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Saddam defies judges as bombers kill 40
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-12-07 06:52
KURDISH VIOLENCE
In Kurdish northern Iraq, tensions over the election boiled over into mob
violence when youths attacked offices in six towns of an Islamist party which
has broken with the dominant, secular bloc in the region to run against it next
week.
A senior official of the Kurdish Islamic Party was among four people killed,
party officials said. The regional president Masoud Barzani, who heads one of
the two rival secular parties that form the main bloc, condemned the attacks on
television.
In an election in which voters are polarised among different sectarian and
ethnic groups, much of the sharpest campaigning has been among parties competing
for votes within communities.
Shi'ite Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi held a news conference to present
what he said was evidence of massive corruption in the Defense Ministry when his
secular Shi'ite rival, Iyad Allawi, was prime minister from 2004 to early 2005.
Allawi has made veiled accusations against Shi'ite Islamists and claimed
gunmen tried to kill him in a mosque.
The grainy video of the latest hostage featured the logo of the Islamic Army
in Iraq and showed a blond, Western-looking man sitting with his hands tied
behind his back. It also showed a U.S. passport and an identity card in the name
of Ronald Schulz.
Al Jazeera said the man was a security consultant for the housing ministry
but it could not be sure the tape was genuine.
In separate footage, BBC News 24 showed further pictures of four Western
hostages seized late last month. One of them, Briton Norman Kember, a
74-year-old Christian peace activisit, appealed to British Prime Minister Tony
Blair.
"I ask Mr. Blair to take British troops out of Iraq and leave the Iraqi
people to come to their own decisions on their government."
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