Iraq battle after militia arrest

Two passers-by have died in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, after clashes between security forces and one of the militias which are backed by US forces.

The gun battle in the Fadil district of the city erupted shortly after the leader of the local Awakening group, Adil Mashadani, was arrested.

One account says US troops helped with the arrest alongside the Iraqi army.

Fadil was run by al-Qaeda in Iraq for most of 2006 and 2007, but they were driven out by the Awakening movement.

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Islamist threat to Turkey’s secular system

Turkish secularism on the ropes. Sharia is advancing in what is always held out to be that exemplary beacon of democracy in the Islamic world, Turkey. The reasons why Sharia supremacists are advancing there have not — unsurprisingly — been sufficiently explored by Western analysts, who of course dismiss out of hand the appeal of a call to restore Islamic authenticity.

“Erdogan Set for Election Win That May Revive Tension Over Islam,” by Ben Holland for Bloomberg, March 27

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to win a fresh mandate from voters that may embolden his challenge to the country’s military and courts, which see him as an Islamist threat to Turkey’s secular system.

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Iran and Nato end 30-year impasse

An Iranian diplomat has held informal talks with Nato officials for the first time in 30 years.

Senior Nato negotiator Martin Erdmann said he had met Iran’s ambassador to the European Union, Ali-Asghar Khaji, more than two weeks ago.

“This is another good step in engaging Iran in the international community,” said Mr Erdmann.

A Nato spokesman, James Appathurai, said the talks with Mr Khaji had concentrated on Afghanistan.

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Blast rips through Baghdad crowd

A car bomb blast which ripped through a crowd of shoppers near a bus stop in northern Baghdad has killed at least 20 people and injured more than 35.

The bomb went off near a busy market in the capital’s Shaab district, a mainly Shia area, officials say.

Iraqi police believe it was a deliberate attempt to kill the maximum number of civilians possible.

Violence has declined in Iraq recently but on Monday, a suicide bomber killed 25 people in the north of the country.

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Iran accepts US Afghan invitation

Iran has agreed to attend a US-backed international conference on Afghanistan next week, but Washington played down the prospect of a high-profile meeting.

While US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also due to attend, the state department said she had no plans for a “substantive” meeting with Iran.

Iran’s foreign ministry said it had not yet decided whom it would send to the one-day conference at The Hague.

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Suicide attack on Iraqi funeral

At least 25 people have been killed by a suicide bomber in the Iraqi province of Diyala, police say.

Dozens of people are also reported to have been hurt in the attack.

Sources told the BBC the suicide attacker targeted a funeral in the town of Jalawla, 115km (70 miles) north-east of the capital, Baghdad.

It was the second bomb attack in Iraq on Monday, with an earlier explosion near the capital. Baghdad, killing at least eight people.

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U.K Christian Minister beaten by Muslims

A Christian minister who has had heated arguments with Muslims on his TV Gospel show has been brutally attacked by three men who ripped off his cross and warned: ‘If you go back to the studio, we’ll break your legs.’

The Reverend Noble Samuel was driving to the studio when a car pulled over in front of him. A man got out and came over to ask him directions in Urdu.

Mr Samuel, based at Heston United Reformed Church, West London, said: ‘He put his hand into my window, which was half open, and grabbed my hair and opened the door.
He started slapping my face and punching my neck. He was trying to smash my head on the steering wheel.

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Insulting Islam is not insulting muslims

The Supreme Court yesterday produced an important ruling in principle in favour of freedom of speech. The highest court of the Netherlands acquitted a man of insulting Muslims although he dubbed Islam a tumour.

The Supreme Court quashed a ruling by an appeal court in Den Bosch. As had a district court earlier, the appeal court did find the man guilty. Yesterday’s acquittal can have consequences for all future court cases on insulting followers of a faith or ideology, including the notorious case against MP Geert Wilders.

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U.S. won’t label terror suspects as ‘Combatants’

The Obama administration said Friday that it would abandon the Bush administration’s term “enemy combatant” as it argues in court for the continued detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in a move that seemed intended to symbolically separate the new administration from Bush detention policies.

But in a much anticipated court filing, the Justice Department argued that the president has the authority to detain terrorism suspects there without criminal charges, much as the Bush administration had asserted. It provided a broad definition of those who can be held, which was not significantly different from the one used by the Bush administration.

The filing signaled that, as long as Guantánamo remains open, the new administration will aggressively defend its ability to hold some detainees there.

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Final Gaza toll shows 960 civilians killed

Israel’s 22-day offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip killed 1,434 people, including 960 civilians, 239 police officers and 235 fighters, a Palestinian human rights group said on Thursday.

Israel carried out attacks by air, land and sea from Dec. 27 to Jan. 18 in a bid, it said, to force Hamas and other militant Islamist groups to stop firing rockets and mortars at southern Israeli towns across their border.

“The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights’ investigations reveal that throughout the course of the assault, Israeli Occupation Forces used excessive, indiscriminate force, in violation of the principle of distinction,” the group said in a report (www.pchrgaza.org).

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