Saturday, August 29, 2009 BAGHDAD: Two bomb attacks in volatile parts of northern Iraq killed at least 15 people on Saturday and wounded more than 30, police said, interrupting a relatively peaceful start to the Ramadan fast.In one attack, a suicide car bomber killed at least nine people and wounded 11 others at a police station in the town of Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, in Salahuddin province. Four of those killed in the attack were police.The blast, at about 8 a.m. (6 a.m. British time), destroyed many shops in the area, a police source in Shirqat said. The death toll may rise, the source said.The other bombing killed six people and wounded 20 in the town of Sinjar, 390 km (240 miles) northwest of Baghdad, which is home to Yazidis, members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect.At least 21 people were killed in two suicide attacks in Sinjar earlier this month, part of a wave of violence that has hit ethnically and religiously mixed northern Nineveh province.Iraq is struggling to recover from years of sectarian slaughter and an insurgency triggered by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.A rash of violence in the past two months has raised doubts about the durability of security gains, including truck bomb attacks that killed almost 100 people at government ministries on August 19.There also has been a series of attacks in areas of northern Iraq where tension is high between majority Arabs, ethnic Kurds and other minorities. Much of the violence has taken place in Nineveh.The Shi'ite Muslim-led government, looking towards a general election in January, wants to show Iraqis that it is on top of the security situation as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw gradually by the end of 2011.
Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo...
Comments