Kurdish parties have reached a tentative deal to call off a threatened boycott of elections in the oil-rich region around Kirkuk after Iraq's electoral board granted displaced Kurds the right to vote. "The Kurds have decided to participate in the vote after we settled the problem of displaced Kurds. They will be allowed to vote in Kirkuk," said Farid Ayar, the spokesman for Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission. (AFP via Kurdistan Observer)

Christian Iraqis in the United States claim they are being effectively shut out of the planned Jan. 30 election for a new government in Baghdad at a time when their community faces murderous violence and discrimination back home. Jacklin Bejan, a spokeswoman for the Chaldean-Assyrian-American Advocacy Council, said the decision by election organizers to set up just one polling station west of the Mississippi — in Los Angeles — means that tens of thousands of eligible voters will not be able to register or vote. (Washington Times)