Born in war and poverty, youth don't abandon Iraq

Associated Press/Karim Kadim - In this Sept. 27, 2012 photo, college student Shahad Abdul-Amir Abbas, 21, studies at her home in Baghdad. She lost her father in sectarian killings in 2005 and now volunteers to help orphans at her mother's orphanage in addition to attending the University of Medicine. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

BAGHDAD (AP) — The 21-year-old college student in Baghdad lost her father during the Iraq War to gunmen from a rival Muslim sect. Now she dreams of an Iraq where all people can "enjoy stable life and security."

The young bus driver from a former al-Qaida stronghold had to drop out of school to help support his family. He struggles to make ends meet but longs to resume his education.

The teenager from the northern Kurdish region works in his father's barber shop when he's not in class. He looks forward to making a lot of money in Iraq — but only if the government can capitalize on its oil trade and foreign investments.

As part of Iraq's growing youth population — which accounts for about 60 percent of the nation's people — all three say they are impatient at best about where their country is headed. The U.S.-led invasion of March 20, 2003, promised better lives for Iraqis after three decades of war, dictatorship and sanctions. Ten years later, the county is mired in widespread instability and political corruption.

Nevertheless, interviews and discussions across the country with more than a dozen Iraqi teenagers and young adults reveal a resiliency and refusal to abandon hope. Deadly violence is common, jobs are scarce and education is a luxury, but they say they are unwilling to give up on Iraq. Moreover, a government survey shows that 80 percent of young Iraqis don't want to move to another country.

"I want my country to be better, and I want my people to enjoy stable life and security, and for Iraq to be like a Western country," said Shahad Abdul-Amir Abbas, whose father was killed in 2005 in the widespread sectarian fighting that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war.

Abbas, a Shiite who attends college in Baghdad, wants to find a good-paying job and to marry, but thinks "my personal ambitions will not come true unless my country gets rid of all the security, political and economic problems."

An estimated 18 million people of Iraq's population of 30 million are younger than 25, according to data provided by the CIA and the United Nations. By comparison, Americans of that same age group make up about one-third of the U.S. population. Contraceptives are limited in Iraq, and an estimated 20 percent of girls ages 15 to 19 are married, according to the U.N.

The fate of Iraq's youth is a top concern for the U.N. envoy in Baghdad, especially as there are few — if any — obvious successors to the nation's aging political leaders. As the upcoming generation looks to the future, the decisions they make today — pursuing education, finding jobs, whether or whom to marry, and even to stay or leave the country — will help determine whether and how quickly Iraq is able to achieve peace and prosperity.

A 2009 study by the Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sport reveals a decidedly traditional worldview among the nation's young people. The survey of 6,492 households across Iraq, focusing in large part on 15,087 people ages 10 to 30, concluded that 60 percent of the country's youth are generally optimistic about the future, especially teenage girls. The study was the first of its kind in Iraq, according to the U.N.

However, the study also found that nearly 40 percent refuse to talk to people deemed different than them. Slightly more than half — 52 percent — do not have friends from different religions or sects. And more than 90 percent believe women must have the approval of their husbands or families before they are allowed to work outside the home.

The survey has not been updated since 2009. It is currently being used to develop a national youth strategy, Iraqi government officials said.

U.N. envoy Martin Kobler said teenage and young Iraqi adults generally remain isolated from other religious sects. But a group of several dozen Iraqi youths he recently took on a series of field trips to different mosques and shrines indicated a curiosity and willingness to learn.

"They asked all kinds of questions — they just do not know about the other denominations," Kobler said in an interview Thursday. "And on one occasion, they interrupted the sheik, saying they don't want to hear about sectarian attitudes. They said, 'We want to hear about jobs, and about our future in Iraq — not sectarianism.'"

"The young people who have tolerance today will be adults with tolerance tomorrow," Kobler said. "But young people with limited views and sectarianism today will have those views tomorrow. It's very important that this country stays together. Everything that works to separate the country along sectarian lines is not conducive to an atmosphere where everybody is an Iraqi."

Abdul-Wadoud Fawzi, a 25-year-old Sunni, struggles to be optimistic. He is a native of Fallujah, the former al-Qaida stronghold in Iraq's west that has been a recent hotspot of anti-government protests. Each weekday morning, Fawzi drives a minibus of students to Anbar University in the city of Ramadi, about 45 minutes away. He had to drop out of school to help support his family, earning $300 a month as a driver.

"Studying might provide me with a better life and future," he said. "My hopes are similar to the hopes of all Iraqis — to live a peaceful and dignified life away from violence and war miseries. The country is getting worse, as long as justice is absent in Iraq, and it will not get better until we get rid of the unjust government."

The ministry study says nearly all youth — 92 percent — receive some formal schooling but that there's a high drop-out rate. In 2009, the study estimated that fewer than half of Iraqis between the ages of 15 and 24 were still in school, with more males than females enrolled.

Government officials have tried to help young people mostly by creating sports clubs, offering computer training and opening fine arts centers. The Youth and Sport ministry has an annual $840 million budget but no authority to create jobs.

Unemployment remains high among young Iraqis. Only 46 percent of people aged 25 to 30 had jobs in 2009, the government study showed. That's compared to 81 percent of working Americans of the same age last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Some of the best jobs in Iraq are with the government, where a midlevel worker makes about $600 a month. Those jobs aren't easy to get.

In the southern port city of Basra, Akram Hashim, 25, is earning pocket change at a photography store even though he's been trained in computer science. He says he does not have the political connections necessary to be given public work.

"A stable government job to help my family is what is needed," said Hashim, a Shiite who lives with his wife and daughter in his parents' home with six other relatives. "It is very hard to get a good job."

How does he see his country's future? "It could get worse," he said gloomily.

Basra is surrounded by some of the world's most lucrative oil fields, which are being mined for foreign investors. Yet Hashim's desire for a government job reflects a deep-seated reluctance among many Iraqis to wean themselves off reliable employment. Kobler said that is rooted in part by security fears: If the violence continues, fewer foreign investors will come to Iraq, and jobs could dry up.

A notable exception is in the self-rule Kurdish region in Iraq's north. The region is generally more stable and financially well-off than the rest of Iraq, largely because it was not under Saddam Hussein's control in 2003 and was spared the violence, military and political chaos in the years after the U.S.-led occupation.

Alan Fatih Kareem, 18, a Kurdish high school student who works in his father's barber shop in the regional capital of Irbil, says new foreign investment and influences have given him a taste of the West and, generally, should bode well for Iraq's future.

"Iraq and Kurdistan are making remarkable progress in terms of development, construction and mixing with foreigners," Kareem said. "I'm looking forward. I don't know what will happen in the future, but I'm sure Iraq will change for the better."

The youth study shows that more than half of young adults own cell phones, which were nonexistent in Iraq 10 years ago. It also found that more than four out of five young Iraqis have no desire to leave their homeland, despite its many problems.

But Iraq's leaders cannot afford to let security threats and bleak economic opportunities go unchecked, Kobler said. "My impression is (Iraqi youth) want to stay," he said. "But if framework conditions are as they are, then they will want to leave."

In the holy Shiite city of Najaf, Intithar Hussein has put faith in her up-and-coming generation. She is a satellite television reporter in a country where, according to the study, only a 52 percent majority of young men believe women should work. She does not care.

"The important thing is to have the smile of victory on your face when you achieve what you work hard to do," said Hussein, 22. "The size of corruption and destruction is big, but the well-doing hands of Iraqis who are working to draw a shining future are many."

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Lara Jakes was a correspondent and chief of bureau in Baghdad from 2009 to 2012 and is now an AP national security writer in Washington. In Iraq, AP journalists Sameer N. Yacoub, Hadi Mizban, Karim Kadim, Alaa al-Marjani, Cerwan Aziz and Nabil al-Jurani contributed to this report.

Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

Tribes plan for worst with looming budget cuts

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — When it comes to the automatic spending cuts that began taking effect this month, federal lawmakers spared programs that serve the nation's most vulnerable — such as food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans' assistance — from hard hits.

That wasn't the case with programs for American Indian reservations, where unemployment is far above the national average, women suffer disproportionately from sexual assaults, and school districts largely lack a tax base to make up for the cuts.

The federal Indian Health Service, which serves 2.1 million tribal members, says it would be forced to slash its number of patient visits by more than 800,000 per year. Tribal programs under the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs that fund human services, law enforcement, schools, economic development and natural resources stand to lose almost $130 million under the cuts, according to the National Congress of American Indians.

"We will see significant impacts almost immediately," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told The Associated Press, referring to the BIA. "We will have to furlough some employees. It will mean that there's going to be a slowing down of the processing of applications and so there will be an impact on the work that the BIA does on behalf of Indian Country."

The timing and magnitude of most of the cuts are uncertain as Congress looks for a way to keep the government operating beyond March 27 with no budget in place. In the meantime, tribes across the country are preparing for the worst.

Some are better-positioned than others.

In northwestern New Mexico's McKinley County, where about a third of the population lives below the federal poverty level, the Gallup-McKinley County School District is facing a $2 million hit. The cuts could result in job losses and more crowded classrooms. The district that draws mostly Navajo students from reservation land not subject to state property taxes relies heavily on federal funding to pay its teachers and provide textbooks to students.

"To me, it seems very unfair that one of the poorest counties with one of highest Native enrollment in the country has to be impacted the most by sequestration," said district superintendent Ray Arsenault. "We are very poor, we're very rural, and it's going to hurt us much more."

The district faced enormous public pressure when it wanted to close schools on the Navajo Nationdue to budget shortfalls, so it won't go that route under looming cuts, Arsenault said. Instead, he would look to reduce his 1,800 employees by 200 — mostly teachers — and add a handful of students to each classroom.

The Red Lake Band Of Chippewa Indians in northern Minnesota expects 22 jobs, mostly in law enforcement, will be lost immediately. Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr. said police already operate at a level considered unsafe by the BIA. Deeper cuts forecast for later this year will increase job losses to 39, and "public safety operations at Red Lake will collapse," he said.

On the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota, a new $25 million, 67,500-square foot jail that was to provide cultural and spiritual wellness programs for tribal members charged with crimes sits empty. The annual operating budget of $5 million would be reduced to around $840,000 because of the automatic budget cuts, said jail administrator Melissa Eagle Bear.

"I don't think this is intentional, but I do feel like it's the government's way of controlling things," she said. "They definitely have control, and we're going to keep going. ... I know Indian people. We tend to survive off what resources we have."

The National Indian Education Association said the cuts to federal impact aid will affect the operation of 710 schools that serve about 115,000 American Indian students. Those cuts would be immediate because the money is allocated in the same school year it is spent.

In Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation said it is well-poised to handle cuts to its diabetes, housing rehabilitation, Head Start and health care programs. The tribe put a freeze on nonessential hires and halted most travel and training for tribal employees. The tribe's $600 million budget for services and programs comes largely from federal funds, but tribal businesses also post annual revenues in the same amount that have been used to fill in gaps, said Principal Chief Bill John Baker.

"What this really is going to boil down to mean is that there won't be any new purchases, new equipment, and probably we'll hold our programs but not be in a position to add new programs," Baker said. "Luckily, we're in pretty good shape."

Baker and other tribal leaders have argued against the cuts, saying the federal government has a responsibility that dates back to the signing of treaties to protect American Indian people, their land and tribal sovereignty.

While food distribution, welfare programs and health care services that serve the needy are exempt from the cuts, similar services on reservations aren't, said Amber Ebarb, a budget and policy analyst for the National Congress of American Indians.

"Tribes have too little political clout, too small numbers for those same protections to be applied," she said. "I don't think it's the intent of any member of Congress. The ones we hear from, Republicans and Democrats who understand trust and treaty rights, think it's outrageous that tribes are subject to these across-the-board cuts."

Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona said he doesn't believe Congress as a whole understands the potential impact to tribes and the duty that federal agencies have to meaningfully consult with them on major actions. He and Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska are urging their colleagues to spare those populations from automatic budget cuts, particularly when it comes to health care.

"It's not about creating a niche for American Indians. It's about addressing areas in which need is great," Grijalva said.

Clara Pratte, director of the Navajo Nation's Washington, D.C., office, said regardless of the outcome of the budget talks, tribal leaders should press Congress to make funding for Indian programs mandatory, not discretionary.

Nearly two-thirds of the Navajo Nation's $456 million budget comes from federal sources that go to public safety, education, health and human services, roads and infrastructure. The tribe is facing up to $30 million in automatic budget cuts.

"A lot of these programs go to people that cannot lift themselves up by their bootstraps," Pratte said. "I'm talking about grandmas, grandpas, kids under the age of 10. We can't very well expect them to go to work."

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Defense attacks girl's character in Ohio rape case

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Two former friends of a 16-year-old girl who says she was raped by two Ohio high school footballplayers last summer testified for the defense Saturday that the accuser had a history of drinking heavily and was known to lie about things.

Defense attorneys went after the character and credibility of the alleged victim on the fourth day of the nonjury trial for Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, in juvenile court.

The two are charged with digitally penetrating the accuser, first in a car and then in the basement of a house, while out partying Aug. 12.Mays also is charged with illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material. The two maintain their innocence.

On the stand Saturday, West Virginia high school student Kelsey Weaver said the accuser told her what happened two days after the alleged attack then, sometime afterward, told Weaver she couldn't remember what happened.

"So two different versions?" asked Mays' attorney Adam Nemann.

"Yes," Weaver replied.

Earlier, Weaver testified that the accuser was flirting at the party with Richmond.

Both Weaver and schoolmate Gianna Anile testified they were angry at the accuser because she was drinking heavily at the party and because of her behavior, which they said included rolling around on the floor. They said they tried unsuccessfully to get her to stop drinking.

Anile said she also tried to get her friend to stay at the party rather than leave with others, including the two defendants.

"When I told her not to leave, I was trying to, like, pull her back into the party. She was trying to shrug me off," Anile testified. "She kind of hit me."

The accuser was also expected to testify Saturday.

The case has riveted the small city of Steubenville amid allegations that more students should have been charged and led to questions about the influence of the local football team, a source of pride in a community that suffered massive job losses with the collapse of the steel industry.

Anile, whose lawyer was present during her testimony, appeared, like all of the trial's teen witnesses, reluctant to be there.

The day after the party, when Anile and another friend picked up the accuser from the house where she'd stayed, the accuser said she had no memory of the night before, Anile testified under questioning by defense attorney Walter Madison.

"'We didn't have sex, I swear,'" Anile said, describing the accuser's comment.

Anile said she'd seen the girl drink heavily in the past and that she no longer speaks to her.

The case has featured disturbing testimony from teens, both in person and in graphic text messages, and has shined an unwelcome light on what students in the community once considered private conversations. Some teenage witnesses winced at times as they were forced to read adult language from texts.

Anile repeatedly said she couldn't remember statements she made to police last September about the night of the party. Midway through her testimony, special judge Thomas Lipps agreed to let her listen to a 40-minute recording of her statement to refresh her memory.

On Friday, three teenage boys granted immunity for their testimony said the accuser was drunk and didn't seem to know what was happening to her that night.

Mark Cole, Evan Westlake and Anthony Craig spoke Friday of the West Virginia girl's behavior the night of a party and described her being digitally penetrated in a car and later on a basement floor.

Cole testified that he took a video of Mays and the girl in the car, then deleted it later that morning. He testified he saw Mays unsuccessfully try to have the girl perform oral sex on him later in the basement of Cole's house. Cole also testified that the girl was intoxicated and slurring her words.

Westlake testified he saw Richmond's encounter with the girl in the basement, as did Craig. Westlake also confirmed that he filmed a 12-minute video, later passed around widely online, in which another student joked about the attack.

Craig testified that he saw Richmond's hand in the "crotch region" of the girl, a less descriptive version than he gave last fall in another hearing.

If convicted, Mays and Richmond could be held in a juvenile jail until they turn 21.

The Associated Press normally doesn't identify minors charged in juvenile court, but Mays and Richmond have been widely identified in news coverage, and their names have been used in open court.

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Suspect in NY slaying, child rape, beaten in jail

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A man accused of killing a Syracuse woman and raping her 10-year-old daughter during a carjacking was beaten and suffered a broken nose on his first day in jail, authorities said.

David Renz had a swollen face and tissues stuffed up both nostrils when he appeared in federal court Friday to face a probation violation charge.

"I have a broken nose," he told his lawyer, according to The Post-Standard in Syracuse (http://bit.ly/15b7NLd).

His attorneys, James Greenwald and Kenneth Moynihan, said Renz was assaulted by other inmates at the Onondaga County Justice Center, where he was taken following his arrest Thursday night.

Sheriff Kevin Walsh told the newspaper he was looking into why Renz was put into a holding area with other prisoners — not the usual practice in holding someone facing such accusations.

Walsh said Renz has been segregated from other prisoners and is being watched around the clock.

"We're dealing with a man who is innocent until proven guilty," he said. "He's got to be protected."

Renz was arraigned Friday morning at a court in East Syracuse on charges that he abducted the mother and daughter as they left a gymnastics class in the Syracuse suburb of Clay.

Police said Renz raped the girl and stabbed the mother to death before fleeing into some woods. The 10-year-old girl escaped and was found by a passing motorist, who dialed 911. Renz was captured a short time later.

At the time of the attack, Renz was awaiting trial on federal child pornography charges and was supposed to be wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet tracking his whereabouts.

Authorities said they believe Renz cut the device off before the attack. Tampering attempts with those devices are supposed to sound an alarm. Probation officials are investigating what went wrong, said Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan.

The Associated Press generally doesn't publish information that could identify potential sex crime victims and isn't naming the slain woman to protect the girl's identity.

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Al Qaeda claims assault on Iraqi justice ministry

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate said on Sunday it carried out a coordinated suicide bomb and gun attack on the country's justice ministry last week that killed at least 25 people in the centre of Baghdad.

The assault near the heavily fortified Green Zone, where several Western embassies and government offices are located, fanned fears about Iraq's still fragile security a decade after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Three car bombs exploded and a suicide bomber blew himself up in broad daylight in the heart of the capital on Thursday.

Another suicide bomber then walked into the justice ministry and set off his device while militants attacked the building. Iraqi security forces eventually regained control.

Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an umbrella group for al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim insurgents, said it had ordered the suicide bombers to attack the building floor by floor and "liquidate" its enemies inside.

Islamic State of Iraq accuses Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim-led government of oppressing Sunnis.

"In a blessed raid among a series of operations for revenge ... Baghdad's knights undermined another vicious bastion which was always a tool against Sunnis, torturing, terrifying, imprisoning and executing them," al-Qaeda said in a statement published online.

Iraq's power-sharing government has been all but paralyzed since U.S. troops left more than a year ago. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, is facing protests in the country's Sunni heartland, which shares a porous border with Syria.

Violence has intensified as Sunni opposition protests have swelled and Iraq's al Qaeda affiliate has urged the protesters to take up arms against the government.

Security experts say al Qaeda-linked militants have been regrouping in the western province of Anbar and crossing into Syria to fight alongside mainly Sunni rebels battling forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, who belongs to an offshoot of Shi-ite Islam.

(Reporting by Aseel Kami; Editing by Patrick Markey and Andrew Heavens)