US AUTHORITIES are investigating why $300 million in American bills was taken out of Iraq’s Central Bank this month and flown to Lebanon.

A SHI’ITE official yesterday announced a 228-candidate coalition backed by leading Shi’ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to contest Iraq’s January 30 elections.

AHMAD Chalabi, the former Iraqi Governing Council member who fell out of favour with the US, has returned to Iraq to face counterfeiting charges, an official in his party said yesterday.

Ahmad Chalabi, a former governing council member wanted in Iraq on counterfeiting charges, has returned to the country to face the charges, an official from his political party said today.

Former Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi and his nephew Salem – head of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein – have dismissed charges against them as "ridiculous".

A FILIPINO hostage who was threatened with death if his country did not pull its troops out of Iraq was freed yesterday morning.

Filipino truck driver Angelo dela Cruz, held hostage for nearly two weeks, has been freed, a spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress said today.

IRAQIS reacted with scepticism to promises from US President George W Bush of an independent future, saying an offer of sovereignty did not go far enough to restore their freedom.

Iraq’s governing council has reacted with fury after police backed by American soldiers raided the home and offices of Ahmad Chalabi, a prominent politician once groomed by the Pentagon as a possible replacement for Saddam Hussein.

Ahmed Chalabi was once the Pentagon’s favourite Iraqi – seen as a possible president following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Ahamd Chalabi, once the Pentagon’s favourite Iraqi, found himself the target of a US army raid in Baghdad today.

US soldiers and Iraqi police surrounded the residence of Iraqi political leader Ahmad Chalabi today, and an aide said the troops raided the house to search for fugitives.

Iraqi leaders have set up a tribunal of judges and prosecutors to try ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

Political Editor Harry McGee questions the ‘intelligence’ that led to the Iraq war, and failed to predict September 11 and the Madrid bombings.

One person was wounded when at least 10 rockets detonated in central Baghdad, near an area that houses the headquarters of the US-led coalition.

Iraqi politicians and a top Shiite cleric have successfully resolved their differences over the country’s interim constitution and will sign the charter tomorrow.

Iraq’s constitution was in limbo today after Shi’ite leaders refused to sign it in a last-minute dispute that wrecked a planned ceremony and marred a landmark in US plans to hand over sovereignty.

An interim Iraqi constitution, put together after a stormy debate in Baghdad, established a bill of rights and struck compromises on the structure of a future presidency and the role of Islam.

The hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq suffered a further setback today after it emerged that regime defectors had provided little or no evidence of use to coalition forces.

The death toll from the massive car bomb that exploded at Iraq’s holiest Shiite shrine rose to 85 today, with 140 injured.

THE death toll from a massive car bomb at one of Islam’s holiest shrines in Iraq was heading to more than 100 people last night.

A massive car bomb blew up outside the holiest mosque in Iraq today, killing at least 75 people including a top Shiite cleric just moments after he delivered a sermon calling for unity.

A massive car bomb blew up outside the holiest mosque in Iraq today, killing a top Shiite cleric just moments after he delivered a sermon calling for unity.

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein should be brought to trial for his crimes, not killed like his sons Uday and Qusay, the man appointed as Britain’s new envoy to Iraq said today.

A NEW Iraqi war crimes court will try ousted President Saddam Hussein and his top associates, a party in Iraq’s Governing Council said yesterday.

A former UN weapons inspector has released a new book in which he accuses President Bush of illegally invading Iraq and calls for “regime change” in the United States at the next election.

The founding of a broadly representative governing council in Iraq has done little to stem the guerilla violence, as another US soldier was killed and six wounded when their convoy was ambushed today.

A 60-year-old Chicago man was arrested today and accused of being a spy for fallen Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein is alive and co-ordinating terror attacks inside Iraq, but a wide-scale resistance movement against coalition forces does not exist, a leading opposition figure claimed today.

GUNMEN opened fire on American troops at a checkpoint early yesterday, killing two US soldiers and wounding nine others in the troubled town of Fallujah – a hotbed of support for Saddam Hussein’s fallen Ba’ath Party, the US military said.

A mass grave outside Baghdad which may contain the remains of up to 15,000 bodies provides justification for the war in Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s former head of protocol said today.

The leader of the largest Iraqi Shi’ite Muslim group opposed to Saddam Hussein returned to Iraq today after two decades in exile, arriving to expectations that he will figure prominently in the future of the country he was kept from for so long.

THE United States yesterday said Iraq should have an interim national leadership in place

A council of up to nine Iraqis will probably lead the country’s still unformed interim government through the coming months, the American civil administrator said today.

In what is purported to be his last known wartime speech – a video never before televised – Saddam Hussein appears exhausted, at times confused and seemingly resigned to defeat, but he tells Iraqis that God, somehow, will help them expel the American-British occupiers.

TWO leading figures in Saddam Hussein’s former regime are now in custody after one was captured and the other surrendered.

Former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has told interrogators that Saddam Hussein survived the two attempted decapitation strikes against him, it was reported today.

Iraqi delegates in business suits and clerics’ robes gathered today in Baghdad behind a wall of US tanks to work on forming a government to replace Saddam Hussein.

US forces yesterday said they had captured another wanted Iraqi general, as American administrators tried to curb mounting resentment among ordinary Iraqis by restoring vital services to battered Baghdad.

Former Iraqi spymaster Farouk Hijazi, captured by US forces, could be the man to link Saddam Hussein’s regime to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror network.

Former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz was being questioned today over the fate of Saddam Hussein and the whereabouts of chemical and biological weapons.

An estimated one million Shiite Muslims converged on a holy shrine in the Iraqi city of Karbala today, celebrating their freedom from years of repression by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

A top enforcer in Saddam Hussein’s regime may face war crimes charges after being captured and handed over to Allied forces in Iraq, officials said today.

The US say Muhammad Hazmaq al-Zubaydi - number 18 on a list of the 55 most wanted figures from Saddam Hussein's regime - has been arrested.