Saddam trial resumes

Saddam Hussein was last night formally charged with torture of women and children, nine counts of murder and the hundreds of illegal arrests in a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s, bringing the former dictator's trial into a new phase.

Saddam refused to enter a plea when chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman asked. "I can't just say yes or no to this," he said. "This will never shake one hair of my head." His defence entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.