Baghdad  - The US-led multi-national forces are to hand over the security of the province of Babel to the Iraqi government in two days' time, Babel governor Salem Saleh al-Moslemawy said Tuesday.

In remarks reported by the Iraqi al-Buratha news agency, al- Moslemawy told a press conference that the ceremonial handover would take place on Thursday.

Babel, south of Baghdad, would become the 12th of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed over by the US military to Iraqi control.

Baghdad - Two Iraqis were killed and seven injured when a bomb went off in eastern Baghdad on Monday, an Iraqi police source said.

Baghdad - Tens of thousands of supporters of the militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have demonstrated on Saturday in Baghdad against the draft security deal being considered by the Iraqi and US legislatures.

Al-Sadr called for all Iraqis to reject the deal, known as the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), saying that it would only prolong the occupation of Iraq.

Al-Sadr's message was read by Sheikh Hadi al-Mahdawi in front of an estimated 50,000 protestors, who gathered in Baghdad with Iraqi flags chanting anti-US slogans.

Baghdad - Iraqi police killed a female suicide bomber simultaneously as she exploded her vest near a checkpoint in the northern province of Salahaddin, a police source said Saturday.

Police tried to stop a woman, who appeared to be in her 20s, who was wearing long robes. After she ignored repeated orders to stop, a policeman shot her, just at the moment when she detonated her vest, police officer Mohamed Khaled Abdel Hamid told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Baghdad- Tens of thousands of supporters of the militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have demonstrated on Saturday in Baghdad against the draft security deal being considered by the Iraqi and US legislatures.

Al-Sadr called for all Iraqis to reject the deal, known as the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), saying that it would only prolong the occupation of Iraq.

The cleric appealed to the Iraqi parliament not to adopt the bill.

Demonstrators chanted slogans such as "No No No to America!", "No No No to Israel" and "occupiers out."

Baghdad - Bahrain Foreign Minister Sheikh K