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Shiites flee Iraqi town after gunmen seize hostages KUT, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi Shiites were fleeing the town of Al-Madain south of Baghdad after gunmen rounded up more than 80 residents and threatened to kill them. "Gunmen are going around with loudspeakers demanding that all Shiites leave the town," said Captain Haitham Mohammed of the Iraqi army who fled Madain with several people to the city of Kut further south. "They have detained more than 80 people, including women and children, and they are threatening to kill them unless Shiites leave." Mohammed said many Iraqi soldiers and police officers have...

Al-Mada'in, Iraq-AP -- Doctors say dozens of Iraqis with symptoms of radiation poisoning are turning up every day at a hospital near a defunct nuclear plant. The Tuwaitha nuclear facility is 12 miles south of Baghdad. It was left unguarded after Iraqi troops fled the area just before the war. It's believed the facility contained tons of natural uranium and nearly two tons of low-enriched uranium, which could be used to make nuclear weapons. Looters stripped it of much of its contents, including uranium storage barrels they later used to hold drinking water. The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a...