IRAQ: End of cooling-off period today to challenge leader.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki faces a new challenge today with the expiration of the 100-day cooling-off period he set to quell violent protests nationwide, as the government struggles to implement reforms and expand services.
As protests threatened governments across the Middle East this year, al-Maliki moved quickly in late February to head off unrest by promising he would spend the next three months evaluating the performance of Cabinet ministers and would ask for the resignations of those found to be not up to the job. Today is his deadline.
UNITED STATES: White House dismisses demands for report on Libya.
The White House brushed off congressional demands for a detailed report outlining U.S. objectives in Libya, a move likely to stoke further anger on Capitol Hill over President Barack Obama’s decision not to seek lawmakers’ consent for the military operation.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that administration officials were already answering questions about Libya in briefings on Capitol Hill.
YEMEN: President Saleh to return, official says.
With the wounded president out of Yemen, the United States and Saudi Arabia scrambled Monday to arrange a power transfer ensuring an end to his decades-long rule. But a top official said President Ali Abdullah Saleh, recovering in Saudi Arabia, would return home within days, a step almost certain to re-ignite violence.
A return by Saleh likely would spark new, intensified fighting between his forces and opposition tribesmen determined to topple him. Both sides’ fighters are deployed in the streets of the capital, and a cease-fire brokered by Saudi Arabia only a day earlier was already starting to fray, with clashes killing at least six.
EGYPT: Demonstrations honor man beaten to death last year.
Crowds of Egyptians dressed in black held demonstrations to honor a young man from Alexandria beaten to death a year ago in a savage attack blamed on police that helped inspire the uprising that brought down Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak.
BAHRAIN: Doctors, nurses go on trial for treating protesters.
Dozens of doctors and nurses who treated injured anti-government protesters during the months of unrest in Bahrain went on trial Monday in a security court on allegations they participated in efforts to overthrow the gulf country’s monarchy.
Denver Post wire services
