Iraq sets election date

Iraqi authorities set January 30 as the date for the nation’s first election since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and pledged that voting would take place throughout the country, despite rising violence and calls by Sunni clerics for a boycott.

Farid Ayar, spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said voting would push ahead, even in areas still wracked by violence – including Fallujah, Mosul and other parts of the volatile Sunni Triangle.