THE chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial in Iraq said yesterday that he did not believe the former Iraqi leader was a dictator.

The chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial in Iraq said today that he did not believe the former Iraqi leader was a dictator.

The chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s trial today brushed aside prosecution demands to step down for letting the ex-president make political statements, as more witnesses told of chemical attacks against Kurds – a charge for which the ex-president could receive a death sentence.

The chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial against the Kurds today demanded the presiding judge step down, accusing him of being biased toward the deposed leader and his co-defendants.

A Kurdish woman described huddling with her children in a cave as warplanes bombarded her village with chemical weapons in testimony today at the Baghdad genocide trial of Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein opened his second Baghdad trial with a show of defiance today, refusing to enter a plea on charges of genocide and war crimes connected to his scorched-earth offensive against Kurds nearly two decades ago.

A car bomb exploded today in central Iraq, killing five people, including four police officers on patrol, while gunmen killed an education official in Baghdad.

A car bomb exploded in front of a hospital south of Baghdad today, killing 17 and wounding 16, police said, a day after 23 were killed in two attacks aimed at the Shiite community.