At least 50 people are killed in Iraq and hundreds injured in a wave of bombings and shootings targeting mainly police officers in Shia areas.

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At least 50 dead in Iraq attacks

At least 22 people across Iraq’s capital were killed on Thursday in a series of apparently coordinated car bombings and small-arms attacks.

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Baghdad Car Bombings Kill Dozens

Saudi Arabia has moved to repair a long-fractured relationship, naming its first envoy to Iraq in more than two decades, Iraq’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.

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Saudi Arabia Names Ambassador to Iraq

BAGHDAD — Green Zone. International Zone. The Bubble. To the foreigners still living there, the Iraqi capital’s fortified center has a new name: Ghost Town. The Iraqi government has taken full control of the former heart of the American occupation. It decides who gets past the 17-foot-tall concrete blast walls encircling the zone. Read full article > >

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Green Zone empties out under Iraqi control

Iraq Sunnis, al Qaeda join opposition.

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Syria Could Become Regional War

Turkey’s military says warplanes have bombed suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.

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Turkish Jets Hit Suspected Rebel Targets in Iraq

For most of his 26 years in the military, Maj. Jeff Hackett was a standout Marine. Two tours in Iraq destroyed him. Home from combat, he drank too much, suffered public breakdowns and was hospitalized for panic attacks. In June 2010, he killed himself. Read full article > >

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Marine’s suicide is only start of family’s struggle

The United States in Iraq, population 16,000, is a country within a country. It has a $6 billion budget, its own airline and three hospitals, and imports virtually all of its food. Its central fortress, otherwise known as the Baghdad embassy compound, is nearly as large as Vatican City. Read full article > >

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U.S. evaluating size of Baghdad embassy, officials say

The narrative that the Obama administration has laid out for winding down the war in Afghanistan has a familiar feel: It is intended to evoke the gradual withdrawal from Iraq. But the administration faces a fundamentally different challenge in Afghanistan and a host of problems that it did not have in the latter days of the Iraq war. Read full article > >

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In winding down war, a fundamentally different challenge in Afghanistan than in Iraq

BAGHDAD — The U.S. Embassy here has provided Iraqi officials with only a partial inventory of American-funded reconstruction projects, making it more difficult for Iraqis to manage or maintain them, a U.S. government watchdog reported Sunday. Read full article > >

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Reports faults U.S. inventory of Iraq projects

BAGHDAD – A Sunni-backed political bloc ended its boycott of the Iraq Parliament here Sunday, a boost for Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as he tries to consolidate power in the wake of the U.S. troop departure . Read full article > >

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Sunni-backed political bloc ends boycott of Iraq Parliament

MEXICO CITY — With the Iraq war over and the American presence waning in Afghanistan, U.S. security contractors are looking for new prospects in Mexico, where spreading criminal violence has created a growing demand for battle-ready professionals. Read full article > >

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Security contractors see opportunities, and limits, in Mexico

A series of explosions in Shiite neighborhoods killed nine civilians and wounded dozens more on Tuesday.

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Deadly Explosions Rattle Baghdad

A Marine accused of killing unarmed Iraqi women and children pleaded guilty Monday to dereliction of duty in a deal that will mean a maximum of three months confinement and end the largest and longest-running criminal case against U.S. troops to emerge from the Iraq War.

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Marine Accepts Plea Deal in Iraqi Civilian Deaths

The setting: An election-year State of the Union address before a hostile Congress. Since the last one, the world has changed fundamentally, a war with Iraq has ended, and the nation’s economy is fragile and worrying to a majority of Americans. Read full article > >

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Obama’s State of the Union is crucial balancing act