Iraq assembly puts democracy to the test

Iraq puts its fragile democracy to the test today, convening its first freely elected National Assembly in recent history after last-minute bargaining over Sunni Arab candidates to head the parliament.

Shiite Muslim officials said they failed to reach final agreement in talks with the Kurds – who are mostly Sunni Muslim but secular – and the Sunni Arabs. But those failures were not enough to prevent the 275-member National Assembly from preparing to meet today for the first time since the January 30 elections.