IRAQ

Independent: Baghdad Rots After A Month Of US 'Reconstruction'
It was just another day in the process of "getting Baghdad back to normal". Well, on this most normal of days when news was supposed to be slow, the US-appointed Health Minister finally resigned at the time of a steadily mounting public health crisis after a week of relentless pressure from doctors disgusted at his prominent past in the Saddam Hussein regime.

Asharq Al-Awsat: Saddam Is In Iraq Under Special Protection - Chalabi
BAGHDAD -- Ahmad Chalabi, president of the Iraqi National Congress, has said Saddam Hussein is moving around in the country under special protection. In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, he said the people around Saddam had now abandoned him. "They don't know about his whereabouts," he added.

Independent: US Finds Zero Iraq WMDs Yet Blocks Return Of Blix Team
The United States is continuing this weekend to block the return of United Nations weapons inspectors to Iraq, even though its own teams of experts have so far failed to find any definitive evidence of banned biological, chemical or nuclear materials in the country, let alone any actual armaments.