Iraqi Shiite militia fighters led a massive rally of followers of a hardline anti-American cleric today, marching in Baghdad in a show of defiance as Iraqi leaders weigh whether to keep US troops in the country beyond the end of the year.

A LIBYAN woman who says she is the person who burst into a Tripoli hotel to tell foreign journalists that she had been gang raped by Muammar Gaddafi’s troops told a CNN interviewer she is out of custody but is receiving death threats from regime loyalists.

Libyan rebels today recaptured most of a strategic oil town that has repeatedly changed hands in weeks of battles.

The Libyan woman who told the world she was gang raped by Gaddafi’s troops will face criminal charges.

THE parents of a Libyan woman who claimed she was detained by Muammar Gaddafi’s troops and later gang raped said that their daughter is being held hostage at the Libyan leader’s compound in Tripoli.

The parents of the Libyan woman who claimed she was gang raped by Gaddafi’s troops have said today she was being held hostage at the Libyan leader’s compound in Tripoli.

FIVE men were arrested, including the son of a high-ranking Libyan police officer, after a woman claimed she was raped and tortured by men connected to Colonel Gaddafi’s regime, Sky News has reported.

An explosion at an ammunition depot in Libya’s rebel stronghold of Benghazi has killed at least 17 people, hospital officials have said.

Iraqi forces today arrested an al Qaida-linked member of a Sunni paramilitary group who was believed to be a mastermind of the assassination of a prominent Sunni politician in Baghdad, officials said.

US forces raided an al-Qaida hide-out north-east of Baghdad today and freed 42 Iraqis imprisoned inside, including some who had been tortured and suffered broken bones, a senior U.S. military official said.

Six Iraqi guards were wounded when a bomb struck a Sunni Muslim television station in Baghdad today.

Iraq’s defence minister today cancelled leave for all army officers, apparently fearing violence after Sunday’s expected announcement of a verdict in the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

One of Saddam Hussein’s lawyers was killed today after he was abducted from his home by men wearing police uniforms in Baghdad.

The chief judge declared an end to the hearing of defence witnesses in the trial of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad today and said the prosecution will present its closing argument next week.

Saddam Hussein’s defence lawyers ended their month-long boycott of his Baghdad trial, attending proceedings today even though the judge rejected their demands that he step down.

Saddam Hussein’s lawyers will attend this week’s trial session, a month after they walked out in protest and accusing the chief judge of being biased against their client, one of the lawyers said today.

SADDAM HUSSEIN was forced to attend his trial yesterday, looking haggard and wearing an Arab robe rather than his usual suit but walking in on his own, shouting “Down with Bush”.

Saddam Hussein’s trial is set to resume tomorrow with the ex-Iraqi president and his seven co-defendants vowing to continue their boycott of the proceedings, the former ruler’s lawyers said today.

The resumption of Saddam Hussein’s mass murder trial was delayed for several hours today, apparently as the sides wrangled over a last-minute shake-up in the court in which a new chief judge was appointed.

Saddam Hussein’s trial was to resume today, a day after court officials named a new chief judge and ousted another jurist off the five-member panel trying the former Iraqi leader.

Some Iraqis sympathised with US forces today after hearing the American death toll in the Iraq war had reached 2,000.

AIDES of a radical Shi’ite cleric met yesterday with a key Sunni group seeking to ease sectarian tensions in Iraq, while gunmen killed a top trade ministry official as a spree of violence that followed the announcement of a new government entered its fourth week.

Iraqi authorities have released a top official in Saddam Hussein’s former regime because he was suffering from serious health problems, Iraq’s Justice Minister said today.

Suicide bombers targeted Iraqi security forces in two cities today, killing at least 27 people and injuring more than 20 others.

The death toll from a suicide bomb last in a hospital compound in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul this morning has reached 12.