The authenticity of Saddam Hussein’s signature on documents connected to a crackdown on Shiites was confirmed by experts, prosecutors said today in a new session of the former Iraqi leader's trial.

INSURGENTS fired rocket-propelled grenades at the home of an Iraqi police officer yesterday, killing his four children and his brother and wounding his wife.

ARABS and Turks in Iraq’s main northern oil city threatened yesterday to boycott a vote for mayor as an American general approved six final members of a city council charged with healing ethnic feuding that threatens the region’s stability.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has been criticised by Palestiniains ahead of his meeting with Yasser Arafat today.