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AP - Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will call on his fighters to maintain a cease-fire against American troops but may lift the order if a planned Iraq-U.S. security agreement lacks a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces, a spokesman said Thursday.

AP - Iraq and the U.S. are near an agreement on all American combat troops leaving Iraq by October 2010, with the last soldiers out three years after that, two Iraqi officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. U.S. officials, however, insisted no dates had been agreed.

Reuters - The U.S. Defense Department plans to spend $2.2 billion on a new fleet of spy planes and unmanned drones for Iraq and Afghanistan that would greatly enhance the ability of U.S. forces to track militants, officials said on Thursday.

AP - Republican John McCain called Thursday for a federal investigation into plans by the DHL shipping company that could cost 10,000 jobs here, as he and his campaign manager took criticism for helping DHL complete a merger in 2003 that led to its current plans.

Reuters - The U.N. Security Council voted on Thursday to keep the United Nations mission in Iraq for another year, as Baghdad urged the world body to do more to help it transform into a functioning democracy.

AFP - The UN Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to renew for one year the mandate of the UN mission for Iraq.

AFP - Iraq on Thursday postponed provincial elections due in October after MPs failed to agree the necessary legislation in time, in a blow to US-backed efforts to consolidate national reconciliation.

AFP - Eight members of one Iraqi family, including three woman and two children, were killed Thursday when an old mine brought home by one of their children exploded inside their house, police said.

AFP - White House hopeful John McCain called for a policy "surge" to right the teetering US economy, but was scorned by his Democratic rival Barack Obama as a creature of Washington.

AP - As of Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008, at least 4,134 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

AP - Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen who fled U.S.-Iraqi operations in Baghdad hope to return, but the U.S. military is confident they won't receive a warm homecoming, officials said Wednesday.

AFP - Hundreds of Muslim worshippers on Wednesday visited a revered Shiite shrine in northern Iraq that is being rebuilt after a deadly bomb blast which triggered bitter sectarian bloodshed.

AFP - Iraq is amassing a huge budget surplus of soaring oil export revenues, but is spending little on reconstruction, for which the United States is bearing the financial burden, a US government report said.

AFP - Iraqi forces have arrested three women who were plotting suicide bombing missions against soldiers and police involved in a vast offensive against Al-Qaeda, officials said on Wednesday.