Grieving families in northern Iraq have canceled plans for a mass funeral for dozens of suicide bomb victims because of concerns it would be attacked.
Religious leaders say families and politicians agreed to hold private funerals across the city of Mosul, Friday. The decision came as a mortar round landed near a Shi'ite mosque where a suicide bomber blew himself up Thursday, killing 47 people and wounding more than 80 others.
On the political front, Iraq's main Shi'ite alliance, which swept the January 30 elections, was finalizing a deal with Kurdish leaders to form a coalition ahead of the new parliament's first session next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a Polish newspaper quoted Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski as saying Poland will withdraw several hundred of its troops from Iraq in July.
Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.