Baghdad - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed the ban on Iraq sending a team to next month's Olympic Games in Beijing, it emerged Thursday.

Seven athletes had hoped to compete in China but the IOC confirmed the ban it imposed last month in a letter dated July 23 and addressed to the Iraqi Minister of Youth and Sports Jassim Mohammed Jaffer and the acting secretary general of the Iraqi cabinet, Ali Mohsin Ismail.

Baghdad  - The US embassy in Baghdad announced Thursday it would grant 5,000 immigrant visas each year for the next five years to all Iraqis working for the US government in Iraq.

The move comes under a special immigrant visa programme authorized by the a US legislation in June, the embassy said in a statement.

Applicants should have "experienced or be experiencing an ongoing serious threat as a result of US government employment," the statement said.

Baghdad - Three key terror suspects allegedly affiliated to the al-Qaeda in Iraq group have turned themselves in to Iraqi and coalition forces, the US military said Thursday.

A leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, also known as al-Qaeda in Iraq, in the western Sinjar area surrendered to Iraqi troops on July 5, the US military said in a statement.

The suspect was allegedly involved in facilitating the work of foreign fighters in Iraq and leading a terrorist cell specialized in making explosive devices.

Baghdad- Iraq's Presidency Council announced Thursday that it has officially rejected a key provincial election legislative bill which aims at shifting more powers to Iraq's under-represented political and sectarian groups.

Parliament had passed the bill on Tuesday amid strong objections with lawmakers from a Kurdish and Shiite blocs walking out.

Kurds objected to a secret ballot on a provision in the bill over the disputed city of Kirkuk, which they are seeking to integrate into Iraq's Kurdish Autonomous Region.

Ankara - Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets inside northern Iraq Wednesday night, the Turkish General Staff announced on Thursday.

In a short statement on its official website, the General Staff said Turkish Air Force planes successfully hit 13 suspected Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) targets inside northern Iraq. The statement said that special care was taken not to hit civilian properties.

No information on what kind of targets were hit nor their locations inside Iraq was given in the statement.

Baghdad - Iraq's President Jalal Talabani denounced Wednesday the passing of the key provincial election law by the Iraqi parliament as unconstitutional, and said he would not ratify it.

Talabani said the law would deepen sectarian and nationalistic tendencies, according to a statement released by his office. He criticized the fact that the vote involved an "unprecedented" secret ballot.

Iraq's parliament passed the key law on Tuesday despite a walkout by Kurdish members of parliament to protest a secret ballot on a provision related to the multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk.