The court martial of a US Army dog handler charged with abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq could help clarify who approved the harsh treatment that human rights advocates say amounted to torture.

The Pentagon is to investigate claims that US soldiers posted pictures of Iraqi corpses on the internet in return for access to porn.

Prosecutors in Private Lynndie England’s prison abuse case portrayed her in closing arguments today as an eager participant with a “sick” sense of humour, while defence lawyers described her as a weak-minded pawn trying to appease a sadistic boyfriend.

Jury selection started today for the panel that will recommend a sentence for Army Reserve Private First Class Lynndie England, who pleaded guilty to mistreating prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison camp in Iraq.

Pfc. Lynndie England took responsibility for the smiling, thumbs-up poses she struck for photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison camp, which made her the face of the prisoner abuse scandal.

Defence lawyers are hoping a plea deal by Pfc. Lynndie England will be accepted by an Army judge as the reservist whose image became synonymous with the Abu Ghraib prison scandal heads to court.

Lynndie England will plead guilty to abusing Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison, her lawyer said today, about a year after photos of her sexually humiliating inmates made her the face of a scandal that damaged the credibility of the United States military.

Photographs of British soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq were decried in the Arab media today as shameful but were not receiving the same intense attention as the images of US abuses at Abu Ghraib prison last year.

A Syrian inmate at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq testified in a videotape played for a US jury that Army Specialist Charles Graner merrily whistled, sang and laughed while brutalising him and forced him to eat pork and drink alcohol, against his Muslim faith.

Trent Badger, Fort Hood

A Syrian inmate at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison told a court martial today that US army Specialist Charles Graner was the primary torturer who laughed while physically abusing him and threatened to kill him more than once.

AT least 20 Iraqis were killed and more than 200 wounded as fresh violence rocked Baghdad yesterday. The US army launched a fresh offensive on Baghdad’s radical Shi’ite stronghold of Sadr City overnight that killed 13 people.

DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate John Kerry called yesterday for US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign over the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Twenty-seven members of a United States military intelligence unit at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison either requested or condoned certain abuses of Iraqi prisoners there, an investigation concluded tonight.

A military judge hearing pre-trial evidence in the alleged abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison pressed the US government today to speed up its investigations, warning that delays could derail the case against at least one of the accused soldiers.

Four US soldiers charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison face pre-trial hearings before an American military judge in Mannheim, Germany today and tomorrow.

Lawyers for Army Reservist Lynndie England claim she is being used as a scapegoat in the Iraqi prison abuse scandal, and they hope a military hearing this week will allow them to question senior officials they believe are responsible.

US soldier Lynndie England has appeared in court charged with abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.

A US soldier charged with abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison appeared in court today.

ABUSE of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers may be widespread and orchestrated by US intelligence agencies including the CIA, it was claimed yesterday.

The torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners, captured on camera in a US run Baghdad prison, was controlled and devised by US agencies including the CIA, a lawyer claimed today.