Iraqi police say a suicide bomber has blown himself up inside a police station in Diyala province, killing at least four people and wounding 16 others. Officials say the attack took place in a market police station in the town of Balad Ruz, about 70 kilometers northeast of Baghdad.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) has criticized the Iraqi government for refusing to disclose recent casualty figures in the war-torn country. In a quarterly report released today, UNAMI said the office of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had complained in January that the UN mission's casualty reports were exaggerated. Al-Maliki has barred other Iraqi officials from releasing further data.

A controversy has emerged over the building of a security barrier around Al-Adhamiyah, a Sunni district in Baghdad, to separate it from nearby Shi'ite areas. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has voiced strong opposition over the barrier, while U.S. politicians and the Iraqi military say there is nothing new in building such barriers in the capital.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has asked for an end to construction work on a wall intended to separate a mainly Sunni Muslim part of Baghdad from nearby Shi'ite areas. Al-Maliki spoke to reporters in Cairo on April 22 after talks with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa.

A bomb planted on a bus has killed at least three people in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood of Sadr City. Iraqi officials Saturday said at least five other people were hurt in that attack.

Iraqi security officials say a series of bomb blasts has killed at least 157 people in mainly Shi'ite areas of Baghdad. In the deadliest attack Wednesday, a car bomb killed at least 112 people in a crowded marketplace in central Baghdad. A short time earlier, another car bomb killed 30 people in the Shi'ite neighborhood of Sadr City.

British troops today formally handed over to Iraqi commanders security in the southern province of Maysan. It is the fourth of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed over to Iraqi command.

A leading human rights group has called on the United States and Britain to increase their assistance to Iraqis displaced by the conflict in their country. At the start of a conference on displaced Iraqi in Geneva on April 17, delegates from Human Rights Watch said the countries that led the 2003 invasion bear the greatest responsibility to help Iraqis displaced by the war.

An international conference opens today to address the refugee crisis caused by the several million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes due to violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

U.S. President George W. Bush has criticized a plan by opposition Democrats to set a date for a withdrawal from Iraq. Bush made the comments in his weekly radio address on April 14. He said more debate is needed on the issue.

Two separate car bomb attacks in Iraq today killed dozens of people and wounded many more. A car bomb in a bus station in the city of Karbala, southwest of Baghdad, killed at least 37 people and wounded more than 40. Police said they feared the death toll would rise.

Iraq's parliament is expected to meet in a special session today to express condemnation over a suicide bombing at its headquarters on April 12. The U.S. military said the blast killed eight people, including two Sunni legislators, and wounded more than 20 others.