Baghdad  - Gunmen kidnapped two female students on their way to school to sit their final exams in northern Iraq while a US soldier died of non-combat causes, the US military and Iraqi police said

Baghdad- A female suicide bomber blew herself up Monday in a market in Iraq's restive Diyala province, killing and injuring a several, police said.

Baghdad - Iraq's political powers are still opposed to a long-term security agreement with Washington that does not preserve the country's sovereignty and national interests, an Iraqi lawmaker said

Baghdad - Iraq's Shiite leadership indicated Friday that it will press the Baghdad government to hold a national referendum on the issue of a further stationing of US forces in the country.

Baghdad- US soldiers found the bodies of 14 civilian men in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra, officials said Thursday.

A government spokesman said the dead had not yet been identified.

Amman - Jordan has approached the Iraqi government with a proposal to swap "non-political" prisoners provided that they complete their jail terms in their home countries, Iraqi ambassador Saad Hayyani was quoted Thursday as saying.

"We will forward the suggestion to our government," Hayyani was quoted as saying by the Jordan Times.

He said that the Jordanian proposal excluded prisoners "implicated in terror and political wrongdoings".

"There are around 40-50 Iraqi prisoners in Jordan who might be included in the agreement once it put into effect," he added.

Hayyani said that once the two countries agreed on the proposal, a delegation from relevant Iraqi ministries would come to Jordan for further discussions on the mechanism of the prisoners swap.