Drought has forced more than 100,000 people in northern Iraq to abandon their homes since 2005, with 36,000 more on the verge of leaving, UNESCO said this week. The four-year drought and excessive well-pumping have led to the collapse of an ancient system of underground aqueducts, or karez. Only 116 of 683 karez systems are currently operational, according to a study by the UN agency. The study finds 70% of active karez have dried up. (AP, Oct. 13)

From the Washington Blade, July 31:

A fundraising event to benefit an LGBT community center in Lebanon last week took a surprise turn when stunned audience members were shown graphic photographs of beheaded corpses and images purportedly depicting U.S. soldiers preparing to execute gay Iraqis.

The deadline for an Iraqi referendum on the security agreement with the US passed July 30 with a few deadly bombings but no vote. The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has proposed scheduling the referendum for Jan. 15, 2010, to coincide with parliamentary elections. (Seattle Times, July 31)

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said July 25 that it is verifying reports about the signing of a protocol between the US and parties of the "Iraqi resistance"—without the Iraqi government's knowledge. The aim was apparently including these parties in the political process and allowing them to participate in the upcoming legislative elections, due to be held in January. Iraqi media have quoted from a protocol allegedly signed in Istanbul on March 6 between US diplomats and representatives of the "Political Council of the Iraqi Resistance." When the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat asked the US Embassy in Baghdad whether these reports are true, it received the terse reply: "We have no comment."

On July 25, the day after the vote, an opposition party claimed there had been violations in the presidential and parliamentary elections in Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region. The opposition front called Goran ("Change") is seeking to shake up the political establishment in Iraq's three Kurdish-ruled provinces that have been dominated by two parties for decades. Early projections suggest the KDP and PUK retain their parliamentary majority, while the Goran list scored big in the city of Sulaimaniyah, a stronghold of the PUK led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Change is led by Nosherwan Mustafa, a former PUK insider who broke with the party.

At least five people were killed and some 36 others injured July 16 as an explosion ripped through Baghdad's Shi'ite district of Sadr City. The improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated at the entrance of a funeral tent that had been set up on the street. The attack came hours after authorities began imposing a strict curfew on Baghdad and set up check posts across the city in preparation for the Sunday martyrdom anniversary of the seventh Shi'ite Imam, Musa al-Kadhim. Another eight people sustained injuries in a bomb blast targeting visitors at Imam Musa's mausoleum at Kadhimiya in northern Baghdad. (Press TV, Iran, July 16)

The National Court of Spain July 14 dismissed charges against three US soldiers who were accused of being involved in the death of Spanish cameraman José Couso. The soldiers allegedly opened fire on a Baghdad hotel frequented by Western journalists in 2003 without provocation, killing two cameramen.

The bombing of the Virgin Fatima Church in Mosul July 12—hours after a wave of attacks on churches in Baghdad—brings the total to seven churches bombed in Iraq over the weekend. The bombings came even though Assyrian Christian sources warned of the impending attacks days ago. Four have been killed and more than 30 injured in the apparently coordinated terror campaign.