Ireland to host Iraqis ahead of Olympics

A NUMBER of Iraqi boxers and rowers will prepare for the Beijing Olympics in Ireland to escape fatal attacks on athletes in their war-torn country.

The coach of Iraq’s tennis team and two players were shot dead in the al-Saidiya district of Baghdad on Thursday, apparently for ignoring a dissident warning forbidding them to wear shorts.

Members of the country’s Tae Kwon Do team were kidnapped between Ramadi and Fallujah last week.