Iraqi president hospitalized after suffering stroke
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who has mediated among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish parties, was hospitalized on Tuesday after suffering a stroke that left him in "critical but stable condition", government officials and lawmakers said.
Without Talabani, Iraq would lose an influential peace-maker who often eased tensions in the fragile power-sharing government and negotiated in the growing rift over oil between Baghdad and the OPEC member country's autonomous Kurdistan region. (Reuters)
