Teenager reneges on talking about trip

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A U.S. teen who cut class to make a solo trip to Iraq returned to school Tuesday, then skipped his own news conference because he didn't want to face reporters.

Farris Hassan, 16, said in a statement that he had changed his mind about the media appearance, which he had organized.

"I am very thankful to be home and safe, and I am looking forward to going back to school and moving on. Thank you to everyone who was concerned about my safety," Farris said in the statement, which his sister, Shehnaz, read to reporters.

Hassan began his travels Dec. 11. He was able to secure an entry visa for Iraq because his parents were born there. On arriving in Kuwait, he found the Iraqi border closed for the Dec. 15 elections. Hassan stayed with friends in Lebanon until his arrival in Baghdad on Dec. 25. He contacted The Associated Press in Baghdad on Dec. 27 and said he had recently studied immersion journalism — in which a writer lives the life of his subject — and wanted to understand better what Iraqis are going through. He left Iraq on Friday and returned home Sunday.

Iraqi war toll in '05 was nearly 6,000

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Nearly 6,000 Iraqi civilians, police and troops were killed in violence last year, data released by the Interior Ministry on Tuesday showed.

Of the 5,736 dead, 4,020 were civilians, 1,241 police officers, and 475 were Iraqi soldiers, the data showed. No comparable figures for previous years were available.

In addition, 1,734 people described as terrorists were killed, the ministry said.

The data compiled by the Interior, Defense and Health ministries found that 8,424 people were wounded, including 6,086 civilians.

The highest death toll among civilians came in September, when 557 people were killed, the official data showed.

The figures did not include more than 1,000 people killed at a religious festival in Baghdad in August when panic over rumors of a suicide bomber provoked a stampede on a bridge.

The independent Iraq Body Count Web site, based on media reports, estimates that between 27,707 and 31,232 civilians alone have been killed since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Many deaths also go unreported.

Last month, President Bush said some 30,000 Iraqis may have been killed in the conflict, the first official U.S. mention of a figure for Iraqi casualties.

Election probe will delay results

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An Iraqi elections official said Tuesday that results from Iraq's parliamentary elections might not be ready for two more weeks.

The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq has completed its investigation of almost 2,000 election complaints and will announce the findings today, commission member Hussein Hindawi said.

But the commission won't announce final election results until an international team finishes its work, meaning they might not be ready for two weeks, said commission member Safwat Rashid. Officials previously said final results of the Dec. 15 vote would be announced in early January.

The commission investigated 1,980 complaints, including 50 that were considered serious enough to alter results in some districts, an election official said.

Preliminary results give the governing Shiite religious bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, a big lead, but one that would still require forming a coalition with other groups.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Reuters