IRAQI authorities yesterday filed genocide charges against Saddam Hussein, accusing him and six co-defendants in the 1980s crackdown that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds.

An Iraq tribunal today announced new criminal charges against Saddam Hussein and six others in 1980s crackdown against the Kurds, including the gassing of thousands of civilians in the village of Halabja.

SADDAM Hussein and three former officials in his regime yesterday told the court handling their trial that they were on a hunger strike in protest at the judge overseeing the proceedings.

Saddam Hussein and three co-defendants today claimed they had launched a hunger strike to protest against the chief judge in their trial.

The court trying Saddam Hussein cancelled the resumption of his trial today, delaying the session for five days. The postponement came amid a squabble among judges over a last-minute shake-up in the court, according to judges.

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.

A new judge will take charge temporarily of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants in the 1982 massacre of more than 140 Shiites, an Iraqi official said Monday.

Kidnapped American reporter Jill Carroll appeared in a silent 20-second video aired in Iraq yesterday by Al-Jazeera television, which said her abductors gave the US 72 hours to free female prisoners or she would be killed.

A SHI’ITE lawyer is expected to take charge of Saddam Hussein’s trial for the 1982 massacre of over 140 Shiites, a court official said yesterday.

The chief judge who resigned from handling the Saddam Hussein trial is expected to be replaced by his deputy, the top Iraqi investigator in the case said today.

Iraqi officials repeatedly asked Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants if they had ever been beaten and they answered ’no’ every time, according to an investigative judge.

One of the five judges in the Saddam Hussein trial has stepped down after learning that one of the defendants may have been involved in the execution of his brother, a court official said today.

Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will face charges of premeditated murder, torture and forced expulsion and disappearances when he goes on trial on Wednesday for a 1982 massacre of Shiites.

Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will face charges of premeditated murder, torture and forced expulsion and disappearances when he goes on trial next week for a 1982 massacre of Shiites, a court official said today.

A French attorney for Saddam Hussein today dismissed an Iraqi court’s statement that the former dictator had fired an international defence team, but conceded the team could only provide behind-the-scenes help.

Saddam Hussein has fired his legal defence team excepting an Iraqi lawyer who is the only person authorised to represent him.

Gunmen killed three policemen and a government worker walking to work in Baghdad, officials said today, one day after four suicide car bombings killed 22 people.

THE first criminal case has been filed against Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein and three others will stand trial in the 1982 massacre of Shiite villagers north of Baghdad, a senior judge announced today.

THE tribunal that will put Saddam Hussein on trial released a new video yesterday of the former dictator being questioned by magistrates about the killing of 50 Iraqis in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt in 1982.