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Iraq’s elections have been eagerly awaited by Iraq’s majority Shia population, which looks set to dominate a democratically elected parliament, but the timing has proved unpopular with the once-dominant Sunnis, who fear they will not be adequately represented in the new government. These fears were compounded in late December when …

PILGRIMAGE: The EU is encouraging Assyrian families to return to the region and save one of the world’s most ancient Christian communities Nine-year-old Ninua Saliba played hide-and-seek outside a seventh century church as village men drank tea, chatted in a language similar to Jesus’ and waited for a Christmas visit …

Baghdad- Albawaba A?suicide car bomb exploded near Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s party headquarters Monday, killing?two police officers and two civilians and wounding 24 others, police said. The blast near the headquarters of the Iraqi National Accord party occurred at 9:45 a.m. in the capital’s western district of Harithiya. Police …

Minority Christian groups are hoping for a new electoral law that leaves them less dependent in the Parliamentary elections on the country’s major sects, as several Christian minorities – the Copts, Assyrians, Syriacs and others – are now represented collectively by a single deputy in Parliament. The May elections may …

Amman-Aina Syria and Iran on Monday officially confirmed their participation in Thursday’s meeting here of Iraq’s neighbours, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa told his Jordanian counterpart Hani Mulki in a telephone call that he is to head his country’s delegation to the conference. Iran’s …

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has warned of more violence in Iraq in the run up to the country’s elections at the end of the month Baghdad-BBC He spoke after at least 23 people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on a bus carrying Iraqi soldiers. The …

Syrie-BBC Syria will allow Iraqis living in the country to cast ballots for the election in Iraq on 30 January. The Syrian government signed an agreement with the International Organization for Migration, which will run an out-of-country voting scheme. This will allow Iraqis to register and vote at an election …

BANDA ACEH-Indonesia-Reuters Some 150,000 people are now known to have been killed by Asia’s tsunami, U.N. officials said on Monday, as helicopters and elephants were used to find and feed survivors and shift the rubble of razed towns. Aid workers struggled to help thousands huddled in makeshift camps on Indonesia’s …

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -AFPAid pledges for Asia’s tsunami victims reached two billion dollars on a tide of New Year sympathy, but the United Nations warned it would take weeks for help to reach many survivors and that the death toll would likely rise to 150,000.While the confirmed death toll from …

(AINA) — The upcoming Iraqi National Assembly elections slated for January 30 have placed the Assyrian Christian population (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) in a dire predicament. Assyrian leaders had hoped to capitalize on voter turnout both in Iraq and in the Diaspora where up to one half of …