Steve Shickles

AP - The well-known civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security operation was released Monday after he was kidnapped in the capital.

Reuters - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates
said on Monday he had seen no signs that recent violence in
southern Iraq would affect a planned drawdown of U.S. troops.

AFP - The United States on Monday hoped for an end to Iraqi military operations in Basra as it welcomed hardline Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s “positive step” to rein in fighters battling them.

AP - The flare-up in violence in Shiite areas of southern Iraq and Baghdad has yet to alter U.S. plans to withdraw more combat forces this spring, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday.

Reuters - U.S. President George W. Bush left
on Monday for his farewell NATO summit and a final
heads-of-state meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin as he tries
to salvage a foreign policy legacy frayed by the Iraq war.

AP - China has replaced North Korea as one of the top three U.S. enemies, according to a poll of Americans.

AFP - At least 461 people were killed in week-long clashes between Shiite militants and security forces in Iraq, according to an AFP tally based on reports by security officials.

AFP - Iraq said on Monday it has signed a contract worth 5.5 billion dollars with Boeing to buy 40 new aircraft, with an option to purchase 15 more.

Reuters - A mortar barrage hit Baghdad’s heavily
fortified Green Zone, which houses Iraq’s government and the
U.S. embassy, police said, a day after Shi’ite cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr ordered his fighters to stand down.

The Christian Science Monitor - Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the Iraqi religious leader whose Mahdi Army has been locked in a deadly battle with Iraqi forces, aided by the US military, in Baghdad, Basra, and other southern cities, called for a cooling-off period in a statement issued Sunday.