Morning News Roundup (27 Feb)

• Hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed every month in Baghdad alone by death squads working from the Ministry of the Interior, the United Nations' outgoing human rights chief in Iraq has revealed. Up to three-quarters of the corpses stacked in the city's mortuary show evidence of gunshot wounds to the head or injuries caused by drill-bits or burning cigarettes, with much of the killing allegedly carried out by Shia Muslim groups under the control of the Ministry of the Interior. [The Independent]
  
  
• While the violence and chaos has simmered down a bit in Iraq, the Christian Science Monitor notes that "disturbing signs are emerging that Iraq's sectarian powder-keg is still highly volatile."
  

  A pattern of politics drawn along sectarian or ethnic lines has strengthened in the wake of Saddam Hussein's rule. Leading moderate voices like Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani have taken harder lines, and the growing authority of unelected clerics in determining Iraq's future is presenting new hurdles to the unity government most experts believe is needed to bring stability.

• The European Union has approved more than 120m euros ($140m; £83m) of emergency aid to meet what is says are the "basic needs" of the Palestinians. [BBC]
  
  
• Two bombs have exploded in the southern Iranian cities of Dezful and Abadan, the latest in a series to hit the southern Khuzestan province, at the heart of Iran's oil industry. [BBC]
  
  
• The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said Sunday that his country had agreed in principle to set up a joint uranium enrichment project with Russia. [WaPo]
  
  
• Pentagon auditors have declared potentially excessive or unjustified more than $250 million in charges Halliburton has made under a no-bid contract in Iraq. As the New York Times reports today, the Army is going to pay almost all of those charges anyway. A spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers explains: "The contractor is not required to perform perfectly to be entitled to reimbursement." [Salon's War Room]
  
  
• Passings: Don Knotts (Barney Fife), Dennis Weaver (McCloud) and Darrin McGavin (the original Night Stalker).
  
  
• Finally, a bit of levity from the Daily Show, which notes the happy consequences of BushCo's recent $65.3 billion request for additional funds for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (which will be added on to the $250 billion currently allocated):
  

  The government isn't taking money from your pocket--it's deficit spending. The government is actually taking out long-term loans from banks and foreign governments. So, don't think of it like $2,000 you don't have. Think of it as $200,000 your grandchildren don't have. And seriously, **** them.
  
  

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