Iraqi parliament approves long-delayed election law, paving way for national vote. Iraq's parliament ended weeks of debate Sunday and passed a long-delayed law paving the way for the planned January election to go forward, sidestepping a crisis that could have delayed the U.S. troop withdrawal.

Backsliding in Mideast peace process leaves opening for radicals to step up influence. Iran's closest allies in the Middle East are seizing on a deadlock in U.S.-backed peace efforts to try to sway a frustrated Arab world to their side.

Iran blasts Germany over Muslim woman's death but keeps quiet over China crackdown on Muslims. Iran has reacted with outrage over the stabbing death of an Egyptian woman in a German courthouse, calling it a sign of racism against Muslims, yet has said little about China's crackdown on Uighur Muslims ? a silence some leading Iranian clerics have criticized.

Power struggle among Iran's clerics bursts into the open as ayatollah's relatives are arrested. A backstage struggle among Iran's ruling clerics burst into the open Sunday when the government said it had arrested the daughter and other relatives of an ayatollah who is one of the country's most powerful men.