Iraqis passed through security checkpoints and razor-wire cordons to vote today in provincial elections that are considered a crucial test of the nation’s stability as US officials consider the pace of troop withdrawals.

A Kurdish chemistry teacher gave a harrowing account at Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial today of the death of 40 fellow villagers, including his mother and two daughters, in an alleged chemical attack in 1988.

A female witness, testifying at Saddam Hussein’s trial, said she was stripped naked in prison, hung by her feet and kicked in the chest by the former Iraqi leader’s half brother.

One of the five judges in the Saddam Hussein trial has stepped down after learning that one of the defendants may have been involved in the execution of his brother, a court official said today.

Weeping and beating their chests, hundreds of people inspected bodies at an Iraqi morgue today, trying to identify friends and family who died in the single deadliest attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein.