Baghdad

Ahmed Hadi and his new wife Tiba Mohammed, like many young married couples in Baghdad, are not getting enough sex. The problem is not a lack of desire but of power — electrical power. Making love for many of Iraq’s Muslim population not only requires a willing partner but also a sure supply of water to enable the participants to take a shower afterwards before going to pray.

A row was brewing in Iraq on Thursday after a top Shi’ite leader spoke out against amending the country’s federal system, a main demand by minority Sunni Arabs who fear being denied their share of oil revenues. The comment came as Iraq’s political parties prepare to hear the final results of landmark elections held almost a month ago, before they start jostling to form the first permanent government.

Militants blew up 13 cars in three hours, wounding at least 20 people, while 13 Iraqis were killed in other violence that fed the turmoil following last month’s contested parliamentary elections. Sunni Arabs made their opening bid on Sunday in what could be protracted negotiations to form a new government.

Violence increased across Iraq after a lull following the December 15 parliamentary elections, with at least two dozen people killed in shootings and bombings mostly targeting the Shi’ite-dominated security services. Officials blamed the surge in violence on insurgent efforts to deepen the political turmoil surrounding the contested vote.

Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein lashed out at the United States as his trial resumed on Thursday, branding the country ”liars” for dismissing charges he was tortured by his American jailers. Prosecution witnesses, testifying anonymously front behind a blue screen, told of torture under Saddam’s regime.

Saddam Hussein was back in court on Wednesday on charges of crimes against humanity, calmly taking notes as a witness recounted how he and his family were tortured and beaten after an attempt on the ousted Iraqi dictator’s life. Saddam had defiantly boycotted the last hearing two weeks ago.

Iraqi polls closed on Thursday following a landmark poll to choose a government many hope will restore stability to a nation wracked by violence and sectarian feuding since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Despite a massive security lockdown, three men died in attacks north of Baghdad.

Iraqis went to the polls on Thursday in a watershed election for a full-term Parliament that the international community hopes will restore stability and sovereignty to the strife-torn nation. Despite blanket security, a huge blast was heard in Baghdad just after voting began.

Dozens of women are rotting away, imprisoned in a former royal palace without trial or sentence, penned up in cramped cells over charges of murder, kidnap and the new Iraq nasty: terrorism. The Queen Alia palace in Baghdad, once home to the mother of King Faisal and formerly replete with gold panelling, was rebranded into a women’s prison after the fall of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958.

If found guilty, he could face the gallows. But since the start of his trial, deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has shown indifference for his victims, aggression to his judges and no regret for his more than two decades in power. Saddam has yet to reveal any hint of weakness in the face of the graphic and sometimes gruesome testimony from witnesses who stood just metres away from him.

At least 36 Iraqi police officers and cadets were killed on Tuesday in a double suicide bombing in Baghdad. The massive blast — on the same day that eight other Iraqi security personnel were killed in violence across the country — raised concerns about security just nine days before the country goes to the polls.

The gripping trial of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein over a Shi’ite massacre 23 years ago continued on Tuesday as the court heard chilling evidence from a tearful woman testifying from behind a curtain. Tuesday’s hearing got off to a chaotic start as the presiding judge called a recess just minutes after ”witness A” began to testify.

Two Britons were killed and three injured on Monday when gunmen attacked a bus carrying Muslim pilgrims south of Baghdad, police and hospital officials said, the day after four humanitarian workers were reported kidnapped. Also on Monday, a mortar shell fell in central Baghdad’s Green Zone and two others fell nearby.

When, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, brothers Saad and Ibrahim left their family home in the leafy middle-class Baghdad neighbourhood of Karada for the first time in two decades, they promptly got lost. After all, things had changed quite a bit over the 23 years that the al-Qaisi brothers had spent hidden away from Saddam’s secret services in a small upstairs room.

At least 30 people were killed when a car bomb exploded outside a hospital in Iraq on Thursday in a notorious area known as the ”triangle of death”. The bombing, which also left about 23 people wounded, occurred in Mahmudiyah, about 20km south of the capital, in an area known for frequent insurgent attacks on Iraqi and United States government forces.

Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms broke into the home of a senior Sunni leader on Wednesday and killed him, his three sons and his son-in-law on the outskirts of Baghdad, his brother and an interior ministry official said. Also, US and Iraqi troops launched an anti-insurgent operation in predominately Sunni western Iraq on Tuesday.