Iraq bars 15 parties with Baathist ties from elections, raising protest

Fifteen parties will be banned from Iraq's March parliamentary elections because they have been linked to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party or have promoted Baathist ideals, Iraqi officials said.

The decision by the Justice and Accountability Commission is a blow to hopes of bringing opposition figures into the political fold, part of the U.S. strategy to bolster the government. Saleh al-Mutlak, a Sunni lawmaker, warned there could be a popular uprising.

Five explosions that mostly targeted law enforcement officials ripped through the city of Hit in Iraq's Anbar Province, killing at least eight people.

Two defense contractors working for a subsidiary of the former Blackwater Worldwide have been charged with fatally shooting two Afghan citizens in Kabul and wounding a third, the latest legal blow for the company. Justin Cannon, 27, and Christopher Drotleff, 29, were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Norfolk, Va., on charges including second-degree murder, attempted murder and firearms offenses. The indictment was unsealed Thursday. Both have been arrested. Prosecutors said Cannon, of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Drotleff, of Virginia Beach, Va., shot the three Afghan nationals in Kabul on May 3.

At the time, the two men were Defense Department contractors working for Paravant, a subsidiary of Xe Services, as the former Blackwater is now known. Both men have said that they were justified in opening fire on a car that caused an accident in front of their vehicle, then turned and sped toward them.

A suicide bomber killed 10 people at a bazaar in Gardez in eastern Afghanistan's Paktia Province, including a pro-government militia commander, authorities said. In a second attack, a bomb hidden in a garbage container slightly wounded Gov. Tahr Khan Sabari of Khost Province, also in the east, officials said.