Baghdad - News that the US military had shot down an Iranian unmanned drone over Iraq drew mixed response from Iraqi politicians on Tuesday.

US military sources Monday night confirmed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that they had shot down an Iranian military drone over Iraq on February 25. On Tuesday an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters in Tehran that he was unaware of the "vague" report.

Baghda

Baghdad - The Iraqi government is seeking to bring former members of the ousted Baath Party into the process of national reconciliation, an Iraqi newspaper reported today.

Baghdad  - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is looking forward to retiring after his term expires at the end of the year, Iraq's Buratha news agency reported on Friday, citing an interview with Iranian television.

"I think at the end of this year, my tour will be finished, and I hope to be retired, to go back home and to have time for writing my memoirs," the Iraqi president told the English-language Iranian television station Press TV in the interview broadcast Friday.

Baghdad  - The Iraqi journalist who famously threw his shoes at former US President George W Bush wept in court on Thursday when informed that two of his colleagues had died in a bomb attack on Tuesday.

Montadher al-Zaidi, a 30-year-old journalist for the Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya television station, wept when told that a cameraman and a reporter from the station were among more than 30 people killed in a bombing in the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad on Tuesday.

Baghdad  - Iraq's Criminal Court Wednesday sentenced two half-brothers of former President Saddam Hussein to death for the execution of 42 merchants in 1992, and also jailed close Saddam advisor Tariq Aziz for his role in the executions.

The court sentenced Aziz and also Ali Hassan al-Majid - or "Chemical Ali" - to 15 years imprisonment each for their role in executing the 42 accused of breaking state price controls when Iraq was under UN sanctions imposed after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.