Iraqi Supreme Court

Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki has rejected an initiative sponsored by the United Nations regarding a planned independence referendum in northern Iraq, saying that it contains several elements that are against the country's constitution. 

Turkey's president and Iraq's prime minister late on Sept. 18 discussed the planned referendum in the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) slated for Sept. 25, according to Turkish presidential sources.      
The sources said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Haidar al-Abadi spoke on the phone just a week before the independence referendum. 

Tariq Aziz, Iraq's former deputy prime minister and foreign minister, died Friday after suffering a heart attack.

Aziz, 79, was Iraq's foreign minister between 1983 and 1991 and deputy prime minister between 1979 and 2003.