Iraq’s new transitional assembly took an expected but historic step Wednesday, electing Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the nation’s president — a symbol of the new Kurdish clout in the largely Arab nation. The vote was largely a formality and the role largely ceremonial, but the selection of a Kurdish president was a poignant, symbolic moment for a country where Kurds were persecuted under Saddam Hussein’s Sunni Arab regime. Full Story