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<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq — While acknowledging that the situation in Iraq remains far from ideal, the U.S. civilian administrator said Monday that occupying forces have done a great deal to re-establish stability and will be pushing to help the nation rebuild its economy.</p>

By Patrick E. Tyler THE NEW YORK TIMES BAGHDAD - The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq, apparently preserving the prewar distinction between Kurdish-controlled northern areas and the rest of the country, will allow Kurdish fighters to keep their assault rifles and heavy weapons, but require Shiite Muslim and other militias to surrender theirs, according to a draft directive. The plan has engendered intense criticism by Shiite leaders involved in negotiations with American and British officials who have met privately with the heavily armed political groups that have moved into the power vacuum here. "Maybe we didn't fight with the coalition,...

<p>May 25, 2003 -- With 13 years of crippling economic sanctions finally lifted, Iraq is set to resume oil exports next month, an interim government official said yesterday, a major step toward rebuilding the country's economy.</p> <p>"By two to three weeks, Iraq will be back in the market," said Thamir Ghadhban, director of Iraq's oil ministry, at a news conference. "It will take a few weeks but we should be producing 1.3 to 1.5 million barrels per day by the middle of next month."</p>

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 21, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A national conference that will pick Iraq's new interim government will probably be held in mid-July, L. Paul Bremer, the country's U.S. civilian administrator said Wednesday. "We are continuing our active dialogue with Iraqi leaders, we are meeting with them every day," Bremer said during a tour of the newly reopened al-Karkh jail on the outskirts of Baghdad. He said his goal was to establish a government "representative of all Iraqis." Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved MORE...

Allies to Begin Seizing Weapons From Most Iraqis By MICHAEL R. GORDON AGHDAD, May 20 — Iraqi citizens will be required to turn over automatic weapons and heavy weapons under a proclamation that allied authorities plan to issue this week, allied officials said today. The aim of the proclamation is to help stabilize Iraq by confiscating the huge supply of AK-47's, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons that are used by criminal gangs, paramilitary groups and remnants of the Saddam Hussein government. Iraqis who refuse to comply with the edict will be subject to arrest. Only Iraqis authorized to...

The newest face thrust upon us by America's insatiable appetite for novelty belongs to one Noah Feldman. He's a 32-year-old assistant professor of law at New York University and author of a new book (his first) entitled After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy. He's also been anointed chief U.S. adviser to Iraq for the writing of its new constitution. This announcement has been greeted by laudatory pieces, in places as varied as the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Israeli daily Ma'ariv. The novelty? It's the combination. Feldman is Jewish (raised in an Orthodox...

BAGHDAD - A squadron of US Army scouts is finding itself drawn into an increasingly complex labyrinth of political and religious intrigue in one of Baghdad's poorest and most volatile neighborhoods. In reaching out to the local community in Thawra, the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment is forging a cooperative relationship with religious and civic leaders. Their mission: to lay the groundwork for a free Iraq governed by Iraqis. But not all religious leaders in this heavily Shiite Muslim enclave want to cooperate with US forces. Second Squadron officers were shocked when - after arranging to provide...

AFP Photo Two key powerbrokers began making their mark on post-war Iraq as Paul Bremer, the top US civilian official, began touring the Gulf a day after a top Shiite Muslim leader returned home in triumph from 23 years of exile.Bremer, a 61-year-old career diplomat and counterterrorism expert arrived in Doha to outline his mission to supervise the rebuilding and democratization of war-torn Iraq.Tapped Tuesday by US President George W. Bush for the post, Bremer was accompanied by General Richard Myers, chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was to met retired general Jay Garner, the US...

U.N. fears for Palestinians evicted from Iraq homes GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations expressed concern Friday that Iraqi landlords have forced Palestinian refugees out of previously subsidized homes, raising fears that up to 90,000 people could be put out on the street. In addition to 1,000 Palestinians reportedly evicted in Baghdad, dozens of Iranian refugees have been turned out of homes by local communities in southern Iraq, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement. Palestinians, displaced from their homes when Israel was founded in 1948, enjoyed ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's protection, often being housed in...

<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.S. draft resolution on Iraq would give U.N. approval for the United States and Britain to run the country for at least a year, with the United Nations and other international authorities playing a limited role, council diplomats said Thursday.</p>

WASHINGTON, May 6 — President Bush appointed a new civilian administrator for Iraq today, settling a sharp disagreement between the State and Defense Departments over how best to manage that country during its recovery and reconstruction. The new administrator, L. Paul Bremer, who served as an ambassador at large for counterterrorism in the Reagan administration, will outrank Jay Garner, the retired Army lieutenant general who has been in charge of postwar administration since the government of Saddam Hussein was ousted by American-led military forces last month. The Pentagon had hoped to retain control of the postwar effort, so the decision...

WASHINGTON - Bush names career diplomat to be top U.S. civilian in Iraq. No Info yet. Searching!!

US appoints new Iraqi oil minister The US-led association overseeing Iraq’s reconstruction has appointed former Director of planning at Iraq’s oil ministry, Thamir Ghadhban as new head of the department. Former head of Royal Dutch/Shell Phillip Carroll will head an advisory board to the ministry, revealed US spokesman John Kincannon. According to an Iraqi oil ministry official, Ghadhban's position will be temporary until a future interim government formally selects a minister. Educated in the UK, Ghadhban played a major role in Iraq's Southern Oil Company and was a top adviser to the former Iraqi oil minister. In a bid...

Parties, plunder, and prayer in liberated Baghdad Matthew Gutman May. 5, 2003 In Sadr City, the lawless and impoverished district in east Baghdad formerly known as Saddam City, the US has found a friend. The Shi'ite residents and their powerful clerics have thrown their support behind American troops, grateful that they rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein and hopeful that the US might drag them out of dire poverty. "We were the living dead under Saddam," said Said Fathen al-Yasser, a metal trader who specializes in pillaged Iraqi tank and artillery shells. "Now we are free. For the first time...

Iraq police arrest two over cleric death in Najaf NAJAF, Iraq, May 2 (Reuters) - Iraqi police exchanged fire with gunmen near a holy shrine and cemetery in Najaf early on Friday, detaining two of them suspected of participating in the killing of a senior Shi'ite cleric in the holy city last month. Abdel-Khaliq al-Kaabi, head of a volunteer civilian police force in Najaf, located some 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, told reporters that Mehr al-Baghdadi and a man he identified only as Ihsan were arrested. He said they were among a group of about ten men who...

<p>BAGHDAD — Nawwas, a clerk in the literature department of the University of Baghdad, was feeling more agitation than excitement this week in anticipation of the $20 she would soon receive from the U.S. government.</p> <p>The money, a one-time cash gift, is aimed at helping civil servants tide over until the transitional administration can sort out the salary structure and resume payments.</p>

OMED: Reports began to seep out late in April. There was a new and strange Portland-Iraqi connection. Not the business of the famous (and well watched) local mosque, but something truly bizarre. We ran across it on the famous internet forum, Free Republic, some text of which follows. Iraq Workers Are Promised 1000 Pct. Raise Posted on 04/23/2003 9:12 AM PDT by areafiftyone BAGHDAD, Iraq -Baghdad's self-proclaimed rulers said Wednesday they will use Iraqigovernment funds to pay all state employees their salaries this month - with a 1,000-percentraise - and took credit for advances in getting power, water and hospitals...

America takes on the reconstruction of Iraq and the challenges of a postwar world at a happy time, for it is flooded with advice, all of it good. Unfortunately, all of it is also contradictory. We must have an agenda for Iraq's political future, but we must not behave like occupiers. We should not formally end the regime of sanctions until we have scoured the country for weapons of mass destruction, yet we should restore Iraqi prosperity forthwith. We should be wary of a fundamentalist uprising, without imposing our values. Got that?American efforts in Iraq are proceeding along two...

Reds under the ruinsBy Paul Belden BAGHDAD - He still calls himself Abu Ayad, but that's only because old habits die hard. "It's my secret name," he explains with a smile, wiping his professorial spectacles against the sleeve of his neat, nerdy, button-down yellow shirt. This secret-named, hardened political fighter is, it turns out, a shy man at heart. Shy - but not embarrassed. The name and the reason behind it, may seem to be holdovers of a different era, but they were once the dead-serious necessities of political activism in this land where even the suspicion of such an...

<p>FALLUJAH, Iraq — Attackers lobbed two grenades over a wall and into a compound of U.S. troops in Fallujah (search) on Thursday, wounding seven soldiers just hours after they had opened fire on anti-American protesters, a U.S. intelligence officer reported.</p>