British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his holiday to return to Britain to chair a meeting to discuss the Iraq crisis, but resisted calls to intervene there militarily and ruled out recalling parliament for now.

Iraq is facing a fierce political power struggle even as the country battles extremists in the north and west, after its president went over the head of incumbent prime minister Nouri Maliki and picked another politician to form a new government.

Saddam Hussein’s henchman Tariq Aziz is to ask for an Iraqi presidential pardon from his death sentence for persecuting opponents.

Executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was buried shortly before sunrise today inside a compound for religious ceremonies in the town of his birth.

Iraq’s Shiite alliance nominated tough-talking politician Jawad al-Maliki as prime minister, in a move that broke the long impasse over forming a new government to pull the country out of its sectarian strife.