A car bomb exploded today near an Iraqi checkpoint in a market north of Baghdad, killing at least 23 civilians and wounding 25, the US military said.

SHOUTING from their seats, lawmakers failed to agree on a parliament speaker during their second-ever National Assembly meeting yesterday, as officials continued to haggle over the role of Sunni Arabs in the new government, a role officials hope will quell the Sunni-led insurgency.

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.