With oil hovering around $90 a barrel, Geotimes magazine examines emerging trends and issues in several obvious, and some not-so-obvious locations, in this month’s cover story “Oil Around the World.”

Iraqi officials have raised a new flag over the Cabinet building in Baghdad in a symbolic break with the country's war-torn past.

Iraqi and European Union officials have discussed plans for Iraq to supply the EU with natural gas.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has made his first official trip to Washington to meet U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. During his visit, Smith made clear that the new Australian government will go ahead with its plan to withdraw its troops from Iraq within six months. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

To many Americans, convenient shopping means easy, safe parking at clean, wholesome supermarkets. In Iraq, where shoppers often risk their lives buying groceries and vendors watch produce rot for lack of electricity or transport, marketing has different requirements.

Iraq has halted crude oil exports to South Korea, in protest of an exploration deal between Korean firms and the Kurdish regional government.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says Iraqi forces will mount a major offensive against al-Qaida elements in the northern city of Mosul.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said that United States has no interest in setting up permanent bases in Iraq and insisted that discussions had just barely started on the on the still-to-be-negotiated Status of Forces Agreement.

Pentagon adamantly insisted that the war would be a relatively cheap one. Roughly $50 billion is all it would take to rid the world of Saddam Hussein, it said.

Iraq and other Gulf states have seen rare weather conditions, with snow falling in Baghdad for the first time in around 100 years, Saudi Press Agency reported.

An Iraqi soldier opened fire on U.S. colleagues last week, killing two American troops. The incident happend when U.S. and Iraqi troops were doing a joint patrol.

At least 30 people have been killed in a suicide bombing in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The bomb hit a crowd of mourners at the funeral of a Shiite army officer.