BAGHDAD (Iraq):
SADDAM HUSSEIN was forced to attend his trial yesterday, looking haggard and wearing an Arab robe rather than his usual suit but walking in on his own, shouting, "Down with Bush!"
His top co-defendant and half brother Barzan Ibrahim - dressed only in an undershirt and long underwear - struggled with guards bringing him in and sat on the floor, his back to the judge, for much of the session.
FORCED
Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman pressed ahead after the stormy start, sparked by his decision to order Saddam and his seven co-defendants to attend the session despite a defence boycott.
During the three-hour session, prosecutors made their strongest attempt yet to directly link Saddam to executions that allegedly took place in a 1982 crackdown in the Shi'ite town of Dujail north of Baghdad.
They produced documents, one with Saddam's handwriting, and put two members of Saddam's former regime on the stand as witnesses for the first time - Ahmed Hussein Khudayer al-Samarrai, the head of Saddam's presidential office, and Hassan al-Obeidi, an intelligence officer.
