Shamal Aqrawi

Iraqi Kurds voted on Saturday in polls expected to keep President Masoud Barzani in power and unlikely to allay voters' worries about corruption.

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit overshadowed by a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, called on Iraqi leaders on Tuesday to urgently implement a national reconciliation roadmap. Turkish troops crossed overnight into the Iraqi Kurdish province of Dahuk, about 200km from the city of Kirkuk, where Rice's plane first touched down.

United States forces stormed an Iranian consular office in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil early on Thursday and arrested five people, including diplomats and staff. The US military made no direct mention of Iranians but in answer to a query issued a statement saying six ''individuals'' were arrested during ''routine'' operations in the area.