Three bombs kill more than 50 in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Three car bombs killed at least 51 people, many shopping at a food market in a Shiite neighborhood, on a day of violence and death in Baghdad.
The three bombs came in quick succession Saturday and also wounded at least 86 people, The New York Times reported.
Two of the blasts shook the Sadriya market while a third hit a traffic circle close by.
No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but car bombs are typical of the Sunni-led insurgency, the Times said.
An Iraqi Interior minister speculated the attacks were probably retaliation for a raid by Iraqi and U.S. troops on a Sunni stronghold.
More than 35 suspected insurgents were arrested in the pre-dawn raid 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
Meanwhile, an estimated 20 people were killed and several more injured when a truck plowed into the group waiting at a bus stop south of Baghdad, the BBC reported.
Drive-by shootings in two Iraqi towns killed two civilians and wounded five, police said Saturday.
U.S. official: Corruption threatens Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Oil smuggling and other corruption in Iraq cost $4 billion a year and threaten to bring down the Iraqi government, a senior U.S. official says.
The corruption is a "virtual pandemic" that represents a "second insurgency," with some of the money going to the Iraqi government's enemies, Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, told London's Guardian newspaper.
"It is the No. 1 issue," said Bowen, who is in charge of auditing Iraq's faltering reconstruction.
A U.S. government report says oil smuggling aided by corrupt Iraqi officials is netting insurgents $100 million a year, helping to make them financially self-sustaining, the newspaper said.
Separately, more than 14,000 U.S.-paid guns intended for the Iraqi government cannot be accounted for, Bowen's inspectors have also found.
It is impossible to know if the guns landed in the hands of insurgents or sectarian death squads because the U.S. military only noted the serial numbers of 10,000 weapons out of a total of 370,000, contrary to Defense Department regulations, Bowen said.
Afghan opium breaks all records, U.S. says
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Afghanistan's opium crop, which provides almost all the world's heroin, has broken all records despite U.S.-sponsored purge efforts, the White House says.
In addition to a 26 percent production increase over past year -- for a total of 5,644 metric tons -- the acreage used for opium poppies grew by 61 percent, the White House said.
Cultivation in the two main production provinces, Helmand and Oruzgan, was up by 132 percent.
White House drug policy chief John Walters called the news "disappointing."
U.S. military and intelligence officials increasingly describe Afghanistan's drug trade as a problem that in some ways exceeds that of the Taliban, The Washington Post reports.
Drug cartels with their own armies engage in regular combat with NATO forces in Afghanistan, NATO Spreme Allied Commander Gen. James L. Jones said.
"It would be wrong to say that this is just the Taliban. I think I need to set that record straight," he said.
Castro misses parade in his honor
HAVANA, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro missed the military parade in his honor Saturday marking the 50th anniversary of his return from exile.
The event showcasing the Cuban armed forces was led by Fidel's successor and brother Raul Castro, Granma newspaper reported online.
The parade was part of a national commemoration of Fidel's 80th birthday, which occurred in August though the celebration was postponed due to his illness.
Fidel Castro underwent gastro-intestinal surgery in July for an undisclosed illness and anointed his brother as Cuba's interim leader.
Some U.S. officials have speculated that he is suffering from terminal cancer. Cuban officials, however, assert he would one day return to power, though have backed away from any prediction as to when.
