A former human rights professor at Harvard University was set to become leader of Canada's once-dominant Liberal Party after the only other candidate for the post withdrew from the race Tuesday.

Michael Ignatieff, 61, could become Canada's next prime minister if the Liberals and two left-of-center opposition parties stick with a plan to topple Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government and are allowed to form a coalition government in late January. Ignatieff, however, appears lukewarm to the idea and is expected to move the party to the right.

The current Liberal leader, Stephane Dion, said he was stepping down earlier than expected after an effort to topple Harper's government failed last week.

Ignatieff was expected to be named leader of Canada's main opposition party after rival Bob Rae said he was pulling out. That opened the way for Ignatieff to be chosen leader Wednesday by the party's national executive and then acclaimed as permanent leader at a party convention in May.

Dion is just the second Liberal leader to fail to become Canada's prime minister. The only other was Edward Blake, who led the party to defeat in 1882 and 1887 elections.

Ignatieff left a prestigious post in 2005 as director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard to enter Canadian politics. He lost the leadership position the next year to Dion.

When Ignatieff lost to Dion, he was criticized as being out of touch with Canada after spending the better part of 30 years outside the country. His support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq also won no friends with Canada's Liberal government, which opposed the war.

Rae, in stepping aside Tuesday, said the party should rally around Ignatieff.

"I offer him my full and unqualified support. He has been a friend of mine and colleague for more than 40 years. I call on all my friends and supporters to do the same," Rae said of his former university roommate.

"He will make a great prime minister."

The Liberals want a new leader in place before Parliament votes on the federal budget Jan. 27. A no-confidence vote on the budget could mean another election, or could result in a coalition government made up of the Liberals and two other parties replacing the Conservatives.

Harper reached out to Ignatieff on Tuesday in hopes of heading off a renewed ouster effort. He said he hopes the new Liberal leader will meet with him and put forward economic stimulus proposals for the government to consider.

"They will have a willing partner if they want to sit down and put their ideas on the table and work together for the best interests of the economy," Harper said.

Governor General Michaelle Jean, who is the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, holds a mostly ceremonial position. But it will be her decision which path to take if the opposition does vote to oust Harper's Conservative government. Jean allowed Harper to suspend Parliament and avoid a no-confidence vote that had been planned for Monday.

The Liberals, New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois united against Harper earlier this month after he announced a plan to scrap political subsidies for political parties, something the opposition groups rely on far more than the Conservatives.

Although that proposal was withdrawn, the opposition continued to seek Harper's removal, saying he has no stimulus plan to protect Canada from the global financial crisis.

Harper's Conservatives won the Oct. 14 election but they didn't win the majority of Parliament's 308 seats, and must rely on the opposition to pass budgets and legislation.

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A Kurdish rebel group on Sunday declared a nine-day holiday cease-fire in their fight against Turkey, a spokesman said, calling it a "first step toward peace."

The unilateral cease-fire will begin Monday as the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha gets under way, according to Ahmed Deniz, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq.

He said the group's military and political leadership would like to resolve its conflict with Turkey peacefully.

"The military and political leadership of the PKK announces a nine-day, unilateral cease-fire ... which is considered a first step toward peace," Deniz told The Associated Press.

Turkey has ignored a series of PKK cease-fire declarations in the past, vowing to fight until all militants are killed or surrender.

The rebels are fighting for autonomy in the predominantly Kurdish-inhabited southeast Turkey. The fight has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people since 1984.

Iraqi victims of a deadly shooting last year in central Baghdad demanded the harshest penalty Monday for the Blackwater Worldwide guards charged in the case, saying punishment is needed to keep other security contractors from acting with impunity.

The case has been thrust back into the spotlight more than a year after the Sept. 16, 2007, shootings that killed 17 Iraqi civilians as five Blackwater guards were charged with manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and using a machine gun in a crime of violence.

Hassan Jabir, a lawyer who was driving through the square on his way to court when the shooting occurred, said the indictments were a vindication.

"They kept on claiming and bragging that they were acting in response to an attack, but today, the truth was shown," he said.

Witnesses and an Iraqi investigation said the shooting on Nisoor Square was unprovoked, but Blackwater has said the guards were acting in self-defense after they were ambushed.

The five, who surrendered Monday at a federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, face the prospect of 30-year mandatory prison terms. A sixth guard admitted in a plea deal to killing at least one Iraqi in the shooting.

Samir Hobi, a 41-year-old taxi driver who was wounding in the shooting, said he hoped for a more severe penalty to prevent other security contractors from acting with impunity.

"I do not know about U.S. law, but I think that they should receive death sentence because they killed innocent people and thus it should be an eye for an eye," Hobi said.

Hobi is among several Iraqis whose lives were turned upside-down when the Blackwater guards opened fire in west Baghdad's Nisoor Square.

The taxi driver said he was injured in the leg when his car was sideswiped by the Blackwater SUVs, which were driving in the wrong direction.

"They began shooting randomly without any cause. I remained inside my car and could not leave because I saw those who were leaving their cars were being killed," he said. "I want them to get the harshest punishment so that such an incident will not be repeated."

Hobi said the incident left him traumatized and he still must wrap up his leg in order to walk.

"I have visited shrinks. The incident was horrifying," he said. "Now I cannot sleep and if I do, I have nightmares about the incident."

The shooting became a flashpoint for Iraqis long angered over what they perceived as heavy-handed behavior by private security contractors, who enjoyed blanket immunity. A new U.S.-Iraqi security pact that takes effect on Jan. 1 lifts that immunity, although it will be retained for on-duty American troops and contractors working with them.

Khalid Ibrahim said his father Ibrahim Abid, a 78-year-old gardener, was killed when he was caught in the shooting while driving home. Ibrahim said his mother was overwhelmed by grief and died six months later.

"The indictment of the Blackwater members is a good news for us because the killers must pay for their crime against innocent civilians," he said.

The 40-year-old electrician said the family had received $30,000 in compensation but that could not make up for the fact that their lives had been devastated.

"Justice must be achieved so that we can have rest from the agony we are living in," he said. "We know that the conviction of the people behind the shooting will not bring my father to life, yet we will have peace in our minds and hearts."

The shooting unfolded in a crowded square, where prosecutors say civilians were going about their lives, running errands. The heavily armed Blackwater convoy sought to shut down the intersection following a car bombing elsewhere in the city.

Many victims said they also were part of a civil lawsuit being brought against Blackwater. The Moyock, North Carolina-based company is the largest security contractor in Iraq and protects U.S. diplomats in Iraq.

A senior Iraqi police official, meanwhile, said U.S. prosecutors will travel this week to the capital to meet with survivors and relatives of those killed. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, did not provide details.

Another taxi driver, Sami Hawas, was injured in his chest, leg and left eye, but he's more concerned about his 6-year-old diabetic son who went into shock after seeing his father laid up in the hospital and still suffers from the trauma.

He said he had received $14,000 in compensation but that was insufficient.

"The people behind the Nisoor Square attack should receive the harshest verdict and we should be given the fair compensation. The money that was given to me did not even cover the treatment expenses," the 42-year-old said.

As of Monday, Dec. 8, 2008, at least 4,209 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3,395 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is the same as the Defense Department's tally, last updated Monday at 10 a.m. EST.

The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death each.

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The latest deaths reported by the military:

- No deaths reported.

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The latest identifications reported by the military:

- No identifications reported.