Wednesday, 7 December, 2005 , 21:18 AFP — The Dutch state prosecutor requested a 15-year-jail sentence Wednesday for chemicals trader Frans van Anraat who is on trial here on genocide charges for supplying ingredients used by Saddam Hussein in poison gas attacks.

Wednesday, 7 December, 2005 , 16:36 AFP — The UN chief's special representative to Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, on Wednesday expressed "serious concern" over violence during the war-torn country's general election campaign.

Wednesday, 7 December, 2005 , 16:07 AFP — Police have seized about a kilogrampounds) of plastic explosives and detained nine people in an operation that foiled planned bomb attacks in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, officials said Wednesday.

Wednesday, 7 December, 2005 , 05:44 AFP — Three Iraqis, including a candidate standing in the country's key December 15 election, have been killed in attacks on the offices of the Islamic Union of Kurdistan, party sources said Wednesday.

Tuesday, 6 December, 2005 , 11:58 AFP — Two Turkish soldiers were wounded Tuesday when they stumbled on a mine planted by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels, Anatolia news agency said citing local sources.

Monday, 5 December, 2005 , 15:12 AFP — Fifteen Kurds from Iraq and Iran on Monday demanded damages from Dutch chemicals trader Frans van Anraat who is on trial here on genocide charges for supplying ingredients used by Saddam Hussein in nerve gas attacks on Kurdish towns in the 1980s.

Sunday, 4 December, 2005 , 16:03 AFP — Massud Barzani, president of Iraqi Kurdistan, on Sunday denied reports that Israeli military instructors were training Kurdish forces in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.

Friday, 2 December, 2005 , 17:36 AFP — Turkish police have detained 17 people in an operation against a gang that allegedly forced Kurdish children into theft and was linked to separatist Kurdish rebels, officials said Friday.

Friday, 2 December, 2005 , 14:48 AFP — A Japanese partner of Dutch chemicals trader Frans van Anraat testified Friday at his trial on charges of genocide and war crimes for supplying chemicals used by Saddam Hussein in poison gas attacks that Van Anraat knew the ingredients could be used to make nerve gas.

Friday, 2 December, 2005 , 10:16 AFP — Turkey is to reopen a consulate in Mosul, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in Ankara on Friday, describing the Kurdish-dominated area around the northern Iraqi town as a Turkish "hinterland."