Iraq Delays Census, Again

Iraq's government has once again postponed its first full census in more than two decades.

The population count has been stalled in a long-standing dispute over how to count the ethnic breakdown between Arabs and Kurds in the country's north.

The census is critical to determining land ownership rights in Iraq's northern oil-producing region.

An official in the Planning Ministry, Mahdi al-Alaq, has said no new date has been set for the population count, which had previously been scheduled for October 24 and then delayed until December 5.

compiled from agency reports