Latest Iraq News

UNESCO finds Islamic State group-era bombs in Mosul mosque walls, years after the defeat of IS

Jun. 29, 2024 09:54 AM EDT

BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.N. cultural agency has discovered five bombs hidden within the walls of the historic al-Nouri Mosque in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, a remnant of the Islamic State militant group’s rule over the area, UNESCO said in a statement Saturday. The mosque,...

Today in History: June 29, Apple releases first iPhone to consumers

Jun. 29, 2024 00:07 AM EDT

Today in History Today is Saturday, June 29, the 181st day of 2024. There are 185 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On June 29, 2007, the first version of the iPhone went on sale to the public; over 2.3 billion iPhones have been sold to date. ...

The Latest | Polls close in Iran after election to replace a president killed in a helicopter crash

Jun. 28, 2024 17:08 PM EDT

Iranians voted on Friday to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a May helicopter crash in the country's northwest along with the foreign minister and several other officials. Analysts broadly described the race as a three-way contest. There are two...

A decade after the Islamic State group declared a caliphate, it's defeated but remains lethal

Jun. 28, 2024 12:12 PM EDT

BAGHDAD (AP) — A decade after the Islamic State militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria, the extremists no longer control any land, have lost many prominent leaders and are mostly out of the world news headlines. Still, the group continues to recruit...

A leading human rights group calls on Iraq to halt deportations of Syrian refugees

Jun. 27, 2024 14:20 PM EDT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi authorities in Baghdad and the administration in the semi-autonomous northern Iraqi Kurdish region have been arbitrarily detaining and deporting Syrian refugees to their country, a leading international rights group said Thursday. The New York-based Human...

Stella Assange thanks Australian lawmakers for WikiLeaks founder's freedom

Jun. 27, 2024 12:14 PM EDT

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Stella Assange thanked the spectrum of lawmakers who campaigned for her husband, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, to be freed during her visit Thursday to Australia’s Parliament House, where political leaders differed over how welcome the convicted felon was in his...

Today in History: June 26, Berlin Airlift begins

Jun. 26, 2024 00:20 AM EDT

Today in History Today is Wednesday, June 26, the 178th day of 2024. There are 188 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: In 1948, the Berlin Airlift began in earnest after the Soviet Union cut off land and water routes to the isolated western sector...

What to know about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the guilty plea that freed him

Jun. 26, 2024 00:05 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The guilty plea by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange brings a stunning conclusion to an international saga of the quixotic hacker who exposed government secrets. The deal reached with the U.S. Justice Department came after Assange spent 12 years either in...

WikiLeaks’ Assange pleads guilty to publishing US military secrets in deal that secures his freedom

Jun. 25, 2024 23:38 PM EDT

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets Wednesday in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that secures his liberty and concludes a drawn-out legal saga that raised divisive questions about...

Who is Julian Assange, the polarizing founder of the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks?

Jun. 25, 2024 21:54 PM EDT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — He emerged on the information security scene in the 1990s as a “famous teenage hacker" following what he called an “ itinerant minstrel childhood” beginning in Townsville, Australia. But the story of Julian Assange, eccentric founder of secret-spilling website...