By Waleed Ibrahim BAGHDAD, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Iraq said on Sunday it would prosecute a politician who made a trip to Israel and angry parliamentarians voted to strip him of his legal immunity. Members of parliament said Mithal al-Alusi had committed a crime by "visiting a country that Iraq considers an enemy", in breach of a law they said had been retained since the rule of late dictator Saddam Hussein. Like most Arab countries, Iraq has no diplomatic relations with Israel, but it is not clear exactly what the law says about visiting it. Alusi made a trip there earlier this month for a conference on terrorism and security. "In the name of the government and prime minister, we reject this visit which violated the law and provoked the feelings of the Iraqi people. The government will take all legal measures against this person," minister for parliamentary affairs Safaaeddine al-Safi told the assembly. Safi, who put forward the motion, said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government would seek Alusi's prosecution. "Parliament also voted to prevent him from travelling out of Iraq or attending any more sessions," Hussein Falluji, a lawmaker from the main Sunni Arab bloc, told Reuters. Alusi, a secular Sunni politician, said parliament was acting unlawfully and that he was victim of a campaign against him because of his outspoken views against Shi'ite Muslim Iran. He said he feared being attacked. "The law does not allow them to do this. What they really want is to threaten any person who talks against Iran," he told Reuters. "Yesterday, I received death threats (because of the Israel visit). Today, they gave the green light to the killers." Two sons of Alusi were murdered in 2005 and a former culture minister, Asaad al-Hashemi, was found guilty in absentia last month and sentenced to hang for involvement in the killings. Iraq's President Jalal Talabani caused controversy in July when he shook hands with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak at a conference in Greece. Parliamentarians condemned him and some even called for him to resign. (Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Tim Cocks; editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Researchers from the Israeli Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Centre (IMMRA) of Haifa University look at the skeleton of a 12-metre-long fin whale at HaBonim beach south of Haifa September 14, ...
