Iraq Parliament Elects Fuad Masum as President: Speaker

Baghdad: Iraq's parliament elected veteran Kurdish politician Fuad Masum as federal president today - a move that paves the way for the much-delayed formation of a new government.

Parliament Speaker Salim al-Juburi announced that Masum, who was born in 1938 and became the first prime minister of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan more than two decades ago, had won the most votes.