Iraq government making progress
This won't be received well by those that want us to fail in Iraq:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's prime minister-designate said Tuesday the main stumbling blocks to forming a new Cabinet have been overcome and he expects to present his team to parliament for approval by the end of the week.
Nouri al-Maliki said representatives of the country's political parties had agreed on who will head the main posts and that just a few ministries remain unfilled. Discussions were still under way on the nominees for the oil, trade and transportation ministries, he said.
The incoming prime minister did not say who would get the key ministries of interior, which controls police, and defense, which runs the army. U.S. and British officials have insisted those posts go to people without ties to sectarian militias, believed responsible for many of the revenge killings of Sunnis and Shiites.
"The direction we took, and which was agreed upon by the political groups, was that the two who will occupy these posts be independent and unaffiliated with a party or a militia," he said at a news conference.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite, said he hoped to present the Cabinet to parliament by the end of the week. Parliament must approve each minister by a majority vote.
Even AP must feel this is good news for the U.S. effort in Iraq, as they felt compelled to devote the second half of the story to insurgent attacks, sectarian tensions and journalists' deaths.
However, separate stories like this one where death and bad news is the lede include no mention of al-Maliki's announcement.
