Prominent Iraqi publisher and former presidential aide Fakhri Karim survived an assassination attempt in Baghdad on Thursday after gunmen intercepted his vehicle and shot it with eleven bullets. Karim was on his way home after visiting the Iraq International Book Fair in Baghdad that is being sponsored by the Al Mada Foundation for Media, Culture and Art, which he founded in the 1990s.
Parties that make up Iraq's Shi'ite ruling alliance together took the single-largest bloc of votes in Baghdad and most of the country's southern provinces in provincial council elections, a Reuters tally of preliminary results showed. The results from the Independent High Electoral Commission, which included only raw votes and not the final seat allocation, show three electoral lists backed by the ruling Shi'ite Coordination Framework (CF) leading in most of the provinces. They include a list backed by former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki; a list led by Hadi Al-Amiri's Badr Organization that began as a Shi'ite paramilitary, and other Iran-backed factions; and a list including cleric Ammar al-Hakim and former Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi.
Parties that make up Iraq's Shi'ite ruling alliance together took the single-largest bloc of votes in Baghdad and most of the country's southern provinces in provincial council elections, a Reuters tally of preliminary results showed. Read more at straitstimes.com.