Polish leaders are holding a welcome ceremony for the biggest deployment of US troops to Europe in decades.

A US Army interrogator facing up to life behind bars for killing an Iraqi general by stuffing him head-first into a sleeping bag and sitting on his chest will instead escape with a reprimand, a military jury ruled early today.

US Army officials have decided not to prosecute 17 soldiers involved in the deaths of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S Republican Guards were headed on a collision course with American forces south of Baghdad last night in the first sign of an Iraqi offensive out of the capital.