The row over a ban on election candidates with alleged links to Saddam Hussein escalated on Thursday as Iraq's president questioned the ruling's legality and thousands of Shiites held street protests. The blacklist of more than 500 names has sparked pre-election tensions between the country's Shiite majority and its Sunni Arab former elite, alarming the White House ...

The row over a ban on election candidates with alleged links to Saddam Hussein escalated on Thursday as Iraq's president questioned the ruling's legality and thousands of Shiites held street protests. The blacklist of more than 500 names has sparked pre-election tensions between the country's Shiite majority and its Sunni Arab former elite, alarming the White House ...

Thousands of Iraqis held rallies in the mainly Shiite cities of Basra, Karbala and Najaf on Thursday in support of a decision to bar election candidates linked to executed dictator Saddam Hussein. Election organisers have banned from the March 7 vote more than 500 candidates said to be members of Saddam's outlawed Baath party or former employees of his ...

Local government officials warned Saddam Hussein loyalists on Monday to move out of the Shiite province of Najaf in central Iraq within 24 hours or face an "iron fist." They demanded the exodus after a meeting to discuss security in the wake of a triple bomb attack last week in Najaf, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Baghdad, that ...