Iraq's Maliki accused of detaining hundreds of political opponents
Allawi's allegations were the second major broadside this week against detention practices under Maliki, who's been the prime minister since May 2006. London's Guardian newspaper reported Monday on an extortion racket involving Iraqi state security officials who systematically arrest people on trumped-up charges, torture them and then extort bribes from their families for their release. The wave of arrests of Maliki political opponents began in October, around the time it was becoming clear that talks on a continued U.S. presence in Iraq would fail.