Simon Ostrovsky

The trial of Saddam Hussein over the massacre of Shi’ites in the 1980s degenerated into a chaotic shouting match on Monday after the ejection of one of the deposed Iraqi dictator’s female lawyers. Lebanese lawyer Bushra Khalil had returned to court after a long absence following her expulsion in early April by Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman.

Home to hundreds of aircraft under Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime, the dusty al-Muthana air base outside the Iraqi capital today hosts just three lonely cargo planes. After obliterating Saddam’s formidable air force in the 1991 Gulf war and the invasion of 2003, United States forces say they are now putting the pieces back together in the hope that Iraqis will eventually take over for the coalition.