Word: blocs
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...move by the Sunni bloc, known in Arabic as Tawafiq, leaves 12 empty seats in Maliki's cabinet, which is supposed to have 37 members. Six ministers tendered their resignation last week after Maliki failed to take any visible steps to address the faction's longstanding concerns, which revolve mainly around the fate of Sunni detainees held by the government and a lack of services in Sunni areas of the country. In the spring, six other ministers loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr abandoned Maliki's government in protest over the Prime Minister's refusal to take a stronger stance against...
...anonymity, said Maliki's advisers appear split on the issue. Some of them appear to be urging Maliki to renew the Tawafiq partnership in an effort to stop already deep sectarian rifts from widening still further. Others close to the Prime Minister seem to think that the Sunni bloc is best let go, since virtually no political compromises ever seemed reachable with them. What Maliki himself is willing to consider will only be revealed if peace talks with Tawafiq falter. "We have a situation evolving right now that might lead to some fairly dramatic changes," the diplomat said. "The next...
...need peace?" says Yuval Matzliach, 32, a dairy farmer who until two summers ago lived in the Gush Katif settlement bloc in Gaza. "Giving land doesn't give you peace. Living on the land of Israel, this is the point of living...
...album, Fragmented, and it was nominated for Best New Artist at the Philippines' 2006 MTV Music Video Awards. It was also the first Filipino band to appear on MTV's Advance Warning, a showcase of up-and-coming international artists that has featured the likes of the U.K.'s Bloc Party and Canada's Arcade Fire. That's solid progress for a band that had its genesis at a college poetry reading in 2003, and once had to beg venue owners for bookings...
...after al-Sadr' to seeing [al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia] as a serious threat to his power," Ambassador Crocker told me in Baghdad a few weeks ago. Both al-Maliki and al-Sadr are plotting and scheming to oust each other. The Sadrist parliamentary bloc is planning to force a no-confidence vote on al-Maliki that could conceivably bring down the government. Given the amount of time it takes for the Iraqis to organize a ruling coalition--5 1/2 months last time--President Bush may find himself alone in Iraq, without a local ally, for the indefinite future...