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.

Iraqi president Jalal Talabani is expected to undergo a medical check-up during a three-week visit to the US.

At least 19 people were killed and 80 wounded when a suicide truck bomb ripped through the Iraqi Interior Ministry in the relatively peaceful Kurdish city of Irbil today.

Traffic stopped and people stood still in the streets despite rain for a period of silence today as Kurds in northern Iraq commemorated the anniversary of a 1988 chemical weapons attack that killed an estimated 5,600 people.

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

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 fell ill yesterday and was taken unconscious to a hospital before being flown to neighbouring Jordan for a medical check-up, medical and government officials said.

Iraqi citizens are suing a prominent European bank and an Australian wheat exporter, saying they were cheated out of humanitarian goods when the companies permitted the United Nations oil-for-food programme to be corrupted.

Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein today thundered out against ”agents of Iran and Zionism” and vowed to “crush your heads” after listening to Kurdish witnesses at his genocide trial tell of atrocities against them nearly two decades ago.

A Kurdish villager has testified that he fled from an attack by Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces 18 years ago, leaving behind his mother and two sisters.

A 56-year-old Kurdish woman told of seeing people sickened and dying during an alleged chemical attack carried out by Saddam Hussein’s forces, as the genocide trial of the ex-president resumed in Baghdad today after nearly a three-week break.

Violence-scarred Iraq enjoyed a rare day of relative peace today, as residents made special efforts to watch on television the opening of Saddam Hussein’s trial for genocide.

Saddam Hussein opened his second Baghdad trial with a show of defiance today, refusing to enter a plea on charges of genocide and war crimes connected to his scorched-earth offensive against Kurds nearly two decades ago.

Iraqi and US forces raided a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad today, triggering a gunbattle that left three people dead, while 12 others were killed elsewhere.

A suicide bomber blew himself up among mourners at a funeral in Saddam Hussein’s hometown today, killing at least 10 people and injuring another 18, police said.

Masked gunmen stopped two minivans carrying students north of Baghdad, ordered the passengers off, separated Shiites from Sunni Arabs, and killed the 21 Shiites “in the name of Islam", a witness said.

The US military released 122 detainees in Iraq today.

Three bombs exploded within an hour in Baghdad today, killing at least 23 people and injuring 56.

American and UN health experts have arrived in Iraq to help this war-ravaged country fight a new battle – bird flu. Officials said yesterday that at least eight people are in hospital suffering symptoms akin to the deadly H5N1 strain.

Iraqi doctors are investigating if the deadly bird flu virus was responsible for the death of a 15-year-old girl in Kurdistan near the border with Turkey and Iran, an Iraqi Health Ministry official said today.

A SUICIDE car bomber targeted a busload of police recruits north of Baghdad yesterday, killing seven people, and gunmen in the capital killed five workers, police said.

Sunni Arabs and a key secular party charged that parliamentary elections were tainted by fraud, and demanded an inquiry into preliminary results showing the governing Shiite religious bloc with a larger than expected lead.

IRAQ’S electoral commission released partial and preliminary results today from the last week’s elections that showed Shiite and Kurdish parties dominating in provinces where they are the predominant group.

Iraq’s electoral commission released partial and preliminary results today from the last week’s elections that showed Shiite and Kurdish parties dominating in provinces where they are the predominant group.

Violence was light but security heavy today as Iraqis voted for a new parliament that many hope brings a bigger political stake for the Sunni Arab minority blamed for the much of the insurgency.

Iraqis went to cast their vote for a new government today as polling stations opened amid huge security.

THE Iraqi Government announced yesterday it will close all borders, extend curfew hours and ban travel across provincial borders as part of stringent security measures to protect voters during this week’s parliamentary elections.

The Iraqi government announced today it will close all borders, extend curfew hours and ban travel across provincial borders as part of stringent security measures to protect voters during this week’s parliamentary elections.

IRAQ’S landmark constitution was adopted by a majority of voters during the country’s October 15 referendum, as Sunni Arab opponents failed to muster enough support to defeat it.

The US military said it planned to expand its prisons across Iraq to hold as many as 16,000 detainees, as the relentless insurgency showed no sign of relenting one year after the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqi authorities.

A suicide car bomber wearing a police uniform killed at least 15 traffic policemen and wounded 100 others during morning roll call at a police headquarters in an oil-rich northern Kurdish city, the second such attack in as many days.

Three suicide car bombings killed 23 people in northern Iraq today, including a top municipal council leader plus a bodyguard of Iraq’s Kurdish deputy prime minister, officials said.

Three suicide car bombings killed 16 people in northern Iraq today, including a top municipal council leader plus a bodyguard of Iraq’s Kurdish deputy prime minister, police said.

Clergy-backed Shiites and independence-minded Kurds swept to victory in Iraq’s elections, according to final results released tonight.

A Jordanian extremist suspected of bloody suicide attacks in Iraq was killed some time ago in US bombing and a letter outlining plans for fomenting sectarian war is a forgery, a statement allegedly from an insurgent group west of Baghdad said.

A truck carrying 999 bars of what may be gold has been impounded by US paratroopers in eastern Iraq.