Saddam Hussein’s eldest daughter wants to return home from her Jordanian exile, saying her life has been full of emotional suffering.

Gunmen killed the brother of the man who told the US Army where to find Saddam Hussein’s sons, who were killed in a hail of gunfire last July, witnesses and hospital officials said today.

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S family wants the former Iraqi leader to be tried by an international court instead of a special tribunal set up by the US-installed Iraqi Governing Council, one of his daughters said yesterday.

Saddam Hussein’s family wants the former Iraqi leader to be tried by an international court instead of a special tribunal set up by the US-installed Iraqi Governing Council, one of his daughters said today.

A glance at the life of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein:

American soldiers arrested a suspected former Ba’ath Party official in northern Iraq today as three American soldiers were killed in separate attacks.

Baghdad

Saddam Hussein’s daughters have expressed deep affection for their father in interviews, but said they did not know where he was and that they last saw him a week before the Iraqi war started.

A grenade attack killed three US soldiers and wounded four as they guarded a children’s hospital northeast of Baghdad.

US occupation authorities took the apparent gamble of cleaning up the appearance of the bodies of Saddam Hussein’s sons in a bid to convince sceptical Iraqis that Uday and Qusay are really dead.

A MAN claiming to be Saddam Hussein said in a tape aired on the Arab television station Al-Jazeera yesterday he is in Iraq directing attacks on US forces.

SADDAM HUSSEIN and his family took about one billion dollars from Iraq’s central bank shortly before the United States began bombing Baghdad, US government officials confirmed yesterday.

Saddam Hussein ordered that nearly $1bn (€882m) be taken from Iraq’s Central Bank shortly before the United States began bombing Baghdad and sent his son Qusai to grab the cash in the middle of the night, a newspaper reported today.

In what is purported to be his last known wartime speech – a video never before televised – Saddam Hussein appears exhausted, at times confused and seemingly resigned to defeat, but he tells Iraqis that God, somehow, will help them expel the American-British occupiers.

His personal zoo has lions, cheetahs and a bear. His store has a million dollars worth of fine wines, liquors and heroin. His house has Cuban cigars, cases of champagne and downloaded pictures of prostitutes.

Looting surged and buildings were set on fire across Baghdad today while American troops focused more on fighting pockets of resistance than on keeping order.

Substantial numbers of coalition troops were near the centre of Baghdad today and had no plans to pull back, a US Central Command spokesman said.

Huge explosions echoed across Baghdad early today while south of the capital Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard came under ferocious Allied bombardment and ground troops engaged in fierce street battles.

Seven women and children died after US troops fired at a van which failed to stop at an army checkpoint in southern Iraq.

Two cruise missiles struck a residential area in Baghdad today, killing 14 people, Iraqi defence officials said. It was the worst reported instance of civilian deaths since the bombing campaign began a week ago.

Saddam Hussein was inside the compound destroyed by cruise missiles in the attempted “decapitation strike”, US intelligence officials believe.

HEAVY explosions, air raid sirens and the crackle of anti-aircraft fire thundered through Baghdad last night as the Iraqi capital faced a second night of US-led attacks.

Armed members of President Saddam Hussein’s Baath party fanned out across Baghdad in a show of force today while other residents hunkered down before a US ultimatum expires for the Iraqi leader to leave Iraq or face war.

Saddam Hussein has taken an advanced and powerful nation and plunged it into a dark era of two devastating wars and 12 years of misery under UN sanctions.

Iraq severely criticised the UN Security Council today for adopting a US-backed resolution that tightens controls on imports to the country.

A newspaper owned by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s brutal eldest son Odai has been shut down after the Information Ministry accused it of breaching publication laws.

IRAQ’S bitterly-worded acceptance of UN demands that it disarm has failed to ease tensions with US President George Bush’s administration.

US President George Bush last night scoffed at the Iraqi parliament’s recommendation that the latest United Nations arms-inspection resolution be rejected, calling it “nothing but a rubber stamp for Saddam Hussein.”

President George Bush tonight scoffed at the Iraqi parliament’s recommendation that the latest United Nations arms-inspection resolution be rejected, calling it “nothing but a rubber stamp for Saddam Hussein.”

The Iraqi parliament today unanimously recommended rejection of a UN resolution strengthening the mandate of international arms inspectors, but said the final decision would be left to President Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s son told MPs today that Iraq should accept a UN resolution strengthening the mandate of international arms inspectors, but should require the inspection teams include Arabs.

IRAQI President Saddam Hussein yesterday called an emergency session of parliament to consider the UN resolution to disarm, while Arab ministers indicated he was ready to accept the document.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the referendum re-electing him for another seven years has made Iraq’s people more determined to fight for their country.

Saddam Hussein’s second son Qusai has been elected to the ruling party’s leadership, significantly boosting his chances of succeeding his father.