Baquba, Iraq  - It is election season in Baquba, the capital of Iraq's volatile and ethnically mixed Diyala province, and formerly one of the main battlefields in the fight against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The streets are festooned with posters and stickers, often in layers, as political partisans rip competitors' posters down and replace them with their own.

Candidates make speeches, bestow gifts, and listen to the voters at gatherings around the city.

Six hundred candidates are running for 29 seats in Baquba's local government. More than 500 voting centres have been set up to accommodate what election officials hope will be record participation.

Kirkuk, Iraq  - Unlike most of the rest of the country, Kirkuk, a province of some 850,000 people, will not be going to the polls on January 31.

The simple reason is that the province, riven by ethnic and political tensions, is not ready for a peaceful and democratic transfer of power.

New US Vice-President Joe Biden, on a visit to the city in January, proclaimed that solving the city's problems would be an important goal of the new US administration under Barack Obama.

Washington - The elections in Iraq on January 31 are the first of three this year that will be critical for evaluating the country's stability and determining how quickly US President Barack Obama can move forward on a campaign promise to order larger withdrawals of combat troops.

Iraqis are set to cast ballots in provincial elections followed later this year by local and then national elections in what is seen as a test of political reconciliation especially between rival Shiite and Sunni populations.

Baghdad - The Iraq of 2009 presents a kaleidoscope of shifting political, ethnic and tribal allegiances that is a few steps from either the beginnings of a stable democratic nation or a return to sectarian slaughter. The provincial council elections of January 31 will be a vital indicator of the direction that the country will take.

Ahead of the polls, the dpa English Services will report with special in-depth coverage from Iraq, in a package scheduled to run on Tuesday, January 27 at 0500 GMT.

Baghdad  - Four US soldiers and four Iraqis were killed on Monday, while 21 were injured in separate attacks in Baghdad, Mosul and Diyala provinces, raising fears for security in Iraq's January 31 provincial elections.

The four US soldiers died when two helicopters crashed in northern Iraq.

"Four coalition forces members were killed when two aircraft went down in Salah al-Din governorate, in northern Iraq, at approximately 2:15 am (2315 GMT)," US army spokesman al-Meqdad Jebrael told Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Baghdad - US forces killed on Thursday three brothers in a house raid in northern Iraq, police sources said.

US forces stormed the house in the village of Youssifia, south of the northern city of Mosul, a police source told the Voices of Iraq news agency (VOI) without giving further details.

In another development, forces from El Salvador left Iraq on Thursday after finishing their mission in the country, VOI reported.

Some 200 personnel from El Salvador joined the US in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Workers aided US troops in logistics work.