Summaries here and here and here.

The Iraqi Oil Ministry decided to hike prices of fuel in response to calls by the International Monetary Fund and the Paris Cub, an official said on Sunday.

[snip]

The decision coindided with reports about riots at some fuel stations in the towns of Al-Kut and the city of Basra in the south of Iraq. Article

Noted, but also take into account the source (and its undeniable agenda) being quoted.

The Iraqi Islamic Party said on Sunday that the U.S.-led operations in western Baaquba have killed more than 350 persons so far.

“Neighborhoods in western Baaquba have witnessed, since last week, fierce attacks by occupation forces within Operation Arrowhead Ripper,” the party said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). Article

The immediate upshot, of course, is virtual legislative paralysis accompanied by a more fully sectarian-tilted executive.

The announcement of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front’s (IAF) and the National Dialogue Front’s (NDF) boycotting of parliamentary sessions in response to the removal of House Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani has sparked heated controversy in Iraqi political circles.

MP Kamal al-Saadi from the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC) said in an exclusive statement to the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), “The coalition was surprised at the announcement of the IAF boycotting parliamentary sittings because we had already agreed with the front’s leadership that it will name a replacement (for al-Mashhadani).”

Explaining that the dispute was about the way the issue was handled, not the removal decision itself, al-Saadi said “If the front’s members keep holding onto al-Mashhadani as speaker, a meeting of political bloc leaders will be necessary to reach common ground.”

[snip]

Saleem Abdullah, an official spokesman for the IAF, reiterated his front’s refusal to attend parliamentary sessions in the absence of al-Mashhadani as speaker.

The IAF has 44 seats in the Iraqi parliament, while the NDF has 11. Article

Contours of chaos:

Without immediate evacuation and life-saving medical help, roughly one dozen seriously ill Palestinians – mostly young children stranded in Baghdad or in a make-shift camp close to the Syrian border – could die or suffer complications, the United Nations refugee agency said today, appealing for urgent assistance.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) believes that there could be more Palestinians who could be in urgent need of medical attention.

“UNHCR continues to receive reports from Baghdad of Palestinians who refuse to go for medical care because they are afraid for their safety,” the agency’s spokesperson Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva. “We know of some people who refused to seek medical attention for fear of att?cks and later died in their homes as a consequence.”

Palestinians residing in Iraq are in desperate need of a humanitarian solution, as 1,450 live in grim conditions at two border camps, while up to 13,000 are still living in Baghdad, down from 34,000 in 2003.

Those living in Iraq – who continue to be targeted – have no access to other countries and no communities to seek refuge from within Iraq. Article

One must presume that, if so, movement is underway to reconstitute somewhere in the less accessible inland areas.

Four ex-members of Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said on Sunday the guerrillas were vacating camps in northern Iraq due to fear of a possible incursion into the area by Turkish troops.

[snip]

“In the last few days the rumours of a cross-border operation has triggered fear within the organisation (PKK). All the camps have been emptied,” one of the ex-rebels said in a televised news conference.

The four, one of them a woman, handed themselves over to Turkish authorities this weekend after escaping from a PKK camp in northern Iraq, the state Anatolian news agency said.

At their news conference, held at a paramilitary police base in southeast Turkey’s Sirnak province, the four — who wore masks to disguise their identities — also said they had seen two U.S. armoured vehicles deliver weapons to the PKK at their camp.

The claim, which could not be independently verified, was widely reported in the Turkish media and is bound to stoke further Turks’ deep suspicions about U.S. policy in Iraq. Article