- Iraq is urging over 1 Million pilgrims to leave the shiite holy city of Karbala and police have imposed a curfew after two days of violence including raging gunbattles between rival militias that claimed at least 35 lives during a religious festival.

Security officials told The Associated Press that Mahdi Army gunmen, loyalists of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, attacked guards around the two Karbala shrines that were under the protection of the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

In telephone calls to reporters in Karbala, gunfire and exploding mortar shells could be heard.

- Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says a ‘power vacuum’ is forming in Iraq and sees his country ready to fill the hole. “The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly. Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbors and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation.” Few details were given on how it plans to do so but needless to say it is raising eyebrows in Iraq.

Meanwhile the new French president Sarkozy started some interesting speculation of his own yesterday while raising the prospect of attacking Iran if diplomatic efforts failed. President Ahmadinejad brushed off the threat as a sign of the new presidents “inexperience” but it was followed with by a statement today from United States president Bush who said Iran needed to halt their development of uranium “at once”.

- Iran’s neighbor Turkey has elected Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as their first president with an “islamic past” in a move that some fear will destabilize the country if Gul moves to weaken the separation between church and state. The move could also raise the ire of Turkey’s military which has ousted four governments since 1960 and “blocked Gul’s first run for president in April, forcing an early general election, when they warned that he might undermine the secular order established in Turkey eight decades ago after the Ottoman Empire collapsed.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Need a primer on the current Turkish elections check out the BBC which has a Profile on Gul & a Q&A on the presidential battle.

In addition a US CRS Report entitled Turkey’s 2007 Elections: Crisis of Identity & Power

- The Washington Post is reporting the following about General Petraeus ’softening’ the NIE Iraq report:

The NIE, requested by the White House Iraq coordinator, Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, in preparation for the testimony, met with resistance from U.S. military officials in Baghdad, according to a senior U.S. military intelligence officer there. Presented with a draft of the conclusions, Petraeus succeeded in having the security judgments softened to reflect improvements in recent months, the official said.

The revelations was part of a larger report that the House of Representatives will hold hearings on two key reports assessing political and military conditions in Iraq which are expected to begin a debate ahead of the release of the Generals own report.