Iraqi authorities abruptly put off a national conference of political, religious and civic leaders considered a crucial step on the road to democracy amid disarray over choice of delegates and boycott threats by key factions.
The announcement on Thursday came a day after a car bombing killed 70 people, the worst single attack since US officials transferred power to an interim Iraqi government.
The national conference, which had been scheduled to start today, appeared to be far behind schedule even before the two-week delay was announced. No venue had been disclosed and there were no outward signs in Baghdad of preparations for the 1,000-person gathering.
Conference organizers insisted they were ready to start, but agreed to the postponement at the request of UN officials, who wanted time to encourage wider participation and prepare for the meeting.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the decision to postpone the conference, stressing the need to take the time to prepare properly and encourage wider participation.
"The secretary-general believes that a well-prepared national conference can provide a much-needed opportunity for Iraqi political forces and civil society," spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
Officials hope the conference, which is to elect an interim national assembly, will give Iraqis faith in their government and isolate the insurgents who have carried out a 15-month campaign of bombings, assassinations and kidnappings.
One insurgent group linked to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said on Thursday that it had kidnapped a Somali truck driver and would behead him if his Kuwaiti company did not stop working in Iraq.
Another group threatened to behead one of seven foreign truck drivers it was holding in 24 hours if its string of demands, which included a pullout by their company, were not met.
Another militant Islamic group posted an Internet warning that threatened any Muslim or Arab nation that contributed troops to a Saudi-proposed Muslim force for Iraq -- a proposal supported by US officials and Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
"Our swords will be drawn in the face of anyone who cooperates with the Jews and the Christians," the group said in a statement posted on Thursday.
"We will strike with an iron fist all the traitors from the Arab governments who cooperate with the Zionists, secretly or openly," it said.
A US soldier was killed on Thursday in clashes north of Baghdad, and a Polish soldier died in a roadside bombing.
The former's death raises the number of US personnel killed in Iraq since the war began to at least 909.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver