Bush says rising Iraq violence aimed at swaying U.S. elections

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- A little more than two weeks before the U.S. congressional elections, President George W. Bush said on Friday the escalating violence in Iraq was partly aimed at influencing the midterm elections.

    At a speech to a National Republican Senatorial Committee reception, the president gave two reasons as to why violence was rising in the war-ravaged Iraq. Full story>>

    ¡¡Iraq's Sunni and Shiite clerics agree to halt sectarian bloodshed

    RIYADH, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Shiite and Sunni clerics on Friday met in Saudi Arabia's Mecca and agreed to halt the growing sectarian bloodletting in their war-torn country, said reports reaching here from the Islam's holiest city.

    The two rival sides reached the agreement in a signed document, or final communique under which "spilling Muslim blood is forbidden", at the end of their two-day Mecca meeting organized by the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Full story>>