New York  - The Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday Iraq continued to be the deadliest place for journalists worldwide, with with 11 deaths among members of the media covering the conflict there this year.

Worldwide, a total of 41 journalists died carrying out their profession while another 22 deaths were being investigated by the organization to determined whether they were work-related. The number of deaths was down from 65 in 2007.

In Iraq, the 11 deaths in 2008 were a sharp drop from a record 32 deaths in both 2007 and 2006, but were still high for a single country, CPJ said.

Worldwide, the drop from 65 deaths in 2007 to 41 deaths this year was due largely to the decrease in fatalities in Iraq.

Baghdad  - Iraqi security forces arrested 35 high-ranking security officials who, they said, were attempting to revive the Baath Party of former president Saddam Hussein, al-Arabiya TV reported on Thursday quoting sources in the Iraqi ministry of interior.

The 35 officials were accused of attempting a secret coup d'etat against the Iraqi government of Nuri al-Maliki.

The officials were arrested over the last three days under a judicial order. Their arrest was confirmed by the ministry of Interior and al-Maliki's office.

Berlin  - Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier defended Thursday the role of German intelligence agents in Baghdad during the start of the Iraq war in March
2003.

The two spies were there to assess the situation, he told a parliamentary committee looking into whether the BND intelligence agency helped the US military topple the regime of Saddam Hussein.

"Everyone involved at the time was aware there was a clear political decision not to give active support to the combat activities in Iraq," Steinmeier said.

Baghdad - Montazer al-Zaidi, the TV reporter who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush on Sunday, has not been tortured and has been well-treated during his detention, one of his lawyers said Thursday.

"Al-Zaidi is in good health and was not tortured during his detention," one of his lawyers told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency. The lawyer spoke spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Al-Zaidi, who has worked for the Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya since 2005, is being tried at the Iraqi Criminal Court for throwing his shoes at Bush during a press conference on Sunday as he shouted in Arabic: "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog."

Baghdad, Dec 18 : Thirty five Iraqi officials including four Iraqi generals have been arrested over the past three days, with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

The arrests, confirmed by officials from the Ministries of the Interior and National Security as well as the Prime Minister's office, included four generals, one of whom, General Ahmed Abu Raqeef, is the ministry's director of internal affairs.

The officials also said that the arrests had come at the hand of an elite counter-terrorism force that reports directly to the office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, The New York Times reported.

Amman  - Jordanian lawmakers observed a minute's silence in a show of support for Iraqi reporter Montazer al-Zaidi who hurled his shoes at US President George W Bush during a press conference in Baghdad earlier this week, local newspapers reported Thursday.

The move came in response to a proposal by the Deputy Speaker Tayseer Shdeifat, who also urged the lower chamber to issue a statement demanding his release.

"Zaidi will remain a symbol of defending Arab dignity which (Bush) vanquished in 2003," by invading Iraq, pro-government member of parliament Najeh Momani said.