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."