Iraq Oil Report's Daily Brief compiles the most important news and analysis about Iraq from around the web.
The Iraqi government released more than 300 prisoners held under anti-terrorism laws on Monday as a goodwill gesture to Sunni Muslim demonstrators staging protests against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Three weeks of demonstrations, mainly in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, have evolved into a tough challenge for the Shi'ite premier, increasing worries that Iraq risks sliding back into the sectarian confrontation of its recent past.
Sameer N. Yacoub reports for The Associated Press:
Attackers detonated a bomb Sunday next to a convoy carrying the Iraqi finance minister, a central figure in more than two weeks of protests by minority Sunnis against the Shiite-dominated Baghdad government, police said.
The minister, Rafia al-Issawi, was not hurt in the bombing. The device exploded as the last car in his convoy was passing by.
The 22nd Gulf Cup has been approved to take place in Al Basra, south of Iraq in 2015, the GCC Football Organising Committee announced yesterday following a meeting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Bahrain on the sidelines of the ongoing 21st Gulf Cup.
Chaired by tournament Executive Committee head and Bahrain Football Association president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, yesterday's meeting was attended by representatives of all participating countries.
Patrick Markey and Suadad al-Salhy report for Reuters:
Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki should reform laws seen as unjustly marginalizing the country's Sunni Muslims or mass protests could spiral out of control, a top Sunni leader said.
Thousands have taken to the streets in Sunni stronghold provinces for three weeks of daily protests, posing the sternest test yet for Maliki's fragile government composed of Shi'ites, Sunnis and ethnic Kurds.
Sameer N Yacoub reports for the Associated Press:
Attackers detonated a bomb Sunday next to a convoy carrying the Iraqi finance minister, a central figure in more than two weeks of protests by minority Sunnis against the Shiite-dominated Baghdad government, police said.
The minister, Rafia al-Issawi, was not hurt in the bombing. The device exploded as the last car in his convoy was passing by.
Michael Lipin reports for Voice of America:
Iraq's prominent radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called for the fair implementation of national security laws that have drawn weeks of protests from minority Sunnis who see them as biased against their community.
In an interview with VOA's sister television network, Alhurra, al-Sadr said he agreed with Sunni protesters that the government of Iraq's Shi'ite prime minister has been acting in a biased way. "We believe the problem is in the implementation of the [security] laws, and not the laws themselves," al-Sadr said.
Patrick Salomon reports for Gulf Daily News:
Iraq maintained their winning ways in the 21st Gulf Cup last night with a resounding 2-0 victory over Yemen at the Shaikh Khalifa Sports City Stadium in Isa Town.
Dhurgam Ismaeel and Hammadi Ahmed were both on target in an eventful first half as they lifted their side to their third impressive victory in as many games.
Jonathan Fryer reports for the BBC:
The Iraqi capital is probably not the first place you would think of when organising an international conference but, despite lingering security concerns, the city is keen to host such events.
A workman in blue overalls was lying flat on his back in the unkempt grass of what a sign proclaimed to be the North Lawn, but what really caught my attention were the two lengths of rope extending diagonally upwards from his body.
A dozen prisoners including al-Qaida-linked death row inmates escaped from a prison near Baghdad on Friday, the latest sign that Iraq still struggles with basic law and order more than a year after American troops withdrew, officials said.
The brazen prison break happened hours before thousands of mostly Sunni protesters rallied in the capital and other parts of the country, keeping pressure on the Iraqi government. Among the demands of the three-week wave of protests are the release of detainees held in Iraqi jails and changes to a tough counterterrorism law that Sunnis believe unfairly targets their sect.
Richard Greer writes for The Financial Times:
The greatest opportunities for emerging market investors have always come when political chaos coincides with a dire media consensus, and a major underlying economic improvement is thereby ignored. Iraq stands firmly in this tradition of missed investor opportunities.
Precedents begin with Japan in the early 1960s, when the Nikkei fell 27 per cent following Paul Murphy’s article in the Financial Analysts Journal of May 1962, which portrayed Japan as a country on the brink of disaster. The analysis was flawed; over the next 25 years the Nikkei rose 800 per cent. A comparable slough of despond arose in 1968 when, after unsuccessful attempt by North Korean commandos to assassinate the president of South Korea, the local index fell 30 per cent. Over the following four years, it climbed fivefold, against a background of deep political uncertainty. The most recent precedent was in Russia in 1995. Despite the escalating Chechnya conflict and deeply negative media coverage of the vagaries of Boris Yeltsin, the main index rose sevenfold in two years.
Beyond the Headlines features a raw translation of Cabinet decisions, as made public in Arabic by the media office of the Council of Ministers.
