Car bombs in northern Iraq kill 7

BAGHDAD: Car bombs ripped through the oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, killing seven and wounding up to 80 people in the heart of a region of long-simmering ethnic tensions.

Three blasts struck outside the headquarters of the Kurdish intelligence forces known as the Asayish, on a highway and near a gas station in southern Kirkuk, located 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

AP Television News footage showed police cars with blaring sirens racing to the Asayish headquarters with black and gray plumes of smoke rising from the first two attacks around 10 a.m. Minutes later, the third blast just down the street from the Asayish headquarters exploded near a taxicab and knocked people to the ground. The sounds of gunshots could be heard immediately after the last bombing.

Police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said seven were killed and up to 80 wounded in the explosions. Dr. Khalid Ahmed of Kirkuk emergency hospital confirmed the casualty count.

Qadir said the bomb along the highway targeted a police patrol led by a top commander, Col. Ahmed Shamerani, but he was not hurt in the blast. But two policemen were among the dead, while five police and eight Asayish officials were wounded."

Car bombs in northern Iraq kill 7 - Arab News

Egyptian opposition defiant over VP’s warning

CAIRO: Egypt’s protesters were defiant Wednesday after a warning from Vice President Omar Suleiman that if protesters don’t enter negotiations, a “coup” could take place causing greater chaos, raising alarm of crackdown.

Organizers of the mass demonstrations, now in their 16th day, sought to widen their uprising.

Suleiman’s sharply worded warning deepened protesters’ suspicions of his US-backed efforts to put together negotiations with the opposition over reforms. The protesters insist they will only enter dialogue after President Hosni Mubarak steps down, fearing the regime will manipulate talks and conduct only superficial changes without bringing real democracy.

Suleiman, a military man who was intelligence chief before being elevated to vice president amid the crisis, has repeatedly said Egypt is not ready for democracy. “The culture of democracy is still far away,” Suleiman said in a meeting Tuesday night with newspaper editors.

The vice president also appeared to be pushing ahead with a reform process even without dialogue. He said a panel of top judges and legal experts would recommend amendments to the constitution by the end of the month, which would then be put to a referendum. But the panel is dominated by Mubarak loyalists, and previous referendums on amendments drawn up by the regime have been marred by vote rigging to push them through.

Protest organizers have called for new “protest of millions” for Friday — their term for dramatically enlarged rallies — but this time they would be held in multiple parts of Cairo instead of only in central Tahrir Square, said Khaled Abdel-Hamid, one of the youth organizers. He also said protesters were calling for labor strikes, trying to draw powerful labor unions into support for their cause.

Abdel-Hamid dismissed Suleiman’s warnings. “We are striking and we will protest and we will not negotiate until Mubarak steps down. Whoever wants to threaten us, then let them do so,” he said.

A previous “protest of millions” last week drew at least a quarter-million people to Tahrir — their biggest yet, along with crowds of tens of thousands in other cities. A Tahrir rally on Tuesday rivalled that one in size, fueled by a renewed enthusiasm after the release of Wael Ghonim, a Google marketing manager who helped spark the unprecedented protest movement.

Egyptian opposition defiant over VP’s warning - Arab News

Egyptian Google exec is 'ready to die' for change

"Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Egyptian Google executive Wael Ghonim is 'ready to die' to bring change to Egypt, he said Wednesday.
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Ghonim also said it is 'no longer the time to negotiate' with the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
'There's a lot of blood now' that has been spilled, he said.
Ghonim played a key role in organizing the protests that have convulsed Egypt for more than two weeks. He was the administrator of a Facebook page that is widely credited with calling the first protest January 25."

He was released recently after being detained for a week and a half.Ghonim appealed to top officials in the Egyptian government, saying "If you are true Egyptians, if you are heroic Egyptians, it's time to step down."

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday the number of people killed in the Egyptian protests has reached 302 -- 232 in Cairo, 52 in Alexandria and 18 in Suez.

Ghonim has been treated as a hero since his release. A crowd of thousands cheered him when he spoke recently at Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands of protesters have demanded change for the last 16 days.

As he walked down the streets of his upscale neighborhood Wednesday, clutching a laptop, passersby recognized him and ran up to kiss him on the cheek and embrace him. A taxi driver stopped his car in traffic, got out and hugged the 30-year-old executive. Another driver handed a cell phone to Ghonim and asked him to say a few words to his daughter.

Yet Ghonim said he is uncomfortable about being the face of the popular uprising in Egypt.

Egyptian Google exec is 'ready to die' for change - CNN.com

Protest in Egypt Takes a Turn as Workers Go on Strike

"As reports filtered in of strikes and unrest spreading to other parts of the city and the country, the government seemed to dig in deeper. Mr. Mubarak’s handpicked successor, Vice President Omar Suleiman, warned Tuesday that the only alternative to constitutional talks was a “coup” and added: “We don’t want to deal with Egyptian society with police tools.”

But the pressure on Mr. Mubarak’s government was intensifying, a day after the largest crowd of protesters in two weeks flooded Cairo’s streets and the United States delivered its most specific demands yet, urging swift steps toward democracy. Some of the protesters drew new inspiration from the emotional interview on Egypt’s most popular talk show with Wael Ghonim, the online political organizer who was detained for two weeks.

At dawn on Wednesday, the 16th day of the uprising, hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators remained camped out at Parliament, where they had marched for the first time on Tuesday. There were reports of thousands demonstrating in several other cities around the country while protesters began to gather again in Tahrir Square, a few blocks from Parliament."

Protest in Egypt Takes a Turn as Workers Go on Strike - NYTimes