April 01, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1428

BAGHDAD, March 31: After enduring one of the bloodiest weeks in Iraq’s sectarian conflict, Iraqis on Saturday were united in celebrating the win of an Iraqi woman in the hit pan-Arab television talent show Star Academy.

Shatha Hassoun, 25, fell on her knees on stage and wrapped the red, white and black Iraqi flag around her shoulders after learning she had garnered the biggest share of the public vote in the reality show, which is broadcast from Lebanon and is one of the most popular programmes in the Middle East.

The announcement came just after midnight in Iraq. In Baghdad, a power cut meant many who had been following Hassoun’s fortunes over the past four months were unable to see her beat her three remaining classmates, from Lebanon, Tunisia and Egypt.

But in those areas with power generators, cheering erupted from many homes along with the sound of celebratory gunfire, which began slowly at first and then intensified as the news swiftly spread by phone and text message.

While Hassoun, the daughter of a Moroccan mother and an Iraqi father, lives in Morocco, many Iraqis saw in her an opportunity to forget their own troubles in the war-ravaged country and restore some national pride.

More than 500 people were killed this week in an explosion of violence between minority Sunnis and majority Shias, that ignored calls for national reconciliation by Iraq's leaders and fuelled fears the country was slipping closer to civil war.

“I voted for the government and they did nothing for us. She deserves the vote more than the government does,” Um Farah, a store owner in Baghdad’s dangerous, mainly Sunni Yarmouk district, said.—Reuters