The final results of Iraq's Dec. 15 election gave the Shiite Islamist Alliance 128 seats, 10 short of a majority in the 275-seat chamber, an Electoral Commission official told a news conference yesterday.
The results, in line with expectations and earlier counts, gave the Kurdish bloc 53 seats and former prime minister Iyad Allawi's secular list 25, with two main Sunni Arab groups, the Accordance Front and the National Dialogue Front, securing 44 and 11 places respectively, Safwat Rasheed said.
Parties have two days to appeal before the results are certified as definitive.
Some Sunni Arab and secular parties have complained of vote-rigging in the poll, but international monitors brought in to address the complaints gave the election process a mostly clean bill of health in a report on Thursday, clearing the way for the results to be released.
Many Sunni leaders are already discussing places in a new coalition government.
The results were released amid tight security -- police blocked off roads between Baghdad and the restive provinces of Anbar, Salahaddin and Diyala, heartlands of Sunni Arab rebels.
Meanwhile, as a deadline neared for hostage Jill Carroll, Muslim leaders and her pleading mother appealed on Thursday to kidnappers to spare her life and set her free.
Referring to demands from Carroll's abductors that Iraqi women be released from US custody, a senior Iraqi official said six jailed Iraqi women were due to be freed by the US military.
But the White House said that no prisoner release appeared imminent, and a major Sunni Arab clerical group said it could do little to help because it did not know who was holding the 28-year-old reporter.
The kidnappers -- identified as the previously unknown ``Revenge Brigade'' -- have set a deadline of Friday evening for all Iraqi female detainees to be freed or they will kill Carroll. However, Iraqi kidnappers have often given such ultimatums only to ignore them and continue holding captives.
New images showing Carroll surrounded by three armed and masked gunmen were aired on Thursday by al-Jazeera television. The 20 seconds of silent footage were from the same tape as excerpts broadcast on Tuesday announcing the 72-hour deadline.
Carroll's mother said the video images gave her hope her daughter is alive but also have ``shaken us about her fate.''
``I, her father and her sister are appealing directly to her captors to release this woman who has worked so hard to show the sufferings of Iraqis to the world,'' Mary Beth Carroll told CNN's ``American Morning.''
Iraq's deputy justice minister, Busho Ibrahim Ali, said six of the eight Iraqi women in custody are expected to be freed next week, but he stressed that any release would ``not be part of any swap with any kidnappers.''
``I insisted that the Americans should bring [the women's] files and release them and they will be freed next week along with other detainees,'' Ali said. He did not elaborate on who the others were, but said the recommendation to free the women was made Monday.
Speculation that the Iraqi women might soon be freed raised hopes for the release of Carroll.
US military officials repeatedly refused on Thursday to confirm whether any release was imminent. In Washington, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the Bush administration was working hard to secure Carroll's freedom but said no Iraqi detainees were expected to be released soon.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS