In Brief

* SADDAM TRIAL – Saddam Hussein’s half-brother, former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, denied he took part in crackdown against Shi’ites in the 1980s as he testified yesterday for the first time in the trial of the former Iraqi leader and members of his regime.

Ibrahim is the latest of the eight defendants in the trial to undergo direct questioning by the judge and chief prosecutor. Saddam was expected to testify later yesterday.EX-MP FLEES – A Zimbabwe opposition official may have fled to South Africa to avoid arrest over an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, the official Herald newspaper reported.The state-run newspaper said Roy Bennett, a former member of parliament for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), “is said to have skipped the country via Mozambique en route to South Africa, where he has sought refuge”.* BODIES FOUND – Iraqi police found 80 bodies, shot or strangled to death, in and around Baghdad over the past two days, security officials said, amid fears of a new outbreak in sectarian killings.* TERROR TRIAL – A US judge dealt a critical blow to prosecutors seeking the execution of September 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, throwing out half their case after a government lawyer was caught coaching witnesses.* NEWS BLACKOUT – Myanmar’s military rulers maintained a news blackout about the country’s first outbreak of bird flu, leaving farmers uncertain how to prevent the deadly virus.- Nampa-AFP- Reuters-APSaddam was expected to testify later yesterday.EX-MP FLEES – A Zimbabwe opposition official may have fled to South Africa to avoid arrest over an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, the official Herald newspaper reported.The state-run newspaper said Roy Bennett, a former member of parliament for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), “is said to have skipped the country via Mozambique en route to South Africa, where he has sought refuge”.* BODIES FOUND – Iraqi police found 80 bodies, shot or strangled to death, in and around Baghdad over the past two days, security officials said, amid fears of a new outbreak in sectarian killings.* TERROR TRIAL – A US judge dealt a critical blow to prosecutors seeking the execution of September 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, throwing out half their case after a government lawyer was caught coaching witnesses.* NEWS BLACKOUT – Myanmar’s military rulers maintained a news blackout about the country’s first outbreak of bird flu, leaving farmers uncertain how to prevent the deadly virus.- Nampa-AFP- Reuters-AP