Baghdad (Iraq), Dec. 15: Outgoing UD President George W. Bush was pelted with two shoes on Sunday during a press conference here, but managed to duck both.

According to The Sun, an Iraqi TV journalist hurled the shoes at Bush during a joint press briefing with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after the signing of a troop withdrawal agreement.

Muntadar al-Zeidi, a TV reporter with an Iraqi-owned station based in Egypt, hurled the shoes, yelling in Arabic: "This is a farewell kiss, dog."

Amman - Engineers working for the Iraqi Electricity Ministry will start receiving their training from Jordan's National Electricity Co (NEC), the company announced Sunday.

Under the agreement, the NEC agrees with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) to train the Iraqi engineers, NEC Director General Ahmad Hiyasat said.

"The agreement, which goes into effect early in 2009, provides for training Iraqi cadres to set up a system for the maintenance of power stations, transport lines and transformation stations," Hiyasat said.

Baghdad/Washington  - US President George Bush arrived in Iraq Sunday on a previously unannounced visit - his last to that country before his presidency formally ends next month.

Baghdad (Iraq), Dec. 14 : An unpublished 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country.

According to the New York Times, by the time a sovereign Iraqi government took over from the Americans in June 2004, a situation had emerged that was marked by a 100 billion dollar failure caused by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure.

The paper is pessimistic about whether the rebuilding effort will ever succeed, even in a less violent setting.

Baghdad  - A Kurdish lawmaker Friday accused al-Qaeda terrorist network of masterminding the suicide blast that took place inside a restaurant in northern Iraq leaving 45 people dead on Thursday.

Many women and children were among casualties at the restaurant, which was packed with families celebrating the Muslim feast of Eid al- Adha. More than 100 people were injured.

Washington, Dec. 12 : A Senate Armed Services Committee report has blamed Bush administration officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for the abuses committed by American troops during interrogations at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq; the Guantánamo Bay detention center in Cuba; and other military detention centers.