PRIME Minister Nuri al- Maliki said yesterday Iraq’s own soldiers and police were capable of defending a “sovereign and independent” country as American forces ended seven years of combat operations.

Iraqi security forces have disrupted a 9/11-style plot by al-Qaida in Iraq to fly hijacked planes into Shiite religious shrines, Iraqi and US officials said.

Iraq’s president today called for a recount in this month’s parliamentary elections.

Saddam Hussein’s notorious cousin “Chemical Ali” was convicted today of crimes against humanity, receiving a death sentence for his involvement in one of the worst poison gas attacks ever against civilians – one of several he faces.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates flew to Iraq today to meet Iraqi officials amid a wave of bombings which have killed 127 people and rattled the country’s government.

TWO powerful car bombs blew up outside the Justice Ministry and city government offices in downtown Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 147 people in the worst attack in more than two years.

Two powerful suicide car bombs blew up outside the Justice Ministry and city government offices in central Baghdad today, killing at least 136 people in the worst attack in more than two years.

Up to 100 people were feared dead in a wave of co-ordinated explosions across Baghdad today.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived in Baghdad on his first trip to Iraq.

A SUICIDE bomber struck a crowded restaurant in northern Iraq yesterday where Kurdish officials were meeting with Arab tribal leaders to discuss long-standing ethnic tensions, killing at least 55 people, police said.

At least 45 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a restaurant in Iraq where Kurdish officials were meeting Arab tribal leaders today.

Iraq’s presidential council has agreed on a law which paves the way for US-backed provincial elections to be held by the end of January, a spokesman said today.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today said it was his intention to reduce British troop numbers in Iraq, but he would not set an “artificial timetable” to bring forces home.

The Iraqi government is refusing to execute Saddam Hussein’s henchman and cousin known as “Chemical Ali” unless the executions of two other associates are also approved.

Iraq’s presidency endorsed the execution of Saddam Hussein’s cousin known as “Chemical Ali” who was sentenced to death for his role in the 1980s scorched-earth campaign against Kurds, a government adviser said today.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will make the first ever trip by and Iranian leader to Iraq next month.

The Iraqi government is considering pardons for several thousand people convicted of insurgency-related offences as a move towards national reconciliation, Iraqi officials said today.

Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki warned today that carving up his country into self-ruled regions could lead to more strife and the country’s break-up.

A car bomb today ripped through a Kirkuk bus terminal that serves travellers to Iraq’s Kurdish region, killing eight people and wounding 26, according to a police spokesman.

Turkey's foreign minister arrived in Baghdad today for talks with his Iraqi counterpart and the nation's president, both Kurds, on the border crisis.

Eight Iraqi civilians were killed and four others were wounded when a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden fuel tanker was fatally shot by police and his truck blew up near police headquarters in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said today.

A suicide driver killed three Iraqi policemen and wounded 20 people when he detonated his car at the entrance of police headquarters in Basra today.

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.

Iraq’s prime minister and president today announced a new alliance of moderate Shiites and Kurds, saying Sunni moderates refused to join but the door remained open to them.

Iraq’s prime minister called a crisis conference in a bid to reach open a dialogue tomorrow among Iraq’s divided factions, to shore up his shaky government and unstick the stalled political process.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair today insisted there were “real signs of change and progress” in Iraq – despite the deadly violence scarring daily life in the capital.

A TOP insurgent leader boasted that his al-Qaida-linked group was making its own rockets, while Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki said his government was talking with militant groups to try to stop the violence.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani today left a Jordanian hospital to fly back to Baghdad.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani will leave his Jordanian hospital tomorrow and return to Baghdad, Iraq’s ambassador to Jordan said today.

Iraqi state television reported yesterday that 18 boys were killed when a car bomb exploded in a park in Ramadi, but key details of the report have been questioned.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is recovering well from his weekend collapse from exhaustion and a pulmonary inflammation, the Iraqi ambassador said in Jordan today.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s private doctor today said the president had not suffered any heart troubles.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani today called for the execution of two of Saddam Hussein’s co-defendants to be delayed.

Members of Iraq’s parliament and families of Saddam Hussein’s victims will witness the former leader’s execution, planned to take place no later than tomorrow.

IRAQ’S highest appeals court yesterday upheld the death sentence on Saddam Hussein.

Iraq’s highest appeals court upheld the death sentence for Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s national security adviser said today.

A close aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki today sought to play down the significance of any threat to reduce American economic or military support for the Iraqi government as a high-level US commission said American policy in Iraq must change.

Saddam Hussein’s lawyers have formally appealed against his death sentence for the killing of 148 Shiites.

Iraq’s president rejected suggestions that an international conference be held to address the violence wracking his country, echoing sentiments expressed by other leading politicians.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today blamed the US for the chaos in Iraq, saying that the answer to the violence is the withdrawal of foreign forces.

A curfew that had banned vehicles from Baghdad’s streets and closed its international airport to all civilian flights for three days was lifted today, clearing the way for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to travel to Iran for an official visit.

Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders today called for an end to Iraq’s sectarian conflict and vowed to track down those responsible for the war’s deadliest attack.

Revenge-seeking militiamen seized six Sunnis as they left prayers and burned them alive with kerosene in a savage new twist to the brutality shaking the Iraqi capital.

Iraq’s prime minister has blamed the mass kidnapping at an education ministry building on an inter-militia conflict.