Insurgents penetrated security today in a city sacred to Shiites, planting a car bomb near one of Iraq’s holiest shrines and killing at least 37 people in a continued surge in attacks outside Baghdad during a security crackdown there.

Hezbollah-led opposition protesters paralysed Lebanon today by burning tyres and cars in and around the capital, sparking clashes with government supporters amid a general strike aimed at toppling US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

A British soldier was killed when a roadside bomb hit an army patrol in southern Iraq today.

Revenge-seeking militiamen seized six Sunnis as they left prayers and burned them alive with kerosene in a savage new twist to the brutality shaking the Iraqi capital.

America’s United Nations ambassador has accused Syria and Iran of trying to destabilise Lebanon's democratically-elected government by breaking a UN arms embargo.

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S lawyers walked out of his trial yesterday to protest against the replacement of the chief judge, who had been accused of favouring the defence.

The chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial was replaced today amid complaints from Shiite and Kurdish officials that he was too soft on the former Iraqi leader, a move that could raise accusations of government interference in the highly sensitive case.

Israeli war planes renewed strikes against Beirut’s southern suburbs today and an Israeli missile killed three in the border village of Taibeh, a day after the biggest and deepest rocket attacks yet from Hezbollah.

Fierce fighting was raging at the border today as Israeli troops moved deeper into Lebanon to besiege the biggest town close to the border – Bint Jbail, nicknamed the “capital of the resistance.”

There was a failed attempt to kill Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the past 10 days before a successful airstrike, Iraq’s prime minister said today.

Suicide attackers wearing women’s robes blew themselves up today in a Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad, killing at least 79 people and wounding more than 164, police said.

A ferry carrying up to 150 people capsized and sank last night off the coast of Bahrain and at least 48 bodies have so far been recovered, officials said.

Saudi security forces reportedly shot dead at least five suspected terrorists believed to be involved in a foiled attack on the world’s biggest oil processing complex in Saudi Arabia early today.

SYRIA’S ruling Ba’ath Party stripped former Vice-President Abdul-Halim Khaddam of membership and joined parliament in demanding he be tried for high treason, the official news agency SANA reported yesterday.

A car bomb exploded in a business district of central Baghdad today, witnesses and Al-Arabiya television reported.

The US military said today it had lost contact with two jets flying in support of operations in Iraq.

THE Iraqi parliament yesterday picked Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country's new interim president yesterday.

Iraqi election commission officials are expected to announce final results from the landmark January 30 balloting at a news conference today.

An investigation into the ambush and killings of 50 US-trained Iraqi soldiers is looking into whether insurgents got inside information, Iraqi officials said

Around 50 Iraqi soldiers were killed execution-style after insurgents intercepted minibuses carrying them home on leave, officials said today.

US marines clashed with several groups of insurgents on the outskirts of the rebel bastion of Fallujah and launched air strikes at militant targets.

Seven hostages who all worked for a Kuwaiti trucking company have been freed in Iraq, their employer said today.

THOUSANDS of pilgrims streamed into the Imam Ali Shrine yesterday as militants handed the keys to Shi'ite religious authorities after Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric brokered a peace deal to end three weeks of fighting.

US and Iraqi forces battled militants in Najaf today and Iraqi National Guardsmen advanced to within 200 yards of the holy city’s Imam Ali Shrine compound, where insurgents loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been holed up for weeks.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has been wounded in the fighting in Najaf, his spokesman said today.

Protected by about 100 guards, Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has visited the war-shattered city of Najaf, calling on Shiite militants to lay down their weapons after days of fierce clashes with US forces.