Saddam Trial: Baghdad is under a strict curfew for a second day as Iraqi security forces try to prevent a sectarian backlash to the death sentence imposed on former leader Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi officials say the curfew on Baghdad and neighboring Diyala and Salaheddin provinces will continue indefinitely. Baghdad's international airport also remains closed.
The security measures went into effect Sunday morning, hours before the verdict against Saddam was announced.
Iraq's High Tribunal convicted Saddam of crimes against humanity, and sentenced him to hang for ordering the killing of Shi'ite villagers in Dujail in 1982.
President Bush praised the outcome of the trial as a milestone for democracy and the rule of law in Iraq. Mr. Bush says his decision to remove Saddam from power by invading Iraq in 2003 was the right decision and made the world a better place.
US Pol: With one day left before U.S. midterm elections, polls (Washington Post/ABC, Pew Research, Time and Newsweek) indicate opposition Democrats continue to have an edge with voters nationwide, with Republicans gaining ground.
As both parties continue to battle for votes, polls released Sunday indicate that although Democrats may have enough support to take control of the 435-member House of Representatives, control of the 100-member Senate is uncertain.
The polls show that many voters say the war in Iraq remains their top issue. Campaigning in (the western U.S. state of) Nebraska Sunday, President Bush told cheering supporters that "the world is better off" for his decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.
The president continues his cross-country swing supporting Republican Party candidates with stops today (Monday) in Florida, Arkansas and his home state of Texas.
Taiwan Pol: Opposition political parties
in Taiwan are trying to gather support in the legislature for a nationwide referendum on whether President Chen Shui-bian should be removed from office.
They have raised similar measures in parliament twice this year, but have failed to gain the two-thirds majority needed to create such a public vote.
Mr. Chen is trying to stand firm in the middle of a corruption scandal involving allegations against him and his family. Last week, prosecutors indicted his wife (, Wu Shu-chen,) on embezzlement, forgery and perjury charges. Mr. Chen denies wrongdoing, but says he will resign if his wife is found guilty. Her legal proceedings could last more than a year.
Thailand Southern Violence:
Thai officials say two soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded Sunday outside a village in the restive southern province of Yala. Roger Wilkison reports from Bangkok that violence in the largely Muslim region shows no sign of letting up despite the new government's efforts to promote reconciliation there.
Two soldiers died and three of their comrades were wounded after four other people were shot to death and six wounded hours earlier in a spate of drive-by shootings and simultaneous bomb attacks in Yala and two neighboring provinces.
The soldiers died as their truck left the village of Bajor just after their commander acceded to demands by residents to withdraw from a temporary base they had set up in a local school.
Thai authorities say that between 30 and 40 soldiers and police assigned to a unit patrolling the border with Malaysia confronted a crowd of 300 villagers, mostly women and young girls, who protested against their presence.
World Corruption:
A leading global monitoring group says Iraq, Haiti and Burma are among the world's most corrupt countries.
Berlin-based Transparency International released the information today (Monday) in its annual report that ranked 163 nations based on perceived corruption, as seen by business people and country analysts.
Also among the most corrupt are Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.The survey's most corrupt nations are also some of the world's most impoverished. The head of Transparency International (Huguette Labelle) says the survey results indicate much remains to be done before there is meaningful improvement in the lives of the world's poorest people.
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