AP – As of Sunday, Oct. 1, 2006, at least 2,713 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 seven military civilians. At least 2,158 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

AP – Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Saturday pardoned two Islamist lawmakers who had been convicted of stirring sectarian strife for their praise of the slain al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

AP – An Illinois congressional candidate who lost both her legs during combat in Iraq said Saturday that President Bush has no real strategy for securing the war-ravaged nation, just political talk designed to appeal to voters.

Reuters – President Bush on Saturday
challenged “misimpressions” about the Iraq war as he battled a
gloomy intelligence assessment of the conflict and the fallout
of a book portraying him as in denial over it.

AFP – Well-wishers have returned more than 1,000 works of modern art looted from Baghdad’s top gallery as curators continue the painstaking task of restoring what was once one of the Middle East’s finest collections.

AFP – As the death squads’ grim threats began to mount against Shiite families in the Mafraq neighborhood of Baquba, north of Baghdad, fewer and fewer people attended their local prayer hall.

AFP – The United States has reportedly warned Iraqi leaders that it may have to cut financial aid to Iraqi police because of a US law that prohibits the financing of foreign security forces that commit gross violations of human rights unpunished.

AP – Gloves-off election-year rhetoric hit the radio Saturday, as President Bush argued that critics are wrongheaded to argue for a different policy in Iraq while Democrats suggested Bush is more interested in politically helpful slogans than success in the war.

AP – Pope Benedict XVI met Saturday with the Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, the Vatican said.

AFP – Iraqi security forces locked down their strife-torn capital amid fears of suicide attacks on the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of Iraq’s embattled government.