Gunmen killed 21 people, including a dozen students, after they dragged them off buses north-east of Baghdad.

Iraq’s Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki said today that the formation of the Cabinet was “mostly complete,” but an influential Shiite group and some Sunni Arab politician signalled the deal was far from done.

Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein appeared in a Baghdad court today for questioning by judges and prosecutors in a new session of his trial on charges of killings of Shiites in the 1980s.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today said the US could withdraw a significant number of troops from Iraq this year – if Iraqi forces are able to assume greater control of the country’s security.

Republican senators in the US criticised the Bush administration today over its policies in Iraq, Iran and the Palestinian territories, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s first testimony to Congress in months exposed her to a tough grilling from some members of her own party.

TENS of thousands of Iraqis marched and beat themselves yesterday in blood-soaked processions through this holy city and other Shi’ite centres around the country to mourn the seventh century death of their revered martyr, Imam Hussein.

Sunni Arab politicians called today for a government of national unity and signalled they will use their increased numbers in parliament to curb the power of rival Shiites who have claimed the biggest number of seats in the new legislature.

AN ALLIANCE of Shi’ite religious parties won the most seats in Iraq’s new parliament, results showed yesterday, but not enough to rule without coalition partners as Sunni Arabs gained seats over previous ballots.

The election commission today announced that an alliance of Shiite religious parties won the biggest number of seats in Iraq’s new parliament, but too few to rule without coalition partners.

Iraqi security forces are on high alert in Baghdad and four other large provinces to try halt terror attacks ahead of today’s announcement of preliminary election results, police and military said.

TWO suicide bombers wearing police uniforms and holding security passes tried to attack National Police Day celebrations yesterday, with police shooting one to death and the other exploding his vest, killing 29 people.

Insurgents exploded a suicide car bomb and launched two mortar shells at Iraq’s Interior Ministry during National Police Day celebrations today, killing 29 people and injuring 18.

A SUICIDE bomber killed 32 mourners and injured dozens at a funeral for the nephew of a Shi'ite politician in Iraq yesterday.

A SUICIDE car bomber targeted a busload of police recruits north of Baghdad yesterday, killing seven people, and gunmen in the capital killed five workers, police said.

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.

Iraq’s leading Shiite religious bloc has said that it is ready to discuss Sunni Arab participation in a coalition government, while thousands of Sunni and secular Shiite demonstrators took to the streets claiming election fraud.

Sunni Arab and secular political groups joined forces today to decide whether to reject the results of last week’s parliamentary election and call for a revote.

Sunni Arabs and a key secular party charged that parliamentary elections were tainted by fraud, and demanded an inquiry into preliminary results showing the governing Shiite religious bloc with a larger than expected lead.

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

Iraq’s new electoral law, drawn up in a bid to address the concerns of minorities, is almost certain to guarantee more parliamentary seats for Sunni Arabs, who boycotted the previous vote in January.

Two car bombs detonated this morning in a central Baghdad residential neighbourhood, killing at least six people and injuring 43.

A Sunni Arab coalition has submitted its list of candidates for the December election, joining other political factions in the race and signalling greater Sunni participation in the process.

Iraqi negotiators have reached a breakthrough deal on the constitution, and at least one Sunni Arab party said it would now urge its followers to approve the charter in this weekend’s referendum.

Thousands of Sunni demonstrators rallied in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit today to denounce Iraq’s new constitution a day after negotiators finished the new charter without the endorsement of Sunni Arabs.

Thousands of Sunni demonstrators rallied in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit on today to denounce Iraq’s new constitution – a day after negotiators finished the new charter without the endorsement of Sunni Arabs.

Sunni Arab negotiators in a joint statement today rejected the Iraqi draft constitution and asked the United Nations and Arab League to intervene.

THE speaker of Iraq’s Parliament last night announced a one-day extension in talks on Iraq’s new constitution.

ONE day before the deadline for Iraq’s new constitution, Sunni Arab negotiators appealed to the international community to prevent Shi’ites and Kurds from pushing a draft charter through parliament without Sunni consent.

Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka said yesterday that post-war nation-building efforts in Iraq have “failed totally", but expressed hope that the country’s different religious groups can work together to build an independent nation.

A suicide car bomber wearing a police uniform killed at least 15 traffic policemen and wounded 100 others during morning roll call at a police headquarters in an oil-rich northern Kurdish city, the second such attack in as many days.

BOMBING and shooting attacks west of Baghdad killed six US troops and a suicide car bomber slammed into a truck carrying Iraqi policemen near the airport yesterday, killing at least eight and wounding 25 - the latest wave of violence aimed at derailing Iraq’s advancing political process.

Al Qaida in Iraq has purportedly posted a statement on the internet blasting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Iraq and criticising her calls for including Sunni Arabs in the political process.

GUNMEN assassinated an Iraqi woman member of parliament yesterday in a fresh shock to politicians whose failure to form a government three months after elections has allowed violence to thrive unchecked.

Iraq’s prime minister-designate today submitted to the presidential council a proposal for a broad-based cabinet, drawing in the country’s main ethnic and religious groups.

Hours before the second-ever Iraq National Assembly session, politicians have yet to pick a parliament speaker, with wrangling over bringing in Sunni Arabs - a step seen as key to quelling the Sunni-led insurgency – prolonging negotiations to form a new government.