Authorities have said that Iraq's election results in Baghdad and the surrounding area have been upheld by the country's electoral commission after a partial recount.

The BBC reported on Sunday that the hand recount of 2.5 million ballots, requested by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, took two weeks.

The BBC also said that Maliki's coalition party had come in second in the voting.

The recount confirms the two-seat parliamentary lead of Maliki's challenger Iyad Allawi and is compatible with the original results announced in March.

Iraqi officials have said that a trio of suicide car bombers set off their deadly cargoes in Baghdad Sunday morning, inflicting heavy carnage.

At least 41 people died and 237 others were wounded in the three explosions, the Los Angeles Times has reported. No group had claimed responsibility for the attacks, although provincial security committee official Abdul Kareem al-Thirib attributed them to al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, the New York Times said.

Baghdad, Jan 6 : At least five Iraqi women were killed in a traffic collision with a vehicle carrying US forces south of Baghdad Wednesday, police said.

Police told the DPA that at least six Iraqis were injured in the collision, which took place on the highway linking the central town of Hilla with the capital.

A US military helicopter rushed to the scene and transported the wounded to a US military hospital, police said.

Baghdad, Jan 5 : Iraq executed 77 people convicted of capital offences over the course of 2009, the Iraqi government announced Tuesday.

Judge Mahdat al-Mahmoud, chair of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, said a special court for terrorism-related offences had been created to deliver speedy justice in such cases.

The announcement followed a criminal court decision in the Iraqi town of Rusafa Dec 29 to sentence to death three men for their role in a June bombing that killed 88 people and injured 200 outside a mosque in the northern town of Taza.(DPA)

Baghdad, Jan 5 : Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said his country would file a lawsuit against US private security firm Blackwater over the killing of Iraqi civilians here two years ago.

Maliki has rejected a US judge's decision to drop charges against five Blackwater security guards who were involved in killing unarmed civilians at a crowded intersection in western Baghdad in 2007, Xinhua reported Tuesday.

Baghdad, Jan 2 - Iraq has said it regretted the decision by a US judge to dismiss the charges against five Blackwater security guards who allegedly killed innocent Iraqi civilians in 2007.

"The Iraqi government regrets and is disappointed by the decision," Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for the government, said in a statement Friday.

Berlin/Baghdad, Dec 31 - Political and security issues in war-torn Iraq have been the focus of the world's attention for more than six years. Now, the country's oil reserves are doing the talking. After a string of recent deals between the Iraqi government and foreign oil majors, experts believe that Iraqi oil will transform the global oil market over the course of the next decade.

Baghdad, Dec 31 : At least 37 people were killed and 70 injured in three devastating bombings across Iraq Wednesday, police said.

The deadliest attack struck the offices of the governor of al-Anbar province in the overwhelmingly Sunni city of Ramadi.

Qassim Mohammed al-Fahadawi, the governor of the province, and Abbas al-Dulaimi, the deputy director of the Ramadi police, were among those injured when a man detonated explosives packed into his car outside the governor's office, police told DPA.

Soon after, a second man detonated explosives strapped to his body outside the government building.

Baghdad, Dec 30 : At least 30 people were killed and 50 injured when two suicide bombers struck the western Iraqi city of Ramadi Wednesday, police said.

Qassim Mohammed, the governor of the overwhelmingly Sunni province, and Abbas al-Dulaimi, the deputy director of the Ramadi police, were among those injured when a man detonated explosives packed into his car outside the governor's office, police said.

Soon after, a second man detonated explosives strapped to his body outside the government building.

Baghdad, Dec 24 : Five people were killed and 22 others wounded by an explosion Thursday in Sadr City in the east of Baghdad, security officials said.

The bomb went off during a funerary gathering in the impoverished, predominately Shia district of the Iraqi capital, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported.

At least 27 people were killed Thursday in a wave of attacks across Iraq ahead of the Christmas holiday and in the propriety days prior to the Shia Muslim Ashura commemorations.(DPA)

Baghdad, Dec 15 : At least 10 people were killed and 69 others were injured in blasts across Iraq Tuesday, police said.

Three apparently coordinated blasts in central Baghdad killed at least four people and injured at least 14, a week after four coordinated blasts in the same area left more than 100 dead and hundreds more injured, police said.

One of the blasts took place outside the heavily fortified "Green Zone", in a garage close to the Iranian embassy, destroying 15 cars parked in the garage.

Baghdad, Dec 11 : A consortium led by Britain's Shell and Malaysia's Petronas energy companies Friday won rights to develop Iraq's massive Majnoon oil field, the Oil Ministry announced.

The field, with 12.8 billion barrels of proven reserves, was one of the two biggest prizes on offer in a live auction in Baghdad that saw energy giants from 23 countries compete for 10 oil and gas fields. Bidding will continue Saturday.

Shell and Petronas asked for $1.39 dollars barrel in exchange for boosting production from 46,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.8 million.

Baghdad, Dec 10 - The chief security officer of the Iraqi government was late Wednesday demoted to deputy chief after a series of bomb attacks in the capital killed more than 120 people.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki removed Lieutenant General Abbud Kanbar Haschem Khayun as head of the organisation, the Iraqi news agency Aswat al-Irak reported, citing government sources.

The toll after Tuesday morning's attacks has gone up to 127. At least 400 people were injured, according to the Arabic language broadcaster Al-Jazeera. (dpa)

Baghdad, Dec 9 : Iraq's presidential council has once again postponed the date it will hold parliamentary elections, but this time the delay will be for only one day, to March 7.

"There was an agreement to hold elections on March 6," Presidential Chief of Staff Nasser al-Aini told Iraq's official al-Iraqia television late Tuesday night, hours after the March 6 date was announced. "But after a second meeting in the afternoon, it was decided to postpone (the date) for one day only, until March 7."

Baghdad, Dec 8 : The Iraqi presidential council Tuesday set March 6 as the new date for parliamentary elections, Baghdad's Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported, citing state television.

The announcement followed parliament's unanimous approval to a law to cover those polls minutes before a midnight deadline Sunday, ending a tense, months-long standoff that highlighted sectarian divisions between Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish political parties.

The US and the UN had exerted significant pressure on politicians to reach a compromise ahead of Sunday night's deadline, lawmakers said at the time.

Baghdad, Dec 7 - Iraq's parliament adopted a new election law late Sunday, finally paving the way for voters to head to the polls early next year.

The next parliament would see an increase from 275 seats to 325 seats, according to the new legislation, which also appeared to resolve disputes between parties over the allocation of the spots.

The distribution of seats across the country's provinces and representation of Iraq's religious and ethnic groups have created tensions between the various parties and endangered attempts to forge a consensus.

Baghdad, Dec 7 - An agreement has been reached by the parties in Parliament on a new election law for Iraq's upcoming vote, legislators said Sunday.

If passed, the it would pave the way for voters to head to the polls early next year. However, the legislators questioned whether the needed quorum could be gathered to push the bill into law during a late-night special session of the house.

While details remain cloudy, the main change would be an increase in the number of deputies, from 275 seats to 325 seats, legislator Khaled al-Asadi said.

Baghdad, Dec 5 : Five people, including a police officer, were killed in three separate attacks carried out by unknown assailants in Iraq's northern Mosul district Saturday, police said.

A police officer and two guards were killed when unknown gunmen opened fire on them in the area.

Later, a woman was killed and her daughter injured by gunmen who fled the scene after the attack. In the eastern Mosul, unidentified men killed an elderly man, according to police. (DPA)

Baghdad, Dec 3 : A suicide bombing Thursday in the city of Tikrit in northern Iraq killed 11 people, including the provincial anti-riot police chief, and wounded 15, police said.

The incident took place at a popular marketplace in central Tikrit when a suicide bomber blew himself up near Ahmed al-Fahal, the anti-riot police chief of the province, Xinhua reported.

The blast killed Fahal, three of his guards and seven civilians and injured 15 people, including policemen, the source said.

Baghdad, Nov 26 : The government has urged Iraqis not to greet loved ones with hugs or kisses during the coming Eid al-Adha holiday as a precaution against swine flu.

The health ministry has flooded the television, radio and mobile-phone airwaves with public service announcements asking Iraqis to be on their guard and avoid crowded places.