19 Days to Iraq's election

IOL:

A car bomb exploded at the police headquarters in Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit on Tuesday, killing seven policemen, authorities at the scene said.

Officials said eight policemen were also wounded in the bombing in the Sunni Muslim town, 175km north of Baghdad, which is one of the centres of the insurgency in Iraq.

FOX News:

The Ukrainian parliament called Tuesday for an immediate withdrawal of the nation's peacekeepers from Iraq. The vote was nonbinding but reflected growing national dismay over the mission.

The call came two days after eight Ukrainian soldiers died in an explosion at an ammunition dump in Iraq. The blast was reported as an accident, but a top commander later raised suspicions it could have been a terrorist action.

On Monday, President Leonid Kuchma ordered the foreign and defense ministries to develop a plan for withdrawing Ukraine's troops from Iraq within the first half of 2005.

But the parliament, in a 308-0 vote, called on Kuchma to accelerate the process by issuing an immediate decree on withdrawal.

CNN:

Fear of violence will keep Iraqis in some parts of the country from voting in the national elections less than three weeks away, interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Tuesday.

"The security situation is still bad," Allawi said. "We don't claim we have completely provided security to Iraqis, but I say there has been good progress."

Allawi's comments came at a news conference focusing on the need to strengthen Iraq's security and police forces.

"Certainly, there are some pockets who will not take part in these elections, but they are not many pockets," he said. "In the next two weeks, there should be a consensus on taking part in elections in Iraq."

Democracy for some!