Yahoo! News: Iraq

Iraqi panel bars 2 Sunni politicians from election (AP)
Iraq allows 28 banned election candidates to stand (AFP)
(AP)
Iraq expels 250 former Blackwater guards (AFP)
Kidnapping of American in Iraq sparked by faltering reconciliation talks (The Christian Science Monitor)
Around 450 Kurdish troops in joint US-Iraqi operations (AFP)
US military: American soldier dies in Iraq (AP)

Iraqi panel bars 2 Sunni politicians from election (AP)

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 01:36 PM PST

AP - An Iraqi panel issued a final ruling Thursday to bar two prominent Sunni politicians from running in next month's elections, a move that is likely to raise tensions between the Shiite-led government and Sunnis who claim they are being politically undermined.

Iraq allows 28 banned election candidates to stand (AFP)

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 01:34 PM PST

AFP - Iraqi judges on Thursday ruled that 28 candidates banned from the March 7 general election for alleged links to the regime of executed dictator Saddam Hussein could stand after all.

(AP)

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 11:11 AM PST

AP - Iraqi panel issues final ruling barring 2 prominent Sunni politicians from running in election.

Iraq expels 250 former Blackwater guards (AFP)

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 07:27 AM PST

AFP - The Iraqi interior minister said on Thursday he had expelled 250 ex-employees of the American security firm Blackwater, whose guards were charged with killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad.

Kidnapping of American in Iraq sparked by faltering reconciliation talks (The Christian Science Monitor)

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 07:00 AM PST

The Christian Science Monitor - The kidnapping of an Iraqi-American military contractor in Baghdad appears to be the work of a splinter group in response to a breakdown in political reconciliation talks in Iraq rather than a return to the high-profile kidnappings of Westerners, according to US military officials and analysts.

Around 450 Kurdish troops in joint US-Iraqi operations (AFP)

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 05:10 AM PST

AFP - Around 450 Kurdish troops are working with Iraqi and US soldiers in Iraq's disputed zones, with half of them deployed in the volatile Nineveh province, a military spokesman said Thursday.