Iraq just moved one step closer to replacing Maliki

Former Iraqi parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a key rival of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said late Thursday that he would bow out and not seek another term to make it easier for Shiite parties to settle on a replacement for Maliki. Shiite politicians have been deadlocked on the leadership question despite pressure from the U.S., Iran, and the United Nations to unite the nation against a Sunni extremist insurgency by forming a new government sharing more power with the other main ethnic blocs, Sunnis and Kurds. Read more at Reuters.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.