Reuters - Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims marched and beat their heads and chests in ritualistic mourning in a major rite in Iraq's holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala on Tuesday, after attacks that killed dozens in recent days.

AFP - An Iraqi court ruling linking the central bank and election commission to the cabinet has sparked widespread criticism that it threatens Iraq's savings and undermines the credibility of the two bodies.

AFP - Iraq's central bank governor said on Tuesday a court ruling putting the bank under cabinet supervision could threaten its assets abroad and open the door for international creditors to lay claim to its deposits.

AFP - More than a million Shiite pilgrims thronged the holy Iraqi city of Karbala on Tuesday for annual mourning rituals, with security forces keeping a tight watch following a spate of deadly attacks.

AP - There is no doubt that an Iraqi immigrant ran over and killed his 20-year-old daughter and injured her boyfriend's mother in a suburban Phoenix parking lot in October 2009, a prosecutor and defense attorney agreed Monday.

AP - The head of the U.N. refugee agency expressed hope Monday that the end was in sight for Iraq's refugee crisis but called on the new government to develop a plan to tackle sensitive issues like property rights for those who return.

AFP - Unemployment and socio-economic problems, and not violence, are the biggest barrier holding Iraqi refugees from returning to their country, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said Monday.

AP - Two car bombs tore through parking lots packed with Shiite pilgrims Monday in an Iraqi holy city, pushing the death toll from a week of attacks to more than 170.

AFP - The minister in charge of Iraqi prisons on Monday denied that a security force linked to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been holding detainees for months without access to lawyers or their families.

AFP - Three car bombs ripped through crowds near Iraq's shrine city of Karbala on Monday, killing 12 people and wounding dozens in fresh attacks on pilgrims arriving for religious rituals.

Reuters - Five car bombs went off around Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding 29, security sources said, in a seemingly coordinated series of attacks during a major Shi'ite religious rite.

AFP - The British security guard accused of killing two colleagues in the Iraqi capital's Green Zone insisted at his trial on Sunday he acted in self-defence during an alcohol-fuelled brawl.

AP - The U.S. soldier was out of uniform when he sneaked off base on a motorcycle to visit his Iraqi wife in central Baghdad. The militiamen hiding nearby weren't fooled. They were seen seizing him at gunpoint.

AFP - A 117th-minute strike from Harry Kewell powered Australia to a 1-0 quarter-final victory over holders Iraq at the Asian Cup on Saturday and into a showdown with Uzbekistan for a place in the final.