Iraq’s top Shia cleric urges polls to end crisis

Iraq’s influential top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani yesterday called for early elections to end the political paralysis in the protest-hit country. Iraq has been rocked by two months of anti-government protests. The demonstrators have condemn official graft and a lack of jobs and demanded the ouster of the entire political class. About 460 people have been killed and 25,000 wounded in street clashes in the capital Baghdad and across the Shia-majority south.