IRAQI POLITICAL ALLIANCE

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi and nationalist cleric Moqtada Sadr on Saturday said they had formed an alliance to try and create a new government after May polls. Sadr’s joint list with communists won 54 seats in the legislative elections to become the biggest bloc in the country’s 329-seat parliament, while Abadi’s bloc came in third, scooping just 42 seats. – AFP