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Iraq's Kurdish Assembly Opens First Session
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(http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=DC1800:3919ACA

New 111-seat assembly to elect speaker and deputy speaker before
discussing new national constitution





IraqThe Kurdish regional parliament in Iraq has opened its inaugural
session to discuss a new national constitution.

Saturday's meeting of the 111-seat assembly in the northern city of
Irbil is the first since general elections in January. Delegates were
to elect a speaker and deputy speaker before getting to the business
at hand.

Meantime, Iraqi police say a suicide bomber detonated a bomb near a
U.S. military base in Tikrit on Friday, killing at least five people.

Officials also say a Turkman official, General Sabah Qaratun was
killed in a separate attack in the northern town of Kirkuk.

The latest attacks come only days after Iraq's interior ministry
issued its first civilian death toll, showing 12,000 people have died
over the past 18 months.

Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.


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