IRAQ

Members of the newly formed Iraq Governing Council hold a press conference under a large map of the country at a Baghdad conference hall July 13, 2003. A U.S.-backed 25-member Iraqi Governing Council held its inaugural meeting Sunday, stressing the start of a new era by abolishing national holidays that honored Saddam Hussein and creating a new one to mark his downfall. From left to right are Sunni leader Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaidai, marsh Arab leader Abdul-Karim al-Mohammadawi, Shi'ite leaders Adbul Aziz al Hakim and Mohammad Bahr al-Uloum, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi, and academic Mowaffak al-Rubaie. REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber REUTERS