Two former Saddam Hussein aides were ejected from a Baghdad courtroom for unruly behaviour today on the second day of a trial over the brutal crushing of a 1991 rebellion in Iraq by Shiite Muslims.

Tributes have been paid to 27-year-old snooker star Paul Hunter, who has died after losing his battle with cancer.

Croatia today recognised independent Montenegro, 15 years after they fought a bloody war.

Two former Croat prisoners of war who narrowly escaped a 1991 massacre of more than 200 fellow POWs at a pig farm in eastern Croatia testified yesterday at a landmark trial of 17 Serb paramilitaries charged in the slaughter.

IF Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen continue telling us that we are neutral (politically or militarily), and we believe this as a nation, then I think we have turned down the path that George Orwell predicted — “truth is lies, war is peace, love is hate and good is evil”.

US Vice President Dick Cheney has attacked critics of the war in Iraq, accusing them of ignoring years of intelligence that proved Saddam Hussein was a danger to America.

Iraqis digging with shovels and their bare hands today excavated a mass grave filled with the remains of dozens of people who witnesses said were executed after a 1991 Shiite uprising against Saddam Hussein’s government.

A top enforcer in Saddam Hussein’s regime may face war crimes charges after being captured and handed over to Allied forces in Iraq, officials said today.

SCORCHED and bomb-blasted, it is one of the last pathetic defiant symbols of Saddam Hussein’s sunken regime.

Oil prices dived by 4% to a four-month low today as news of US-led military advances in Baghdad and Basra boosted hopes of a swift end to the war and minimal damage to Iraq’s oil fields.

Oil prices leapt by more than a dollar today before falling back as fears of a protracted war in Iraq remained at the forefront of traders’ minds.

SETBACKS on the battlefield for Anglo-American forces in Iraq were mirrored on world stock exchanges yesterday when stock prices fell after a week of almost unimpaired upward movement.

17-YEAR-OLD Hind Ziad knows painfully well the devastating effects of war in Iraq.

The Bush administration today moved steadily toward a military showdown with Iraq and suggested a decision could come as early as next week after UN inspectors credited Iraq with only limited cooperation in the search for weapons.

PHILIP ARCHER continued to play the best golf of his life at the European tour qualifying school at Emporda in Spain yesterday.

The Jordan Grand Prix team are confident of securing points at the United States Grand Prix this weekend.

A US attack on Iraq could profoundly affect the American economy, it was reported yesterday.

A US attack on Iraq could profoundly affect the American economy because the US would have to pay most of the cost and bear the brunt of any oil price hikes, it was reported today.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud is urging Russia help to restart the stalled Middle East peace talks.

Iraqi air defence facilities have been attacked by US and British war planes.