Jury selection started today for the panel that will recommend a sentence for Army Reserve Private First Class Lynndie England, who pleaded guilty to mistreating prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison camp in Iraq.

Pfc. Lynndie England took responsibility for the smiling, thumbs-up poses she struck for photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison camp, which made her the face of the prisoner abuse scandal.

Lawyers for Private Lynndie England attempted today to throw out statements she made when first questioned about Iraqi prisoner abuse, including that guards were just “joking around, having some fun”.

A SOLDIER already convicted in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal testified yesterday that fellow Army reservist Private Lynndie England was a willing participant in creating the “human pyramid” of naked Iraqi detainees shown in infamous photographs from Iraq.

A soldier already convicted in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal testified today that Private Lynndie England was a willing participant in creating the “human pyramid” of naked Iraqi detainees shown in infamous photographs.

The US military judge hearing charges of prisoner abuse at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison today rejected a defence request for Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld to submit to an interview, but said he would reconsider if the defence could show a Rumsfeld link to the case.

Interrogators at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison viewed sleep deprivation, stripping inmates naked and threatening them with dogs as normal ways of dealing with ”the enemy”, a soldier attached to military intelligence there said.

The torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners, captured on camera in a US run Baghdad prison, was controlled and devised by US agencies including the CIA, a lawyer claimed today.

At least 22 prisoners were killed and more than 90 injured today when mortars rained down on Baghdad’s main jail.

Saboteurs blew up a water main in northern Baghdad, forcing engineers to cut off water to the capital and raising new fears that rebels were hitting Iraq’s infrastructure to slow its recovery.

A top Reuters cameraman was shot dead by American soldiers while filming outside a Baghdad prison targeted in a deadly mortar attack.

THE freed British journalist who was held by Iraq on suspicion of spying, yesterday told how he had feared for his life.