Baghdad blasts in Shiite districts kill 21 A series of explosions against Shiite neighbourhoods in Baghdad killed at least 21 people and wounded 57 others on Thursday morning, security officials said. Twin car bombs in the north Baghdad district of Kadhimiyah killed 12 people and wounded 22 others, a defence ministry official said, while an interior ministry official put the toll at 15 dead and 31 wounded A booby-trapped motorcycle followed by twin roadside bombs at a hospital in Sadr City, meanwhile, killed nine people and wounded 35 others. The United States and United Nations have urged calm amid the political standoff and called for national leaders to hold talks to end the row, but no such meetings have yet taken place. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday backed off threats to fire ministers from the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc who have boycotted cabinet, the latest in an apparent toning down of the crisis. The standoff was sparked by authorities' decision to issue an arrest warrant for Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on terror charges. Hashemi, who is holed up in the northern autonomous Kurdish region, denies the charges and his Iraqiya party has boycotted cabinet and stayed away when parliament re-opened on Tuesday. Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak, also a member of Iraqiya, has decried Maliki as a dictator "worse than Saddam Hussein," and the premier has called for him to be sacked. MPs were due to have considered that request on Tuesday, but the motion was not discussed or voted on.