Iraqis braved the fear of violence today to vote in the first election since the US military withdrawal, though delayed voting in some parts of the country and an apparently lacklustre turnout elsewhere has cast doubt about the credibility of the vote.

Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced today that he will order his Shiite Mahdi Army to continue its ceasefire by another six months, giving Iraq a chance to continue its fragile recovery.

WE SEEM to spend an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to get others to behave like ourselves or to share our beliefs in the things and ideas we hold dear.

Police ordered a curfew today in Shiite holy city of Karbala and told more than one million pilgrims to leave after two days of violence claimed least 26 lives during a Shiite religious festival.