Iraq prepares to seal borders, extend curfew to curb election-day violence

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq will seal its borders, extend a curfew and restrict movement to protect voters during the Jan. 30 election, officials announced Tuesday after the latest major insurgent attack.\nPresident Bush spoke Tuesday morning with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the latest in a series of conversations between the two leaders of Iraq's efforts to ensure maximum participation in the election.\nA Catholic archbishop kidnapped by gunmen in the northern city of Mosul was released Tuesday, a day after his abduction. The Vatican had called his abduction a "terrorist act."\nA video surfaced Tuesday showing eight Chinese construction workers held hostage by gunmen claiming the men are employed by a company working with U.S. troops in the latest abduction of foreigners in Iraq. China's official Xinhua News Agency said diplomats were "making all efforts to rescue" the hostages.\nThe men from China's southern Fujian province went missing last week while traveling to Jordan, Xinhua said.\nA suicide car bombing in Baghdad Tuesday gouged a crater in the pavement, left several vehicles in flames and spread shredded debris on the street outside the offices of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a main contender in the election. The Shiite party, known as SCIRI, has close ties to Iran and is strongly opposed by Sunni Muslim militants.\nThe assailant told guards at a checkpoint leading to the party's office that he was part of SCIRI's security staff, and he detonated his bomb-laden car at the guard post when he was not allowed to enter.\nIraqi police officials reported the bomber and two others were dead and nine people were injured, including three police.\n"SCIRI will not be frightened by such an act," party spokesman Ridha Jawad said. "SCIRI will continue the march toward building Iraq, establishing justice and holding the elections."\nSunni Muslim militants are increasingly honing in on Shiites in their effort to ruin the election that is widely expected to propel their religious rivals to a position of dominance. Many Sunnis argue that security is precarious and the election should not occur under foreign occupation.\nIn another attack apparently designed to scare Shiites away from the polls, masked gunmen killed a Shiite Muslim candidate in Baghdad.\nThe Independent Electoral Commission announced that the country's international borders would be closed from Jan. 29 until Jan. 31, except for Muslim pilgrims returning from the hajj in Saudi Arabia.\nIraqis also will be barred from traveling between provinces, and a nighttime curfew will be imposed during the same period, according to a statement from the commission's Farid Ayar.\nSuch measures had been expected because of the grave security threat. U.S. and Iraqi authorities are hoping to encourage a substantial turnout but fear that if most Sunnis stay away from the polls, the legitimacy of the new government will be in doubt.\n"We want to make sure that the Iraqis have the best possible election, that as many people in Iraq who want to are able to participate in the election process," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "Prime Minister Allawi has been doing a lot of outreach to sectors throughout the country to encourage broad participation in the elections, and the fact that we're moving forward on elections is a significant achievement."\nIraq's interior minister warned that if the country's Sunni Arab minority bows to rebel threats and stays away from the polls, the nation could descend into civil war.