Meanwhile in Iraq

At least 26 killed in Iraq as pregnant mother murdered: The US military also reported that two powerful roadside bombs had killed four of its soldiers on Sunday, keeping December on track to be one of the deadliest months for American soldiers so far this year.

Iraqi leader criticises US report: Mr Talabani rejected the Iraq Study Group's proposal to withdraw US troops if Iraq failed to strengthen security. He also objected to including former regime members in reconciliation talks.

Police: Saddam’s nephew escaped from prison: A nephew of Saddam Hussein serving a life sentence for financing insurgents and possessing bombs escaped from prison Saturday in northern Iraq with the help of a police officer, authorities said.

The Americans don't see how unwelcome they are, or that Iraq is now beyond repair: Manipulation of facts was often very crude. As an example of the systematic distortion, the Iraq Study Group revealed last week that on one day last July US officials reported 93 attacks or significant acts of violence. In reality, it added, "a careful review of the reports ... brought to light 1,100 acts of violence".

At least 22 killed in another bloody day in Iraq: Gunmen stormed a house, killing six members of the same family and wounding the father in a village near Tuz Khurmato, 70 km (40 miles) south of Kirkuk, police said.

60 Bodies Found as Iraq bomb attacks kill 4 US occupation soldiers: Roadside bombs have killed four more American occupation soldiers in Iraq, three of them in a single attack in north Baghdad, the US military said Monday.

650,000 Iraqi dead given voice in Congress: The briefing was to discuss the October 2006 study Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey, which appeared in the British medical journal The Lancet. This study estimated that 655,000 more Iraqis had died (”excess deaths”) since the invasion than would have died if the prewar rate of death (mortality) had continued. It further estimated that about 600,000 of these had died from violence.

Prominent Saudi Muslim clerics urge Muslims to support Iraqi Sunnis against Shiites: Over 30 prominent Islamic clerics from Saudi Arabia on Monday called on Sunni Muslims around the Middle East to support their brethren in Iraq against Shiites and praised the insurgency.

Car Bomb Survivors, No Longer Statistics: Video: The victims in this story survived a car bombing this summer in the Adhamiya neighborhood. These images are graphic, but they depict an aspect of daily life in Baghdad.

Sunni and Shiite Insurgents Remain Mystery to U.S., Iraq Report Charges : Nearly four years after the invasion of Iraq, the United States still does not understand the enemy that American troops are fighting, according to last week’s report by the Iraq Study Group.

Lawmakers seek to oust Iraqi prime minister: The talks are aimed at forming a new parliamentary bloc that would seek to replace the current government and that would possibly exclude supporters of the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a vehement opponent of the US military presence.

White House denies move to oust al-Maliki: The White House is flatly denying a report that key Shiite leaders are maneuvering to oust Iraq's prime minister.

Iraqi President Calls U.S. Security Training a Failure : President Jalal Talabani said Sunday that the American program to train Iraq’s security forces had been a repeated failure and he denounced a plan to increase the number of American advisers working with the Iraqi Army, saying it would subvert the country’s sovereignty.

'Iraq insurgent attacks to rise: A British military commander has warned that insurgent attacks on multi-national troops in Iraq would rise ahead of the planned security handover to local forces in the Basra area next year.