An al-Qaida militant suspected of planning an attack targeting the World Cup in South Africa next month has been detained by Iraqi security forces.

Dozens of people were killed today when two car bombs and a suicide bomber struck outside a textile factory.

A co-ordinated al Qaida bombing attack on apartment buildings across Baghdad killed at least 39 people today in the latest sign Iraq’s fragile security could dissolve in the chaos of its unresolved election.

SUICIDE attackers detonated three car bombs near embassies in Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 42 people and wounding more than 200 in back-to-back bombings.

A FEMALE suicide bomber walking among Shi’ite pilgrims in Baghdad detonated an explosives belt yesterday, killing at least 54 people and wounding more than 122, officials said.

IRAQI security forces conducted searches at checkpoints in the capital yesterday as authorities investigated the security failure that allowed two truck bombs to strike what was one of Baghdad’s safest areas and kill 155 people.

A British contractor was arrested today after a fellow Briton and an Australian contractor were shot dead in Baghdad’s protected Green Zone.

The Iraqi president today raised objections to the planned execution of Saddam Hussein’s former defence minister, who is due to be hanged with two other former regime officials for their roles in a massacre of Kurds.

Saddam Hussein’s cousin, known as “Chemical Ali” and 14 others went on trial today on charges of crimes against humanity related to the brutal crushing of a Shiite uprising after the 1991 Gulf War.

Saddam Hussein’s cousin known as “Chemical Ali” and 14 other defendants will face charges over the brutal crushing of a Shiite uprising after the 1991 Gulf War next week when Iraq’s third trial against former regime officials gets under way.

Nearly 4,000 American soldiers poured into Baghdad this week, the fourth of five brigades being sent to strengthen an 11-week-old crackdown aimed at quelling sectarian violence, the US military said today.

A suicide truck bomber struck a police station in a mainly Sunni area of Baghdad today, killing at least 18 people, police said, as insurgents apparently step up their campaign against fellow Sunnis seen as collaborating with the US and the Iraqi government.

The leader of the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, has been captured, an Iraqi military spokesman said today.

A Kurdish security officer testifying in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial in Baghdad, Iraq, today showed the court body burns he allegedly received when armies of the deposed leader attacked his northern Iraqi village in 1988.

Saddam Hussein was hospitalised and fed with a tube on the 17th day of a hunger strike to ensure he was healthy enough to continue with his trial, the chief prosecutor said. The procedure came as the ex-leader’s troubled trial nears a verdict that could lead to his hanging.

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was taken to hospital today on the 17th day of a hunger strike, the chief prosecutor in his trial said.

THE prosecution yesterday asked for the death penalty against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and two of his co-defendants.

A prosecutor has asked for the death penalty against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and two of his co-defendants, saying today that the former Iraqi leader and his regime committed crimes against humanity in a “revenge” attack on Shiite civilians in the 1980s.

The defence team in the trial of Saddam Hussein protested today over the arrest of four of its witnesses, saying some of them were beaten by Iraqi guards.

Saddam Hussein’s former intelligence chief was pulled out of the court by guards today in a stormy argument with the judge after the defence accused the prosecution of putting a perjured witness on the stand and trying to buy another witness.

The chief judge threw out one of the top defendants in the Saddam Hussein trial amid fierce arguments today as the prosecution and defence accused each other’s witnesses of lying.

Saddam Hussein and his defence team today complained about unfairness in his trial on crimes against humanity, demanding equal time to present their case and saying one of their witnesses had been killed and others wouldn’t testify because they were wanted by authorities.

SADDAM HUSSEIN was cross-examined for the first time in his six-month-old trial yesterday, saying he approved death sentences against Shi’ites in the 1980s.

A former judge from Saddam Hussein’s regime acknowledged sentencing 148 Shiites to death in the 1980s, but insisted they were given a proper trial and had confessed to trying to assassinate the former Iraqi leader.

PROSECUTORS at Saddam Hussein's trial presented a document yesterday they said was signed by the former leader approving the executions of more than 140 Shi'ites in southern Iraq after an assassination attempt in the 1980s.

Interim Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari was chosen as his Shiite ticket’s candidate for Iraq’s next prime minister today, after Ahmad Chalabi dropped his bid.

IRAQ insisted yesterday that construction at a nuclear site was for peaceful research, continuing a campaign to prove its enemies are lying to build a case for military action against Saddam Hussein.

Iraq insisted today that construction at a nuclear site was for peaceful research, continuing a campaign to prove it its enemies are lying to build a case for military action against Saddam Hussein.