Teen guns down Iraqi lawmaker, bombs mosque

A 15-year-old boy shot and killed a prominent Sunni Arab parliament member and killed three more when he tossed a hand grenade into a Baghdad mosque on Friday, an Interior Ministry official said. The lawmaker has been identified as Hareth al-Obaidi, the head of the Iraqi Accordance Front bloc and deputy head of parliament’s Human Rights Committee.

Share

Owners of day care that burned quit government jobs

Two of the owners of the day-care center that burned Friday, killing 44 children, have resigned jobs they had with the government, they told reporters Tuesday. Antonio Salido, a functionary for the state of Sonora’s secretary of urban infrastructure, and Alfonso Escalante, a sub-secretary of livestock farming, said they were resigning so that there would be no obstruction in the investigation into the cause of the fire. Salido, speaking for both men, told reporters they had not used their government positions to obtain the day-care concession.

Share

Obama expected to announce ‘cyber czar’ position

President Obama is expected to announce Friday the creation of the position of cyber czar, a person who will coordinate the nation’s efforts to protect government and private computer systems from hackers, criminal gangs, terrorists and spies, people familiar with the plan said Thursday. The czar will report to both the national security adviser and the head of the National Economic Council, the sources said.

Share

China Gropes for a Response to North Korea’s Nuke Moves

In the summer of 2006, in the immediate aftermath of North Korea’s unexpected long-range missile launch, the Chinese government quietly sent a senior envoy, former foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan, to Pyongyang to express Beijing’s displeasure. Tang cooled his heels for a couple of days, before finally meeting — briefly, diplomatic sources have said — with leader Kim Jong Il. Just three months later, in October 2006, North Korea again defied the world and tested a nuclear bomb for the first time

Share