Iraq's parliament voted Wednesday to extend the country's state of emergency for 30 more days, two members of parliament said. According to the AP, lawmakers present for the closed-door meeting attended by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki voted unanimously for the extension, said legislators Ammar Touama and Kamal al-Saidi.
The state of emergency has been renewed every month since first being authorized in November 2004. It grants security forces greater powers and affects the entire country apart from the autonomous Kurdish region in the north.
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein and other six defendants were in court Wednesday for the genocide trial along with defense attorney Badie Arief, who charged that defense documents related to the trial had been stolen from his office.
"I demand the opening of an investigation with the American side because the area is guarded by the Americans who would shoot anybody who comes near," he said, according to AFP.
On Wednesday the first witness, Ayub Abdellah Mohammed, a former Kurdish peshmerga fighter from the northern Iraqi village of Bergie, testified how eight warplanes bombed his village on August 24, 1988.
Sabir al-Duri, one of the accused and former director of intelligence, cross examined the witness and accused the peshmergas of working for the Iranians.
Tawfiq Abdelaziz Mustafa, another peshmerga, was the second witness to testify.
