Reuters - One dollar in eight of the $48 billion paid out by U.S. taxpayers to rebuild Iraq since the 2003 invasion was spent on private bodyguards, a U.S. government audit published on Thursday shows.
AP - For all the talk about the economy, voters have the war in Iraq on their minds, too, in the leadup to Election Day. They’re worried about supporting the troops and caring for war veterans, debating who can best lead the military, and wondering how and when the U.S. should get out.
AP - The Bush administration’s hopes for sealing a security deal with Iraq while in office are fading as Iraqis demand changes to a draft text that some U.S. officials consider unacceptable.
AFP - For five years Ali and Mohammed have lived alongside US soldiers in their Baghdad neighbourhood near Rasheed Street, a prominent commercial artery running through the heart of the Iraqi capital.
AFP - Iraq’s defence ministry has forbidden its civil servants and members of the armed forces from joining political parties or taking part in any activity linked to elections.
AP - Baghdad commuters have a new way to bypass the city’s checkpoints and congested, dusty streets with the launch of a commuter rail that travels 15 miles through Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods in the heart of the capital.
Reuters - Hailed as an American hero for his role in pulling Iraq back from the brink of all-out civil war, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus takes on an even more challenging job on Friday as the head of U.S. Central Command.
AFP - The US embassy in Syria shut its doors on Thursday as thousands marched through Damascus to protest at a deadly American raid on a village near the Iraqi border that Syria branded a barbaric act.
AFP - Baghdad wants to delete any reference in a security pact with Washington to the possibility of US troops staying in Iraq after 2011, an MP close to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday.
Reuters - The Iraqi government and donor countries must do more to support millions of refugees living outside Iraq, rather than seeking to lure them home to a still-violent country, a refugee group said Thursday.