In entertainment news, two thousand hopefuls sign up for the Iraqi Idol:

Many Iraqis already obsessively watch "American Idol", a version of the original British "Pop Idol" franchise, and a glitzy Lebanese copy called "Arab Superstar" on free-to-air Arabic satellite channels.

But "Iraq Star" is a brave indigenous effort to perk up the spirits of a depressed nation. The studio set is spartan and drab, and there is no studio audience, though viewers are being promised tinseltown touches when the finale is held in Beirut.

"We are trying to lighten the load and problems Iraqis are going through," said director Wadia Nader during recording of an episode this weekend in a Baghdad hotel.

"We had shows like this in the 1960s when people were discovered on television. But since then, with so many wars, Iraqis couldn't see this kind of thing," he added.

We did not have sectarian or partisan demands; all we care about is the unity of Iraq...we're arranging for a large campaign now to tell the people the truth about what happened. After all, it's all up to the people to decide since the people are the source of authority and sovereignty. All we asked for was to be given more time because we were expected to deal with all of Iraq's chronic problems in a matter of only two months!

We've got nothing to do now but to look forward to the next step; that is the referendum.

Our only difference we had with the Americans was about setting a rigid timetable for completing the process.
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We'll be calling all the powers that didn't participate in the last elections for a conference where we will be declaring our objections on the draft...

The residents of Fallujah are asking the authorities to increase the number of voters' registration offices in the city as the existing ones are not enough to finish the registration process of all eligible voters before the day of the referendum planned for October 15….

We're going to press for having international monitoring over the elections and to have international protection for the fairness and transperancy of the elections.
The IECI has failed to prevent violations in several regions during the last elections.
Depending on the police forces to provide protection for the voting centers isn't a logical choice because we know how those forces were chosen and local security corps will not be neutral either…the government in general is going to be part of the electoral race so it will certainly be biased.
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We need the international community to protect these elections; any doubts in its fairness could lead the nation to a disaster.

The 35 graduates who received intensive training for 3 months from British trainers showed their new learned military skills as they paraded in the Infantry training facility in Wales.

The new sergeants were trained according to the same curriculum that is adopted in the British army after introducing a few modifications to meet the special requirements for operating in Iraq; the main job of these men when they return to Iraq will be training new Iraqi soldiers.

Around 30,000 Iraqis signed a memorandum that demands including the rights of Iraqi Christian communities in the permanent Iraqi constitution which is still being negotiated till now.
The signature-collecting campaign is organized by the "Ma'an" (equal for 'together') NGO.
Chief of the organization, Ibtisam Georges (woman) expressed her fear from having the new constitution ignoring the rights of the Christians who have been living in Iraq for two thousand years side by side with people of other religions, sects and ethnicities.

Mrs. Georges summed up the demands by a) The constitution must not discriminate between Iraqis on any basis. b) The constitution must be based on the concept of citizenship.

A research published yesterday in Baghdad showed that a high percentage of Iraqis would prefer a federal system in the new Iraq, that's according to a poll conducted by an Iraqi NGO named "The civil Alliance For Free Elections".
The poll showed that 78% of participants support a federal state while 22% preferred a state based on a strong central government.

As to the relationship between Islam and the state; the results were 65% want Islam to be considered as a source of legislation, 26% want Islam to be the only source of legislation while 9% see that Islam should not be mentioned at all in the constitution.

The Fallujah scholars council represented by its head Hamza Al-Eisawi the preacher in Al-Wahda mosque released an announcement that urged Fallujans to take their role in the referendum. The cleric explained that this is one of their duties as clerics to give advice to the people and he added that the fatwa will be read in all of the city's mosques.
It's worth mentioning that four voters registration offices have been designated in the city and the people have decided to take the responsibility of protecting these offices without interference from the multinational forces. At the same time, Fallujah is witnessing daily lectures and conferences where thinkers and leaders from the Islamic party are educating the people about the importance of participation in the referendum.

Abdul Hameed Jadoo the preacher at Al-Furqan mosque called the people to have their names registered in the offices saying that "the constitution is going to prove our identity as Iraqis"
Abbas Kareem, a former naval officer from Fallujah said "If we se a fair and balanced draft of the constitution then we're certainly going to accept it"

Dr. Suhaib Mahmood from Fallujah's general hospital said "If the draft guaranteed equal rights for all Iraqis away from sectarian discrimination we'll consider it convincing…having our say in the constitution is essential and an important turning point for us"

While lawyer Sabah Naji from Fallujah too said "We have to participate in the referendum and even if we didn't like the draft we still have the opportunity to say no"

Ahmed Hameed, an engineer in the municipal department in Fallujah said "the town is about to see a new political change that will have a big effect on the shape of the political future of Iraq…everybody here is going to participate and no one wants to miss the chance this time"

The workshop had the capacity to arm 8-10 cars with explosives/day. We found 450 liquid gas containers and 1800 mortar shells in the site as well as large amounts of wires, alarm clocks, remote control devices and bomb triggers

13 men were also arrested in the operation, 5 of whom are former Ba'ath members and the rest belong to a radical Islamist group and we left a force in the place expecting other members of the group to come and we arrested 15 more members from that terror group.

The religious references will back all the candidates and will be standing with the 26 million Iraqis and not with those who want to mix their personal issues with those of the references…
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The religious references are dedicated to religious issues and to issuing fatwas and advices that unite the sons of the same society…

Blessing the constitution that doesn't discriminate between the different sects and ethnic groups of the Iraqi people while other clauses of the constitution should be up to the people to approve or reject…

Did you know that there's a national, network television show with an Iraqi-American central character?

It's true: the CBS reality show Big Brother, a guilty pleasure of mine, has as a contestant Kaysar, an Iraqi-American graphics designer from Irvine, CA. He's proven to be a formidable competitor in the game during the first few weeks, and seems like a genuinely intelligent and decent fellow.

There's only one problem: he lost last week and was "evicted" from the house.
So why should you care? Because CBS is holding a public poll to determine whether Kaysar or one of two other evicted players will be allowed back in the house. And you can vote, for free, right here.

I, for one, want him back. And so I figure I'll spread the word, and ask my fellow citizens of the blogosphere: click that link, give Kaysar a vote, and keep a positive example of an Iraqi-turned-American in front of the television viewing public.

It's a little thing, but sometimes those actually do count...

1-Preventing a known group of thugs from messing with order and peace in the city. This group is trying to drag our peaceful town to needless conflicts that can only destroy our city.

2-Improving the basic services provided by the municipality after they deteriorated drastically in the last few months and putting an end to corruption in the local administration that has reached unprecedented levels.

More than 20,000 Iraqi Assyrians were deported from Iraq and left to Syria and other countries before 1963 and these are Iraqi citizens and their right to get their nationality back must be protected and I think it's a big mistake to set conditions that might deny them their rights.

Those who suggested this condition were aiming at preventing Iraqi Jews from being Iraqi citizens again but they didn't realize that the effects will not be limited to the Jews alone.

The responses to the draft that was announced on Al-Sabah on July 26th varied in the Najafi street between cautious agreement and total disagreement but one group of women went to the streets in a protest that is considered the first for women in Najaf.

When we asked Al-Mayali about the reasons behind the protest and the demands of the participating women, she said:

"Today we have women from 17 civil society organizations was organized to show that we strongly reject the parts of the proposed constitution that are against our rights as Iraqi women and this protest is in support of the memorandum we sent to the CDC in which we clarified our demands".

"We want to make clear that we're against any attempt to revive the notorious 137 personal affairs law which was born during the period of Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim when he was the head of the GC.
We want a civil law to govern issues like marriage and inheritance and we also want to reactivate the related international treaties that Iraq had already signed and approved long time ago and even the existing civil law that we support needs to be modified and improved in a way that matches the needs and rights of Iraqi women and we insist that Islam must not be the only source of legislation".

Arab Sunnis have already started preparing the slates with which they're going to enter the electoral competition later this year.
It’s believed that Adnan Addulaimi (the former head of the department of Sunni property) will be among the top figures on these slates.
A spokesman of the 'general conference for the Sunni' said that the conference expects a turnout of around 5 million voters among the Sunni Arabs and added that the focus now is on nominating degree carriers, tribal sheiks and clerics as well as academic female figures to be their candidates for the elections.

Haider Al-Mousawi spokesman of Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi said that the fabricated recent crisis with Kuwait has political aspects designed by known political figures and it's being fed and used by some parties to harm the relationships between the two countries and he confirmed that the behavior of the Kuwaiti authorities was not a violation and it was within the limits of the Security Council resolutions and he said that tense statement made by some Assembly members are absolutely needless especially that the government is sending a delegation to discuss the situation and there will be another visit by Ahmed Chalbi to Kuwait soon to confine the situation and restore friendly relationships.