SHI’ITE lawmakers yesterday chose Ibrahim al-Jaafari to be Iraq’s new prime minister, taking a key step in forming a government nearly two months after national elections, officials said.

LONG lines formed at petrol stations in Baghdad yesterday as word spread that Iraq's largest oil refinery had shut down in the face of threats against truck drivers, and fears grew of a petrol shortage.

MUNICIPAL workers in the Shi’ite holy city of Karbala have found remains believed to be from a mass grave dating to 1991, when Saddam Hussein’s regime put down a Shi’ite uprising in the south.

SUNNI ARABS alleged yesterday that last week's Iraqi parliamentary elections were fraudulent, especially in Baghdad province.

IRAQ'S president indicated yesterday that he was ready for talks with anti-government opposition figures and members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Ba'ath Party.

IRAQ'S Shi'ite interior minister accused critics yesterday of exaggerating reports of torture at a lock-up seized by US troops last weekend.

IRAN’S hardline president marched in the streets of Tehran yesterday alongside tens of thousands of people supporting his call for the destruction of Israel — remarks that have been condemned around the world.

A SUNNI Arab coalition yesterday submitted its list of candidates for the December elections, signalling the intention of many Sunnis to join the political process despite their failure to block ratification of the new constitution.

IRAQ’s ruling Shi’ite Islamist parties struck a last-minute deal to patch up differences yesterday and agreed to register as a united bloc for December 15 polls where they face a new Sunni Arab alliance.

HIZBOLLAH’S big win at the ballot box in south Lebanon will bolster its determination to keep its weapons in the face of international pressure to disarm, senior pro-Syrian leaders said yesterday.

IRAQI security forces raided a town in central Iraq and freed some 15 Shi'ite families being held hostage yesterday, an official said, after Sunni militants threatened to kill captives unless all Shi'ites left the area.

AMERICAN Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld delivered a terse warning to Iraq's new leaders yesterday, urging them to avoid political purges that could lead to charges of corruption in the new government.

TWO years after the invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime, politicians are continuing negotiations aimed at creating a democratic replacement amid a continuing backdrop of violence and inter-communal tensions.

A MILLION demonstrators chanting “Freedom, sovereignty, independence” crowded into Beirut’s main square yesterday, the biggest protest yet in the opposition’s duel of street rallies with supporters of the Syrian-backed government.

US forces in Iraq, already implicated in the killing of an Italian secret agent, faced further strains with allies yesterday when Bulgaria said they had probably shot dead one of its soldiers.

IRAQ’S main Shi’ite alliance proposed a religious conservative for prime minister yesterday, signalling that he will almost certainly get the job after the alliance’s success in last month’s election.

IRAQI Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for calm on Sunday following suicide bombings on Shi'ite Muslims and said the first priority after last month's elections should be for occupation forces to leave.

Mariam Fam, Baghdad

A SUICIDE bomber killed at least 21 people and wounded nearly 30 at an Iraqi security forces recruitment centre in Baghdad yesterday in the deadliest insurgent attack since last month's historic election.

THOUSANDS of pilgrims streamed into the Imam Ali Shrine yesterday as militants handed the keys to Shi'ite religious authorities after Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric brokered a peace deal to end three weeks of fighting.

IRAQI officials and aides to a radical Shi'ite cleric were yesterday trying to negotiate an end to nine days of fighting in the holy city of Najaf after US forces suspended an offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr's militia.

US MARINES backed by tanks and aircraft seized the heart of the holy Iraqi city of Najaf yesterday in a major assault on Shi'ite rebels, but they kept out of a site sacred to millions of Shi'ites around the world.

SHI'ITE gunmen seized a police station in Najaf yesterday in the first outbreak of fighting since an agreement to end weeks of bloody clashes between US troops and militia forces.

MULTIPLE explosions shook Fallujah after dark yesterday as fighting erupted in the Iraqi city for the second straight night.

THE United Nations envoy helping to draft an Iraqi interim government told the Bush administration yesterday to "tread carefully" in besieged Fallujah and avoid alienating an already angry populace.

ALLIED troops fought bloody battles against an enemy they did not expect in Iraq yesterday Shi'ites who were downtrodden during Saddam Hussein's brutal regime.

THE spiritual guide of Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslim majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, yesterday called the country’s new transitional law an obstacle to a permanent constitution.

THE Iraqi town of Samarra was partly devastated after US troops yesterday responded to two ambushes.

ROADSIDE bombings in central Iraq killed three US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded six other service members, the US military said yesterday.

A BOMB exploded outside the house of one of Iraq's most important Shi'ite clerics yesterday, killing three guards and injuring 10 others.

IRAQIS dug corpses from a mass grave yesterday and police reappeared in Baghdad, as Iraq grappled with the brutality of Saddam Hussein's rule and the lawless aftermath of the US-led invasion that ended it.

THE Americans are promising democracy in Iraq, but at the same time they are saying that they are not going to allow a fundamentalist regime come to power there.

An estimated one million Shiite Muslims converged on a holy shrine in the Iraqi city of Karbala today, celebrating their freedom from years of repression by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

TAKING the law into their own hands, Baghdad residents blockaded streets and beat up looters yesterday as disorder spread in the Iraqi capital.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last night outlined eight objectives pursued