An analysis of the use of sources in 'The Australian' newspaper

Sources are a crucial part of the news process and warrant careful attention to their use. This report is a contents analysis of use of sources in the coverage of the ongoing Iraqi conflict in The Australian newspaper The analysis covers a period of four weeks in August/September 2007.

While journalists see themselves as impartial and objective in the tradition of the fourth estate, this analysis of sources in Australia’s only national masthead found that coverage of events is skewed in several ways. The study found a preference for western sources over Iraqi ones and also found a preference towards political and military sources. Least objectively perhaps, the study also found a pronounced bias of sources in favour of continued military intervention. While the researcher recommends further analysis, the use of sources in the study period show that the debate over Iraq in The Australian has been framed in terms of its impact to the West - not Iraq.

Methodology:

This media contents analysis is based on a diary of all news articles about the conflict in Iraq in The Australian newspaper during the four weeks between 25 August 2007 and 21 September 2007. 44 articles were chosen for study, approximately two articles for each day of publication.

The full list of articles is included in Appendix A at the end of this essay and attached in the accompanying news diary. The criterion used for inclusion in the analysis was any news article that was predominately about the Iraqi conflict. Therefore stories about political reaction in Washington, Canberra and elsewhere were included even though the locale of these stories was outside Iraq itself. Op-ed articles and stories that appeared in feature pages were excluded from the analysis.

For each of the included articles, the use of human sources was examined. Direct quotes and paraphrasing from named and unnamed sources were included for analysis. Where the source was from a written report or another news article it was excluded from the analysis.

This left a total of 112 sources across the 44 articles, an average of approximately three sources per story. The source data was then examined by three criteria: nationality, occupation, and whether it could be determined if the source was in favour of, neutral towards, or against continued military occupation. The latter criterion was determined either by either the context of the words or the official role of the speaker.


Literature Review:
Hall's "Policing the Crisis" (1984) provide a good analysis of the tendency towards the use of “authoritative” sources which limits the frame of any given debate. Schultz's "Reviving the Fourth Estate" (1998) forensically examines the media’s fourth estate ‘watchdog’ role while McChesney (1997), Breit (2001) and Pilger (2002) discuss the problems caused by the corporate concentration of ownership of the world’s media and the international power these corporations weald. Benedict Anderson 's "Imagined Communities(1983) defines a useful framework for seeing the media as a key part of a nation’s “imagining”. Meadows's "A Return to Practice" (2001) draws on Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci to define the media as cultural resource that attempts to redefine journalism as a conversation not as an elitist alliance between journalists and their sources. White's "Reporting in Australia has a useful primer on sources that is important reading for working journalists.


Analysis:

The media has long claimed for itself the fourth estate position of society’s “watchdog” which it underpins with notions of objectivity and professionalism. But such objectivity is problematic for a commercial entity such as The Australian, a Rupert Murdoch owned newspaper. His News Limited is the archetypal global media firm and is one of the five largest transnational media corporations in the world that own and manage the world’s principal sources of news and information. It is news they transmit in politically safe ways. It is also transmitted in a consistent manner. None of News Ltd’s 174 newspapers worldwide, including The Australian, editorially opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. This study of sources seeks to examine how these biases manifest themselves in a Murdoch masthead four years later. This is important because newspapers are a crucial part of the “imagining” that creates the concept of a nation. This analysis will attempt to show their interpretation of news is the “freedom of the powerful”.

Figure 1 below shows a breakdown of sources by nationality. Firstly, the articles showed a marked tendency to rely on American sources. 65% of all voices in the study period were from the US. And 84% of all voices were from English speaking countries. Only 12% of all voices were Iraqi. The lack of local sources show a truism in news gathering that source obsession gives too much priority to the person that yield the news than the news itself.

Figure 1: Analysis of interview sources by nationality
Total= 112
USA 65%
Iraq 12%
Australia 11%
UK 8%
Others 2%

Figure 2 below analyses the role of the sources used. The striving for objectivity in journalism gives rise to the practice of obtaining media statements from ‘authoritative’ and ‘accredited’ sources. The study bears this practice out as a total of 76 % of all sources are from the ruling elite of politics and the military. All bar one source was male (Hillary Clinton was the sole exception). The skewing towards a mostly male elite class reinforces the notion there is an over-accessing in the media of those in powerful and privileged positions.

Figure 2 analysis of sources by role of source
Total = 112
Politician (or spokesperson) 44%
Military (or spokesperson) 32%
Others 24%

Figure 3 below shows the bias of the sources in terms of their view on the continued presence of Coalition troops in Iraq. The number of pro-presence sources outnumbered the anti-presence sources by a margin almost three to one. Such disparity in views chosen is not reflected in the views of the community served by The Australian newspaper. The most recent Newspoll (another News Ltd company) on Iraq (10/07/07) showed 67 per cent of respondents were in favour of either bringing home all Australian troops immediately or setting a definitive date for them to return. Given the significant contribution of the media to the way in which we ‘imagine’ our community, such results show a jarring disconnect between the views of the media and the public they profess to serve.

Figure 3: Analysis of sources by their stance on the continued presence of the US-led forces in Iraq
Total=112
Clearly in favour 61%
Clearly against 22%
Neutral or could not be determined 16%


Figure 4 below analyses the 25 anti-presence sources from figure 3 to determine their nationality. 86 % of all these sources were from the US and Australia. They mostly represented political parties opposed to the military engagement. In four weeks, The Australian published the voices of just two Iraqi opposed to the US-led presence. In the media’s favoured way of setting up topics, they maintain what the Birmingham media group describe as “strategic areas of silence”.

Figure 4: Analysis of sources against the continued presence of the US-led forces in Iraq by nationality of source
Total=22
USA 54%
Australia 32%
Iraq 10%
Other countries 4%


Conclusion

Through an analysis of sources, it is possible to argue The Australian newspaper has several pronounced biases in its coverage of the conflict in Iraq. These favour a profile of American male privileged elites who favour continued involvement of US-led forces in Iraq. These biases often manifest themselves by as much as what sources are not used (women, Iraqis, and non-privileged citizens generally) as the powerful ones that are used.

But perhaps this is too large a claim for a four week analysis period. The war in Iraq has been going for four years. A complete analysis of four years’ data from The Australian of the same criteria would leave a researcher with more solid grounds for drawing this conclusion.

====

Appendix A: full list of considered articles
date page title author total sources
25-Aug 2 Bush and Howard to talk Iraq Greg Sheridan 2
27-Aug 12 Iraqi PM lashes out at Clinton over
sack call AFP, AP 2
27-Aug 14 Bush recasts defeat in victory quest Sunday Times 10
29-Aug 9 Sarkozy calls for Iraq pullout AFP 1
29-Aug 12 Prepare for long war: UK general The Times 2
29-Aug 12 Arms supply investigated Agencies 0
31-Aug 1 Surge working: top US general Dennis Shanahan 2
31-Aug 10 Shia rivalry forces cleric to cease fire
Agencies 1
1-Sep 1 Bush in warning to Rudd on troops Geoff Elliott 3
1-Sep 13 Rebuild Iraq police force, urges panel Reuters, AFP 4
3-Sep 11 confidence in US plan surges across
Baghdad Sunday Times 4
3-Sep 12 US Anger at Brits move out of Basra Sunday Times 4
3-Sep 11 UK troops give up Basra base The Times 6
3-Sep 11 Bush heads down under via the war zone Geoff Elliott 0
4-Sep 11 Bush in surprise detour to Iraq Geoff Elliott 2
4-Sep 14 President signals troop withdrawal Agencies 2
5-Sep 14 Engagement may have reached its
high-water mark Geoff Elliott 1
6-Sep 1 Face-off on Iraq looms for Rudd Dennis Shanahan 2
6-Sep 9 Iraq war 'remains winnable' Mark Dodd 2
7-Sep 1 Bush charm fails to sway Rudd on Iraq P Karvales 2
7-Sep 13 Iraqi police force should be scrapped,
says report AP 2
8-Sep 12 Petraeus to suggest gradual cut in forces AFP 2
10-Sep 11 paying the Sunnis to fight al-Qaida Sunday Times 3
11-Sep 9 British troops remained at Basra Palace
at insistence of US AFP 2
11-Sep 9 Military chiefs split on success of surge The Times, 2
12-Sep 1 Iraq troops surge working Geoff Elliott 1
12-Sep 2 Troop withdrawal not an option: PM Mark Dodd 4
12-Sep 15 Democrats turn on the general they
welcomed The Times 1
12-Sep 15 Protests muted, at least from the publicThe Times 3
12-Sep 15 After a half hitch, a knotty reckoning The Times 1
12-Sep 15 US winning war: Petreaus The Times 4
12-Sep 15 Petraeus to visit UK to defuse Basra rowThe Times 2
13-Sep 8 Bush challenged on Iraq war plan The Times 9
14-Sep 9 Heat on Clinton over Iraq criticism David Nason 4
15-Sep 13 Bush bid to build bridges is too late Geoff Elliott 2
15-Sep 13 Sunni tribes vow to avenge murder of
pro-US leader Agencies 2
15-Sep 13 America stands alone as a mighty
world power for good The Times 0
17-Sep 1 Barmy armies' pitch battle in Iraq Martin Fletcher 2
17-Sep 11 War in Iraq all about the oil Graham Paterson 1
18-Sep 11 Greenspan backs off 'Iraq war for oil'
claims Reuters 2
20-Sep 8 Iraqis ward off attack by al-Qa'ida AFP 3
20-Sep 8 Blackwater guards 'fired without cause' MCT, AP 4
21-Sep 11 Democrats lose Senate bid to win troops
more home time AP 2
21-Sep 1 Labor policy on troop withdrawal
is a big con Dennis Shanahan 2

The Australian: media contents analysis of Islamic people and countries

Abstract:
This article is a contents analysis of the representation of Islam and Islamic people in The Australian newspaper. The analysis finds that while articles about Muslim countries and people are plentiful, the coverage is skewed both in terms of local news and the types of stories that make the news. These stories more often than not relate to terrorist activities and confirm existing simplistic stereotypes about Islam and Islamic people.

Methodology:

This media contents analysis is based on a diary of news articles about Islam and Islamic people in The Australian newspaper between 30 June 2007 and 14 July 2007. The full list of articles is included in Appendix A at the end of this essay.

The criterion used for inclusion in the analysis was any news article that either predominately featured a Muslim country or Muslim people. Therefore stories about the London / Glasgow attacks and the subsequent arrest of Mohamed Haneef were included even though the locale of these stories was mostly in Australia, the UK and Haneef’s native India. However stories about the Iraq War which were mostly about US or Australian policy or otherwise Western reaction were excluded from the analysis. Op-ed articles and stories that appeared in feature pages were likewise excluded from the analysis. As a result 142 stories were selected for media content analysis.


Literature Review:

This research relies heavily on two academic papers. Waleed Aly’s The Clash of Ignorance is an exploration of how Western culture’s division of Muslims into ‘fundamentalists’ and ‘moderates’ is a misunderstanding that strips Muslims of complex political identities. Arthur Saniotis’s Embodying Ambivalence: Muslim Australians as ‘Other’ examines the pariah status of Muslims in Australia.


Analysis:

Figure 1 below shows the list of main stories that were selected for analysis. The two major stories of the period were the London/Glasgow attacks and the related subsequent detainment of Haneef in the Gold Coast, Australia. Together these accounted for 39.4% of all Muslim related stories during the study period.

Figure 1: Analysis of contents by story type where there were 3 or more articles during the period under review
N= 142

story No of articles Percentage of Total
London/Glasgow attacks 31 21.8
Haneef 25 17.6
Red Mosque siege 11 7.7
Islamic terrorism 8 5.6
Iraq war 8 5.6
Palestine 4 2.8
Alan Johnston 4 2.8
Others 49 34.5


In nearly all of the listed stories above (65.5% of the total) there is an element that equates Islam with terrorism. As the Glasgow Media Group pointed out, news is a cultural artefact – it is a series of socially manufactured messages which carry many of the culturally dominant assumptions of society. Muslim Australians have been consistently marginalised and misrepresented for over one hundred years. The large instance (17.6%) of the Haneef story as terrorist motif (or non-story, given that he was eventually released without charge) shows that little has changed today. Saniotis argues that in the current climate of fear of terrorist attack western discourses continually render Muslims as ‘bogey’ people who must be put in their place. Edward Said believes that it is the fate of Islam to be regarded as a monolithic thing of fear and hostility. Yet away from the clamour of a highly visible extremist minority, Islam is alive is with ideas, debates and discussions on the contemporary and future significance of the religion. Very little of this lively discourse is reflected in Australian news coverage.

According to Waleed Aly, Islam in the post September 11 West has been transformed from a diverse expressed international faith to a narrow political identity. Aly’s argument is that engagements with Muslims are presented in symbolic “fundamentalist” and “moderate” binaries which, he states, becomes an exercise in “crude taxonomy”. This crude taxonomy is demonstrated in figure 2 below which showed the 24% of all headlines contained variations on the pejorative terms of “terror”, “bomber”, “militant”, “radical”, “Islamist” and “jihad”. Aly claims that the nuances and attention to detail afforded to western cultures and traditions are not matched when dealing with Muslim communities. Witness The Australian headline on 11 July “Fifth Aussie held in Lebanon over Islamist links”. It is difficult to imagine a similar headline if the “Aussie” in question had “Christianist links”.

Figure 2 analysis of headline content by keyword
N=142

Keyword No of articles Percentage of Total
Terror or terrorist 11 7.7
Bomb or bombers 10 7.0
Militant or militancy 4 2.8
Radical 3 2.1
Islam or Islamist 3 2.1
Jihad or Jihadist 3 2.1
Others 108 76.0


Figure 3 below shows that the value of proximity as a crucial news factor. 35.9% of all Muslim stories were Australian-based. Cultural bias in defining proximity is also an important factor with a further 19% of Muslim stories emanating from the UK. The proximate angle is often used to heighten fear in the newspaper’s readership and turns it into a discourse of ‘matter out of place’. The first sentence in 2 July’s lead story about “Home-grown Jihad threat” stated without attribution that “Up to 3000 young Muslims in Sydney alone are at risk of becoming radicalised by fundamentalist Islam” (The Australian, 2 July 2007, p.1). These 3,000 people, like millions of others worldwide, are being judged by the parameter of their religion.

Figure 3: Analysis of contents by lead country where there were 3 or more articles during the period under review
N=142

Country No of articles Percentage of Total
Australia 51 35.9
UK 27 19.0
Pakistan 17 12.0
Iraq 10 7.0
Palestine 9 6.3
Indonesia 7 4.9
Lebanon 6 4.2
Iran 3 2.1
Others 19 13.4



Conclusion
The sample of articles shown in the analysis reveal a tendency for simplistic reporting of Muslims and Muslim countries. Articles about terrorism outweigh political and social matters. Such misrepresentation of Muslims is a process that contributes considerably to ‘Islamophobia’ (Saniotis, 2004, p. 49). The terrorist discourse itself is simplistic and lurid and does little to unpack the complex sociology behind it (Ely, 2006, p.32). Finally the selection of articles is skewed towards an Australian and Anglo-centric bias with very few in-depth articles about Muslim nations in the period under review.

Appendix A: full list of considered articles

date lead country headline story page
30-Jun Australia riddle of sheik's contacts Lebanon arrests 1
30-Jun Australia wife says detained man
no militant Lebanon arrests 4
30-Jun Egypt Egypt moves to ban mutilation FGM 12
30-Jun Palestine mosque not for politics terrorism 12
30-Jun Pakistan teargas disperses a flood of protest cyclone 17
30-Jun UK faithfully honing the killer instinct terrorism 21
2-Jul Australia home-grown jihad threat London/Glasgow attacks 1
2-Jul Australia fifth suspect held in British terror hunt London/Glasgow attacks 1
2-Jul Australia afghan stay will be longer: Downer afghan war 5
2-Jul Australia dangerous liaisons in two countries ties by blood and radical Islam terrorism 5
2-Jul Australia Doctor defies Canberra’s demands for Habib file Habib 5
2-Jul Saudi Arabia barely veiled menace terrorism 10
2-Jul UK UK alert on Iraq-style attacks London/Glasgow attacks 11
2-Jul UK failed bomb left forensic goldmine for detectives London/Glasgow attacks 11
2-Jul UK London suspects home grown London/Glasgow attacks 11
2-Jul Afghanistan coalition assault kills 65 afghans afghan war 12
2-Jul Iran Iran in crisis after cleric's murder cleric murder 12
2-Jul Malaysia Anwar condemns malaysian police state Malaysian politics 13
3-Jul UK terrorist cell not yet neutralised London/Glasgow attacks 7
3-Jul UK London plot led police to Glasgow London/Glasgow attacks 7
3-Jul Palestine Hamas sends 'terror mouse' to martyrdom Hamas Mickey Mouse 8
3-Jul Pakistan nuclear villain 'virtually free' nuclear 8
4-Jul Australia doctors linked to terror plots Haneef 1
4-Jul Australia modern militant recruits himself Haneef 1
4-Jul Australia medic was nothing out of the ordinary Haneef 1
4-Jul Lebanon arms supply charges for Aussies in Beirut Lebanon arrests 1
4-Jul Lebanon charges laid in Beirut Lebanon arrests 1
4-Jul Lebanon boxer freed in Lebanon tells of days of torture Lebanon arrests 8
4-Jul Australia no cause for alarm says pm London/Glasgow attacks/Haneef 8
4-Jul Australia ex-Guantanamo inmate Habib still rated a risk Guantanamo 9
4-Jul Australia doctor passed background checks Haneef 9
4-Jul Australia educated mix of recruits targeted Haneef 9
4-Jul Australia gold coast Muslims in the dark over bomb suspects Haneef 9
4-Jul Australia extended detaining powers sought Haneef 9
4-Jul Australia review of APEC security plans as trade talks begin Haneef 9
4-Jul Australia making charges stick easier said than done Haneef 9
4-Jul Australia bombs aimed at the heart of a democracy London/Glasgow attacks/Haneef 14
5-Jul Australia family reels from dishonour of arrest Haneef 1
5-Jul Australia doctor member of sleeper cell' Haneef 1
5-Jul Australia PM to stand firm on Iraq Iraq war 1
5-Jul Australia Scotland yard to question Haneef Haneef 8
5-Jul Australia bomb link doctor under siege at home Haneef 8
5-Jul Australia Indian officials to meet suspect Haneef 8
5-Jul UK police probe rocks Beatles's peaceful penny lane London/Glasgow attacks 9
5-Jul UK travellers stranded by bomb scares London/Glasgow attacks 9
5-Jul UK suspect a student zealot London/Glasgow attacks 9
5-Jul UK those who cure you will kill you London/Glasgow attacks 9
5-Jul UK extremists pick professionals brains London/Glasgow attacks 9
5-Jul UK Scots Muslims rally to fend off backlash London/Glasgow attacks 9
5-Jul UK suspicious gas bottle leads to arrest London/Glasgow attacks 9
5-Jul Malaysia legal bid by Anwar rejected Malaysian politics 10
5-Jul Palestine nightmare is over for BBC hostage Johnston 11
5-Jul Palestine revived Hamas desperate to deliver Johnston 11
5-Jul Pakistan Bhutto vows to take on Pakistani militant red mosque 11
5-Jul Pakistan mosque leaders defy surrender deadline red mosque 11
5-Jul Australia religion is the root cause of terrorist threat Haneef 16
6-Jul Australia police can hold doctor for four days Haneef 7
6-Jul Australia phone calls and family ties focus of global probe Haneef 7
6-Jul Australia justice at risk in climate of fear Haneef 7
6-Jul Australia meeting on Islam no recruitment camp Haneef 7
6-Jul Australia scare unites two leaders London/Glasgow attacks 7
6-Jul UK Glasgow suspects left suicide note London/Glasgow attacks 8
6-Jul Palestine Hamas misses out on wages of peace with west Fatah-Hamas 8
6-Jul Indonesia Indonesian fights Papuans with rape and murder West Papua 9
6-Jul Pakistan red mosque leader caught in escape bid red mosque 9
7-Jul Australia six doctors questioned over terror Haneef 1
7-Jul Australia radical group faces ban London/Glasgow attacks 1
7-Jul Australia hospital staff in protest at racism Haneef 6
7-Jul Australia driver talked of confidential job Haneef 6
7-Jul Australia suspects rejected for state health jobs London/Glasgow attacks 6
7-Jul UK Cambridge trio linked to bombs London/Glasgow attacks 13
7-Jul UK cyber jihad trio get jail London/Glasgow attacks 13
7-Jul UK Glasgow airport attackers both wanted to die say police London/Glasgow attacks 13
7-Jul Palestine Hamas denies paying ransom Johnston 14
7-Jul Pakistan women and kids flee red mosque red mosque 14
7-Jul UK terrorists outmatched London/Glasgow attacks 17
7-Jul Palestine Alan Johnston's release Johnston 30
7-Jul UK shift in terror tactics London/Glasgow attacks 30
9-Jul Australia border security tightened Haneef 1
9-Jul Australia new raids target gold coast doctors Haneef 1
9-Jul Iraq Costello cleans up Nelson's oil spill oil 4
9-Jul Indonesia Indonesia travel alarm terrorism 4
9-Jul Pakistan raid on kingpins too risky Al Qa'ida 11
9-Jul Israel Israel to free 250 Abbas loyalists Fatah-Hamas 11
9-Jul Iraq truck blast one of the deadliest Iraq war 11
9-Jul UK al Qa'ida role in car bombs London/Glasgow attacks 11
9-Jul Pakistan colonel shot dead as full assault on mosque looms red mosque 12
9-Jul Indonesia new Acehnese political party divides former rebel comrades Aceh 13
9-Jul UK why healers turned hands to terror London/Glasgow attacks 15
9-Jul UK moderates need to take on jihadists London/Glasgow attacks 16
9-Jul Australia violent agenda carefully veiled hizb ut-Tahrir 18
10-Jul Australia terror evidence may be lost after police 'bungle' Haneef 1
10-Jul Australia new visa cross-checks ramp up security Haneef 4
10-Jul Indonesia Indonesia irked at fresh travel warning travel warning 4
10-Jul Indonesia Suharto sued for stolen billions Suharto 8
10-Jul UK radical stuff' found in Indian’s homes bomb plot 9
10-Jul Germany interfaith footy kicks goal for peace football match 9
10-Jul Iraq it’s a lost cause so get out now: top us paper Iraq war 9
10-Jul Pakistan cleric calls for Pakistan uprising terrorism 9
11-Jul Pakistan scores die, children flee as troops storm mosque red mosque 1
11-Jul Australia kids pay Hicks jail visit David Hicks 8
11-Jul Australia lawyer's new bid to free Haneef Haneef 8
11-Jul Lebanon fifth Aussie held in Lebanon over Islamist link Lebanon arrests 8
11-Jul USA al Qa'ida 'moving to blast American city with n-bomb' terrorism 8
11-Jul Indonesia Indonesia travel warning 'crying wolf' travel warning 8
11-Jul Palestine Abbas calls for foreign force in the Gaza strip Fatah-Hamas 11
11-Jul Iran Tehran's tunnel to 'protect nuke site' Iran nuclear 11
11-Jul Iraq Iraqi officials warn against early US troop withdrawal Iraq war 11
11-Jul UK plotter helped design air parts London/Glasgow attacks 11
11-Jul Pakistan mosque infested by hardcore militancy red mosque 11
11-Jul Pakistan Musharraf may declare state of emergencyred mosque 11
11-Jul Indonesia alarm in Jakarta at separatist symbols Aceh 12
12-Jul UK Grandma marries son of Bin Laden bin laden 3
12-Jul Australia Downer v Nelson on troops reque st Iraq war 3
12-Jul Australia Iraq-schooled jihadis a threat terrorism 3
12-Jul Australia call of duty throws lawyer in the limelightHaneef 4
12-Jul Australia Indians angry at AFP over Haneef Haneef 4
12-Jul Philippines marines killed in search for priest Abu Sayyef 9
12-Jul Palestine Hamas MPs boycott cancels parliament Fatah-Hamas 9
12-Jul Iran Iran nuclear armed in two years: Israel Iran nuclear 9
12-Jul UK Failed London bombers sentenced to life London/Glasgow attacks 9
12-Jul India car bomb designs on hard drive London/Glasgow attacks 9
12-Jul Pakistan media barred from mosque victims red mosque 9
12-Jul UK al Qa'ida 'to punish' UK over Rushdie Rushdie knighting 9
13-Jul Australia I am not a terrorist: doctor Haneef 1
13-Jul Australia Reasons to hold Haneef stretch thinner by the day Haneef 1
13-Jul Australia politics may have steered course Haneef 2
13-Jul Australia blast car driver not man who applied for health job London/Glasgow attacks 2
13-Jul Australia crunch time for doctor Haneef 2
13-Jul Iraq Iraq team hold together as their land is torn apartAsian cup 3
13-Jul Iraq Iraq bank's $350m theft Iraq 10
13-Jul Iraq Basra blames British for big,bad man-eating…badgersIraq war 10
13-Jul Pakistan Al Qa’ida regroups in Pakistan to pre-9/11 levels al Qa’ida 11
13-Jul Pakistan mosque bodies may be women, kids red mosque 11
13-Jul Libya US ends 35-year Libya freeze US-Libya relationship 11