Associated Press

A new round of car bombings and other violence struck Iraq on Wednesday, with 55 people killed or found dead as the Iraqi government unveiled a plan to assume responsibility for security in Baghdad by early next year.---The scope of the problem was clear Wednesday, from the first bombing at a bus stop during morning rush hour through the announcement at 9 p.m. that the tortured, bullet-ridden bodies of 21 kidnap victims had been found on the streets of the capital.