BAQUBA, Iraq: Bombs against Sunni Muslim worshippers in Baghdad and north of the capital killed 12 people yesterday, officials said, the latest in an uptick in violence ahead of provincial elections next week.
In the deadliest single blast, a roadside bomb struck after prayers at the Omar bin Abdul Aziz mosque, in the town of Kanaan in restive Diyala province, a police colonel and a doctor said. Overall, 12 people were killed and 30 others wounded, the sources said. Two more bombings, in Baghdad and another town in Diyala, one near a Sunni mosque and the other as Sunni worshippers were returning from mid-day prayers, wounded seven. Iraq is to hold provincial elections on April 20, its first polls since 2010.
Italy returns Ben Ali’s yacht to Tunisia
ROME: A court in Italy has authorised the return of a yacht belonging to the family of ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali that is moored on an Italian island, the police said yesterday. The “Slaheddine” was seized in June 2011 following a request from the new Tunisian leadership to freeze assets belonging to the family of Ben Ali after a revolt forced him to flee to Saudi Arabia. The boat, measuring around 14 metres (46 feet) in length and worth around a ¤1ms ($1.3m), was sailed to the island of Lampedusa in the chaotic days after the January 2011 revolution. It was formally registered to one of Ben Ali’s nephews, Kais Ben Ali, although officials said the sleek yacht was enjoyed by the whole family.
Thousands protest before Formula One
MANAMA: Thousands of Bahrainis staged a peaceful march yesterday in the first of a series of protests the Shia-led opposition is planning to hold before next week’s Formula One Grand Prix race. Police stayed away from the demonstration as protesters denounced King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa and Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, his uncle. “You have no legitimacy,” they chanted. The Gulf Arab state, where the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based, has been hit by unrest since pro-democracy protests broke out in early 2011, putting it in the frontline of the region-wide power struggle between Shia Iran and Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia. Waving the red-and-white Bahraini flag, the demonstrators marched from one main roundabout to another in the village of Al Aali, some 15km outside the capital.
Saudi Arabia executes Pakistani for murder
RIYADH: Saudi authorities executed yesterday a Pakistani man convicted of rape and murder, in the northwestern town of Tabuk, the interior ministry said. Amjad Ali Kol was convicted of raping and strangling a woman, before stealing her money, the ministry said in a statement carried on official news agency SPA. Agencies
