A TEENAGE Iraqi girl wearing a vest packed with explosives turned herself in rather than go through with a suicide bombing in a violence-torn city north of Baghdad, police and the US military said.

A suicide bomber killed at least 45 people at an Iraqi funeral today.

IRAQ’S president urged a spirit of compromise as political leaders gathered yesterday to try to resolve differences over a new constitution that is supposed to be approved by parliament next Monday.

INSURGENTS in Iraq staged a series of car bombings and other attacks yesterday, killing at least 27 people and wounding dozens a day after the country's first democratic government was approved.

US forces in Iraq, already implicated in the killing of an Italian secret agent, faced further strains with allies yesterday when Bulgaria said they had probably shot dead one of its soldiers.

A SUICIDE bomber killed at least 21 people and wounded nearly 30 at an Iraqi security forces recruitment centre in Baghdad yesterday in the deadliest insurgent attack since last month's historic election.

AN alliance of Shia Muslim parties is expected to claim victory in Iraq’s elections, but continuing violence underlined the massive problems the country still faces.

An alliance of Shia Muslim parties is expected to claim victory in Iraq’s elections tonight, when politicians will seek to heal the violent rifts in the country’s religiously-divided society.

POLLING officials counted votes by candlelight last night as Iraq tallied its dead after an election which divided the country.

SOME came on crutches, others walked for miles then struggled to read the ballot, but across most of Iraq millions turned out to vote yesterday, defying insurgent threats of a bloodbath.

INSURGENTS detonated a suicide car bomb at police headquarters in the Iraqi town of Baiji yesterday, killing at least 10 people, and shot dead eight Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint ahead of January 30 polls.

INSURGENTS killed a police captain at a checkpoint and gunned down an Iraqi National Guard officer in a billiard hall in scattered violence against American forces and their allies in northern Iraq yesterday.

LEADING Iraqi political parties called yesterday for elections scheduled for January 30 to be delayed because of Iraq’s widening violence.

AT least 32 people were killed in attacks in Iraq yesterday, including bombings inside Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone said to have been claimed by the suspected al-Qaida chief in the country, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

IRAQ and the fate of hostage Kenneth Bigley are threatening to eclipse efforts by Tony Blair to put domestic policy centre stage.

MUSLIM gunmen sprayed bullets and lobbed grenades at a liquor store in central Baghdad yesterday before kidnapping the owner’s brother-in-law in the fifth such attack this week, staff and police said.

BAGHDAD has delayed an amnesty for Iraqis who have supported insurgent attacks which a US daily said Saddam Hussein’s relatives are bankrolling, Also a pipeline breach caused oil prices to soar.

A GROUP led by al-Qaida-linked operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for a wave of attacks across Iraq yesterday which killed 75 people.

TWO Baghdad hotels used by foreign contractors, businesspeople and media organisations were shaken by explosions last night but US soldiers at the scene said there did not appear to be serious injuries.

A SERIES of roadside attacks in Iraq killed a local security officer and wounded at least 13 other people yesterday as insurgents mounted fresh strikes against Iraqis seen as collaborating with US forces.

THE former top US weapons inspector in Iraq said yesterday he believes Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction before the US-led invasion.

A BICYCLE bomb killed six people as they prayed at a crowded Shi’ite mosque in central Iraq yesterday, underscoring the threat of religious conflict in a country already racked by an anti-coalition insurgency.

US SOLDIERS and Iraqi police were on high alert yesterday for more attacks to mark the start of 2004 after a car bomb ripped through a Baghdad restaurant, killing five

A ROADSIDE bomb killed two US soldiers in Baghdad yesterday, hours after troops captured a former general in Saddam Hussein’s security services on charges of recruiting ex-soldiers to attack Americans.

The news of the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was greeted by dancing in the streets and celebratory gunfire by the people of Baghdad, according to reports.

AN apparent suicide attacker struck a US military base yesterday in the town of Ramadi, the site of repeated strikes against Iraq’s US occupiers, a US military official said.

TWO American soldiers were shot dead while waiting in traffic in Mosul yesterday, a day after suicide bombers killed up to 20 people in attacks on two police stations northeast of Baghdad.

The final stronghold of Saddam Hussein’s regime appeared tonight to be on the verge of falling to allied forces.