The paper quoted the top cleric in Ajabshir as saying the protests broke out over demands for a better telephone service.

They resumed vaccinations in mid-2004 after entreaties from top Muslim clerics and after state officials visited foreign vaccine factories.

He is faced with a top Shiite cleric's demands for majority rule.

Rulings by a 12-member supervisory body of top clerics and Islamic lawyers have eliminated 402 candidates on the ground that they are insufficiently Islamic.

He also appoints top Islamic clerics and is considered the highest-ranking figure in the armed forces.

A successful attack on top clerics and pilgrims in Najaf would have been disastrous.

In the morning, a team of American officials rushed to a meeting with Falluja's mayor and top clerics.

Today, in contrast, Iraq's top clerics say they want only a recognition of Muslim character under a constitution guaranteeing democracy and tolerance.

American political officers called a meeting with the town's top clerics who promised to issue a religious edict to condemn the attack.

In a shooting spree beginning in 1998, one top Iraqi Shiite cleric after another was gunned down.