U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has met Iraqi leaders during an unannounced visit to Baghdad, as violence continued to claim more victims in Iraq. Cheney held talks with General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, before meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, top government ministers, and President Jalal Talabani.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is appealing for nearly $30 million to substantially increase its humanitarian work in Iraq. The ICRC says it has spent almost all the money it had allocated for its assistance operations in Iraq this year. The additional funds requested will bring the organization's total budget for 2007 to about $75 million.

Iraqi police say that a car bomb exploded in the Shi'ite holy city of Al-Kufah today, killing at least 16 people. Officials say many other people were wounded in the blast. The bomb went off at an open-air market that was packed with shoppers. Women and children were among those killed. Meanwhile, at least 68 Iraqis were killed or found dead nationwide on May 7.

Iraqi police say two suicide car bombings west of Baghdad have killed 20 people and wounded at least 40 others. Police said the first attack targeted a market just outside of Ramadi Monday, while a second car bomb went off near a police checkpoint also near Ramadi.

In a video, Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri says a U.S. congressional bill calling for a troop withdrawal from Iraq is proof of Washington's defeat. U.S. President George W. Bush has vetoed the bill, which would have required a troop pullout from Iraq to begin this year.

The foreign minister of Iran made Iraqi officials quite angry saying that the U.S. must responsibility for the terrorism and violence resulting from its "occupation" of Iraq. Manouchehr Mottaki told a ministerial meeting of Iraq's neighbors and key international players, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that the U.S. should present a clear plan to withdraw its forces "in order to allow the return of peace and stability."

An international conference on Iraq is in its second and final day in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Ministers are meeting to discuss ways Iraq's neighboring states can help reduce sectarian violence in the country.

A two-day international conference on Iraq opened today in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, with talks to focus on ways to end sectarian violence as well as a five-year plan offering Iraq financial and political support.

The U.S. military says another 3,700 American troops have arrived in the Iraqi capital to support the security crackdown launched in Baghdad in mid-February. A statement Wednesday says the new brigade will help Iraqi security forces clear, control and retain key areas of Baghdad in order to reduce violence.

President George W. Bush vetoed legislation to pull US troops out of Iraq in a showdown with Congress over whether the unpopular and costly war should end or escalate. In only the second veto of his presidency, Bush rejected legislation that would have required the first US combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by 1st Oct with a goal of a complete pullout six months later.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry says it is investigating reports that the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has been killed. Brigadier General Abd al-Karim Khalaf, director of the National Command Center at the Interior Ministry, said on state television that the ministry has "very strong intelligence information" that al-Masri was killed in an internal fight between militants north of Baghdad.

The top U.S. general in Iraq, David Petraeus, says the situation in that country is "very tough." Petraeus told reporters at the Pentagon today that the U.S. war effort faces the most complex challenge he has ever seen as a soldier.