Sistani calls for restraint
(Al-Mashriq) – Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has called upon the Shia of Iraq to show restraint in order to avoid sectarian conflict. Sistani's representative in Kut, Habib al-Khatib. said the supreme Shia leader wanted his community to address the issues facing it through legal methods alone. Sistani's remarks addressed the continuing attacks on Shia targets by insurgent forces.
(Al-Mashriq is published daily by the al-Mashriq Institute for Media and Cultural Investment.)

Attacks on Iraqi doctors rising
(Al-Sabah) – The health ministry has confirmed that violence against doctors is on the increase. Among the reasons for the rise in attacks, a ministry spokesman cited economic and social factors as well as the desired of certain groups to prevent Iraq becoming a civilised and developed state. The spokesman called for more to be done to stop the country losing more of its doctors. The latest statistics from the ministry indicated that more than 120 doctors have been kidnapped.
(Al-Sabah is issued daily by the Iraqi Media Network on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority.)

Cartoon of the Day

Marsh revival under way
(Al-Bayan) – Minister of water resources Jamal Rasheed said the ministry has brought water back to more than 40 per cent of the southern marshes which were drained by Saddam Hussein's regime. The ministry has a range of plans to revive the marshes, including the provision of irrigation pumps to local farmers.
(Al-Bayan comes out four times a week, and is backed by the Islamic Dawa Party.)

Anti-corruption drive in Babylon
(Al-Mada) – A source on the advisory council of Babylon governorate said the council has sacked the heads of the provincial departments for municipal affairs, sewage and foodstuffs, after completing an investigation into corruption. The public assisted by providing information about corruption in these areas, the source added. Further south, in Basra, a source at police headquarters said a number of officers have been arrested on charges of bribery.
(Al-Mada is issued daily by the al-Mada Institute for Media, Culture and Arts.)

Kurdish assembly to meet at end of month
(Tareek al-Shaaab) – Adnan al-Mufti, a member of the political office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, has announced that the first session of the Kurdish regional assembly has been put off till the end of the month. The initial meeting will be used to select a speaker and his two deputies, and swear in all 111 elected deputies. The assembly will ask Najravan Barzani to form a regional government. The two separate Kurdish administrations based in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah have agreed in principle to having just one government for the whole region, al-Mufti said.
(Tareek al-Shaab is the Iraqi Communist Party's newspaper.)

Presidential security advisor promises end to insurgency
(Al-Mutamar) – In his first press release, Wafiq al-Samarai, security counsellor to the Iraqi president, promised an end to terrorist violence. In particular, he said, foreign insurgent groups would driven out through a combination of national reconciliation, dialogue and employment. Samarai noted that the previous administration headed by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi suffered from a lack of equipment and poor levels of preparation in the counter-insurgency struggle.
(Al-Mutamar is issued daily by the Iraqi National Congress.)

Iraq no longer a pariah state, Allawi says
(Baghdad) – Outgoing prime minister Ayad Allawi has called upon all political parties and other structures to join the debate on a new government, and to make dialogue happen faster in the interests of creating a democratic Iraq. The government that emerges will be a reward for everyone who took part in the elections, he said, adding that Iraq is no longer an outcast. On the contrary, its recent elections have inspired other Arab and Muslim countries to follow its example. There is no longer any room for terror as Iraqis have rid themselves of fear and desperation, Allawi said.
(Baghdad is a daily newspaper issued by the Iraqi National Accord.)