Middle Orient

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Two final witnesses told Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial Thursday of the horrors of the anti-Kurdish Anfal campaign, before the court adjourned for a week in preparation of its next phase.

BAQOUBA — Specialist Robert Mathews of the US army gets down on one knee between two hulking Bradley armoured fighting vehicles and prays — his cavalry platoon is heading into war-torn downtown Baqouba.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan panel of Washington insiders has presented US and Iraqi political leaders a formidable challenge in dealing with the chaos in Iraq, but whether they can meet it is a major question.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Thirteen US troops died in Iraq over the weekend including four killed when a military helicopter made an “emergency landing” in the restive west of the country, the US military said Monday.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army killed a Palestinian and arrested 17 fighters Monday in raids across the West Bank, despite a decision by the military to scale back such operations in order to bolster a shaky truce with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

BEIRUT (Reuters) — Lebanon’s army deployed more soldiers in Beirut on Monday after the killing of a pro-Syrian Shiite demonstrator raised fears anti-government protests could turn into sectarian violence.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — The genocide trial of Saddam Hussein heard its penultimate witness Monday in a sign it will soon concentrate on documents allegedly linking former Iraqi authorities to the 1988 massacres of Kurds.

WASHINGTON — After a five-year Republican lock on power, the quagmire in Iraq handed US President George W. Bush a Democrat-controlled Congress in late 2006, which is likely to make his last two years in the White House tough ones.

On Saturday afternoon, Iraqi Mujahideen fighters succeeded in capturing two other US Marines in an ambush in ar-Ramadi, 110 km west of Baghdad. The Mujahideen  trapped the invaders in the city, where fierce fighting has been going on since Saturday morning.  No further details were immediately available.

The clinical condition of a poisoned FSB defector seriously worsened in a London hospital late Saturday, November 18, 2006, according to a report from a Moscow radio station citing Mr Litvinenko’s close associate and compatriot Goldfard from the US.