Reuters - Republican presidential
candidate John McCain on Wednesday visited an Israeli town hit
frequently by Palestinian rockets from the Gaza Strip and
voiced doubts a peace deal could be reached this year.
AFP - Hans Blix, the former chief UN weapons inspector, slammed the Iraq war as a "tragedy" and blamed it on leaders ignoring the facts, in a comment piece published Thursday.
AP - Touring a war-battered town, Sen. John McCain said Wednesday he understands Israel's tough response to Palestinian rocket fire, adding that there is no point in negotiating with the Gaza Strip's Islamic Hamas regime.
AFP - Protesters on Wednesday held sit-ins and demonstrations across the United States as they marked five years of war in Iraq, demanding an immediate withdrawal of US soldiers.
AP - Iraq's Oil Ministry has signed a contract with the Colorado Industrial Construction Services Co. to help expand a refinery in Najaf, south of Baghdad, an official said Wednesday.
AP - As of Wednesday, March 19, 2008, at least 3,992 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,251 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
AP - Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that Hillary Rodham Clinton could not be trusted to end the Iraq war because she only started opposing it when she began her bid for president.
AP - President Bush brought up al-Qaida 14 times Wednesday in a 26-minute speech marking the anniversary of the Iraq war. He wasn't coy about his point: If America stops fighting in Iraq, there could well be new attacks at home by Osama bin Laden's terror network.
Reuters - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
threatened the European Union with grave punishment on
Wednesday over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
Reuters - Grannies holding a knit-in to protest
the war in Iraq clashed in a shouting match with pro-war
activists in Times Square on Wednesday, the fifth anniversary
of the start of the conflict.