BRITAIN is to cut by 10% the number of troops in Iraq. Defence Secretary John Reid announced yesterday the 800 soldiers could be withdrawn in May because Iraqi forces were now capable of taking over many tactical responsibilities.

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.

A former judge from Saddam Hussein’s regime today insisted that 148 Shiites he sentenced to death in Iraq were given a proper trial, trying to defend himself on charges of killing the men in a crackdown in the 1980s.

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.

Three gunmen in a speeding car killed a defence lawyer in the Saddam Hussein trial and wounded another today in Western Baghdad.

A lawyer representing a former Iraqi vice president on trial along with Saddam Hussein was assassinated today in western Baghdad, a colleague on the defence team said.