BAGHDAD, Dec. 4  -- Military officials say two apparent suicide bombs in Fallujah caused scores of casualties Thursday as the Iraqi government ratified a new security plan.

The Status of Forces Agreement will allow the United States to keep troops in Iraq through 2011 and was being formally ratified by the Presidency Council on Thursday.

The Los Angeles Times said two explosions killed at least six people in Fallujah but left more than 100 injured. The attacks were apparently aimed at Iraqi police.

Baghdad - Bombs struck two police stations in Iraq's Falluja Thursday killing a number of peo

Baghdad - US president-elect Barak Obama has told the Iraqi prime minister he will implement the security agreement between the two countries and is ready to cooperate in fighting terrorism and insurgents in Iraq, national television reported on Thursday.

Obama told Nuri al-Maliki in a phone conversation on Wednesday night that the two countries have entered "a new phase" in their relations after the signing of the security deal in November.

Thw agreement calls for US forces to pull back from Iraqi towns and cities by the end of June 2009, and for a complete withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Baghdad - An international journalists' organization condemned on Wednesday the imprisonment of a Kurdish doctor who wrote an article about homosexuality, Reporters without Borders said in a report on its website.

Doctor Adel Hussein was sentenced to six months of prison and fined 125,000 dinars (106 dollars) on November 24 in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil, 350 kilometres north of Baghdad.

Hussein was accused of "offending public decency" according to Article 403 of the criminal code, the statement said.