BBC NEWS: Breakthrough in Iraq oil standoff. Iraq's cabinet has approved a draft oil law which aims to equitably share revenues from its oil revenues among the country's ethnic groups. The bill - allocating oil revenues between Iraq's 18 provinces based on their population levels - must now be submitted to parliament for a vote.

From the wonderful new Iraq news site IraqSlogger:

(article link) Az-Zaman headlined in its international edition: “the American forces abort an Iranian coup in Iraq”. Az-Zaman claimed that an Iranian intelligence operation was underway to “form a pro-Iranian government in Iraq after removing al-Maliki’s government”. The paper added that the ‘coup’ was to be carried out in conjunction with Iraqi ‘heads of militias and pro-Iranian officials’. The paper quoted a ‘British source’ who said that the ‘plan’ was aborted when the American forces arrested five Iranian intelligence operatives during a ‘high-level meeting’ with Shi`a politicians. The aim of the meeting, according to the British source, was to negotiate a post-Maliki political arrangement and determine the viability of the government and the Shi`a coalition after the Da`wa party –one of the constituents of the Shi`a bloc- was tarnished by the process of Saddam’s execution. [...]

AP: Saddam Co-Defendants to Be Executed Thurs.

Preparations are under way to hang two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants on Thursday but the details still have to be worked out with the American military, an Iraqi government official said Wednesday. Saddam's half brother Barzan Ibrahim, a former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were originally scheduled to hang with Saddam, who was put to death on Saturday. But their execution was delayed until after Islam's Eid al-Adha holiday, which ends Wednesday for Iraq's majority Shiites. Al-Arabiya satellite television and Al-Furat TV, run by Iraq's major Shiite Muslim political organization, both reported Wednesday that Ibrahim and al-Bandar would go to the gallows on Thursday.[...]

AP: Hundreds of Iraqis flocked to the village where Saddam Hussein was born on Sunday to see the deposed leader buried in a religious compound 24 hours after his execution. Saddam's body was transferred by American helicopter to the U.S. military base at Tikrit, 80 miles north of the capital, officials in Tikrit said. [...]

AP: Iraqi TV Says Saddam Hussein Executed

AP: Saddam Hussein will be executed no later than Saturday, said an Iraqi judge authorized to attend his hanging. American and Iraqi officials met to set the hour of his death. [...]

Editor and Publisher: Former CNN News Chief To Launch 'IraqSlogger' Site

New York Post: Most Iraqis knew little or nothing about America in 2003 when the U.S.-led Coalition forces entered Baghdad. Since then, most have learned at least one thing about the United States: Like a fickle monarch, it could wake up one morning and reverse whatever it was committed to a day before. This may be a naive, even unfair, perception of America. But it is the one around which most players in Iraqi politics have built their strategies.

The Shiites, grateful though they are to America for having helped them win power for the first time, feel obliged to have a insurance policy for when (not if) the Americans cut and run. This is why all prominent Iraqi Shiite politicians have been to Tehran. That insurance, however, comes at a price. Iran's rulers insist that the new Iraq turn a blind eye to the activities of Shiite militias, created and armed by Tehran with Hezbollah support. And, because they are unsure of American steadfastness, the Shiites are pressing for a federal structure that would give them 90 percent of Iraq's oil regardless of what happens next. That, together with the increased activities of Shiite death squads, enrages the Arab Sunnis.

Reuters: An envoy of Iraq's prime minister on Saturday met tribal leaders in the southern town of Amara in efforts to ease the tension after fierce battles between militia gunmen and police. National Security Minister Shirwan al-Waeli, sent to Amara on Friday by prime minister Nuri al-Maliki to restore order, said the clashes, which left at least 25 dead in two days, had been fueled by tribal divisions.

AP: President Bush reviewed Iraq strategy with top generals for a second day in a row amid increasing election-season pressure to make dramatic changes to address deteriorating conditions. Gathered around a Roosevelt Room conference table with Bush were Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East; Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld; Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley; and other officials. Vice President Dick Cheney and Gen. George Casey, who leads the U.S.-led Multinational Forces in Iraq, joined in by videoconference.

dpa: Syria's Sunni leader Sheik Salah El-Deen Kiftaroof on Saturday said he 'strongly' supported an agreement between Iraqi Sunni and Shiite religious figures rejecting sectarian violence and calling for peace between different religious sects in Iraq reached in Mecca.

AP: Lawmakers across party lines Tuesday endorsed the prime minister's new plan for stopping sectarian killings, but Shiite and Sunni leaders still must work out details of how to put aside sharp divisions and work together to halt the bloodshed. [...] The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been under intense pressure to put an end to Shiite-Sunni violence that has killed thousands of people this year. This week, gunmen carried out two mass kidnappings in as many days, abducting 38 people from their workplaces in Baghdad — attacks that Sunnis said were carried out by Shiite militias. On Monday night, al-Maliki announced a four-point plan aimed at uniting the sharply divided Shiite and Sunni parties in his government behind security efforts to stop the bloodshed. [...] Al-Maliki's plan, signed by all sides, aims to resolve disputes by giving every party a voice in how security forces operate against violence on a neighborhood-by- neighborhood level. [...]