Iraq chooses its top leaders

Iraq finally has named its four top jobs -- more than four months after the country’s historic general election. Jawad al-Maliki has been asked to be prime minister-designate and form a new government. Al-Maliki, a Shiite, was nominated a day earlier to replace interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who had been at the center of an impasse between Iraq's political parties. The prime minister designate has a month to choose his ministers and present the list to parliament. Chosen as the new speaker of the Council of Representatives was Sunni Arab politician Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. A Shiite, Khalid al-Attiya, and a Kurd, Aref Tayfour, were elected as his deputies.