● <B>BAGHDAD DAILY

Saddam?s execution and the coming campaign in Baghdad</B>

On Saturday 30th Dec 2006 at approximately 5:45 AM, former dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging at the former headquarters of Saddam?s military intelligence where many of his victims were executed in the same gallows.

Shortly after the execution, the Iraqi government released a short film of the execution which showed the former dictator, very composed, declaring his faith and refusing the hood, walked to the trap door where a noose was placed around his neck. Here the sound track was either cleaned and/or missing. Shortly after, a new film (clip) supposedly taken by a mobile phone by one of those present at the scene was circulating around the world.

This film showed all the gruesome details of the execution and most importantly recorded the sounds in the gallows. In this film, one can hear Saddam Hussein declaring his faith (similar to the last rites) while a person shouting «Moqtada is alive» (referring to the Shi?ite Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr) and «you are going to hell». According to DebkaFile his last words were «Palestine is ours». The trial and execution of Saddam raise important questions: why was he tried and executed for only one incident: ordering the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail, («small» as compared to other horrific atrocities committed during his reign of terror); why was he executed at such a (religiously) sensitive time; why the films were released; and finally why did the authorities allowed his body to be buried in Tikrit, his home town?

● <B>L?EXPRESS DE MADAGASCAR

Aucune menace de crue dans la Capitale</B>

La plaine d?Antananarivo est encore à l?abri d?une inondation. Malgré les fortes pluies qui se sont abattues dans la capitale ces derniers jours et suite au passage du cyclone Clovis et une crue, les rivières sont loin de déborder.

«Il n?y a pas de menace de danger dans la plaine d?Antananarivo. Les eaux continuent à baisser», rassure Mbolatiana Razafimanantsoa, responsable de l?Autorité pour la protection contre les inondations de la plaine d?Antananarivo (Apipa).

«Pour preuve, la hauteur de la rivière Ikopa s?élève de 0,99 mètre à l?échelle d?Anosizato. Alors que la cote d?alerte à cette station est de trois mètres», note-t-elle. «A l?échelle de Bevomanga, le niveau de l?Ikopa est de 2,79 mètres, si la cote d?alerte de menace y est de 4 mètres», poursuit-elle. A l?échelle d?Ampitatafika, le niveau de la Sisaony est de 0,36 mètre. Par rapport au niveau de la mer, la hauteur de la Mamba est de 1247,50 mètres à l?échelle d?Ambohidroa. Le bulletin hydrologique de l?Apipa indique que les eaux baissent et continueront à baisser durant les douze prochaines heures. Quoi qu?il en soit, la prudence est de mise, notamment pour les habitants proches des rivières. D?autant plus qu?en apparence, leur niveau augmente.

● <B>INDONESIA POST

Fishermen find parts of jetliner</B>

Part of a jetliner?s tail, food trays and shards of fuselage were pulled from the sea in northeastern Indonesia, officials said Thursday, 10 days after a Boeing 737 disappeared in storm weather with 102 people on board.No survivors or bodies were recovered, but the news brought some comfort to waiting family members. «I cried when I heard, but I am now relieved,» said Rosmala Dewi, whose 19-year-old daughter was a stewardess on the domestic carrier that disappeared from radar over Sulawesi Island?s western coast, sparking a massive land and sea search.

With no emergency locator beacon to guide rescuers, nearly 3,000 soldiers, police and civilians battled thousands of square kilometers (miles) of dense jungle terrain, while sonar-equipped ships and planes spent days scouring the choppy waters.After several false sightings ? including one that prompted high-ranking Indonesian officials to wrongly claim the wreckage had been found with a dozen survivors ? a fisherman pulled a sheared piece of the tail from the Makassar Strait.Eddy Suyanto, the head of search and rescue operations, said Thursday the serial number on the meter-long (yard-long) tail stabilizer ? found 300 meters (yards) from shore ? confirmed it was part of Adam Air Flight KI-574.Hundreds of people flocked to beaches close to the coastal town of Parepare, watching and in some cases joining in as soldiers, police, marines and fishermen searched the sea and combed the shore.