Bomb kills 26, wounding 60 in Sadr City

    BAGHDAD, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- An explosive-charge detonated early on Monday among a crowd of laborers gathering in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, killing 26 of them and wounding 60 others, a well-informed Interior Ministry source said.

    "Up to 26 were killed and 60 others wounded when a makeshift bomb went off in the 55th Square at the Sadr City neighborhood where dozens of poor laborers gathered waiting for daily jobs," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Full Story

Chirac urges foreign troops' withdrawal from Iraq

    PARIS, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- French President Jacques Chirac on Thursday told his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani that it was important to fix a prospect of foreign forces' withdrawal from Iraq, the French leader's spokesman Jerome Bonnafont told the press.

    "Regarding the international troop's presence in Iraq, he (President Chirac) said that in the eyes of France, it is important to fix a prospect of withdrawal," Bonnafont said. Full Story

Lawyer: More violence if Saddam sentenced to death

    BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer warned U.S. President George W. Bush that there will be violence in Iraq and the Mideast if the former president is sentenced to death for genocide charges, according to media reports Monday.

    Leading Iraqi attorney Khalil al-Dulaimi warned Sunday in a letter to Bush that a verdict by the Iraqi High Tribunal against Saddam and seven co-defendents over the killing of 148 Shiite villagers in the Iraqi village of Dujail could plunge Iraq and the region into violence. Full Story

15 police academy employees,2 translators killed in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Fifteen civilian employees working at a police academy and two translators were abducted and then killed in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Sunday, a local police source told Xinhua.

    The employees and their translators were taken out of a bus at gunpoint on the outskirts of Basra at about 5 p.m. (1400 GMT), the anonymous police source said. Full Story