Many Iraqis were jubilant when they heard that Saddam Hussein had been found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death.

In Najaf, men celebrated by burning an effigy of the former Iraqi leader, who is due to be hanged for his crimes.

In Baghdad's Shia enclave of Sadr City, people flooded onto the streets, some dancing, others riding on top of cars.

In Basra, as elsewhere, gunfire echoed across the city as Iraqis marked the arrival of a long-awaited verdict.

In Baghdad, soldiers patrolled the city amid fears of violence from the former leader's Sunni Arab supporters.

But some in the capital broke a city-wide curfew to express their joy.

There was a different atmosphere in Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, where loyalists were angered by the verdict.

A day after the sentence was passed, protesters took to the streets of restive Falluja to voice their anger.

Similar scenes were played out in Samarra - another hotbed in the Sunni heartland.

And the protests were not confined to Iraq - here Palestinians in Gaza City express their disapproval.

Whereas in Hyderabad, India, they clearly blamed US President George W Bush.