Post-Saddam Newspaper Set to Roll Off Baghdad Press: "Reuters
The printing press in the Bab al-Muadham district used to print the official al-Iraq newspaper, and also issued the last editions of Iraq's three other main official newspapers because other presses were out of action."
But it has been taken over by a Kurdish group, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and will now produce a newspaper called Al-Ittihad. The PUK has taken over the only working newspaper press in the capital, workers say.
Other newspapers have been distributed in Baghdad since the fall of Saddam, including one by a communist party, but workers say Wednesday's edition of Al-Ittihad will be the first to be printed in the capital.
In Command Post
EU unblocks more Iraq aid, first airlift this week: "AFP/The Jordan Times
The European Union is to begin airlifting emergency humanitarian aid to Iraq, probably this week, its executive arm said Tuesday after unblocking a further 10 million euros in urgent funds."
In Command Post
Groups: Coalition Holding Iraqi Cleric: "The Guardian
The spiritual leader of a small, radical Iraqi opposition party was being held Tuesday by U.S. and British forces along with dozens of others at the Iran-Iraq border, Iraqi exile groups and clerics said."
Ayatollah Mohammad Taki al-Mudarissi, leader of the Islamic Action Organization, was detained along with 60 others, according to a statement faxed by al-Mudarissi's office to The Associated Press in Damascus.
The Islamic Action Organization is a radical Shiite party responsible for bombings and assassinations carried out against Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s. It is part of the Iran-based Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
In Command Post
A doctor answers the call: "James Dao of The New York Times profiles a Shi'ite doctor from the city of Diy who has emerged as a local leader:
In much of Iraq, government right now, where it exists at all, is as improvisational as jazz. And here in Diwaniya, a city of more than 400,000 people 120 miles south of Baghdad, the bandleader for the moment is Dr. Shammary, a genial former medical professor."
The deputy dean of Diwaniya's college of medicine before the war, Dr. Shammary, 55, has been installed by American military officials, with the blessing of local religious and tribal leaders, as the city manager.
It is a job he did not seek, but he has embraced it with saintly patience and good-natured vigor. Each day, working from the Special Forces compound in his former college, Dr. Shammary is a swirl of activity, trying to resolve a flood of crises while directing the slow process of reconstruction.
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