[JURIST] A US Army spokesman said Monday that eight former top aides to Saddam Huseein were taking meals again after having conducted a hunger strike over the weekend. AFP quotes a lawyer for former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan as saying that "My client, who I met for the first time on Saturday, told me that the (detainees) had begun a hunger strike the day before in order to have the Geneva Convention applied and to be able to read newspapers and listen to the radio." As reported yesterday evening in JURIST's Paper Chase, a lawyer for former foreign minister Tariq Aziz said earlier that one of the reasons for the protest had been lack of access to defense counsel. In a separate statement issued in Jordan, Saddam Hussein's defense team called on the Iraqi and American authorities to allow Saddam to see his lawyers; again as reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, a meeting scheduled last week fell through at the last minute for unexplained reasons. AFP has more.