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Wed July 23, 2008

Iraq looking to draw tourists

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Elections OK'd; Kurds storm out
The Iraqi parliament in Baghdad approved a bill Tuesday that calls for crucial provincial elections on Oct. 1, but the secret ballot alienated Iraqi Kurds and very likely will lead to the postponement of the process until next year, several members of parliament told McClatchy-Tribune News Service.

"We have never had a secret vote in the two years of this parliament,” said Mahmoud Othman, one of the Kurdish parliamentarians who walked out. "We don't consider it legal ... . It is an effort to delay the elections.”

Among the issues that divided the parliament were whether the ballot should list names or political parties' slates, whether there should be a quota for female candidates, where displaced residents should vote and most important, how to divvy up votes among sects in the oil-rich Kirkuk province.

•TALIBAN CAPTURE: Amullah Rahin, the most senior Taliban leader in Afghanistan has surrendered to Pakistani authorities and another insurgent commander was killed by a British air strike in southern Afghanistan, British officials announced Tuesday.

•WEATHER: Basra, Iraq: High of 120, low of 91; Kabul, Afghanistan: 89, 64; Kuwait: 116, 91.

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By The Associated Press
BAGHDAD — Someone had fun tinkering with the airline board at the old, disused terminal at Baghdad International Airport. It advertises a "special flight” on Japan Airlines from Basra to Sydney, Australia, while a flight from Baghdad to Mexico City is "delayed.”

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In reality, Iraq has been a no-go zone for most civilian aircraft for almost two decades. Yet, now that insurgent attacks and sectarian bloodshed have ebbed over the past year, Iraq's government is beginning to promote tourism. But it'll be tough; even if officials can lure the adventuresome, Iraq's tourism facilities are shabby.

Iraq targets pilgrims
The opening of an airport Sunday in the southern city of Najaf is expected to help boost the number of religious pilgrims, mostly Iranians, visiting Shiite shrines to 1 million this year.

Iraq is thinking about more than pilgrims, though. Last week, officials displayed tourism posters and said they are intent on attracting visitors to Iraq's fabled archaeological sites, many of them looted and damaged in fighting. But they offered few specifics about how they would do that.

War's roughed up area
Hundreds of hotels in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala are usually packed, but tourism officials say the buildings badly need upgrading.

War has reduced places like Babylon, where the Hanging Gardens were located, to decrepit, virtually inaccessible outposts of ancient culture.

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