A special Iraqi court today imposed a second death sentence on Saddam Hussein’s cousin known as “Chemical Ali,” for his role in the 1991 suppression of a Shiite uprising.

Saddam Hussein’s former deputy has vowed that loyalists to the deposed dictator will continue fighting until the US withdraws from Iraq, according to an interview published today.

Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party today threatened to retaliate if the ousted Iraqi leader is executed, warning in an internet posting it would target US interests anywhere.

A day after Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hang, the Shiite-dominated government offered a major concession to his Sunni backers that could see thousands of members of the ousted dictator's Baath party reinstated in their jobs.

Iraq’s prime minister says Saddam Hussein’s execution would help undermine the insurgency as the ex-president’s genocide trial heard more testimony today of poison gas attacks on Kurdish villages two decades ago.

One of Saddam Hussein’s co-defendants testified today in a new session of the Baghdad trial of the former Iraqi leader and regime officials.

Iraqis zeroed in today on President George Bush’s pledge to stay the course in Iraq, with some expressing anger that he didn’t announce a troop withdrawal and others believing the Americans had little choice but to stick it out here to prevent civil war.

Saddam Hussein’s trial resumed today with a new judge after a shake up that raised worries over whether political interference is threatening the tribunal’s independence.

The court trying Saddam Hussein cancelled the resumption of his trial today, delaying the session for five days. The postponement came amid a squabble among judges over a last-minute shake-up in the court, according to judges.

The resumption of Saddam Hussein’s mass murder trial was delayed for several hours today, apparently as the sides wrangled over a last-minute shake-up in the court in which a new chief judge was appointed.

Saddam Hussein’s trial was to resume today, a day after court officials named a new chief judge and ousted another jurist off the five-member panel trying the former Iraqi leader.

Notorious Saddam-Hussein-era officials have been released from jail in Iraq and some have already left the country, an Iraqi lawyer said today.

Syria has reservations about the findings of the UN investigation into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, but will continue to co-operate, a cabinet minister has said.

Three gunmen in a speeding car killed a defence lawyer in the Saddam Hussein trial and wounded another today in Western Baghdad.

The body of a defence lawyer in Saddam Hussein’s mass murder trial was found dumped in the street with two bullet wounds in the head hours after gunmen dragged him from his office, terrorising the defence team, who today demanded the trial be further postponed or even moved out of Iraq.

A defence lawyer in Saddam Hussein’s mass murder trial who was kidnapped has been found dead, his body dumped near a Baghdad mosque, police and a top lawyers’ union official said today.

Proceedings in the trial of Iraq’s former leader Saddam Hussein were delayed today for an unknown reason.

The Iraqi government announced today that the trial of Saddam Hussein will begin on October 19.

Iraqi authorities have set October 19 as the date for the start of the trial of Saddam Hussein, an official said. A Western diplomat discounted the report as ”posturing".

An Iraqi court has decided to begin the first trial of Saddam Hussein on October 19 and is in the process of notifying his legal team, a legal official said today.

Five of the top Sunni Arabs in government spoke out against the draft constitution today – a major blow to deadline efforts to craft a document that can win the backing of all Iraqi groups.

A Shiite negotiator today reported progress in talks with Iraq’s Sunni Arabs and Kurds on the new constitution but said problems remained on the proposal to ban members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party from public life.

Saddam Hussein and three others will stand trial in the 1982 massacre of Shiite villagers north of Baghdad, a senior judge announced today.

The Iraqi Special Tribunal has completed preliminary investigations into some of the alleged crimes committed by several of Saddam Hussein’s top henchmen, and it will send the first group of five to trial.

Shiite Muslims, many kneeling in prayer, were attacked in their mosques and on the streets on the eve of their holiest day, with five bombings killing 36 people in the deadliest day in Iraq since the January 30 national elections.

Iraqi judges have started interrogating Saddam Hussein’s former defence minister and the notorious general known as Chemical Ali, who is accused of gassing thousands of Kurds in the 1980s, the head judge in charge of investigating detained former regime leaders said today.

An Iraqi guardsman, three civilians and five US soldiers were killed when insurgents detonated a car bomb and levelled a military headquarters in the city of Samarra with a massive mortar barrage, the military said.

Tariq Aziz, the urbane, English-speaking envoy of the former Iraqi regime, argued today that he was not personally responsible for any murders during his appearance before an Iraqi judge.

The toppling and trial of Saddam Hussein could have “enormous repercussions” for other authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, an expert on the region said today.

A glance at the life of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein:

The editor of an Iraqi newspaper has appealed to Irish people to take to the streets during George Bush’s forthcoming visit and march against the ongoing US-led occupation.

The new Iraqi army will start recruiting former senior officers from Saddam Hussein’s military and today also lifted a ban on members of Saddam’s disbanded Baath party from teaching in schools.

The US is to bring members of Saddam Hussein’s disbanded Baath party in from the cold – allowing thousands of former army officers and teachers back in their jobs.

Nine people were killed in an outburst of violence in Iraq, including four Christian women driving to jobs at a US military base and two American soldiers killed in a mortar barrage.

Saddam Hussein is being compliant but unhelpful to his American interrogators who have made little progress in gaining information as to whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or ties to al-Qaida terror, officials said today.

A glance at the life of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein:

A former Iraqi general who claims to be part of the insurgency against American troops says the guerrilla war in the Sunni Triangle city of Samara is being waged by small groups fighting on their own without direction from Saddam Hussein.

TWO US soldiers were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad and a city to the west, the military reported yesterday. A third was reported to have died of a non-hostile gunshot wound in a separate incident.

Former Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan, number 20 on the US Most Wanted list, has been captured, the US Defence Department said today.

An Arabic satellite TV channel broadcast an audio tape today that it said was allegedly recorded by Saddam Hussein.

US forces in Iraq were expecting more trouble today on the anniversary of the 1968 Baathist revolution that brought Saddam Hussein’s political party to power.

IRAQ’S new governing council — a US sanctioned first step toward democratic government — put off selecting a president yesterday but voted to send a delegation to the UN Security Council.

US forces kicked off a massive sweep with more than 20 lightning raids in towns throughout Iraq, netting at least 60 suspects in a show of air and infantry power designed to crush resistance and stem a wave of deadly attacks on US troops.

Attacks on Allied forces in Iraq continued today and, with shattered glass, blood stains and mangled vehicles littering the landscape, there is growing concern that the occupation could be turning into a fully fledged guerrilla war.