Top government officials in New Delhi have started discussions with stakeholders ranging from shipping and container companies to export promotion councils to understand the impact of the Iran-Israel tensions and plan ahead. Inter-ministerial talks are also being lined up amid the crisis situation in West Asia, sources confirmed. While the crude flows are not directly under any threat, elevated oil prices remain a concern, according to officials.
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 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.
In Amman, Biden will meet with King Abdullah of Jordan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Rediff.com takes a look at some defining moments of the nine-year war in Iraq.
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.
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.
The BBC says the news will be a blow to the US, which had hoped to complete such a document within six months.
A Shia leader who was the main target of the suicide bomber was not in office when the blast occurred.
The US has deployed its elite counter-terrorism unit Delta Force for covert operations in Iraq to capture or kill high-ranking Islamic State operatives and gather intelligence, according to a media report.
It is believed that the process was brought forward to prevent militants from disrupting the process.
Suicide bombers killed 12, including a US soldier, as the UN edged closer to a resolution on Iraq.
He feared elections planned for January would not go ahead in Iraq unless security improved.
The families said their hopes of getting any clue about the men who went missing in Iraq's Mosul city were almost shattered after listening to the statement of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Parliament on Wednesday.
"Mubarak said that when President Bush Sr had called and asked what Mubarak thought about invading Iraq to get to rid of Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf war, Mubarak had told him not to because 'you won't be able to get out and you will drown in Iraq,'" according to cables released by WikiLeaks.
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.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which has declared the formation of a caliphate, realises it will need the help of migrant workers and professionals to run the nation and is thus forcing the Indian nationals to stay back, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
The international suspension of the Iraqi Football Association was provisionally lifted by FIFA on Thursday.
The ministry said that they are continuing to deliver just punishment to those whose hands are stained with the blood of Iraqis.
An own goal from Walid Abbas in the third minute of stoppage time gifted holders Iraq a precious 1-0 win over United Arab Emirates to kick-start their Asian Cup title defence on Saturday.
United States President George W Bush on Thursday ordered an indefinite suspension in troops withdrawal from Iraq after July, to enable military commanders evaluate future troop reductions, in the war-torn country. Making it clear that the bulk of the American fighting force in Iraq is going to stay put right through the end of his tenure next year, Bush reduced the combat tours of US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to 12 months from 15 months.
A magical goal from midfielder Yaser Kasim gave Iraq a crucial 1-0 win over a 10-man Jordan in the Asian Cup on Monday.
