Foreign currency trading totaled $75.6 billion in December.

AFP – Saddam Hussein, once one of the most high-profile leaders in the Middle East, has been buried privately in the dead of night at his home village in Iraq one day after swinging from the gallows.

AP – Thousands of Iraqis flocked to Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Ouja on Sunday, where the deposed leader was buried in a religious compound 24 hours after his execution.

Reuters – Saddam Hussein was buried in the dead
of night in his home village in northern Iraq, where his body
was washed and covered in a white shroud in observance of
Muslim rite by a small group of fellow tribesmen.

Reuters – Saddam Hussein was buried before
dawn on Sunday in his native village of Awja, near Tikrit in
northern Iraq, the head of his tribe said.

AP – When U.S. leaders decided it was time to despise Saddam Hussein, he made the perfect villain.

AP – Austria’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday that experts examined an audio tape of four American security contractors and an Austrian kidnapped in Iraq six weeks ago and concluded it is “probably authentic.”

AP – Though much of the world regarded him as a tyrant, Saddam Hussein was mourned by Palestinians Saturday as a generous patron who remained one of their staunchest allies.

AFP – Images of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein being led to the gallows on one of Islam’s most important feast days risk further alienating public opinion in an Arab world already bristling at perceived Western insensitivity, analysts have warned.

AP – Saddam Hussein struggled briefly after American military guards handed him over to Iraqi executioners. But as his final moments approached, he grew calm. He clutched a Quran as he was led to the gallows, and in one final moment of defiance, refused to have a hood pulled over his head before facing the same fate he was accused of inflicting on countless thousands during a quarter-century of ruthless power.