NEGOTIATORS have finalised a deal that will see the complete withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by 2011, ending an eight-year occupation, the top official in the Iraqi team claimed.

A man has claimed on Syrian state TV that he was bribed to accuse top Syrian officials of the murder of Rafik Hariri in his testimony to the UN commission into the former Lebanese premier’s assassination.

SYRIA has withdrawn nearly a third of its troops from Lebanon, a senior officer said yesterday.