March 20th Morning Readbook

Inside Story - Iraq's election results 




Allawi back in Iraq vote-count lead 
The latest results from Iraq's parliamentary election show the Iraqiya coalition, led by Iyad Allawi, the former prime minister, regaining a narrow lead.


Iraq: Key figures since the war began
-- U.S. TROOP LEVELS:

March 31, 2003: 90,000.

October 2007: 170,000 at peak of troop buildup.

March 1, 2010: Just over 96,000.

COALITION TROOP LEVELS:

Number of countries that participated in "Coalition for the Immediate Disarmament of Iraq" at the start of the war: 31, including the United States.

As of August 2009, all non-U.S. coalition members had withdrawn from Iraq.


Pakistan official: 3 Taliban militants arrested
Police arrested three Taliban militants Saturday and seized a bomb-making factory in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi, a counterterrorism official said.


Political Skills Assist Panetta as Spymaster
Intelligence reports landing on CIA Director Leon Panetta's desk last July made the alarming claim that the Pakistani Taliban could have a nuclear device.


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