Meanwhile in Iraq

Iraq: More than 83 killed as U.S. occupation continues: Police found 56 bodies and a severed head scattered around occupied Baghdad over the last 24 hours, an Interior Ministry source said

7 U.S. occupation soldiers killed in Iraq: Three U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad and four Marines were killed in "enemy action" in Iraq's western Anbar province on Thursday, the U.S. military said on Friday.

U.N.: Nearly 100,000 Flee Iraq Monthly : The agency says an additional 50,000 Iraqis a month are fleeing their homes but remaining within Iraq, which classifies them as "internally displaced" rather than as refugees who have crossed an international border.

US spy chief on secret Iraq mission: John Negroponte, the US national intelligence director, has made an unannounced visit to Baghdad for talks with Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister.

Election looming, U.S. general urges Iraq patience: A senior U.S. general compared Iraq on Thursday to a work of art in progress and played down incessant violence and friction with Iraqi leaders as "speed bumps" on the road to stability.

Paul Krugman: As Bechtel Goes: Baghdad received less than six hours a day of electricity last month, and much of Iraq’s population lives with untreated sewage and without clean water. But Bechtel, having received $2.3 billion of taxpayers’ money and having lost the lives of 52 employees, has come to the end of its last government contract.

U.S. spending watchdog on Iraq closed down by Republicans: Pink slip for overseer mysteriously added to big spending bill.

Baghdad is Surrounded: “The American Era in the Middle East has ended” :After 3 and a half years of violence and mayhem we still know as little about the Iraqi resistance as we did in March 2003. This is inexcusable. In addition, there’s been no attempt to engage the representatives of the resistance in political dialogue. How can we possibly reach a political solution without dialogue and negotiation?