The deal between Iraq’s state-owned oil company, North Oil, and China’s CNPC is worth $3.5 billion and is the first major deal since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

The Army’s new recruiting campaign places more emphasis on connecting with young Americans on a closer, more personal level.

The extensive list contains some familiar American companies like Blackwater and DynCorp, but also many obscure firms from places as far-flung as Uganda.

Royal Dutch Shell, one of the world’s biggest oil companies, completed a multibillion-dollar natural gas deal with the Iraqi government.

The plan to award six no-bid contracts to Western oil companies had come under sharp criticism from several U.S. senators over the summer.

The contractor, whose provision of private security in Iraq has come under scrutiny, may have improperly obtained $100 million in contracts meant for small businesses.

Waiting to leave their planes, passengers saw the coffin of a military officer killed in Iraq been unloaded from a commercial flight.

When Barack Obama heads overseas this summer, he will be followed by star political reporters and the anchors of the three network evening news programs.

A top Democratic senator accused an Army general of misleading Congress about problems with a major defense contractor in Iraq, and said he had asked for an investigation.

The disclosure, on the eve of the contracts’ announcement, is the first confirmation of direct U.S. involvement in deals to open Iraq’s oil to commercial development.