AP - The U.S. military said Friday that bullets fired by American soldiers killed the 14-year-old son of the chief editor of a U.S.-sponsored newspaper during a gunbattle a day earlier in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

AP - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, ridiculing Barack Obama for "the audacity of hopelessness" in his policies on Iraq, said Friday that the entire Middle East could have plunged into war had U.S. troops been withdrawn as his rival advocated.

Reuters - Republican presidential candidate John McCain slammed Democratic rival Barack Obama on Friday for poor judgment on the Iraq war, laying out in sharp terms his argument the Illinois senator should not be commander in chief.

AP - It's art ornamenting life: murals of soothing landscapes and historical heroes covering the blast walls that are now as much a part of Baghdad's cityscape as date palms and desert dust.

Reuters - Pope Benedict told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday that minority Christians in Iraq needed more protection but the Iraqi leader assured him that Christians were not being persecuted.

AP - Pope Benedict XVI urged the world to help Iraqis who have fled their country and called for better protection for Christians inside Iraq during talks Friday with Iraq's prime minister, the Vatican said.

AFP - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday discussed with Pope Benedict XVI the plight of the war-torn country's Christians, according to a Vatican statement.

AFP - Baghdad has ramped up security ahead of one of Shiite Islam's most important religious festivals amid heightened concerns of attacks on a holy pilgrimage site, the Iraqi military said on Friday.

Reuters - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday that any U.S. troop withdrawal would have to satisfy both parties and protect Iraq's sovereignty.

Reuters - A group of New Zealand students has come up with a novel way of protesting against a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, offering a cash reward for her "arrest" over U.S. actions in Iraq.

AP - Just two weeks before the start of the Olympics, Iraq was told Thursday it's not welcome in Beijing because of a political feud in Baghdad that angered the games' guardians and exiled a country that arrived to a roaring ovation at the opening ceremony four years ago.

AP - The State Department's inspector general is investigating Iraqi oil contracts after four Democratic senators complained that department employees may have encouraged lucrative oil deals between Iraq and several Western companies.

AP - As of Thursday, July 24, 2008, at least 4,124 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

AP - Obama tells enormous Berlin crowd there are more walls to be torn down in fighting extremism ... With Obama in Berlin, McCain visits German restaurant in Ohio ... Hagel calls on candidates to focus on Iraq's future over past war strategy ... Rice not worried by Obama's foreign policy forays overseas ... Poll: Obama builds support among Hispanic voters ... Police seek to soften protesters' disruptions at GOP convention

AP - Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, fresh from an Iraq trip with Democrat Barack Obama, said the presidential candidates should focus on the war's future and stop arguing over the success of last year's troop surge.

Reuters - Six members of a U.S.-backed neighborhood patrol and a civilian were killed in an attack by a female suicide bomber in northeast Iraq on Thursday, police said.

AFP - Eight people were killed and 20 wounded on Thursday when a female suicide bomber blew herself up as a Sahwa (Awakening) patrol passed in Baquba in eastern Iraq, police and medical sources said.

AP - Iraqi police say at least eight people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a checkpoint manned by U.S.-allied Sunni guards northeast of Baghdad.