AP - Early results from Iraq's key election began coming in Thursday, showing a coalition led by the prime minister ahead in two southern Shiite provinces where he was opposed by hard-line religious parties with close ties to Iran.

Reuters - Preliminary results from Iraq's national election began to trickle in on Thursday, showing Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ahead in the country's largely Shi'ite south.

AFP - Iraqis were set to get a glimpse of the country's new political landscape on Thursday when first official results from weekend elections are released.

AFP - The commander of US forces in Iraq has predicted it would take "a couple of months" for leaders to form a post-election government but downplayed fears of instability.

AFP - The commander of US troops in Iraq on Tuesday praised Oscar-winning drama "The Hurt Locker," saying that unlike some media coverage it showed the complexities on the field.

AP - The U.S. military says two American soldiers have died in a vehicle accident in Iraq.

AP - Britain opened an inquiry Tuesday into claims that its soldiers murdered and abused civilians in southern Iraq in 2004, some of the most serious allegations made against British forces over the war and occupation of the country.

AP - American bomb disposal experts in Iraq say few people understood what they did.

The Christian Science Monitor - The Iraq election has shored up the countryâ??s fragile democracy, but the months ahead are fraught with potential dangers far more worrying than the bombs that echoed through Baghdad as voters went to the polls over the weekend.

AFP - The top US general in Iraq said Monday it could be years before the United States can gauge whether its long military campaign there had achieved any measure of success.

The Christian Science Monitor - Iraqi election workers began tallying votes from 47,000 polling stations across the country Monday, a day after the country pulled off a landmark vote despite dozens of scatteredآ explosionsآ that went off in Baghdad and in other parts of the country.

AFP - Britain's decision to back the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 earned it respect in the Middle East and it must not be scared of similar action in the future, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Monday.

AP - The top U.S. general in Iraq says the Iraqi military performed superbly on Sunday's mostly peaceful election day and that President Barack Obama's plan to remove American combat troops from that country by Sept. 1 is proceeding on schedule.

AFP - Iraq war drama "The Hurt Locker" blew away box office king "Avatar" to take six Oscars, with Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first woman to win the best director award on a historic Hollywood night.