BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraq’s Parliament gave its vote of confidence to a new Cabinet on Thursday, breaking a yearlong political stalemate. A majority of the 253 lawmakers present voted to appoint 21 ministers, with two posts – the Construction and Housing Ministry and the Environment Ministry – remaining undecided. Despite those two unresolved appointments, the […]
BAGHDAD (AFP) – A year since Iraq’s last elections, it remains without not only a new government but a budget too, obstructing much-needed reforms and infrastructure projects in the oil-rich but war-ravaged country. Iraq has raked in huge revenues from oil exports this year, but the profits are locked up in the central bank’s coffers, […]
BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraq’s top court ruled on Wednesday that it does not have the legal right to dissolve Parliament, a much anticipated decision that raises the stakes in the country’s unprecedented 11-month political crisis. The ruling by the Supreme Federal Court states the court does not have the authority under Iraq’s constitution to dissolve […]
HUWAIZAH MARSHES, IRAQ (AFP) – To feed and cool his buffaloes, Hashem Gassed must cross 10 kilometres of sunburnt land in southern Iraq, where drought is devastating swathes of the mythical Mesopotamian Marshes. Iraq’s swamplands have been battered by three years of drought and low rainfall, as well as reduced water flows along rivers and […]
BAGHDAD (AFP) – Iraq’s powerful Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr on Wednesday called on the judiciary to dissolve Parliament by the end of next week, urging his supporters to keep up a sit-in outside the legislature. Iraq, which has been without a new government in the wake of elections last October, has been facing a […]