SYRIAN troops kept up attacks on the restive city of Hama yesterday, the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a day after a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters killed at least 70 and drew harsh rebukes from the US and Europe.

Syrians ran for their lives today as elite army units swept through a northern province, expanding a deadly operation to crush signs of dissent against President Bashar Assad.

THE main hospital in the southern Syrian city of Deraa has received the bodies of at least 37 protesters who were killed in a confrontation with security forces, a hospital official said.

Britain is one of 12 countries likely to miss a 2009 deadline to clear all land mines from its territory, campaigners said today.

WHAT the recent letters to your paper defending Israel have in common is an obsession with effects and a refusal to deal with causes.

A new judge will take charge temporarily of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants in the 1982 massacre of more than 140 Shiites, an Iraqi official said Monday.

The No. 2 judge in the Saddam Hussein trial should not replace the resigning chief judge because of claims he belonged to the once-ruling Baath Party, according to the head of the body working to rid Baathists from Iraqi institutions.

Kidnapped American reporter Jill Carroll appeared in a silent 20-second video aired in Iraq yesterday by Al-Jazeera television, which said her abductors gave the US 72 hours to free female prisoners or she would be killed.

A SHI’ITE lawyer is expected to take charge of Saddam Hussein’s trial for the 1982 massacre of over 140 Shiites, a court official said yesterday.

ARIEL Sharon is a farmer-turned-soldier, a war hero-turned-politician, a hard-charging Israeli who built Jewish settlements on war-won land but didn’t shy away from destroying them when they collided with his bigger design.

The court trying Saddam Hussein and seven others for a 1982 massacre of 148 Shiites expects defence lawyers to attend next week’s hearing, despite their threat to boycott the trial, a US official close to the proceedings said today.

The body of a defence lawyer in Saddam Hussein’s mass murder trial was found dumped in the street with two bullet wounds in the head hours after gunmen dragged him from his office, terrorising the defence team, who today demanded the trial be further postponed or even moved out of Iraq.

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, arrived in Baghdad today on his first visit to Iraq since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein to discuss plans for an Iraqi reconciliation conference.

Efforts are continuing today to locate an Irish journalist kidnapped in Baghdad.

Saddam Hussein pleaded not guilty to charges including pre-meditated murder and torture as he argued with the judges today, challenging the legitimacy of the court as his first trial opened in the former headquarters of his Baath Party.

Saddam Hussein today declared himself not guilty of alleged crimes against fellow Iraqis, turning immediately argumentative and challenging the legitimacy of the court as he appeared before a five-judge tribunal in the former headquarters of his Baath Party two years after his capture.

Saddam Hussein went on trial today for alleged crimes against fellow Iraqis, turning immediately argumentative as he appeared in a tightly secured courtroom in the former headquarters of his Baath Party two years after his capture.

Saddam Hussein went on trial today for alleged crimes against fellow Iraqis, appearing in a tightly secured courtroom in the former headquarters of his Baath Party nearly two years after his capture.

Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will face charges of premeditated murder, torture and forced expulsion and disappearances when he goes on trial on Wednesday for a 1982 massacre of Shiites.

Insurgents determined to wreck Iraq’s constitutional referendum killed nearly 45 people and wounded dozens in a series of attacks today, including a suicide car-bomb that ripped apart a crowded market in a town near the Syrian border, police said.

Saddam Hussein has fired his legal defence team excepting an Iraqi lawyer who is the only person authorised to represent him.

Top Saddam Hussein lieutenant Tariq Aziz will not testify against ousted dictator in any criminal trial, Aziz’s lawyer said today.

GENERAL William Westmoreland, who commanded US troops in the Vietnam War, has died aged 91.

Gunmen killed three policemen and a government worker walking to work in Baghdad, officials said today, one day after four suicide car bombings killed 22 people.

THE first criminal case has been filed against Saddam Hussein.

Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, gave a troubled country something to cheer about when he blasted off on January 16 on the space shuttle Columbia.

Israel has intensified its military offensive by killing at least 21 Palestinians in raids in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

A Belgian court is deciding whether to resume a war crimes investigation against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, even though the World Court has ruled that he has immunity as a head of state.