Daily life

The deadliest war for journalists

Al-Jazeera reports (April 11^th): The invasion and subsequent nine-year occupation of Iraq claimed the lives of a record number of journalists. It was undisputedly the deadliest war for journalists in recorded history.

Disturbingly, more journalists were murdered in targeted killings in Iraq than died in combat-related circumstances, according to the group Committee to Protect Journalists.

CPJ research shows that "at least 150 journalists and 54 media support workers were killed in Iraq from the US-led invasion in March 2003 to the declared end of the war in December 2011."

http://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2013/04/2013481202781452.html

Iraq executes 7 convicts over terror charges

Xinhua reports (April 7^th): The Iraqi Ministry of Justice announced that it has executed seven convicted prisoners over terror charges.

"The executions were carried out today by hanging for the seven terrorists in accordance with Article 4 from the anti-terrorism Law," the ministry said in a statement.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-04/07/c_124548711.htm

Iraq struggles to solve electricity crisis

BBC reports (April 12^th): Thick clusters of electric wires hang low from tilted wooden poles, winding their way through Baghdad's alleyways to distribute privately generated electrical power.

It is one of the most common scenes across Iraq's urban landscapes and seems to reflect much of what is wrong with the country's electricity sector - crumbling infrastructure, unreliable services, and a tangled web of bureaucracy and corruption.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22093992

‘US illegally obtained and kept thousands of Iraq’s cultural treasures’

Russia Today reports (April 9^th): One of the gravest casualties of the 10-year US-led war in Iraq is the destruction of the country’s cultural heritage, Iraqi archaeologist and architect Ihsan Fathi told RT.

On top of thousands of looted or illegally obtained cultural artifacts during the war, billions of dollars have also been transferred out of “Iraq’s Central banks to US without any paper trail.”

“I’m sure that everything that was stored in the Central and other banks was sent to the US without any documentation and now is kept in archives,” Fathi said. “Huge amounts of documents representing historical importance that cannot be assigned a monetary value were taken by the US.”

http://rt.com/op-edge/iraq-war-cultural-artifacts-553/