IRAQI parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani said yesterday that he will resign, ending a political crisis that had thrown into doubt arrangements for a British troop presence into next year.

A Shiite legislator escaped an assassination attempt today after a roadside bomb missed his convoy in downtown Baghdad, a day after the kidnapping of a Sunni legislator.

Gunmen kidnapped a Sunni female member of parliament in Baghdad today along with her guards, the parliament speaker’s office said.

A parked car bomb struck a popular outdoor market today in the Shiite slum of Sadr City in Baghdad, killing at least 66 people and wounding dozens, authorities said.