World Highlights

• Iraqi Kurds told Saddam Hussein's genocide trial how jets dropped poison gas smelling of rotten apples on mountain villages, but former aides insisted they had targeted only Iranian-backed Kurdish rebels.

Taking the stand in Baghdad on the second day of the former president's second capital trial, first witness Ali Mustafa Hama said: "Birds were returning to their nests. I saw eight to 12 jets patrolling the sky. There was greenish smoke from the bombs. There was a smell of rotten apple or garlic.

• Violence in Baghdad has declined in the past two weeks and all but ended in some formerly deadly neighbourhoods, the US military said in a cautiously upbeat report on a major security clampdown in the city.

• Britain may cut its force in Iraq by half by the middle of next year after handing over security responsibility for the south to Iraqis within nine months, a senior British commander said.

• The US Marine Corps will start recalling thousands of inactive service members in the coming months to counter a steady decline in the number of non-active troops volunteering for duty, the service said.

• It could take three months to fill the post-war "security vacuum" in southern Lebanon and even unintended breaches of the truce could reignite fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, the United Nations said.