Shi'ite Jaafari Is Front-Runner to Become Iraqi PM
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An Islamist Shi'ite politician and  former exile emerged as the front-runner to become Iraq's new  prime minister Tuesday as horse-trading to decide the line-up  of the next government entered the final stages.
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Under the stewardship of the country's most powerful religious figure, Iraq's fractured Shiite Muslim majority has closed ranks and produced a unified list of candidates for the parliamentary elections set for Jan. 30.
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Iraq's Shiite prime minister, struggling to prevent sectarian violence from sending Iraq into full-fledged civil war, is facing strong criticism from top Shiite and Sunni Arab leaders alike as he prepares for a summit with President Bush next week.
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Iraq&#39;s majority Shiite Muslims have announced a broadly-based alliance ahead of next month&#39;s key elections, which is backed by their highest religious leader but excludes radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
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Iraq&#039;s new prime minister has made security his top priority, but violence is so pervasive that it may take months &amp;#151; if not years &amp;#151; before he keep that promise without help from American troops.
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Yasuo Fukuda, a moderate ruling party veteran, was Saturday seen pulling ahead in the two-way race to become Japan&#39;s next prime minister, reports said.
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BAGHDAD - Iraq will hold national elections on January 27, the country&#39;s vice-president Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Friday. The war-torn country is currently ruled by an interim government appointed last June
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Shiite Muslim politicians backed by Iraq&#39;s most prominent religious leader announced a powerful coalition of candidates Thursday that is likely to sweep January&#39;s parliamentary elections.
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Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, right, talks with Iraqi Vice-President, Ibrahim al-Jafari, during their official meeting in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Nov. 27, 2004.
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Iraq will put some of Saddam Hussein's top lieutenants on trial next week, a month before a national election many hope will lay the ghosts of his rule, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Tuesday.
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Former interim Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi, who is trying to put together a new coalition to replace the current Baghdad government headed by Nouri al-Maliki, said yesterday that a powerful Washington lobbying firm is working on his behalf, funded by an Iraqi whom he cannot identify.
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Fatah al-Sheik, an acolyte of Moktada al-Sadr, is the leader of a newly formed slate that is competing in Iraq's national elections.
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The candidate list endorsed by Iraq's top Shiite cleric is likely to emerge as the dominant political group in Sunday's election. But his followers said Monday they aren't looking to create a cleric-led Islamic state, and expectations are they won't be strong enough to govern on their own.
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The Shia Muslim bloc that won Iraq's election nominates Ibrahim Jaafari as prime minister, sources say.
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The contest for Iraq's next prime minister narrowed Monday after the French-educated finance minister removed himself from consideration within the ranks of the Shiite alliance that won the most votes in the national elections, a spokesman said.
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Iraq's main Shia Muslim coalition is ahead as counting continues in the landmark elections, officials say.
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Key political players in Iraq's election: