IRAQ’S appeals court is expected to rule on Saddam Hussein’s guilty verdict and death sentence by the middle of January, the chief prosecutor said yesterday.

Iraq's appeals court is expected to rule on Saddam Hussein's guilty verdict and death sentence by the middle of January, the chief prosecutor said today.

A mortar barrage followed minutes later by a car bomb struck Baghdad’s upscale Karradah district today, killing 31 people and wounding 153, police said.

Four US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb north-west of Baghdad today and at least two dozen Iraqis died in violence across the country, as politicians put the final touches on a national unity government they hope will restore security to Iraq.

Sectarian violence has forced about 100,000 families across Iraq to flee their homes, a top Iraqi official said. At least 17 people have been killed in fighting.

Attackers grabbed a Sunni Arab policeman and his brother and shot both of them dead outside their home to the south of Baghdad today.

Shiite leaders today decided to oppose convening parliament next week to decide the future of Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and may turn to the country’s top Shiite cleric to break the deadlock over the formation of the new government.

Leaders of Iraq’s main political blocs began a round of marathon meetings today with the US ambassador in an attempt to reach agreement on a broad-based government.

Gunmen wearing commando uniforms of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry stormed an Iraqi security company that relied heavily on Sunni ex-military men from the Saddam Hussein regime and abducted 50 hostages.

Iraq’s president failed in a bid to order parliament into session by next Sunday, further delaying formation of a government and raising questions about whether the political process can withstand the unrelenting violence or disintegrate into civil war.

Iraq’s president today said he would call the country’s new parliament into session for the first time on Sunday, starting the clock on a 60-day period during which the legislature must elect a new head of state and sign off on a prime minister and Cabinet.

Shiite lawmakers today chose Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to head the new government, selecting the incumbent by a one-vote margin over Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Shiite officials said.

A bomb planted near a tea stand killed eight men waiting for jobs in a largely Shiite area of Baghdad today and six other people died in scattered violence across the country.

THE US military said six American soldiers were killed in two bombings yesterday, making October one of the deadliest months for US troops in Iraq this year.

US jets bombed two insurgent “safe houses” near the Syrian border today in an attack aimed at al-Qaida in Iraq.

A brother of one of Iraq’s two vice presidents was shot and killed today on his way to work in Baghdad, officials said.

ONE day before the deadline for Iraq’s new constitution, Sunni Arab negotiators appealed to the international community to prevent Shi’ites and Kurds from pushing a draft charter through parliament without Sunni consent.

Gunmen killed three policemen and a government worker walking to work in Baghdad, officials said today, one day after four suicide car bombings killed 22 people.