Shiite coalition holds Iraq election lead as Italian journalist kidnapped

BAGHDAD, Feb 4 (AFP) - Iraq's main Shiite coalition maintained a hefty but reduced lead Friday in the latest count of votes in the country's historic election, as an Italian journalist was kidnapped and deadly violence continued.
The United Iraqi Alliance, which is backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's Shiite spiritual leader, secured more than two thirds of the roughly 40 percent counted, said the electoral commission.
With 2,212,000 votes out of 3.3 million counted, the Shiite list has 67 percent and a commanding lead over that of interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, in second place with 579,000 votes, or 17 percent. In a first count announced on Thursday, the alliance stood at 72.8 percent.
The final results from Sunday's election, Iraq's first free vote in more than 50 years, is expected next week.
Sunday's election saw millions dodge bombers and bullets to vote for a 275-member parliament that will draft a permanent consitution.
But the upbeat mood was marred by news of the kidnapping of the Italian journalist in Baghdad and the deaths of 38 people in attacks in a 24-hour span.
Giuliana Sgrena, who writes for the leftist daily Il Manifesto, was abducted by armed men near a mosque at Baghdad University, just minutes after she had called her office to say she was fine.
"The Italian journalist was kidnapped today around 2 pm (1100 GMT) in the district of Al-Jadriya near Baghdad University," an Iraqi interior ministry official said.
Armed men in a mini-bus blocked Sgrena's vehicle and took her, her driver and translator away before later releasing the two Iraqis, the official said.
Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni was kidnapped on August 20 and murdered by the Islamic Army in Iraq, with his killing shown on a video released over the Internet.
In September, two Italian women working for a humanitarian organisation in Iraq were abducted and held for three weeks before being released.
French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi translator disappeared on January 5 and are believed to have been kidnapped.
At least 170 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq since last April, when insurgents first started taking hostages as a tactic in their war.
Insurgent attacks in central Iraq left eight civilians, a rebel and two US soldiers dead since Thursday on top of 27 fatalities announced the previous day.
The tenacious insurgency has plagued Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.
In New York, a damning investigation condemned the head of the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq over alleged underhand payments in a scandal that has tainted the image of the United Nations.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan immediately ordered disciplinary action against oil-for-food official Benon Sevan after the release of a scandalous report on corruption within the Iraq relief programme.
Annan was "shocked" by the revelations, said his chief of staff Mark Malloch-Brown.
A panel headed by former US Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker said Sevan had repeatedly asked for allocations of oil from Saddam's regime on behalf of a Panama-based trading company that then re-sold the oil.
The regime was hoping to buy influence through Sevan, the Volcker said.
From 1996 to 2003, the 64-billion-dollar programme was intended to help Iraqis cope with international sanctions imposed over Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The investigation followed years of corruption allegations.
Sevan, a Cypriot, has retired but could still face criminal action as the US authorities have their own investigation.
The United States announced Thursday that about 15,000 troops whose tours were extended for the election would be brought home shortly, but the military planned to keep 135,000 troops in Iraq throughout the year.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld hailed the "courageous" effort of the Iraqi forces in trying to make their country safe.
He said in a commentary for the Wall Street Journal that the Iraqi forces were performing exceptionally. "They deserve our respect for their courage, and not criticism from the safety of thousands of miles away," Rumsfeld said.
In Friday prayers, Iraqi Shiite rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr called on his community's senior religious leaders to insist on a timeline for a US troop withdrawal and belittled last week's vote.

02/04/2005 15:00 GMT - AFP