LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We only want
justice. We want blood for blood and nothing else.”
Mohammed Wasim,
brother of Mohammed Fahim, one of two Pakistanis shot dead by an American Article, this pageBaghdad sues U.S.
over blast walls
BAGHDAD - The Baghdad city government is demanding the United States pay $1 billion and apologize for damage to the city caused by blast walls erected during the nearly eight-year-long war.
City officials filed a lawsuit in an Iraqi court against the U.S. military, a media official said Thursday. He did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.
In an official statement posted late Wednesday on its website, the local government said U.S. forces had marred the “beautiful city.”
However, Kamil al-Zaidi, head of the Baghdad provincial council, said Iraqi security forces should also share responsibility for the miles of concrete barriers that crisscross the capital.
“The Iraqi security bodies, not only the Americans, bear part of the responsibility for putting up these walls,” he said.
Al-Zaidi added that the concrete barriers have helped saved lives and protect government buildings during the waves of deadly bombings in Iraq over the years.
Ammunition-depot explosions kill 25
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - Thousands of people crowded a stadium for safety Thursday after a military ammunition depot exploded and showered the city with a series of blasts, killing at least 25 and prompting a stampede getaway.
In the mayhem of residents fleeing the blasts, more than 150 children lost track of their parents, and officials appealed for mothers and fathers to report to the stadium to reunite with their offspring.
President Jakaya Kikwete promised an investigation into the explosions Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the second fatal military ammunition-dump explosion in Tanzania’s commercial capital in less than two years. An accident at a Dar es Salaam military base in 2009 killed more than a dozen people.
Several houses and a school were leveled during the latest blasts, which sent huge orange bursts into the night sky.
Abbas: No vote without Gaza Strip
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that elections won’t be held by September as planned if the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers won’t allow balloting there.
Abbas’ West Bank-based government called the longdelayed presidential and parliamentary elections over the weekend, but the rival Islamic Hamas has said Gaza will not take part in the vote.
“Unless we are capable of holding elections in both the West Bank and Gaza, then we will not hold elections,” Abbas said Thursday in Ramallah.
Abbas governs the West Bank but lost control of Gaza to Hamas in a violent 2007 takeover. Several attempts to reconcile the two factions have failed.
Abbas aides said the Palestinian president had not backed down on his commitment to the vote. Senior adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo said that if necessary, the Palestinian Authority would find a “creative” way to circumvent any Hamas opposition so Gazans would be able to take part.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri disputed Abbas’ sincerity in calling for elections.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 02/18/2011