Around the World: Iraq

Baathist immunity decried

President Jalal Talabani has urged parliament to lift the immunity from prosecution of some lawmakers for lauding the Saddam Hussein era, saying they were harming the political process. The reemergence of heated debate over the Baath party, which ruled Iraq from the late 1960s until 2003 and was dominated by Saddam's fellow Sunni Arab minority, is roiling Iraqi politics less than two months before the parliamentary election.