BAGHDAD — He sits alone in a cell, writing poetry, reading and preparing for appearances before a court that could sentence him to hang. But Saddam Hussein is very much a player in Thursday’s national elections, even if he is not a candidate.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (REUTERS) — Palestinians who lost relatives in a 2002 Israeli air strike in Gaza have filed a US civil lawsuit against the former head of Israel’s internal Shin Bet security service, accusing him of committing war crimes.

BEIRUT — In Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square, 11 photographs hang on a wooden wall, showing hundreds of thousands of anti-Syrian protesters thronging the city’s streets after the February assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.