Iraq oil exports to start in June: Official

Buoyed by the prospect of income soon, the US administration paid the first state wages since the war to oust Saddam Hussein ended early last month. It doled out dinars bearing Saddam’s face to thousands of electricity workers who are still struggle to restore power to Baghdad.

The US military, trying to restore law and order, gave Iraqis three weeks to hand in automatic and heavy weapons. Many say that with anarchy and an abundance of cheap weapons, the crime rate has reached unprecedented levels.

In a country where people are divided ethnically and where many resent the US-led occupation dissent emerges at almost every step.

In the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, local leaders elected an interim provincial government in the hope of banishing ethnic tensions, but the process drew noisy protests.

The city’s Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen and Assyrian communities chose six council members each, with six independents chosen by religious and civil leaders, military officers and businessmen.Some 300 delegates selected the 30-member council, which will choose a provincial governor on Tuesday.

But Arabs, already angered by the detention of five candidates for alleged Baath Party ties, protested along with Turkmen at the lack of representation on the council among the six “independents” — four Kurds, one Assyrian and one member of an ethnically mixed tribe. (Reuters)