Kurdish ministers suspend attendance at Iraq caretaker cabinet meetings

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Kurdish ministers said on Thursday they were suspending their attendance at meetings of Iraq's national caretaker government. They said in a signed statement the move was in protest at Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's branding of the Kurdish capital of Arbil a center for terrorism. A senior Kurdish official told Reuters that the officials would continue running their ministries, making clear that they "did not pull out from the government." (Reporting By Ned Parker and Isra'a El Rubei'i in Baghdad and Isabel Coles in Arbil; Writing by Maggie Fick, editing by John Stonestreet)