America's Afghan war costs are showing no signs of letting up. And now it has overtaken previous records of Iraq war.
India on Sunday said it is seriously concerned over escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran, and called for immediate de-escalation of the situation.
Nearly half the funds earmarked for reconstruction were diverted towards fighting rebels and preparing for the Saddam Hussein trial.
The United States has ordered the aircraft carrier USS George H W Bush to move into the Arabian Gulf to provide President Barack Obama with options for possible military action against militants in Iraq.
Former US President Bill Clinton on Saturday said America was not interested in dominating Iraq and instead would like to see the representative government ruling the country.
The United States has discussed with Iran the need to refrain from pressing a "sectarian agenda" in Iraq as the two rivals met on the sidelines of talks on Tehran's nuclear programme in Vienna.
Iraq's parliament speaker has announced a one day extension to the talks over the country's draft constitution.
Iraqi officials had previously said Saddam's trial would open before the scheduled election.
Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed told reporters after a meeting of the Crisis Management Group that Talmiz Ahmad is expected to reach Baghdad by this evening or early tomorrow morning.
The latest flashpoint in West Asia has derailed India's preliminary plans to resume crude oil imports from Iran, officials said. In January, officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had told Business Standard that the government had been studying proposals for the same, given that India was trying to expand sources of imports. "We are always monitoring the situation when it comes to crude flows.
Bonnie Burnham, president of the\nWorld Monuments Fund, said thousands of important sites in Iraq, known as the cradle of civilisation, are at risk from war, looting and neglect.
Retired general Tommy Franks, former CIA director George Tenet and former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer received the the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.
As long as oil continues to be a factor, as long as Iraqi Shias and Sunnis continue to butcher each other, as long as the expenses of war can be sustained by the American economy, there is no hope of an American withdrawal from Iraq.
A police officer confirmed the attack had been carried out by a suicide bomber.
India's net oil import bill could widen to $101-104 billion in current fiscal from $96.1 billion in 2023-24 and any escalation in the Iran-Israel conflict could impart an upward pressure on the value of imports, ICRA said on Tuesday. The domestic rating agency said based on its analysis, lower value of Russian oil imports is estimated to have led to savings of $7.9 billion in 11 months (April-February) of 2023-24, up from $5.1 billion in 2022-23.
The government on Tuesday said it was in touch with the Indian nurses stranded in violence-hit Tikrit town in Iraq and assured "every possible help" to Indian citizens in the trouble-torn country.
The debate, which allowed Cheney and Edwards to cross-question, led to some heated arguments.
But the US president rejected demands that Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld be sacked for his failure to prevent atrocities against Iraqi prisoners.
The abductors gave Tokyo three days to declare a pullout, failing which the three Japanese--two journalists and a woman aid worker-would be executed.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday assured that the 46 nurses from Kerala, who were evacuated from violence-hit Iraq recently, would get their salary arrears amount shortly.
The BBC says the news will be a blow to the US, which had hoped to complete such a document within six months.
Rediff.com takes a look at some defining moments of the nine-year war in Iraq.
A Shia leader who was the main target of the suicide bomber was not in office when the blast occurred.
It is believed that the process was brought forward to prevent militants from disrupting the process.
Union External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Thursday night returned home after a two-day Iraq visit during which he held talks with top Iraqi leadership on issues of bilateral and mutual interests including imports of oil.
Suicide bombers killed 12, including a US soldier, as the UN edged closer to a resolution on Iraq.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday chaired a meeting of India's top envoys from Gulf countries to discuss the situation in conflict-hit Iraq where the Indian government is in the process of facilitating departure of nearly 10,000 of its nationals from non-conflict zones.
Reliance Industry plans to make an all-out bid for securing the contract for a 3,00,000 barrels per day refinery project in Iraq, sources said.
He feared elections planned for January would not go ahead in Iraq unless security improved.
The team of weapons inspectors sent in by Washington and London at the end of the war to comb Iraq has admitted in its final report that there were no stockpiles.
The seven Chinese entered Iraq via Jordan on Sunday morning and were most probably abducted in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Xinhua news agency quoted a Chinese diplomat as saying.
