BAGHDAD (AP) ― Iraq’s Oil Ministry said Thursday that the U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. is not allowed to bid in the May energy auction because of its oil deals with the northern self-ruled Kurdish region in Iraq.The Texas-based Exxon signed contracts with the Kurds last October to search for oil in six areas, bypassing the central government in Baghdad, which maintains that it must ratify all deals. Some of the contracts cover areas located in a land claimed by both Kurds and Arabs.The deput

MCT imageNatasha Marie Harris, a mother of eight children and a fanatic for Coca-Cola, died suddenly in her home in Invercargill, New Zealand.The reason, an inquest has heard Wednesday, was because she consumed too much Coke.According to Harris’s partner Christopher Hodgkinson, “she drank at least 10 litres a day” for the past seven or eight years.The family bought four 2.5 litres of Coke daily, w

American Airlines will cut 1,200 airport baggage and cargo jobs and close an Arizona reservations center under a bankruptcy restructuring plan to trim annual labor spending by $1.25 billion. Wednesday’s announcement of new reductions means all of the carrier’s airport jobs in seven U.S. and two Canadian cities will be outsourced. AMR Corp.’s American detailed changes for the nonunion group 11 weeks after telling other workers it would do away with 13,000 of their jobs, freeze pensions and make w

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti pushed back his balanced-budget goal amid a deepening recession, six weeks after Spain helped reignite Europe’s debt crisis by abandoning its own deficit target. The Italian government, which had vowed to balance the budget in 2013, now expects a shortfall of 0.5 percent of gross domestic product next year, the Cabinet said in an e-mailed statement after meeting in Rome Wednesday to revise its three-year economic plan. The deficit of 0.1 percent previously esti

KHARTOUM (AP) ― Sudan’s president threatened to topple his rival government to the south, harsh words that could escalate the conflict between the two nations as they intensify clashes over their shared border.As the international community pushed Wednesday for a peaceful solution to the dispute, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed to “liberate” the people of South Sudan, saying it was his country’s duty to them.South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July after decades of civil war, creating t