Blair is 'desperately sorry' for Iraq war deaths

Former British prime minister Tony Blair said he was "desperately sorry" over the deaths in the Iraq war, in extracts released Tuesday from his memoirs. Blair said he was "sorry for the lives cut short", but maintained it was right to remove dictator Saddam Hussein from power, in extracts from "A Journey", his account of his decade in office. He said the aftermath of the 2003 invasion was "terrible" and said he wept over the loss of life.

Blair said he still felt a sense of "anguish" for the relatives of those killed in the conflict. Read the full article from AFP.

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US is leaving a 'legacy of waste' in Iraq

Reporting from Khan Bani Saad, Iraq — The shell of a prison that will never be used rises from the desert on the edge of this dusty town north of Baghdad, a hulking monument to the wasted promise of America's massive, $53-billion reconstruction effort in Iraq.

Construction began in May 2004 at a time when U.S. money was pouring into the country. It quickly ran into huge cost overruns. Violence erupted in the area, and a manager was shot dead in his office. The Iraqi government said it didn't want or need the prison. In 2007 the project was abandoned, but only after $40 million of U.S. taxpayer money had been spent.

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