By Usama Redha in Baghdad
For many months, I heard that the Ministry of Electricity was planning to ration power in Baghdad by giving each family 10 amperes of electricity, or a bit more depending on how many people lived in a house. The idea was to attach a circuit breaker at the top of the electricity poles so people could not mess with their allotted share of amperes and there would be more to go around.
Finally, the electricity workers came to my neighborhood and began installing the breaker boxes. I was granted 16 amps, because I lived with my parents. I asked the engineer, who wore a blue uniform and carried a notebook, what would happen if we went over our 16-amp limit and the circuit breaker shut off our power. How would we reach the box to flip the switch back on?
He told me in such cases, you must visit the local maintenance unit and ask for someone to come out, climb the pole and fix the problem.
Not long afterward, I was awakened early in the morning by the sounds of many voices on the street outside. I dressed quickly and opened the door to take a look. I laughed at what I saw. My neighbor, Haider, had brought a long stick with a hook at one end and he was trying to reach the circuit breaker at the top of the power pole.
His power had cut off because he had forgotten to turn off his electric water heater and had used more than his share of amps. The stick wasn't long enough, so he found another one and somehow taped it to the first one. People had gathered round to watch and were encouraging him.
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Will the real Abu Hamza al-Muhajir please stand up? No, not the one detained Thursday near the northern city of Mosul who convinced Iraqi officials that Abu Hamza al-Muhajir is his name. It's another Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who heads the Sunni Muslim insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, who U.S. and Iraqi officials want. 
For a few hours late Thursday and early today, it seemed the Al Qaeda in Iraq chief might actually be in custody. The Defense Ministry spokesman, Mohammed Askari, was convinced enough that he announced al-Muhajir's arrest and said he had been assured by security officials in the Mosul region that they had their man.
But U.S. military officials, who would be thrilled to announce such a catch, insisted they could not confirm the arrest.
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For a few precious hours, Iraq's shuttered National Museum threw open its doors to journalists this week to celebrate the return of more than 700 looted antiquities, seized over the years by Syrian customs officials.
Clay cones inscribed with cuneiform script, one of the earliest forms of writing, ancient statues, golden necklaces and daggers were on display for the cameras. Museum officials showed off the serial numbers identifying items as part of their collection.
For now, the museum remains closed to the public. Once the journalists had gone Sunday, museum staff began boxing up the items, which will be kept under lock and key until security improves in Baghdad.
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By Usama Redha in Baghdad
When I feel bad or uneasy, the only thing that relaxes me is to go shopping in my neighborhood bazaar.
The busiest time is about 5 p.m. Lots of people come to buy groceries, glasses of fruit juice and snacks to enjoy as the heat of the day begins to ebb. But the last time I went, the bazaar wasn't nearly as crowded as it should have been. The vendors had piled up their fruit and vegetables in neat rows and were polishing them to make them shine. But few people were buying.
I always look around first to see who has the best stuff. But this time I was stunned by the prices, which are supposed to be cheap this time of the year. Most fruits and vegetables had gone up 30% or 40%. So my search was for the cheapest price, not the best quality.
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When you ride in a taxi in Baghdad these days, you might be surprised to see that the cabdriver is wearing his seat belt. He may even ask you to buckle up.
For Iraqis, it's a positive sign that laws are being enforced in Baghdad, where violators of the seat belt rule -- in effect for years but rarely, if ever, enforced -- face fines of $25 for going beltless. Traffic rules also prohibit the use of cellular phones while driving, "to reduce accidents and preserve people's lives," as the website of the General Directorate of Traffic Police states. A violation of that rule also carries a $25 fine.
In Baghdad, enforcement of such laws is seen as a means of bringing some calm to this chaotic city. In the Sadr City neighborhood of northeastern Baghdad, we've had masked men roaming around alleyways with machine guns while battling U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. Snipers have been firing at people from rooftops. U.S. helicopters have fired missiles into residential areas
On the western side of the city, people lock up their homes and public markets close by 5 p.m., so everyone can be assured of being inside before dark. Not a day passes in Baghdad without at least one bomb going off or a few unidentified bullet-riddled bodies being discovered.
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It's not often we get the chance to drive through Baghdad at a slow enough speed to see much and take pictures, but the U.S. military recently offered a trip of several houyrs through Shiite areas that had seen fighting during recent battles between Shiite militiamen and Iraqi and U.S. forces.
There were signs of normalcy on many streets -- a little girl dragging a comb through her doll's straw-colored hair, little boys sitting on the side of the road waiting for the convoy to pass so they could resume their soccer game, people shopping, schoolgirls walking home from class.
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As cleric Muqtada Sadr called Sunday for his supporters to end their fighting with the government across Iraq, horrible accounts have emerged of civilian suffering in neighborhoods in Basra and Baghdad.
One man from Shaab in eastern Baghdad said he watched Wednesday night as Mahdi Army fighters closed off streets and burned tires in his neighborhood. U.S. jets and choppers roared overhead. In the evening, an Iraqi soccer game was on TV; people went inside to watch Iraq play Qatar. It was then that fighters set up their mortar tubes a hundred meters from one home. Before they could fire off a round, a U.S. helicopter shot off a rocket and an explosion ripped the area.
There were seven or eight burned, bleeding bodies lying on the street. Fighters came after two or three hours and lifted the dead militiamen, some of whom were probably teenagers. The blast had shattered windows and sent shrapnel flying, injuring a 6-year-old girl.
The girl's father stood on the street and cursed the Mahdi Army. He shouted that he had never wanted to get involved in the violence. Some friends told him to be quiet, that he shouldn't let anyone hear him talking that way. Eventually they led him inside his damaged house.
— A Times employee in Baghdad
Photo: An Iraqi woman weeps over a coffin at a hospital in the Sadr City district following the death of a relative who was killed during clashes between Mahdi Army militiamen and Iraqi and U.S forces on March 30, 2008 in Baghdad. Credit: Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Images
It appears that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's ultimatum to Shiite Muslim militiamen to surrender to the Iraqi government might not be working precisely as he had intended.
When nobody had turned up by Friday, Maliki gave members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia 10 more days to turn in their weapons and renounce violence.
Instead, about 40 members of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army and National Police offered to surrender their AK-47s and other weapons this morning to Sadr's representatives in the cleric's east Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City.
One of the police officers told journalists assembled at Sadr's office that he was heeding a call by an Iraqi cleric based in Iran, Ayatollah Fadhil Maliki, to stop fighting fellow Muslims.
"We came here to tell our brothers, the followers of Sadr, that we will not be against you," said the officer, who was dressed in civilian clothes and had his face covered with a scarf and dark sunglasses.
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Dividing one's time between Iraq and the United States means viewing the world through two vastly different prisms: the Iraqi one and the American one. This was driven home during a recent encounter with an aspiring foreign correspondent at Columbia University in New York.
The student asked a good question: How do foreigners avoid drawing attention to themselves while working in Baghdad? The answer: Do as the Iraqis do. For instance, don't wear seat belts, because Iraqis don't.
The aspiring correspondent had a follow-up question: Why don't Iraqis wear seat belts?
I told him the truth: I didn't know, but in a country where nobody wants to look "different," wearing seat belts simply was not an option. The student looked perturbed. Couldn't Iraqis — and foreigners — just wear lap belts so that others would not notice they were strapped in, he said? This way, they could be safe and go unnoticed.
I pointed out that nowadays, cars only come with shoulder straps, not lap belts.
What about sliding the shoulder strap down to sit across the lap, to be invisible to passersby? he suggested. Other students were beginning to look concerned that this topic could dominate the class session.
I ended the conversation by saying that in a country plagued by decades of war and political turmoil, most Iraqis probably had things other than traffic safety to worry about. Anyway, being strapped into a car seat could prevent a hasty escape in the event shooting broke out in the midst of a traffic jam, or a bomb went off nearby.
The conversation nagged at me as I returned to Baghdad and sat in the passenger seat of a taxi that sped away from the airport terminal at 85 mph. Later, I asked one of our staff drivers why Iraqis don't wear seat belts, even though there is a law requiring their use. "Because we don't care," he said, shrugging his shoulders. He added that if someone were seen wearing a belt, others would immediately notice them. "They'd say, 'Who is that person? Why are they so important as to wear a seat belt?'" he said.
The driver acknowledged that he would like to wear a seat belt for safety but would not dare, because of the attention and ridicule that would bring.
Other staffers confirmed this. They explained that even before the current war, seat belts were viewed as wimpish and shunned by most Iraqis — even the traffic cops assigned to enforce seat belt laws.
One staffer recalled a drive with his father in 2001. His father was a major general in the Iraqi military and was dressed in his uniform. He also was wearing a seat belt. A traffic officer pulled them over, part of a routine highway check. He peered into the window and snickered as he saw the older man strapped in behind the wheel. "Heh heh heh! You're wearing a seat belt!" he said, before sending the seething pair on their way.
— Tina Susman in Baghdad
Photos: The seat is worn but the seat belt is as good as new in this late-'80s sedan in Iraq. An Iraqi driver proves that tough guys don't wear seat belts. Credits: Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times
A look at 85 minutes in Iraq today as violence raged in the aftermath of an Iraqi government crackdown on militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr. All incidents were reported by Los Angeles Times stringers and based on police sources:
11 a.m.: A roadside bomb explodes in northern Hillah, south of Baghdad, killing two Iraqi police; Clashes are reported between Iraqi Security Forces and militiamen in Kifil, a town south of Hillah;
12 p.m.: A mortar lands near the National Museum in Baghdad, injuring three civilians and an Iraqi policeman; Another hits a street near the Iranian Embassy, but no casualties are reported;
12:05 p.m.: Mortars land in Baghdad's Karada neighborhood, injuring three civilians;
12:10 p.m.: Iraqi Army and U.S. forces clash with militiamen in eastern Baghdad's Baladiyat neighborhood, and one Iraqi civilian is reported killed in cross-fire;
12:20 p.m.: A mortar lands on an Iraqi police checkpoint in eastern Baghdad, injuring one policeman and a civilian;
12:25 p.m.: A car bomb explodes in Karada, killing two civilians and injuring five.
— Times staff writers in Baghdad
Photo: Fighters loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr pose with their weapons. Credit: Haider Al-Assadee / EPA
I had finished my work at the office and left for home because I knew the fighting could start at any moment in my neighborhood between the rival Shiite armed groups.
I stopped on my way at a computer repair shop to pick up my PC. When I reached my neighborhood, it was 7:30 pm. The streets were empty with the exception of a few motorcycles. I spotted some Mahdi Army fighters on foot.
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Sad, tired eyes peer out from behind the bars of Kadhimiya Prison. The pleas are desperate: "I swear I am innocent." "The criminal investigators raped us." "I have been here eight months and I have not seen a judge."
Nearly 200 women, some with their toddlers and infants living with them in their cells, are imprisoned in Baghdad's only detention facility for women. Suspected killers bunk with women charged with petty crimes. Some don't know why they were arrested.
Click here to read more.
— Kimi Yoshino in Baghdad
Photo: The locked gates of a prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. Credit: Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images
 Before it was attacked, I used to spend many Friday afternoons at the used-book market in Mutanabi Street (right).
After the war, different book titles that were forbidden during Saddam Hussein's time flourished there. These include religious books and ones which we call spiritual books, dealing with sorcery and other kinds of white magic. Photocopies of these books were expensive before the war, but an original copy could start at 1 million Iraqi dinars ($840) and reach up to 7 million ($5,900) Iraqi dinars or more.
One vendor told me that he used to sell these books secretly, because Hussein's "regime was afraid that the stuff inside these books could be used against him and his thugs."
The market vanished when a curfew was imposed between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Fridays to protect the people walking to mosque from car bombers. But because of security improvements, the curfew was lifted, which gave me hope that the market would come back.
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When you walk the streets of Baghdad, the results of five years of war are inescapable.
U.S. airstrikes and insurgent bombers have ripped huge, gaping holes out of office blocks. Miles of concrete blast walls separate Sunni from Shiite neighborhoods and encase markets, police stations and government offices. Convoys of armored SUVs with machine guns at the ready careen down streets choked with traffic. Iraqi soldiers armed with AK-47s stop you at every turn to check your ID or search your car for bombs. And U.S. military helicopters roar overhead.
But step into one of those helicopters and another side of the city emerges. The dust and grime soften in the pink glow of the sun as it sets over the Tigris River, and signs of normalcy appear amid the debris.
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 In the relatively calm district of Karada in Baghdad, stands a lone building severely contrasting with its downtrodden surroundings.
In a city that has and continues to witness countless bombings on a daily basis, it is hard to imagine how a multi-story window-clad building such as this one (right) would be able to withstand the daily onslaught of shock waves from explosions.
This is the shape of things to come in Baghdad — once the daily violence becomes something of the past.
The four-story building, which houses a bank, is old but has been completely refurbished with glazed, composite and granite cladding.
Driving through Baghdad, people will notice several buildings that have been given a makeover using similar materials. But some have sustained damage as a result of the aforementioned explosions, while others have been abandoned halfway through construction. Others are completed but uninhabited by the businesses that have been repelled because of lack of investment in post-war Iraq, left to wither in the harsh Iraqi climate.
Depending on the situation, it could be in the very near future that Baghdad's commercial districts witness the blooming of such modern-looking phenomena. For now these buildings, seen sporadically across Baghdad, remain testimonies to what the city could have been.
— Said Rifai in Baghdad
Photo credit: Said Rifai
Three articles in Monday's L.A. Times show the disparate challenges facing the U.S. in Iraq.
Times intelligence beat reporter Greg Miller writes about the release of a report on a touchy subject some Americans believe is counterproductive and others of utmost importance: whether the Bush administration mishandled or lied about intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War to veer the country into a conflict that has cost nearly 4,000 American and more than 100,000 Iraqi lives.
Underlying the subject is whether the U.S. should be in Iraq in the first place, and a crisis of confidence in America's security and foreign policy establishments.
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A couple hundred of the city's most elite women — and a smattering of poor women who wandered in to sell traditional bathing products (above) — made it to Baghdad's Alwiya Club to celebrate International Women's Day with music, dance and food.
 The women included the city's upper crust, at least those who haven't fled to Amman or Damascus yet. Among them was the famous Iraqi actress Awatif Naeem (right), now a director and writer. She sat eating her lunch beneath a blue sky. We asked her what Women's Day means in Iraq:
It's only one day in the life of women annually. The rest of the days are the property of men. During this day we try to remind men that women are one half of the population and any marginalization of us is unfair.
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Before he became a professional painter, Iraqi artist Jaffar Mohammed worked as a civil engineer, laying out roads for the Iraqi government as part of the country's soulless state bureaucracy. His works, mostly oil on canvas, draw on no Iraqi traditions or iconography. Each work reflects an almost obsessive formalism, focusing exclusively on line, shape, space and color within the canvas. In this work, two purple circles on an orange background lend an ominous air to a melange of broad, straight strokes of blue and gray.
— Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad
Artist: Jaffar Mohammed / Courtesy: Afnan Gallery
Here in Baghdad as a visiting correspondent, I was preparing for a night out with "the boys," the Iraqi translators at the Times' bureau who have become my dear friends over the years.
Three or maybe four of us were gonna hit the town Thursday night, drive around the Karada district, visit some tea shops, maybe even find a little place to grab a beer.
Just the night before, the director of our office and I had cruised the same area. I was trying to persuade him that Baghdad had become safer, that we could go out a little more often, even at night.
The lights shined brightly. The evening cool was calming. We sipped tea at a coffee shop, even conducted an interview. The streets were filled with families enjoying the night.
This was on a Wednesday. We could tell it would be totally rocking on a Thursday night, the start of the Muslim weekend. I looked forward to my little trip.
I figured we'd leave about 7 p.m., after I got some work done. I even planned to pitch a quick story about it: finally Baghdad gets its groove back.
The news of the bombs came just before 7 p.m. At first, we heard only three killed. Still, our office manager glared at me. "You see?" his eyes said. "It's still not safe."
As the body count rose and and the eyewitness accounts of the devious bombings rolled in, I grew grateful that we hadn't been out there caught in the mess, instead spending another night working at my desk alone, stuck in my room in our well-protected compound.
On the television came reports of the attack on the Israeli seminary, the bombing of the Times Square recruiting station and another bomb scare at UC Davis.
At least I know I'm not the only one hemmed in by fear and violence.
— Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad
Photo: Iraqis inspect the aftermath of a car bombing in central Baghdad's Bab al-Mudham neighborhood on Monday.
Mahmoud al-Badri /Associated Press
Iraqi painter Hadi Mahood's works took a somber turn shortly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. At first he was hopeful about the future of his country. But as the violence increased, his abstract paintings took on a gloomy and sullen feel. The form of a fish often appears woven into his studies of mood, color, light and texture, as in this oil on canvas.
— Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad
Artist: Hadi Mahood / Courtesy: Afnan Gallery
Painter Dhia Khuzae's works are multimedia collages of color, texture and line drawing. The bicycle is a running motif throughout his works, as are the mysterious faces of two young women. Perhaps this work is an attempt to capture the bright colors and fading memories of a long-ago childhood.
— Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad
Artist: Dhia Khuzae / Courtesy of Afnan Gallery
Despite gritty, overcrowded cities like Baghdad and Kirkuk, Iraq remains primarily an agricultural country, and even its city dwellers mostly maintain close ties to their rural past. In this painting, Iraqi artist Ahmad Nassif, drawing inspiration from 20th century Abstract Expressionism, uses earthy colors to depict the iconic image of a traditional southern Iraq farm housing unit and its surrounding environs, perhaps at twilight.
— Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad
Artist: Ahmad Nassif / Courtesy: Afnan Gallery
While U.S. news outlets might be scaling back the on-air minutes, column inches and front-page headlines devoted to Iraq these days, the same doesn't go for Al Arabiya, the Arabic-language satellite news channel that was born just as the Iraq war began five years ago.
Despite its many setbacks, including the deaths of four journalists in the line of duty, it will continue to report and even expand its Iraq coverage for the Arab world.
The Dubai-based station has quickly reached the top of the Arab media world. It now rivals or beats its more well-known rival, Al Jazeera, across the Arab world. It's the hands-down winner for audiences in Iraq, where Al Jazeera has been barred from operating. Just as CNN fame grew out of its coverage of the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraq conflict has become part and parcel of Arabiya's identity.
 Its journalists have always been more adventurous than their Western colleagues, and they've paid for it. On the wall of the Arabiya offices were images of Iraqi correspondents killed in the line of duty. The most famous is Atwar Bahjat (pictured at left). She was slaughtered by insurgents in her hometown of Samarra as she reported on the bombing of the shrine there on Feb. 22, 2006.
We paid a visit to the nearby Baghdad offices of Al Arabiya (a bundle of flowers in hand) to congratulate them on their five years in existence and have a chat with their bureau chief, Jawad Hattab. They reside in a drab hotel they've taken over outside the Green Zone.
Hattab welcomed us with tea and thick-brewed Turkish coffee. I asked him if management was pushing Arabiya to cut back on Iraq news and associated costs, now that violence was down.
On the contrary, he said. Since the 1990s, Iraq has been a very "vague" country for the Arab world, and only now do people have a chance to get to know it.
"Iraq is still the center of everything happening in the Middle East," said Hattab, himself an Iraqi native. "We're expanding our work and duties in Iraq because we're now covering areas we weren't able to reach before."
But what about the ongoing conflicts in Israel and Lebanon and the U.S. presidential campaign? Aren't they bumping Iraq coverage off the news?
"In the other regions, you get news every now and then," he said. "But in Iraq it is continuous."
— Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad
Photos: At top, Atwar Bahjat (drawing at left), Ali Adbul Aziz, Ali Khateeb and Mazen Tomeizi were Arabiya journalists killed in the line of duty. Above, Bahjat without the head scarf she wore on air to avoid the hostility of Islamists. Credit: Caesar Ahmed
Here's a treat for visitors to the blog. The fine proprietor of Baghdad's Afnan Gallery gave us a CD with images of paintings by some of his stable of Iraqi artists. Sadly, many of them now ply their trade abroad. Iraq was once home to some of the most talented artists in the Middle East. We'll try to highlight their work on Babylon & Beyond every now and then.
— Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad
Artist: Falah al-Saidi / Courtesy: Afnan Gallery
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared for a freewheeling hour-long press conference at the home of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday. He smiled and winked at the reporters and welcomed their questions.
There was nothing explosive or urgent in his remarks. It was interesting to watch how he handled the press. He flattered Iraq, calling it "the land of education, manners; the land of peaceful living by people of differing religions; the land of idealism, poets, writers and scientists ... and artists."
But he also harshly criticized the U.S., without naming it, urging America to head back home and let the countries of the Middle East resolve their problems. Check it out: "The states that come from a distance must allow the regional states to run things independently. Foreign countries must not interfere in the matters of local states because they are capable of working out things. Peace and stability will return to the region if the foreigners leave. We believe the powers that came from overseas thousands of miles away must leave this region and leave the issues in the hands of the locals. If they claim that they want to spend their money to develop the region I think it's better to spend this money in their own country. The people here witnessed from the foreigners nothing but sabotage, destruction and humiliation. Those who came from far places did not make any gains in here. The only thing that they gained is anger and hate from the public. No people from this region likes these foreign powers. Actually most people hope for the departure of the foreign powers."
Here are more excerpts from his opening statement from our unofficial, hastily assembled transcript. Scroll down for excerpts from the question-and-answer session with reporters:
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Spring is in the air, and Iraqis' thoughts are turning to ... air conditioning. That means they're also thinking about the chronic electricity shortages that make the hot months unbearable for people who can't afford to run generators day and night.
Sunday's temperature reached 79 degrees. By May, daytime highs near 100 will be the norm. And the news is not good for people who had hoped to escape a repeat of last summer, when most Baghdad residents were lucky to get more than a few hours of power each 120-degree day.
Dr. Tahseen Sheikhly found himself having to break the bad news during a news conference that was supposed to highlight the progress of U.S.-Iraqi reconstruction efforts. Instead, Sheikhly, a spokesman for the Iraqi government, was hammered by questions from Iraqi journalists demanding explanations for Baghdad's pathetic power supply.
"We get 1,000 megawatts a day in Baghdad, but we need 3,800. That's the reality," he said. "I know the suffering." Nationwide, Sheikhly said the country needs 10,000 megawatts daily to meet demand but produces only 4,500.
The Iraqi media were not satisfied.
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The U.S. says it won't meet directly with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit to Iraq on Sunday and Monday, but how about passing on some messages through a mutual friend?
 On Saturday, the eve of Ahmadinejad's visit, the U.S. and British ambassadors met separately with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. The United Nations Security Council, led by the U.S. and Europe, is preparing to slap Iran with another set of sanctions over its nuclear program, maybe as soon as Monday. U.S. officials also accuse Iran of sending weapons to insurgent groups and militias in Iraq.
Talabani will play host to the Iranian president during his two-day visit.
Talabani's handlers said he and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker talked Saturday about the recent Turkish offensive against Kurdish rebel forces in Iraq. The Iraqi president, a Kurd, was pleased by Turkey's decision to pull its troops out of northern Iraq.
But some might wonder why they met now, after the incursion was already over.
 The stated reason for Talabani's visit with British ambassador Christopher Prentice was even more opaque: the kidnapping of British civilians in Iraq.
But Talabani, whose role is largely ceremonial, has little role in the day-to-day management of the security forces who could free the detainees.
Britain, along with France, is spearheading the drive for the latest round of sanctions against Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, was live on Iranian television Saturday night. He told Iranians that Ahmadinejad's visit was mostly about business — expanding trade across the Iran-Iraq frontier, setting up cross-border industrial parks, arranging technical exchanges, integrating banking systems and launching joint investment projects.
"Iraq is based on free-market economy and we should think of Iran's economic role in the long term, when Iraq is safe for investment," he told the interviewer.
— Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad and Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran
Photos: Iraqi President Talabani was a busy man Saturday, meeting with both U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker (top) and British envoy Christopher Prentice a day ahead of the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Credit: Iraqipresidency.net
Iraqis are nervously awaiting Sunday's visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
According to the National Iraqi News Agency, hundreds of people in the provincial capital of Baqubah protested in the streets and held up placards saying: "Iraq is not for sale."
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 Iraqi Minister of Electricity Kareem Waheed al-Aboudi is not a popular guy. His government agency can barely provide enough power to keep the country lighted up for more than 12 hours a day.
But his bodyguards sure can pack a punch, according to a group of Iraqi police officers who got into a bloody knock-up with his entourage on Wednesday.
Iraqi police say his convoy nearly hit a police patrol in east Baghdad. The minister's bodyguards got out of their vehicles and began to open fire on the cops.
Then in a scene that could have been from the movie "Goodfellas," the guards started pummeling them, the police officers say. They broke the arm of police Capt. Majid Hameed, ripped off his uniform and tossed his badge onto the roadway within sight of passersby and the minister himself, police allege.
The guards also began bashing in the head of police Capt. Haidar Shaiaa with their rifle stocks, leaving him covered in blood, and roughed up police officer Abbas Khadim.
The three policemen have filed charges against the minister and his bodyguards.
— Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad
Photo: Iraqi Minister of Electricity Kareem Waheed al-Aboudi. Credit: Ministry of Electricity
Iraqi politicians on Wednesday threw a wrench into U.S. plans to correct a major imbalance in the nation's political institutions. The three-member presidency council sent back to parliament for reconsideration a law that was meant to pave the way for a new round of provincial elections.
Sunni Arabs and other political groups largely boycotted the last round of local elections in January 2005. As a result, Shiite Muslim factions dominate provincial governments. Sunnis argue that the Shiites now have more local power than their numbers merited, dominating provincial governments in places such as Diyala province, which are mostly Sunni.
U.S. military and political officials in Washington and Baghdad had long pushed for a new election law and touted parliament's recent approval of the measure as a major step for Iraq.
Now it looks like the elections, which were set for Oct. 1, are again imperiled.
The Bush administration downplayed the setback. "This is democracy at work," said White House Press Secretary Dana Perino.
The reasons for Presidency Council's rejection of the law were unclear.
The Shiite political party led by cleric Abdelaziz Hakim, along with Iraq's Kurds, were the main groups opposed to the current law. Hakim's party has long dominated the provincial governments of southern Iraq and is nervous about the prospect of an electoral challenge by the followers of rival Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr.
— Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad
Photo: Sgt. Richard Courtney, of the Army 2-1 Cavalry and of Louisiana, stands by a burning brush in Diyala province. It is a violent area where U.S. officials hope new provincial elections will ease political reconciliations between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Each day, my wife passes the Baghdad Zoo on her way to work. When the weather is nice, crowds of people are there, so a few days ago, she suggested we take our 20-month-old daughter for a visit.
The last time I had visited the zoo was 15 years ago, when my sister, brother and I begged our mother to take us there so we could see a real live lion. When we finally saw the zoo's only lion, we could not believe how skinny it was. We didn't think this was a real lion from Africa. We thought our mother was trying to trick us.
So on a recent afternoon, my wife, our daughter and I went. I was curious to see how it had changed.
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After three recent bombings carried out by women who appeared to be either paupers or mentally disabled, Iraqi authorities have announced plans to round up beggars, the homeless, and the mentally ill, a move they say will make the streets of Baghdad safer.
"These kinds of people belong in ... either social welfare institutes or hospitals," the spokesman for Iraq's Interior Ministry, Abdul-Kareem Khalaf, says.
Khalaf says those pretending to be down on their luck, either to dupe people into giving them handouts or to disguise evil intentions, will be arrested and prosecuted.
Iraqi law forbids begging, but police have been too busy dealing with attacks and other war-related crimes to enforce anti-begging legislation, said Tariq Harb, a prominent Baghdad attorney.
With U.S. and Iraqi officials accusing insurgents of recruiting juveniles and women, Harb and Khalaf say it makes sense to start cracking down.
But enforcing the law will be difficult. Beggars and street people are part of life here, and their numbers have grown dramatically since the war.
In addition, the Koran encourages people to help the needy, and Iraqis see nothing wrong with giving money to people who ask for it. In fact, beggars here often go door-to-door in residential neighborhoods seeking handouts. Others walk the chaotic streets hitting up people in passing cars when traffic slows.
The problem for Iraqis is figuring out who is genuinely needy, and who is merely stuffing already fattened pockets. "I know many men who sit in cheap motels smoking water pipes ... while their wives and kids roam in the streets of Baghdad begging for money," said Harb.
Skeptics question whether Baghdad has the facilities to care for throngs of mentally ill and homeless people. They also say Iraq's leaders have a history of targeting street beggars while tolerating official begging in the form of bribe-taking and other means.
Under Saddam Hussein, for example, officials of his ruling Baath Party would visit people's homes and strong-arm them into handing over their gold, ostensibly to support Iraq's effort in the war with Iran.
— Baghdad bureau
Photo: A woman receives a handout at a Baghdad intersection. Credit: Saad Khalaf/Los Angeles Times
 I look at my cell phone several times a day -- to check the time, and not just in Baghdad. I also keep track of three other time zones around the world where my relatives live.
Besides Baghdad, I display the times in Sweden, London and New Jersey on my phone's world clock. I have a brother in Sweden, a sister in London, and a sister-in-law in New Jersey. My family was scattered all over the globe because of the situation in Baghdad after the invasion in 2003.
Until I discovered the world clock four months ago, I was checking the Internet for the time difference between Baghdad and my relatives'homes. I didn't want t to wake anyone up late at night.
Most likely, Nokia intended its world clock for international businessmen, not Iraqis. But it still helps us.
— Saif Rasheed in Baghdad
The diet crept up on the bureau quietly. One day, a giant pot of a seaweedy-looking mixture appeared on the kitchen counter. Then, the refrigerator filled with rabbity-looking food items.
 Lest LA types think they are the only ones to turn to crash diets for quick weight-loss, think again. In Baghdad, we have been introduced recently to the cabbage diet, which one advocate claims can produce a loss of several pounds a week if followed zealously.
The diet is simple. Cabbage and fruit, cabbage and steak, cabbage and tomatoes, cabbage and cabbage. But no sugars, carbohydrates, or fats.
It's not easy staying fit when you live in a city where taking a stroll is a risky endeavor and jogging might get you mistaken for a fleeing insurgent. And according to the dedicated dieter, a pharmacist by profession, Iraq has never been a nation fixated on svelte. In fact, a pudgy face is a sign of beauty for many Iraqis, who even seek steroid medications to give them a puffy look.
Fortunately for the dieter, it should not be a problem keeping up with his daily cabbage needs. A quick check in the fridge showed no fewer than three cabbage-filled plates waiting to be devoured, and half the cabbage soup was still sitting on the counter.
— Tina Susman in Baghdad
Photos: From top, cabbage soup; cabbage salads in the refrigerator. Credit: Tina Susman
The scene was straight from a New York cafe, only this was Baghdad.
Some coffee drinkers at one table were chatting with me about current events when a cellphone rang. It belonged to a man at a nearby table. He answered it and lapsed into the habit many people have while speaking on cellphones: bellowing down the line as if conversing with someone at the other end of a long tunnel.
 As the man's voice blasted through the cafe, drowning out even the bad pop music blaring from a radio, the people at our table looked at each other in amazement. "He's awfully loud," one said politely to nobody in particular.
Several of us looked at the woman seated with the bellowing man and motioned for her to quiet her companion. She smiled at us, nodded her head to say she understood, and told her companion to turn down the volume. He did so. Then, when he finished the conversation he turned around and looked at us.
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People find pets anywhere they can. I learned this a few years ago while on assignment in a remote West African rain forest, where scientists were searching for the source of a deadly virus. I was staying at one of the scientists' homes and went to the bathroom the first morning to brush my teeth, only to find a huge, hairy spider splayed across the mirror over the sink.
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The leader of a group of Iraqis allied with U.S. forces to secure their area south of Baghdad knows who his favorite candidate for U.S. president is: the woman. The question is, which woman?
Sheik Mustafa Kamel Hamed Shibeeb Jubouri, who dropped by to visit some foreign journalists recently, began lavishing praise on Nancy Reagan when asked whom Americans should put into the White House. Jubouri, who commands the so-called Sahwa, or Awakening Council, forces in a volatile region outside the capital, praised her charisma and forceful personality, apparently confusing Reagan with Hillary Clinton.
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The government is supposed to provide families with a monthly ration of 200 liters of kerosene for about $17. But because of widespread corruption, we are lucky to receive it once a year.
Instead, we have to hunt on the street for black market sellers to fill our jerry cans with fuel. In one month, a family could spend $300 on heating oil alone at a time when you are lucky to earn that much in salary per month.
People wonder why electricity and fuel supplies were better in Baghdad under Saddam Hussein. Some think it’s because of corruption, and others believe it is a conspiracy now by the government and the Americans to make people exhausted. People don’t know anymore what to believe.
— An Iraqi staff writer in Baghdad
Photo: Fuel shortages have spurred a lively black market for heating oil in Baghdad. Credit: LA Times
As I headed home recently for the first time in more than a year, all I could think about was my last visit.
That was in September 2006. I had been scared to go home. Working for a newspaper, you become more aware of the violence lurking around. I was convinced that a bomb might go off or a stray bullet might hit me. The escalating sectarian violence convinced me we had reached the point of no return.
The streets were empty. Houses were deserted. People in their cars looked anxious like me. I reached the entrance to my neighborhood and held my breath. It was like a ghost town. The few remaining shops were closed and the whole neighborhood was shrouded in darkness, except for a few houses lit up with their own generators. When I got home, I ran inside with my bags and hugged my mom and sister.
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Maj. Gen. Jeff Hammond, who took command of U.S. troops in the capital and surrounding areas just a few weeks ago, likes to remind people that he is a simple guy from Hattiesburg, Miss., despite the complex job he has. That was clear in his opening statements to journalists invited to meet him last week over a lunch of roast chicken, potato salad, cole slaw and other traditional American fare.
"My No. 1 most important title that I have in my life is 'Daddy.' That outranks any other title such as major general. It gives you a perspective into what's important in my life," said Hammond, who has a 10th and an 11-grader back home and is on his fourth deployment.
With Army deployments now extended to 15 months, Hammond noted that things are not easy for those on the road, or those left behind. "Our families are equally as deployed back home. The challenges that go with raising a family in the absence of a key element of that family for 15 months is something most of us never really realize," he said.
But many in the Army's 4th Infantry Division, which Hammond commands, are being forced to confront the difficulty as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan stretch the military's resources. According to Hammond:
12,747 of his soldiers are on their first deployment; 10,016 are on their second; 5,016 are on their third; and 2,247 are on their fourth. Since the division deployed late last year, 860 babies have been born to soldiers' families back home.
— Tina Susman in Baghdad
 Many consider the middle-class neighborhood of Karada, in south Baghdad, to be a religious area because the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council 's headquarters is there. But it's also home to recreational clubs like Alwiya, Hindiya and Sharook, where people can enjoy an alcoholic beverage after a stressful day at work. (The clubs also have basketball and tennis courts and swimming pools, but many people visit purely for social reasons.)
The bars at the clubs are open only from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m, just enough time to grab a drink and hurry home before darkness and the curfew.
In Iraq, the most popular liquor is arak, a transparent, anise-flavored liqueur served on the rocks. The biggest arak factory is in Baqubah, north of Baghdad, but is also produced in other northern factories in areas with Christian populations.
When mixed with water, arak turns a milky white. It has a strong flavor and the scent of black licorice. One watered-down glass is strong enough to give you a high-flying buzz; a second will have you sobbing in your glass. A third can knock you off your stool.
It's customary for Iraqis to snack while drinking arak, to help soak up the liquor. The most popular appetizers are baba ganouj, hummus, tabbouleh and pistachios. This is followed by a decent meal with a meat entree.
Younger Iraqis prefer beer. The two most popular Iraqi brands — Faridah and Loiloa — come in large, 750 ml (25 oz) bottles. Most men drink five or six in a sitting. Western alcohol is also available, from draft beer to Johnnie Walker Black Label.
These bars offer a rare escape from reality, even if it's only for a couple hours.
— Caesar Ahmed in Baghdad
Photo: Iraq's favorite alcohol, the milky, anise-flavored liquer, arak. Credit: Saad Khalaf, Los Angeles Times
The best meal in Iraq is Mahzgouf fish. Many Iraqi families gather after Friday prayers in the mosques to feast on the succulent, river bottom feeder.
But because of the chaotic security situation, people frown upon mahzgouf that is caught from the Tigris River. People whisper that those fish have fed on human flesh. Now, a discerning customer will opt for a fish bred in a hatchery.
People will pick out a live fish from a restaurant or a street vendor’s water-filled wheel barrow. The mahzgouf is promptly clubbed and then roasted on its side and cooked over a wood fire. The disc-shaped fish will then be served with a flat bread, called khubz. Everyone digs in with clean hands and puts fingerfuls of the oily fish in their mouth.
— Caesar Ahmed in Baghdad
Photo: A roadside vendor prepares the popular mahzgouf fish to roast. Credit: Saad Khalaf, Los Angeles Times
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's feuding with President Jalal Talabani and others in the Iraqi leadership is considered a hindrance to national reconciliation, but at least three men are benefitting from it. In fact, it is keeping them alive.
The men are former associates of Saddam Hussein, and they were sentenced to hang for taking part in military atrocities that killed as many as 180,000 Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s. They include Sultan Hashim Ahmad Jabburi Tai, a former Iraqi military officer; Ali Hassan Majid, aka Chemical Ali for his use of poisonous gas on the Kurds; and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, who was Hussein's deputy head of army operations.
But Iraq's president and two vice presidents must sign off on executions, and therein lies the rub. Talabani, who is a Kurd, and Vice President Tariq Hashimi, a Sunni Arab, have argued against the hangings — Talabani because he opposes the death penalty and Hashimi because he says sparing the lives would foster Sunni-Shiite-Kurdish reconciliation.
As a result, the sentences, which were passed in June and should have been carried out in the fall, cannot go ahead, even though Maliki's Shiite-led government has made clear it would like to see the convicts go to the gallows. During a meeting with journalists over the weekend, government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said this was one of the downsides to democracy: having to abide by rules that one does not like.
He challenged people who would overrule the tribunal that sentenced the men to explain how they could ignore the ruling without violating the constitution. "Let them show us how to do this without breaking the law. You cannot do it this way," he said. "This is not the way to deal with Iraq. Once we open such doors, this will make the constitution a piece of rubber," to be bent any way that suits people's desires, Dabbagh said.
In the meantime, the men remain in the hands of U.S. officials, who say they will not be turned over to Iraqi officials until the government has settled the issue.
— Tina Susman in Baghdad
 Ever since I arrived in Baghdad, I've been amazed at how readily accessible American culture is here. "Oprah," "Dr. Phil" and even "Grey's Anatomy" are all broadcast regularly on satellite television.
One day, I was channel surfing and one of our interpreters said, "Oooh! 'Seinfeld!' I love that show!"
On the street, vendors peddle pirated DVDs for as little as $1, with current films such as "Sweeney Todd" and "No Country for Old Men" already available here. Maybe it's because the interpreters are penned in with nowhere to go, but they've seen more current American movies than I have.
So it should have been no surprise to me when staffer Saif Hameed started talking to me about Monopoly. We were quibbling over the rules, which he knew better than I did. I never knew, for example, that if you don't buy a property when you land on it, it gets put up for auction. Of course, as a kid, he saved up and bought the official Parker Brothers edition for $75, so I guess it makes sense that he memorized the official rules.
In Iraq, they have their own version in Arabic with Boardwalk replaced by Baghdad's formerly-ritzy Arasat Street, but he said the American game should be easy to find.
He had thrown down the gauntlet. We would have a Monopoly match.
A few hours later, when the drivers came back with the game in hand, there was just one problem.
Our "Monopolio" was entirely in Spanish: "Go! (Adelante!) Cobrense $200 de sueldo al pasar."
"Welcome to Iraq," Mohammed Rasheed, our staff writer and technical whiz, told me. "Nothing makes sense here!"
— Kimi Yoshino in Baghdad
Photo: Found in Baghdad, a Spanish-language edition of Monopoly. Credit: Kimi Yoshino
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