SADDAM HUSSEIN loyalists who violently opposed January elections have made an about-face as Thursday’s polls near, urging fellow Sunni Arabs to vote and warning Al Qaeda militants not to attack. In a move unthinkable in the bloody run-up to the last election, guerrillas in the western insurgent heartland of Anbar …

GAZA CITY — Three months since Israel left the Gaza Strip, ambitious plans to develop the impoverished Palestinian territory have been stalled by delays over shifting the rubble of former settlements, officials say. Israel withdrew from the territory on September 12 and handed the Gaza Strip over to the Palestinian

BAGHDAD — He sits alone in a cell, writing poetry, reading and preparing for appearances before a court that could sentence him to hang. But Saddam Hussein is very much a player in Thursday’s national elections, even if he is not a candidate.