Bombings, shooting kill 11 people in Iraq
BAGHDAD – Bombs and a shooting targeted a marketplace and off-duty policemen in Iraq on Saturday, killing at last 11 people in the latest attacks by militants seeking to destabilize the country.
Iraq has been experiencing one of its deadliest waves of violence, raising fears that the country is heading toward a new round of sectarian conflict like that which pushed it to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007.
Police officials said the first bombing took place near an outdoor market in the morning in the capital’s western suburb of Abu Ghraib, killing four people and wounding 12 others.
Also, police said attackers using guns fitted with silencers killed three off-duty policemen in a drive-by shooting near Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.
At night, a bomb went off at a cafe in the Fadhil area of downtown Baghdad as soccer fans were watching a match, killing four people and wounding 17 others, Baghdad police said.
Thousands protest demonstrator’s death
ISTANBUL – Thousands of protesters returned to Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Saturday, demanding justice for a demonstrator slain by police fire during demonstrations that have swept Turkey this month. Police later forced the protesters out of the square, pushing them back using their shields.
In the capital, Ankara, police fired tear gas and pressurized water to break up a similar protest by a group of about 200 people, the Dogan news agency reported.
Turkey has been hit by a wave of protests this month that were ignited by a brutal police crackdown on a peaceful environmental sit-in at a park near Taksim.
The demonstrations have largely subsided in recent days, but thousands converged back on the square on Saturday, angry over a court decision this week that released a police officer from custody pending his trial for the killing of a protester in Ankara.
The protesters also denounced the killing of a Kurdish demonstrator by paramilitary police in a mainly Kurdish town on Friday.
Karzai: Attack won’t stop peace process
KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that his government is still willing to start talks with the Taliban, easing concerns that a brazen attack by the group on the presidential palace earlier this week would derail the country’s nascent peace process.
In a joint news conference in Kabul with visiting British Prime Minister Prime Minister David Cameron, he urged the militant group to return the negotiating table. He dismissed the attack as “peanuts” and said it would not deter his government from seeking peace.
The Taliban have indicated they are willing to open peace talks with the U.S. and the Afghanistan government and opened an office in Qatar a little more than a week ago for possible negotiations.
But at the same time they have not renounced violence and attacks have continued across Afghanistan.
Popularity rating of Brazil president plummets
SÃO PAULO – Public approval of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s government has suffered a steep drop in the weeks since massive protests broke out across this country, according to Brazil’s first nationwide poll released since the unrest began.
Published Saturday by Folha de S. Paulo, the country’s biggest newspaper, the Datafolha survey found 30 percent of respondents rated Rousseff’s government as “great/good,” a sharp fall from the 57 percent who gave it that rating three weeks ago before the demonstrations began.
The government’s popularity was down throughout the country, including in the northeast where the ruling Workers Party is strong. Her rating dropped there from 64 to 40 percent.
The government’s approval rating had hit 65 percent in March, according to Datafolha, but in June suffered its biggest drop since Rousseff took office 2½ years ago. Many Brazilians have been upset about rising inflation and shrinking purchasing power.
Associated Press
