from Ewen MacAskill:
US officials under investigation over $730m cost of Iraq embassy
The US justice department is investigating the soaring bill for building a huge new American embassy in Baghdad. Postponing its scheduled opening last month, the state department said it didn't "have an answer" as to when it would be finished.
The budget for what is the biggest US embassy building in the world was $592m (£288m) but has jumped to $736m; its opening has been repeatedly postponed due to substandard work or design changes, while the contractor, based in Kuwait, has faced a series of problems.
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The building is a signal of US intentions to stay in Iraq. Inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, it is hidden behind blast walls, with 27 buildings housing 615 people.
from Martin Kemp:
Diplomacy has no place in this monstrous bunker
The new American Embassy in Baghdad is not architecture: it is an insult to the city.
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