Iraq asks Swedish envoy to leave amid standoff over Koran burning

Iraq says it has asked the Swedish ambassador to leave the country and will withdraw its envoy in Stockholm amid an escalating crisis over the planned burning of a Koran in the Swedish capital.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Soudani "has directed the Foreign Ministry to request the Swedish ambassador to Baghdad to leave the Iraqi territory in response to the Swedish government's repeated permission of burning the Holy Koran, defaming the Islamic sanctities and torching the Iraqi flag," his media office tweets.