Iraq lawmakers approve interior, defense ministers
BAGHDAD – Iraqi lawmakers approved Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s remaining Cabinet nominees on Saturday, including for the critical defense and interior portfolios, completing the formation of a government that will strive to push the Islamic State extremist group out of the sprawling territory it has seized in recent months.
Control over the two powerful security ministries has long been a source of tension among Iraq’s feuding political factions. The U.S. and other allies have been pushing for a more representative government that can reach out to Sunnis, who felt marginalized by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Sunni discontent is widely seen as having fueled the IS group’s dramatic advances in Iraq since June, when it captured the country’s second largest city Mosul.
Food deliveries in Sierra Leone to fight Ebola
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone – The UN’s World Food Program on Saturday delivered emergency food rations to 265,000 people, many of them quarantined in Sierra Leone, to help fight the spread of Ebola.
Food supplies are being distributed in the Waterloo district on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, WFP’s Alexis Masciarelli told the Associated Press.
Waterloo, about 20 miles east of Freetown, has seen some of the highest cases of Ebola infections, and the deliveries are to help quarantined families by providing them enough to eat, so they do not leave their homes to look for food. The deliveries began Friday and are continuing Saturday, Masciarelli said.
A ship carrying British troops is also headed to Sierra Leone to battle the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola in history.
Associated Press
