Politics

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As fighting continued between Iraqi security forces and Shiite militia fighters in the oil-rich port city of Basra, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave an ultimatum Wednesday for gunmen to lay down their arms and forsake violence by week's end.

Iraqi police and soldiers battled Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi fighters Tuesday for control of key neighborhoods in Basra, the country's second-largest city, as the radical Shiite cleric threatened a countrywide campaign of civil revolt.

Mar 24

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Pakistan's National Assembly elected Yousaf Raza Gilani, a top official in slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's party, as prime minister Monday. Gilani then ordered the release of dozens of judges detained by President Pervez Musharraf.