IRAQ: A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of men waiting to sign up to join the police in the Iraqi city of Falluja yesterday, killing at least 18 people, doctors said. Dr Bilal Mahmoud said most of the 20 people wounded in the attack were in a critical condition.
The large crowds drawn to recruiting centres are a common target. More than 80 people were killed in an attack on a police recruiting centre in Ramadi in January.
The government is keen to expand recruitment in Sunni areas, to reduce perceptions that the army and police are offshoots of the original Shia and Kurdish-led interim government.
Violence has flared in mainly Sunni Arab Anbar province, with US and Iraqi forces killing over 100 insurgents over the past week in the capital Ramadi, and a suicide car bomber killing 10 in an attempt to assassinate the governor on Tuesday.
Parliament, which will soon vote on forming a government of national unity - seen as the best hope for ending the bloodshed - began its first normal business session since being elected in December.
But speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani postponed what was to have been the most important task, the selection of a committee to review and amend the constitution, until after a new government is formed and approved by parliament.
"I suggest waiting to form the constitutional committee until the forming of the next government and the situation stabilises because it is an important issue and needs more negotiation among the blocs," he said.
The once-dominant Sunni minority is more fully represented since abandoning its boycott of the US-backed political process by voting in December. Parliament, beginning a first full four-year term since the fall of Saddam Hussein, is due to sit again next Wednesday. Shia prime minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki has said he could have a cabinet line-up ready soon.
Sunni Arabs say the constitution gives too much power to the majority Shias and want it changed, demanding they head the review committee.
Mr al-Maliki has said he hopes to announce a rainbow coalition to embrace Shias, Sunnis and Kurds, a step seen as vital to quelling the Sunni insurgency and mounting sectarian bloodshed involving guerrillas on all sides. He has 30 days from April 22nd to present a list to the 275-member parliament for its approval.
Politicians involved in the negotiations say agreement may be emerging on the top five ministries - interior, defence, finance, foreign affairs and oil.
Political blocs say they are using a complex points system based primarily on results from December's election to determine how many ministries are allocated to each grouping.
"The deadline to form the government is May 22nd, but Nuri al-Maliki has set himself a target of May 9th," said Khudheyir al-Khuzai, a member of Mr al-Maliki's Shia alliance.
The US military says attacks on civilians have doubled since a Shia mosque was bombed in February and senior officials say 100,000 have fled their homes.
In what has become a regular occurrence, the bodies of 14 men, with bullet holes and showing signs of torture, were found in Baghdad yesterday, police said. The victims were blindfolded and bound. Twenty were found in the city on Tuesday.