Turkey dramatically escalated its campaign against Kurdish rebels hiding in northern Iraq when thousands of troops invaded the territory on a search and destroy mission today.

A majority of Iraqi politicians have signed draft legislation that calls for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.

The UN Security Council today condemned the terrorist attack on Iraq’s parliament “in the strongest terms” and called for national dialogue and reconciliation to restore peace and security in the violence-wracked country.

A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament cafeteria in an assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, US-protected Green Zone today, killing at least eight people including three politicians, the American military said.

Key US and Iraqi officials today issued cautiously optimistic reports one month into the latest drive to curb sectarian bloodshed in Baghdad but warned that months would pass before the operation could be labelled a success.

US officials are investigating allegations that an Iraqi politician took part in the 1983 bombing of the US and French embassies in Kuwait and is a conduit for Iranian weapons and supplies smuggled to Shiite militias, a spokesman said today.

The Iraqi foreign minister today said the five Iranians detained by US-led forces in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq were working in a liaison office that had government approval and was in the process of being approved as a consulate.

President George Bush today told an Iraqi leader the US was not satisfied with the progress of efforts to stop the sharp escalation of violence in Iraq.

Saddam Hussein should not be hanged despite the “horrific acts” he has committed, the Prime Minister of New Zealand said today.

A suicide bomber rammed a police checkpoint in northern Iraq with an explosives-laden vehicle today, killing more than a dozen people, the deadliest attack on a day when at least 25 people died in violence around the country.

The government of Iraq has declared an immediate complete curfew for the capital city of Baghdad tonight until Sunday morning, the prime minister’s office said.

After a rash of bombings, a Kurdish militant group has warned that it will turn Turkey "into hell", and urged tourists to avoid travelling to the country, in what appeared to be a trend in the Kurdish guerrilla war against the Turkish state – bombings against “soft targets”.

US President George Bush said today the death of al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq is “a severe blow” to the al-Qaida terrorist network and a decisive victory in the US-led campaign against terrorism.

US President George Bush urged restraint among rival religious factions in Iraq after the bombing today of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, and pledged American help to restore the revered Shiite shrine.

Health authorities went on high alert today following Iraq’s first reported case of the deadly bird flu virus, culling hundreds of thousands of birds and warning farmers across the country to inspect their flocks.

IT is regrettable that recent comments in your letters columns on the oil-for-food programme owe more to a predictable anti-UN agenda than a balanced and factual account of the successes and failures of this programme.

The government of Iraq has accepted the peace deal brokered by Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani to end the occupation of the holy Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf.

A last-minute addition to the US and Britain's Iraq resolution appears to have satisfied French and German demands to spell out Iraq’s “security partnership” with US-led forces.

AMERICA and Britain presented a new UN resolution last night that would transfer "governing authority" in Iraq to a sovereign interim government by June 30 and authorise a multinational force to maintain peace.

TENS of thousands of Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad yesterday to demand the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

US President George Bush was today telling the people of Iraq that “the regime of Saddam Hussein is being removed from power.”

US President George W Bush tonight set the US and Britain on course for war within days to depose Saddam Hussein.

The International Court of Justice should be the one to determine if Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.

The UN Security Council resolution on Iraq in full.

ARAB League chief Amr Moussa said Thursday a strike against Iraq would open the gates of hell in the Middle East, and urged Baghdad to readmit weapons inspectors in co-ordination with the United Nations.

Saudi Arabia has made it clear to Washington that the United States will not be allowed to use the kingdom’s soil for any attack on Iraq, Foreign Minister Prince Saud said today.