Soldiers 'laughed as they tortured prisoners'

Army Specialist Jeremy Sivits, who took photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib detention centre in Iraq, described soldiers laughing and joking as they beat, stripped and sexually humiliated detainees, according to newspaper reports.

Sivits, the first soldier scheduled to be court-martialed in the abuse scandal, is expected to plead guilty when he appears in Baghdad on Wednesday. He has cooperated with prosecutors and faces lesser charges than his colleagues.