USAID: Assistance for Iraq: "Hilla, Iraq - Iraqi women practice their computer skills at the Fatima Al-Zahra Center for Women's Rights in Hilla, one hour south of Baghdad. The women's center was named by the community after Fatima Al-Zahra, who was the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed. The center is open to all and offers nutrition and health classes, internet/computer training, and sewing facilities. The center well generate income through sewing production, a planned food catering business, and an internet cafe. The CPA and USAID/OTI worked with women from across Babil Provence to establish the center. It is the first of five such centers to open in the south-central region of Iraq."
news : "December 29, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Startling new Army statistics show that strife-torn Baghdad - considered the most dangerous city in the world - now has a lower murder rate than New York.
The newest numbers, released by the Army's 1st Infantry Division, reveal that over the past three months, murders and other crimes in Baghdad are decreasing dramatically and that in the month of October, there were fewer murders per capita there than the Big Apple, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
The Bush administration and outside experts are touting these new figures as a sign that, eight months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, major progress is starting to be made in the oft-criticized effort by the United States and coalition partners to restore order and rebuild Iraq.
'If these numbers are accurate, they show that the systems we put in place four months ago to develop a police force based on the principles of a free and democratic society are starting to
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