Summary: Iran praised the Iraqi Cabinet for approving a U.S-Iraq status-of-forces agreement. … Michael Hanna, an analyst at the Century Foundation in New York, said a continuing but finite presence of U.S. troops in Iraq could benefit Iran because it provides “retaliatory options” as Tehran pursues a nuclear program opposed by the West.

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Summary: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has offered to provide safe passage and security for the Taliban’s reclusive leader, Mullah Omar, if he agrees to enter peace talks, and said the U.S. and other Western nations could leave the country or oust him if they disagree. Taliban militants later rejected the offer, saying there would be no negotiations until foreign troops leave Afghanistan.

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Summary: Racial incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are shattering the post-election illusion of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America. There have been “hundreds” of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes. … Update on military and civilian deaths in Iraq.

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Summary: Adm. Chris Barrie, former chief of the Australian Defense Force, has said there was no evidence to justify going to war in Iraq in 2003: “I have to say, even up until the day I retired, I never saw any evidence that said suddenly we had to go off and do a job in Iraq.” … Two U.S. soldiers were killed in an OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter crash in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. … A car bomb killed 10 people and wounded 30 in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar.

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Summary: An Associated Press tally showed at least 26 deadly bombings in Baghdad in the first half of November 2008, compared with 28 for all of October and 22 in September. At least 102 people were killed in the Iraqi capital in the first half of November 2008, compared with 95 in October and 96 in September, according to the AP count.

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Summary: In Mosul, an Iraqi soldier fired automatic weapons at U.S. soldiers at a military base, killing two and wounding six before he died in a hail of bullets. … In Baghdad, bombers struck the capital for a third straight day, killing 23 people and wounding scores in a string of attacks in mostly Shiite areas. … In Kandahar, Afghanistan, a suicide bomber driving an oil tanker detonated his explosives outside an Afghan government office during a provincial council meeting, killing at least six people and wounding 42. … Iran test-fired a solid-fuel, high-speed Sajjil long-range surface-to-surface missile with a range of about 1,200 miles. … North Korea announced it will shut the country’s border with the South on Dec. 1, 2008.

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Summary: 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the pendulum in Mosul has swung several times between stark violence and fragile security, and 2008 is no different. Last November, when the American regiment arrived, the city’s western half was “entirely enemy territory,” with other areas not much better, says Maj. John Oliver, operations officer of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment’s 3rd Squadron. … A series of blasts struck Baghdad for the third consecutive day, killing nine people and wounding more than 30 others. … Taliban fighters hijacked trucks carrying Humvees and other supplies for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, authorities said after a brazen attack near the Khyber Pass that underscored the militants’ grip across key mountain strongholds.

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Summary: NBC Today’s “American Story with Bob Dotson” comes from Arlington National Cemetery, where mothers remember their veteran sons who lost their lives in combat. … Video from the St. Cloud-area Veterans Day Parade.

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Summary: In the deadliest attack in Iraq in months, a suicide bomber struck a crowd that gathered where an explosion moments earlier had damaged a bus full of schoolgirls, killing at least 31 people and wounding 71. Meanwhile in Baqouba, a female suicide bomber attacked a security checkpoint, killing five and wounding 15.

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Summary: Shiite clerics have warned the Iraqi government not to sign a security pact that would keep U.S. troops in Iraq until 2012, as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki studied what U.S. officials described as the final draft of the U.S.-Iraq status-of-forces agreement. … Referring to President-elect Barack Obama, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said she was “extremely grateful that we have an African-American who has won this year,” calling Obama’s victory “a tremendous signal we sent.”

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