& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Shias sweep Iraqi polls

Shia coalition bags 48.1pc of 59pc votes cast

AFP, Baghdad
Iraq's long-oppressed Shia majority swept to a resounding victory in the country's first free elections in half a century, winning almost half the vote, according to final results released yesterday.
"Today marks the birth of a new Iraq and a free people," election commission official Farid Ayar told reporters.
The main Shia coalition list, which had the blessing of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, won 48.1 percent of the votes for the new 275-member National Assembly, according to election commission results.
The ticket grouping the two main Kurdish parties also made a strong showing, winning 25.7 percent of the vote, but interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's list came a distant third with 13.8 percent.
Turnout was about 59 percent,
with a total of 8,456,266 people voting on January 30 in the first election since the downfall of Saddam Hussein after the US-led invasion of March 2003.
Sunday's results are "final but uncertified" and will only become definitive and official if no challenges are lodged over the next three days.
Despite threats of a bloodbath by extremist Sunni Arab insurgents, election day passed without any major attacks and was internationally hailed as a success.
But officials and observers fear that Sunni marginalisation could further fuel an insurgency which has resulted in thousands of deaths and crippled the country's economy since the March 2003 US-led invasion.
And negotiations have already begun for the minority community of the ruling elite under Saddam to be included in the political process.
A government line-up is not expected immediately as officials have warned that it could take up to several weeks to reach an ethnic and religious balance aceptable to all parties.
All key posts are due to be announced at the same time.
The members of parliament will have to select a president and his two deputies, who in turn will have to unanimously pick a prime minister.
The new premier will then be tasked with choosing a cabinet that has to be approved by a majority in parliament.
According to the interim constitution, the new National Assembly has to write a permanent one by August 15, but the parliament speaker and a majority of the chamber can decide on a non-renewable sixmonth extension.
If the initial deadline is met, the
SEE PAGE 11 COL 8
FROM PAGE 12
country's new basic law will be submitted to a referendum on October 15 before polls for a new constitutionally-elected government are held on December 15.
In the latest major attack to rock the troubled country, a car bomb went off near a hospital in the town of Musayyib on Saturday, killing 17 people and wounding 16.