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The article profiles "Soma," a weekly English-language newspaper focusing on Kurdistan, which was launched by Tanya Goudsouzian, a McGill University graduate. According to the author, the paper was launched in the winter of 2006 with assistance from Hiro Ibrahim Ahmad, the wife of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Goudsouzian discusses how the newspaper aims to help establish journalism standards in Kurdistan and Iraq.

Says British Prime Minister John Major has ordered an independent judicial inquiry into allegations that Britain sold arms to Iraq despite a self-imposed embargo. Secret papers released at a recent trial appeared to show that former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher covertly approved arms sales to Baghdad just two weeks before Iraq invaded Kuwait in August, 1990.

Just prior to the U.S. President George W. Bush State of the Union address last week, Saddam Hussein was seen on national television telling his top generals that 'real men should not panic.' But panic may best describe the current state of Iraq's leadership. Seemingly taken aback by chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix's demand for more information and Bush's apparent determination to push ahead with war even without UN approval, the Iraqi leadership had difficulty even organizing news conferences or presenting a concise response to Bush's allegations that Iraq still possesses weapons of mass destruction. In contrast to harried government officials, many Iraqis seem unconcerned. One possible explanation: they are simply beyond caring. Saddam has increased food rations and taken steps to ensure that other necessities will be available, at least intermittently. One of the stated objectives of the U.S. war plan is to obliterate what's left of Iraq's battered power grid. Meanwhile, authorities have called up thousands of young conscripts. On the outskirts of Baghdad, the recruits -- many still wearing their own clothes -- lined up last week to practice basic drills. In an effort to keep morale high among citizens and appear defiant, the regime stages daily demonstrations. Now that the exit fee has been rescinded, hundreds of Iraqi citizens are lining up at government visa offices across the capital to apply for exit papers.

The article discusses the challenges encountered by peshmerga fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan against Islamic State. It features 33-year-old Sherko Jabar who explains the situation of peshmerga fighters in the region, citing their low salary. Jabar mentions that his salary as peshmerga fighter is similar to a taxi driver wherein he struggled to pay his rent. He adds that some fighters in Kirkuk have not received a salary in five months.

In this article the author examines aspects of the trial for genocide and other crimes brought against Saddam Hussein, former dictator of Iraq. She describes the testimony of a young woman who, as a girl had suffered atrocities at the hands of Hussein's regime. The violence that Hussein visited on the Kurds and on members of the political opposition is described.

The anti-French witticisms of Americans seem racist. The right-wing 'National Review' had called the French "cheese-eating surrender monkeys," because of their opposition to invading Iraq. George Will, a conservative commentator, described Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister, as "oleaginous." The term "monkeys" was once used to insult people who weren't yet called African-Americans. And wasn't oleaginous a synonym for greasy? As in "greasy Mexicans" and "greaseball," an expression for dark-haired strangers, including Greeks and Italians? The reaction in the French media was subdued. Germany does not seem to be bearing the brunt of the current wave of American jingoism, not to mention Russia, China or the most unrelenting peace advocate, the Vatican.

Does media coverage of a possible U.S.-led war with Iraq, by describing war as a near-certainty, contribute to that outcome? The television all-news networks in the U.S. and Canada have pointed toward war as inevitable. However, the biggest story appears to be what is happening on main streets around the world. Estimates of people who attended worldwide anti-war demonstrations included numbers as high as three million in Rome and two million in London--and Italy and Britain's leaders have been stalwart supporters of George W. Bush's position on Iraq. In Canada, the numbers were estimated as high in Montreal and Toronto. Beyond their scale, the demonstrations are noteworthy because attendees reflected a cross-section of society, and the protests seemed to have been planned at the grassroots level, rather than by one central group. The demonstrations also reflect a disconnect between the views of influential media people and their audience.

The article discusses the reign of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein. Described as one of the world's worst despots, he is known for terrorizing millions of people. Details are given on Saddam's upbringing, the paranoia of his regime and his relationship with former U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

This article describes correspondence with a prisoner in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and his account of the abuse he endured. With those words, Mohammed Jassim al-Jabouri and I began our short-lived correspondence. It was a haunting first sentence, in a letter smuggled out of Iraq's most notorious prison by a local worker not long after disturbing images of torture and abuse surfaced in the media. After three short letters, my go-between has disappeared, there has been no more correspondence from Mohammed, and his family lives in fear after American troops searched their home. Hassan was not at Abu Ghraib to visit relatives--he was an employee who gathered up litter from the prison grounds and ran errands for his American taskmasters.While I waited for Mohammed's response, I decided to visit Abdul, the Iraqi liaison officer at Abu Ghraib.

Roses are in bloom in Baghdad. In a little walled garden, I sit and rock in an old two-seater swing. From here, the war is an auditory experience: a missile hits another palace, bombers circle overhead, and Iraqis respond with anti-aircraft guns. And sometimes the war is olfactory: the acrid, sulphurous smell of spent gunpowder, or the aromatic smoke of fragrant shrubs set on fire during combat, or the stench of burning petrol. With the power cut, Baghdad is as black as oil at night. On April 1, with the ground war raging closer to Baghdad, a frenzied confusion descends upon the angry swarms of Iraqi intelligence agents whose job it is to keep close watch over foreigners in the city. In addition to soldiers dug in everywhere, Baghdad witnesses a new sight: the sinister movements of the Fedayeen Saddam troops. American tanks made an incursion into the south of the city in an effort to reach the airport or to take position on the access road to the airport. As I film the smouldering American tank from our car, a pickup truck swerves to a stop in front of us and an Iraqi secret-police agent jumps angrily out. Omar's father then offers the Americans some advice: "I hope at least that they will have the wisdom to let the Iraqis rule Iraq."

Iraqi men line up to stake their claim early in the morning, hours before the bus departs Amman for the first leg of the long and dangerous trip to Baghdad. The passengers are mostly in their 20s and 30s, though there is the odd grey beard and pimply teenage face scattered among them -- labourers, factory workers, even a schoolteacher, all professing the same reason for heading home: to fight against America and its allies. So far, the "lightning" American and British campaign to topple Saddam Hussein seems to be shaping up into a grinding ground war. And rather than the expected tide of fleeing refugees, the only people traversing Iraq's borders are willing military volunteers. The notion of a single people, united in purpose, has always captivated the imagination of the street. And now, in the face of a vastly unpopular war against Iraq, the Arab populace seem to be speaking with one voice, pushing its reluctant leaders in a direction they would rather not travel.According to Mustafa Hamarneh, the director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan in Amman, Iraq's efforts to drive a wedge between Arab governments and their people are bearing fruit.

British public opinion is swinging firmly against a war with Iraq. Prime Minister Tony Blair is in an increasingly perilous position. His own party has begun to balk at the idea of joining the United States to disarm Saddam, with or without United Nations approval. Blair's attempts to convince a skeptical public that there is a moral case for war in the short term also appear to be failing. The British government's arguments for the use of force have been condemned by both the country's Roman Catholic hierarchy and the head of the Church of England. There is cynicism about the prime minister's motives for supporting George Bush, and anger that cuts across class, race, political lines and geography.

Reports on the dual crises of impeachment of United States President Bill Clinton and the aerial barrage against Iraq that took place in mid-December 1998. Charges against Clinton that were approved by the House of Representatives; The likelihood that Clinton will be ejected from office; Success of the air strikes against Iraq; When the Iraqis are likely to resume production of biological and chemical agents. INSET: The View From Baghdad, by Mariam Shahin.

This article asserts that Falluja insurgents see the U.S. withdrawal as an admission of defeat. For a month, American forces laid siege to Falluja in an attempt to put down a Sunni insurgency. Under a negotiated settlement, U.S. troops began to pull back on April 30, having agreed that Iraqi forces would assume control of the city. Joulan was the front line in the month-long battle between U.S. forces and Sunni insurgents, a neighbourhood of flat-roofed homes and crowded markets on the edge of town, directly across from U.S. military positions at the dilapidated train station. Khalaf Hamid Jassan al-Alawi, 65, and his 10 sons have come home for the first time since the battle for Falluja began on April 4. The Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, the newly formed national guard, is also building up a disturbing reputation for turning on their American allies in the fight against insurgents.

Discusses how U.S. President George W. Bush's popularity might be eroding because of the number of American soldiers who are dying in Iraq. Guerrilla attacks against American troops; Questions about overstated intelligence assessments and Saddam Hussein's so-far non-existent weapons of mass destruction; Criticism of Bush by military and security experts; Popularity for Tony Blair that has declined; Worries of Republicans.

The article offers world news briefs. Canadian cows will be allowed to cross the border to U.S. abattoirs, possibly as early as this week because a U.S. appeals court in Seattle overturned an injunction by a Montana judge that was keeping the border closed. A Palestinian teenager blew himself up outside a shopping mall in central Israel, killing four Israeli women and injuring over 50 people. In Iraq, a suicide bomber detonated his charge near U.S. soldiers handing out candy and gifts to children in a Baghdad slum. And in Lebanon, a powerful car bomb killed one man and wounded Elias Murr, defence minister in the outgoing administration. U.S. President George W. Bush came under increasing pressure to fire his trusted fixer, Karl Rove, after Rove was reported to have revealed the identity of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame. Philippines President Gloria Arroyo is vowing not to quit despite mass resignations by senior officials and a noisy protest rally by about 30,000 in Manila.

For humanitarian aid workers, Iraq is the most dangerous country in the world. At least 24 people, most of them United Nations (UN) aid workers, died when a flatbed truck filled with explosives slammed into the UN headquarters at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad. The dead included the UN's top envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was in Baghdad to help Iraqis re-establish their administration and rebuild their country. Also killed were Canadians Christopher Klein-Beekman from Courtenay, British Columbia, who was UNICEF Iraq's program coordinator, and Gillian Clark of Toronto, Ontario, who was working for the Christian Children's Fund. Such horrendous security conditions in Iraq make it virtually impossible for aid workers to get around. The attack, although reprehensible, will unfortunately not come as a surprise to anyone engaged with humanitarian programs in Iraq. Violence against aid workers has been escalating for weeks. What is surprising, however, is that attacks of this nature are considered par for the course when, in fact, they are a relatively recent phenomenon, the root causes of which are stirring debate within the aid community.

Fresh from the front lines, the 12 American soldiers under Lieut. Lars Nadig's command in Baghdad's Kharada district are fighting another kind of war. The enemy has melted into the shadows of the Iraqi capital's dimly lit streets, and now the 25-year-old Virginia native is forced to try to bring peace to a city awash in chaos by solving disputes over property and seizing weapons. Now, if the chaos continues, many Iraqis fear that rival militias, already policing areas of the capital and other cities, may become too powerful. Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, says the U.S. must act quickly to restore order. Worried that the Iraqi situation is spinning totally out of control, last week the White House recalled Jay Garner, the retired general who was the top civilian administrator in the country, and replaced him with career diplomat and counterterrorism expert Paul Bremer. Citizens of Baghdad--a city that has been weeks without water and electricity--are clearly growing impatient with their new rulers. The U.S. has outlawed the Baath party and Saddam's former defence and security apparatus, including the Republican Guard and the Special Republican Guard. And in one of his first moves, Bremer also ordered U.S. soldiers to increase their patrols in Baghdad.

Recounts `Maclean's' correspondent John Holland's experiences at the Al Rashid Hotel during the first United States-led bombing of Baghdad, Iraq, on January 17, 1991. He also describes his overland escape to Jordan. US and other foreign journalists; Cable News Network crew; Bombing of the Walid airbast (Iraq); Damage.

Reports on the efforts of international forces to investigate the chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction held by Iraq. The types of dangerous agents the country is suspected of having; The actions of Saddam Hussein to resist inspections; The strategy behind Hussein's decision to expel United States members of the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq.

The article reports on the use of Google's electronic maps by Iraqis living in wartorn regions. In order to avoid sectarian strife, Iraqis in Baghdad have started using Google Earth to obtain detailed images via satellite or airplane of the area's terrain. The maps reveal battle hot spots, checkpoints, and mosques. The Google feature also holds the potential for warfare espionage. Google has agreed to obscure the bases in Iraq in the interest of protecting the soldiers.

In the eight trading days after the U.S. said the bargaining on Iraq was all but over, global bourses concluded war was inevitable and put on a display of stocks and awe. The rally at New York was the strongest since the Reagan bull market began in 1982. The leader abroad was, amazingly, Germany's Dax -- up 23 per cent. Then, as the breathless TV coverage switched from euphoria to concern that this could be a long, ugly war, stock markets plummeted. Is the stock market nothing more than a bet on war? Pundits explained the leaps by recalling the roughly equal rallies when the bombing began in the previous Gulf War. Consider the performance of the greenback, gold, oil, bonds and stocks when France took charge of the Iraq issue. The dollar kept touching new lows, gold and oil went to new highs, bonds rallied so strongly that U.S. interest rates went to four-decade lows -- and stocks looked ready to break through their October support levels, threatening a new bear market that would breach the lows of 9/11. The American dollar is the emblem of American global power -- economically, technologically and, ultimately, militarily. That emblem is under stress. The U.S. can no longer finance its far-flung commitments. It still has more than 100,000 expensively maintained troops in Japan, Germany and South Korea, decades after delivering those countries from dictatorship to democracy. Those are the early chapters of an investor's morality tale. How it ends will depend on the showdown in Iraq and, ultimately, how the U.S. and global economies perform. It's too soon to sell gold, and too late to buy stocks for a short-term rally.

One of the smaller palaces in Iraq is home base for Tariq Aziz, for 40 years one of Saddam's closest advisers, now the deputy prime minister. I had a rare visit the other day to interview the man known as the 'friendly' face of Iraq, though 'friendly' he did not sound -- his words were full of defiance, threats and contempt. But it was the atmosphere around the visit I'll remember most, not the words. It was the day Hans Blix was reporting to the United Nations about his weapons inspections, and it soon became clear that the only way Aziz could find out what was in the report was to watch it on CNN. The irony is that Tariq Aziz relies on CNN to provide him with information that he won't share with his own people.

Presents the experiences of the author in growing up in Iraq. Social conditions in the country; Outlook for military action against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein; Demolition of the city where the author was raised; Customs of Iraqi people.

Focuses on Ottawa microbiologist Ken Johnson. His visit to Iraq as a United Nations (UN) arms inspector; Recollections of his visit to the Al Hakam factory in 1994; His concerns about UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's pact with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.