Iraq election call rejected
BAGHDAD: Iraq's presidential council rejected a plan for new provincial elections yesterday in a major blow to one of the key measures aimed at promoting national reconciliation among the country's Sunni and Shi'ite Arab communities and the large Kurdish minority.
The three-member panel, however, approved the 2008 budget and another law that provides limited amnesty to detainees in Iraqi custody. Those laws will take effect once they are published in the Justice Ministry gazette.
The White House tried to put the best face on the setback, saying "this is democracy at work."
Meanwhile, Turkey stepped up its offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq yesterday and refused to set a pull-out timetable, despite a US warning that the incursion should last no more than "a week or two."
One of five Britons held hostage in Iraq since May was shown in a video aired by Al Arabiya television, which said the captive called for the release of nine Iraqis in return for their freedom.
"My name is Peter ... I have been held here for nearly eight months now," a man said on the undated video.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke by telephone yesterday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki following the release of the video.