Rallying troops after an overnight stay at an air base, US Vice President Dick Cheney said today that as long as freedom is suppressed in the Middle East, the region will remain a place of “stagnation, resentment and violence ready for export.”

Iraq’s parliament voted on today to extend Iraq’s state of emergency through December, but the US military warned of even worse sectarian violence after last week’s deadly insurgent attack on Shiites in Baghdad.

Beset by rampant sectarian violence, Iraq’s parliament today voted to extend the country’s state of emergency for 30 more days, and suspected Sunni-Arab insurgents set off bombs in three different areas of the country that killed eight Iraqis and wounded 40.

Jill Carroll, the US journalist held hostage for 82 days in Iraq, left Germany today, travelling aboard a packed airliner headed to Boston.

Gunmen lined up 14 employees working at an electronics trading company in Baghdad this morning and shot them all, killing eight and wounding six, police said.