Parliament speaker slaps lawmaker

Baghdad: Iraq's parliament speaker slapped a fellow Sunni Arab lawmaker on the face as he was leaving a stormy session in which he accused "three-quarters" of the house's 275 legislators of involvement in sectarian violence.

Mahmoud Al Mashhadani has a track record of violent behaviour. The session began with a house clerk reading a report prepared by lawmakers who had visited the displaced in Karbala. Al Mashhadani then asked that the report be referred to him and his deputies, but lawmaker Shazah Moussawi complained that the speaker was not taking the issue seriously enough.