Mourners demand accountability, bury loved ones after Iraq wedding inferno
Hamdaniya, Iraq Reuters Calls for accountability grew on Thursday for the victims of a deadly fire at an Iraqi wedding celebration in a Christian town as grief-stricken mourners attended a packed memorial service and families buried their loved ones. More than 100 people died and at least 150 were injured on Tuesday evening in an […]
Iraq wedding fire kills more than 100, relatives identify bodies
Mosul, Iraq Reuters A fire ripped through a packed wedding hall in northern Iraq late on Tuesday, killing more than 100 people in a Christian town that had survived Islamic State occupation. Fire fighters searched the charred remains of the building in Qaraqosh, also known as Hamdaniya, through Wednesday morning and bereaved relatives gathered outside […]
More than 100 dead, 150 injured in Iraq wedding inferno
Nineveh, Iraq Reuters More than 100 people were killed and 150 injured in a fire at a wedding party in Hamdaniya district in Iraq’s Nineveh province that left civil defence searching the charred skeleton of a building for survivors into the early hours of Wednesday. Nineveh Deputy Governor Hassan al-Allaq told Reuters that 113 people […]
Political showdown: A feud between a patriarch and a militia leader adds to the woes of Iraqi Christians
ABBY SEWELL and SALAR SALIM, of Associated Press, report…
Postcards: Drought imperils Iraq’s water buffalo and a child’s way of life
AHMED SAEED and CHARLOTTE BRUNEAU, of Reuters, report…
Iraq expels Swedish ambassador over planned Quran burning
Baghdad, Iraq/Stockholm, Sweden Reuters Iraq expelled the Swedish ambassador on Thursday in protest at a planned burning of the Quran in Stockholm that had prompted hundreds of protesters to storm and set alight the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. An Iraqi Government statement said Baghdad had also recalled its charge d’affaires in Sweden, and Iraq’s state […]
Swedish embassy in Baghdad stormed, set alight – source, witness
Baghdad, IraqReuters Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in central Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning, scaling its walls and setting it on fire in protest against the expected burning of a Quran in Sweden. A source familiar with the matter said no embassy staff had been harmed and declined to elaborate […]
Iraq to summon US ambassador over remarks about Christian leader
Reuters Iraq’s President said late on Wednesday he would summon the United States ambassador to Baghdad over critical remarks by a US State Department spokesperson regarding the Iraqi government’s treatment of a top Iraqi Christian leader. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Tuesday criticised a decision by Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid to revoke a […]
Europe battles heat and fires; sweltering temperatures scorch China, US
Rome, Italy/Beijing, ChinaReuters Italy put 23 cities on red alert as it reckoned with another day of scorching temperatures on Wednesday, with no sign of relief from the wave of extreme heat, wildfires and flooding that has wreaked havoc from the United States to China. The heat wave has hit southern Europe during the peak […]
Demolition of 300-year-old Iraq mosque minaret for road expansion enrages locals
Basra, IraqReuters The demolition on Friday of a 300-year-old minaret of a mosque in Iraq’s southern city of Basra to make way for road expansion has enraged locals, religious and cultural authorities who condemned it as a further erosion of Iraq’s cultural heritage. Built in 1727, the 11-metre Siraji minaret and its mosque were toppled […]