(IRIN) Assessments of security trends in Iraq vary wildly depending on who you speak to, how you count the statistics, and which period of time you study. But one thing is clear: bomb blasts, targeted killings or improvised explosive devices are still a daily occurrence in Iraq.

(AJE) Kurdish political leaders have threatened to boycott Iraq's national elections in January unless Kurdish areas receive more seats in parliament.

(Al Jazeera English) World leaders have joined their Iraqi counterparts in condemning Sunday's double bombing in Baghdad - the deadliest attack in Iraq in two years - and offered their condolences to the Iraqi people.

(BBC) Inmates started a fire and clashed with guards during a riot at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two bomb attacks in volatile parts of northern Iraq killed at least 15 people on Saturday and wounded more than 30, police said, interrupting a relatively peaceful start to the Ramadan fast.

(News AU) RADIOACTIVE wreckage and tens of millions of landmines still blight Iraq after decades of war and the deadly violence that engulfed the nation after the 2003 invasion, the environment minister says.

BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. troops and contractors in Iraq inflicted serious damage on Babylon, driving heavy machinery over sacred paths, bulldozing hilltops and digging trenches through one of the world's greatest archaeological sites, experts for UNESCO said Thursday.

(AP) Death squads roamed the streets, slaughtering members of the rival Muslim sect. Bombs rocked Baghdad daily until thousands of U.S. troops poured in two years ago, establishing neighborhood bases and taking control of the Iraqi capital and other cities.

(Al Jazeera) A former US soldier convicted of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family, has been jailed for life, after a jury failed to agree on a death sentence.

(CommonDreams.org) The great number of Iraqi children affected with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is one of the saddest, and least known, legacies of the Iraq war. That a new clinic for their treatment opened last August in Baghdad is the first of its kind says a lot about how this problem is being addressed. Until now, hundreds of children suffering from PTSD have been treated by Dr. Haider Maliki at the Central Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Baghdad. Hundreds of thousands remain untreated.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker signed a long-awaited accord on Monday requiring Washington to withdraw its forces within three years.

BAGHDAD (IHT) Thousands of supporters of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr marched through eastern Baghdad on Friday to mourn the killing of a Sadrist lawmaker and hear a statement from the anti-U.S. cleric blaming occupation and terrorism for the loss.

(Financial Times) The Baghdad government has begun assuming control of the US-backed armed groups that have been credited with helping to curtail violence in the country, in a high-stakes test for the US strategy to pacify Iraq.

(Guardian) There have already been 30 suicide bombings by women and girls in Iraq this year - almost four times as many as in the whole of 2007. The increase has been put down to their ability to evade security checks. But, reports Jonathan Steele, the reasons go much deeper.