A SERIES of car bombs exploded after dusk yesterday in Baghdad, killing at least 23 people and wounding about 56, police said. Separate attacks earlier in the day killed seven others.

Egypt will become the first Arab nation to send an ambassador to post-Saddam Iraq, the Iraqi foreign minister was to announce in Brussels today.

Iraq’s most powerful Shiite groups today unveiled a unified list of 228 candidates for the January 30 elections, a key step in their bid to take a leading role in post-Saddam Iraq after years on the sidelines.