The US Senate is expected to pass a bill on the Iraq conflict today that requires President George Bush to begin bringing home an unspecified number of troops within four months.

Thousands of protesters flowed through the streets of several US cities to call for an end to the funding of the Iraq conflict or the immediate return of US troops.

The Iraqi Cabinet has approved a draft law to manage the country’s vast oil industry and distribute its wealth among the population.

US vice president Dick Cheney arrives in Australia today to thank one of Washington’s staunchest supporters of the increasingly unpopular Iraq conflict.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said the Iraq conflict had been mismanaged and former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would be remembered as one of the worst in history.

Australia’s leader defended his verbal attack on US presidential candidate Barak Obama today, after American politicians condemned it as interfering and Australian critics said it could harm the two countries’ ties.

President Vladimir Putin and Arab League chief Amr Moussa today called for an international conference on the Iraq conflict and the Middle East, according to reports.

Robert Redford has called on US leaders to apologise for the war in Iraq.

US President George Bush went to his Texan ranch today to rethink his strategy in Iraq as the US death toll in the country passed that of the September 11 attacks.

New US defence secretary Robert Gates says Iraq is his top priority and warned that failure there would be a “calamity” that would haunt the United States for many years.

New US defence secretary Robert Gates said today Iraq is his top priority and warned that failure there would be a “calamity” that would haunt the United States for many years.

US President George Bush, standing beside British Prime Minister Tony Blair, today asserted that success in Iraq depends on victory over extremists across the “broader Middle East”.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush yesterday admitted he hasn’t decided whether to send more troops to Iraq or begin bringing them home, saying he is awaiting the military’s recommendations.

US President George Bush today said he had not yet decided on whether to send more US troops to Iraq or to begin bringing them home.

AFTER years of defending his secretary of defence, US President George W Bush last night announced Donald H Rumsfeld’s resignation within hours of the Democrats’ triumph in congressional elections.

A controversial new study contends that nearly 655,000 have died because of the Iraq conflict, suggesting a far higher death toll than other estimates.

A series of attacks in eastern Baghdad this evening killed at least 39 people and wounded 115 within half an hour, police said.

Hollywood stars Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon are to join a fast protesting against the Iraq war.

The family of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said today they want to bury him in his hometown, but a security official vowed the terror leader who killed Jordanians in a triple hotel bombing would never be interred in Jordan.

RADICAL British filmmaker Ken Loach brought politics to the Cannes Film Festival yesterday when he used the showcasing of his new film, set around the Irish Civil War, to attack the Government over the Iraq conflict.

Radical British filmmaker Ken Loach brought politics to the Cannes Film Festival today when he used the showcasing of his new film, set around the Irish Civil War, to attack the British government over the Iraq conflict.

An 85-year-old Beverly Hills psychiatrist has been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, America’s second-highest military honour, at the White House, more than six decades after he saved the life of a badly-wounded mission commander aboard a bomber crippled during a Second World War raid over occupied France.

AN American mother whose son was killed in Iraq demanded the Government stop the US military using Shannon Airport as it emerged that the 303,323 troops who passed through the airport this year generated €37 million.

OCCUPYING troops could be embroiled in Iraq for decades, a major report claimed yesterday.

Capping the bloodiest month for American troops since January, the US military reported that seven more US service members were killed – all victims of increasingly sophisticated bombs that have been become the deadliest weapon in the insurgents’ arsenal.

Some Iraqis sympathised with US forces today after hearing the American death toll in the Iraq war had reached 2,000.

Saddam Hussein’s deputy Tariq Aziz has refused to testify against the former Iraqi leader at his trial, Aziz’s lawyer said, adding he expected Aziz to be released soon.

A SUICIDE car bomber, who targeted American soldiers as they gave sweets to children and detonated his vehicle, killed up to 27 other people yesterday.

A suicide car bomber sped to American soldiers as they distributed sweets to children and detonated his vehicle today, killing up to 27 other people, US and Iraqi officials said.

A suicide car bomber drove up to a US vehicle crowded with Iraqi children and detonated his vehicle today, killing one American soldier and at least seven Iraqi children, the US military said.

UP TO 15 British troops are feared dead after an RAF Hercules aircraft crashed in central Iraq, military sources said last night.

IN Geneva, they read patriotic poetry. In Vienna, they drowned their sorrows and plotted their revenge. In London, they staged a candlelight protest outside the US Embassy.

In Geneva, they’ll read patriotic poetry. In Vienna, they’ll drown their sorrows and plot their revenge.

Film legend Harrison Ford has agreed to star in Hollywood's first movie about November's second Iraq conflict, The Battle of Fallujah.

British Conservative leader Michael Howard today hit out at White House aides after he was reportedly warned that he would never meet President George Bush.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will continue to be a key ally for the United States even if Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry succeeds in ousting George Bush from the White House, a senior aid to the challenger said today.

More than 200 Americans studying in Britain have signed an open letter accusing US President George W. Bush of endangering the security of American nationals abroad through his unpopular foreign policies.

Madonna today compared US President George Bush to deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Irish companies using the UK landbridge could be charged four separate security charges to move their goods to the continent while all transhipped goods could be subject to at least two surcharges.

The BBC and The Guardian scooped awards at the Amnesty International Media Awards ceremony last night.

The White House reaffirmed President George Bush’s support of his embattled Defence Secretary today as pressure mounted on him to sack Donald Rumsfeld over the military’s abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

The Iraq conflict could become “much more serious” than the Vietnam war, EU Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten said today.

Hundreds have gathered at Parnell Square in Dublin to pay tribute to the tens of thousands of people who died during and after the war.

Four British soldiers were wounded after they were fired on with handguns and rocket-propelled grenades, the US military said today.