INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Shafaq News/ Iraq's caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi cuts short state Egypt visit and returned home as tension simmers following
the Supreme Judicial Council's suspension of its activities throughout the country.A source told Shafaq News Agency that al-Kadhimi who
arrived in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, at noon proceeded with a series of meetings with senior officeholders in his cabinet to contemplate
the developments that followed the Muqtada al-Sadr's followers protests near the headquarters of the Supreme Judicial Council.A statement
issued by his bureau said that the prime minister has urged all sides to calm down and renewed calls for a national dialogue.According to
the statement, al-Kadhimi said disrupting the judiciary "exposes the country to serious risks".Al-Sadr's loyalists began gathering for
protests outside the headquarters of the Supreme Judicial Council and Federal Supreme Court in Baghdad
They have sent threats by phone, the judiciary said in a statement."(We) will suspend court sessions as a protest against this
unconstitutional behaviour and will hold the government and political parties which are backing this move fully responsible for all the
results," the statement added.The standoff in Iraq is the longest stretch without a fully functioning government in the nearly two decades
since Saddam Hussein was overthrown in a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
