Summaries here and here and here. Also this.

Oil-related news:

The U.S. State Department says an oil law implemented under Saddam Hussein is good enough for Iraq’s national government to sign oil deals, though it would prefer a new national law — mired in controversy and far from approved — to be used instead.

The new position is a shift for the U.S. government, or at least a nuance in its stance, which has pressed hard for a new hydrocarbons legal regime and condemned deals signed between a regional government and private firms — especially when it’s an American company. Article

Contours of chaos (emphasis added).

Insecurity in Iraq is most strikingly illustrated by the number of people fleeing their homes. The United Nations estimates that, since July, the number has risen by 60,000 every month. The best estimate is that around 16 percent of Iraq’s population, or one in six Iraqis, no longer live in their homes.

[snip]

According to the U.N., 69 percent of those displaced since February 2006 come from Baghdad, which demonstrates the extent of the “sectarianization” of the capital. Thus, one reason for the “success” claimed by supporters of the military surge may well be that sectarian cleansing in Baghdad has been hugely effective and is now nearly complete. Article

The hobnailed boots of Ares.

The construction of a large police barracks close to the Great Mosque of Samarra and its famed spiral minaret is imperilling another of Iraq’s precious historical sites, Unesco and senior archaeologists have warned.

Work on the building and a training centre for 1,500 Iraqi policemen is continuing in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, despite the addition this summer of the ninth-century remains of the capital of the Abbasid dynasty to Unesco’s list of endangered world heritage sites.

There are fears that the police compound will prove an irresistible target for insurgents, and that the construction and operation of the barracks will damage the Samarra Archaeological City, one of the country’s largest and most valuable historical areas, the Art Newspaper reported in its November issue.

Unesco officials said the dire security situation in Samarra had prevented them from taking any measures to secure and protect the site. Neither Unesco’s office for Iraq, which is currently based in Amman, nor Iraq’s board of state antiquities and heritage, had been consulted about the location of the new police building.

There were similar protests after reports of damage to ancient sites by US forces in Babylon and Nineveh, and international experts say the future looks bleak for Iraq’s ancient heritage. Conservation projects in Iraq have stalled and many archaeologists have left the country.

Samarra’s department of antiquities was looted and burned in May.

Nearly 50,000 packs of playing cards meant to help US troops avoid unnecessary damage to ancient sites and curb the illegal trade of stolen artefacts are to be shipped to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as training sites in the United States. Each card displays an artefact or site and gives a tip on how to avoid damaging historic treasures. Article