp

10 suicide bombers in Kabul buildings: Official
18 Jan 2010, 1201 hrs IST, REUTERS

KABUL: At least 10 suicide bombers have entered Kabul buildings including shopping centres and banks, a security official said on Monday, as gunfire was heard across the capital.

"More than 200 Afghan security forces are deployed, fighting with them," said Amir Mohammad, a security officer at the scene.

He had no information about casualties because fighting was ongoing. A large explosion was also heard near the Presidential Palace just before 11 am local time (0630 GMT).

Taliban militants attack Afghan capital

Afghan security forces seal off Kabul city centre as up to two dozen Taliban militants attack ministries

* Jon Boone in Kabul, Peter Walker and agencies
* guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 January 2010 07.53 GMT
* Article history

Attack on Kabul

A soldier keeps watch as smoke billows from a building after Taliban militants attacked the Afghan capital Kabul. Photograph: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images

Afghan security forces sealed off the centre of Kabul today as around two dozen ­presumed Taliban militants launched a wave of co-ordinated gun and bomb attacks against government ministries and other targets within the city.

A huge plume of smoke could be seen rising from the diplomatic district containing several ministries and the luxury Serena hotel, popular with foreigners, following a loud explosion. Sporadic gunfire could be heard.

"At least 10 people who are suicide bombers are in several buildings, including in banks and shopping centres," one security officer, Amir Mohammad, told Reuters.

A statement from Nato forces in the country said several small blasts had been reported near the Feroshgah e Afghan shopping centre, and the Serena hotel.

"[Afghan security forces] have secured all roads in the vicinity, and initial reports are they have killed at least two armed insurgents at the shopping centre after clearing the building," it added.

Workers inside the finance ministry, including seven British nationals among a group of overseas staff, told the Guardian they had been ordered to lie on the floor and not look out of windows until Afghan police and soldiers had retaken the area.

Security forces sealed off a large section of the city, ordering people on the streets to leave the area.

The attack appeared to begin after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the presidential palace. A Taliban spokesman told the Associated Press the organisation had sent 20 militants into the city centre to target the palace and other government buildings.

Militants and security forces fought in several locations, while grenades were thrown into a supermarket in a shopping centre, government officials said. The central bank was also apparently under attack, with a loud explosion followed by gunfire.

It is the latest brazen assault on the centre of the capital. In October, five UN staff were killed when gunmen stormed their guesthouse. The Serena hotel was also struck by a rocket in that attack, although it failed to explode.

18 Jan 2010 10:49:07 GMT
Source: Reuters
(For full coverage of Pakistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK])

By Michael Georgy

ISLAMABAD, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A U.S. unmanned drone aircraft that nearly killed Pakistan's Taliban leader may encourage the CIA to keep up its campaign to eliminate high-profile militants by remote control.

But the strikes may only have limited success and generate more anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, which the United States sees as a front-line state in its war against Islamic militancy.

Taliban officials said Pakistan Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was slightly wounded last week after being targeted by a drone, unmanned aircrafts Washington says are key to defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Coming just days after Mehsud appeared in a farewell video with the suicide bomber who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan, the apparent revenge attack in northwest Pakistan was a reminder that drones are highly capable of eliminating top Taliban leaders.

Analysts say the high-tech aircraft -- designed to throw al Qaeda and Taliban operations into disarray -- are unlikely to break resilient militant groups in the long term and may only generate more anti-American anger in U.S. ally Pakistan.

"Ultimately this is not really an effective weapon. The intent is, that if you can kill off or decapitate a significant extent of the leadership, that you can cause a rift within the movement," said Kamran Bokhari, regional director for the Middle East and South Asia at STRATFOR global intelligence firm.

Drone attacks in northwest Pakistan have been intensified since the double agent suicide bomber killed seven CIA employees at a U.S. base in Afghanistan on Dec. 30, the second deadliest attack in the agency's history.

Even if sustained over a long period, the drones can only produce limited results -- perhaps holding up suicide bombings for a few weeks -- since militant leaders are unlikely to be killed in quick succession, analysts say.

In August 2009, a drone strike killed Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who united several groups to form the umbrella Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan.

But the Taliban have managed to hit back with bombs that have killed hundreds. And Hakimullah's deputy, Wali-ur-Rehman, is waiting in the wings if Hakimullah is killed.

RIFLES VS COMPUTERS

The problem for the United States and its allies is the over-reliance on the drones to fight the Taliban, and the lack of ground intelligence.

CIA recruitment of agents is tedious and risky since it requires winning over people in a region of tightly knit family and tribal ties. Anyone tempted by cash risks execution if caught by the Taliban or al Qaeda. And intelligence is often sketchy.

That's why the CIA must rely on Pakistani intelligence to provide targets to the virtual pilots who use computers halfway across the world to fly the $4.5 million drones into battle.

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bbc

Iraq has begun collecting signatures for a class action lawsuit on behalf of people killed or wounded in incidents involving US security firm Blackwater.

It will seek compensation for a number of such cases, the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.

Incidents include the 2007 killing of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad's Nisoor Square.

Last month, a US judge dismissed charges against five Blackwater guards over those killings, which Iraqi officials described as "regrettable".

Immediately after the US decision, the Iraqi government issued several angry statements pledging that it would continue to "act forcefully and decisively to prosecute".

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The EU wants to diversify its energy sources and decrease its dependence on Russia

The European Union and Iraq have signed a strategic energy partnership, as the bloc seeks to diversify its energy sources.

The agreement signed on Monday is intended to strengthen energy cooperation between the EU and Iraq in a number of areas, including energy security, natural gas and renewable energy sources.

The new deal could also reduce the EU's dependence on Russia for energy. This is already the aim of a 3,000-kilometer (1,865 mile) long gas pipeline project known as Nabucco, which will run from Turkey to Austria via Bulgaria, Rumania and Hungary, and could also take in natural gas from Iraq as well as from other producers in the region such as Azerbaijan.

"Iraq represents a vital link for the EU's security of supply," said EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

In return, the EU says it will help Iraq draw up a new national gas development plan, develop its electricity grid, improve the safety and reliability of its oil pipelines and "identify sources and supply routes for gas from Iraq to the European Union."

After signing the agreement, Piebalgs met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and reeiterated the EU's desire for a "long-term, mutually beneficial" relationship with Iraq.

mk/AFP/dpa

Jan 20, 2010, 23:24 GMT

Wellington - The New Zealand Defence Force will remove abbreviated references to Bible verses from US-made gun sights used by its forces in Afghanistan, saying they were 'inappropriate' and could be used in enemy propaganda.

Military chiefs said they were unaware that inscriptions on the Trijicon advanced combat optical gunsights, also used by US and British troops, included references to verses in the Bible until alerted by a newspaper.

The markings, which are in embossed lettering at the end of the stock number, include 'JN8:12' - a reference to John 8:12: 'When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,'' The Press paper in Christchurch reported Thursday.

Defence Force spokesman Major Kristian Dunne told the paper: 'We can see how they would cause offence. Everyone has freedoms of religious belief. It also could be used against us by other religions.'

He said the military was unhappy that the US manufacturer had not advised them about the inscriptions and they would be told not to put them on further orders.

The letters and numbers would be removed from the Defence Force's existing 260 gun sights, which had been in use since 2004, and soldiers would continue using them because they were the best of their kind, he said.

Read more: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1527073.php/New-Zealand-army-to-take-biblical-references-off-guns#ixzz0dCl8ZKJP