"President George W. Bush, trying to calm a political storm, said that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company should repay the government if it overcharged for petrol delivered in Iraq under a controversial pre-war contract," reported the AP news agency.
"The Pentagon repeatedly warned contractor Halliburton-KBR that the food it served to US troops in Iraq was as dirty, as the kitchens it was served in," reported the AFP news service.
"The US government does not know the full extent of secret operations used by terrorist groups to raise money and has trouble keeping up with their fast-changing tactics, congressional investigators have warned in a report. The report, issued on Friday by the General Accounting Office, followed a steady drumbeat of announcements from the administration of President George W. Bush, which insists it has succeeded in freezing nearly US$137mil in terror-tainted money around the world," reported the AFP news service.
"Low-level Israeli-Palestinian violence continued yesterday, with a Palestinian student shot dead and Israeli forces on high alert around Tel Aviv, as the UN Middle East envoy warns there is only a narrow window of opportunity to hammer out a long elusive peace," reported the AFP news service.
"Hundreds of mosques in Britain have launched a protest campaign against the treatment of British Muslims arrested as part of the war on terror Amid rising anger in Muslim communities in London and other major cities, those who attended Friday prayers at mosques throughout London were urged to bombard the home secretary , David Blunkett, with letters of complaint about what they consider their loss of human rights," reported the Guardian.
"Saddam Hussein, grubby, bearded and burying himself in a cellar floor in an attempt to hide from US troops, was captured alive yesterday in his hometown of Tikrit. The head of Iraq's US-installed interim Governing Council, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, said the DNA tests confirmed the man was Saddam," reported the news Agencies.
"Arabs shared little of the world's joy over Saddam Hussein's capture, with many bitter over another victory for an arrogant pro-Israeli United States," reported the AFP news service.
"It's not Saddam that they should arrest, blurted Aziz al-Shaburi, a 34-year-old government employee, when he saw television images showing an American medic inspecting a bearded Saddam's mouth. They would have been better to capture (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon, the real war criminal, he said, eliciting applause from other patrons in the Awlad al-Hareth cafe," reported the AFP news service.
"Mustafa Bakri, the pro-Saddam editor in chief of the independent Egyptian weekly Al-Osbou, said on the television: It's a black day in the history of the Arabs. It's a humiliation. It's Bush, Blair, Berlusconi, Aznar and Sharon who should be put on trial, said Bakri, who organized several solidarity trips from Cairo to Baghdad before US troops invaded in March," reported the AFP news service.
"Saddam Hussein's capture will delight most Iraqis and devastate the deposed dictator's loyalists, but even this stunning victory for US forces may not quell the violence they face in Iraq. Even as Iraqis took to the streets to rejoice at the seizure of the once feared ruler, analysts said it was premature to assume that resistance to the US-led occupation would crumble. Mustafa Alani, an Iraq analyst at London's Royal United Services Institute, said it won't affect those by Iraqi or Arab mujahideen and might increase them because those who did not want to be branded as supporters of Saddam might now join a resistance with a more nationalist dimension," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Worldwide jubilation yesterday at the capture of fugitive Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein showed how friendless he was. Even France and Germany, fierce opponents of the US-led war to oust Saddam, lauded his arrest by American forces, who seized him on Saturday without firing a shot. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country and a critic of US policy on Iraq, said it hoped the capture of Saddam would speed the transition to democracy and Iraqi rule," reported the news Agencies.
"Americans woke up this morning to get the “breaking news” that ousted President Saddam Hussein was captured 24km outside his hometown of Tikrit, at 8.26pm Iraq time. But it was difficult to fathom immediate public reaction to the capture, as for the second weekend in a row New York has been hit by a snowstorm keeping most folks off their streets and in their homes. But from a sample of people interviewed, most were subdued and did not see the situation changing for the better and the United States leaving Iraq any sooner," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"A suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car outside a police station yesterday, killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 more. Many victims were Iraqi police officers and municipal workers who were sweeping the street outside the district police office," reported the AP news agency.
"Israel can only be satisfied with the US law which clears the way for economic and diplomatic sanctions against Syria, a source close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday. US President George W. Bush signed into law on Friday a Bill providing for economic and diplomatic sanctions," reported the AFP news service.
"In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, the former governor of Vermont is shaping up as most likely to oppose Republican George W. Bush next November. Already in the front ranks of the field of nine, Dean's campaign got a rocket boost this past week from the surprise endorsement of former vice president Al Gore, strengthening his opinion poll lead," reported the AFP news service.
"East Asia should not be afraid of superpowers but at the same time the region must avoid confrontation, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad told a forum in Seoul. He also called on East Asian countries to focus on economic co-operation among themselves," reported the Malaysian Bernama.
"Dr Mahathir again lambasted parties who preached democracies and forced others to submit to their system. Without naming anybody, he said: “It is hypocritical that the very same people who are developing more efficient killing machines should also talk of human rights and justice and the rule of law. Democracy is about common consent, not forced submission under threat of death and destruction from pre-emptive strikes using these killing machines. If they were sincere, he said, they should accept dispute settlement by negotiation, arbitration or by submitting to an independent international court of justice. Demanding exemption from international courts of justice contradicts the very concept of justice," reported the Malaysian Bernama.
"Dr Mahathir also expounded the benefits of learning from history, saying: To benefit from the past, we have to pick and choose what we want to repeat and what we want to avoid and forget," reported the Malaysian Bernama.
"Saddam Hussein's capture has not significantly increased US support for the war on Iraq, but it has boosted American's confidence that Osama bin Laden will eventually be captured, according to a new poll out yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"US Secretary of State Colin Powell underwent surgery for prostate cancer yesterday and was expected to spend several days in the hospital before going home, the US State Department said. Powell's surgery, which US officials said was scheduled some time ago and was not an emergency procedure, is bound to revive speculation about how long he may serve as secretary of state although an aide said it had no bearing on the matter," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A top Russian official said yesterday the capture of Saddam Hussein was merely a symbolic event that was unlikely to change the situation in Iraq in the short-term," reported the AFP news service.
"A Mexican teacher has offered to sell one of his kidneys for US$55,000 in a desperate bid to raise money to build three classrooms in his elementary school, Reforma newspaper reported on Sunday. Although I'm not unemployed, I have been hurt by the economy, and I don't have anything else to sell or pawn he said," reported the AFP news service.
"A group of rebels from Chechnya killed nine Russian border guards after crossing into the neighbouring republic of Dagestan yesterday, reviving memories of a 1999 incursion that sparked off the second Russo-Chechen war," reported the AFP news service.
"China yesterday issued its first-ever list of terrorist groups, blaming them for a series of bombings and assassinations and calling for international assistance to wipe them out. The groups are accused of trying to create an independent Islamic state called East Turkistan in north-west China's Xinjiang region, which is populated by the Turkish-speaking Uighur Muslims," reported the AFP news service.
"Captured former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has so far refused to give the US military any intelligence information, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said late Sunday. But the defence secretary said the former Iraqi leader clearly was compliant or resigned when US troops took him into custody and moved him to a secure location," reported the news Agencies.
"A pair of deadly car bombs ripped through police stations yesterday, killing off any lingering hopes that with Saddam Hussein behind bars here, the violent insurgency might subside against US-led occupation. The riposte was not long in coming as near simultaneous blasts hit the police posts to the west and north of the city, killing eight people and wounding 17," reported the AFP news service.
"Joy at the capture of Saddam Hussein gave way to resentment towards Washington yesterday as Iraqis confronted afresh the bloodshed, shortages and soaring prices of life under US occupation. Many were ecstatic to see Saddam in the dock and hoped he would answer for his deeds but said they would not rush to thank America – in their eyes the source of their problems since a US-led coalition toppled Saddam in April," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A new weapons system was unveiled in Israel yesterday which enables armed forces to fire guns around corners and could revolutionise urban warfare around the world. The Israeli-US developed Corner Shot is the latest improvement on a series of devices invented over the past two decades by the FBI and the French army which left at least the combatant's hand exposed. The Israeli army is said to be considering the use of the Corner Shot device," reported the AFP news service.
"A US envoy planned to mediate talks between Israel and the Palestinians yesterday in an effort to revive peace moves, even as Israeli forces raided the southern Gaza Strip and killed two unarmed Palestinians," reported the Reuters news agency.
"President George W. Bush said that he could support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The Massachusetts Supreme Court last month struck down that state's ban on same-sex marriage, saying it is unconstitutional and giving state lawmakers six months to craft a way for gay couples to wed. Bush has condemned the ruling before, citing his support for a federal definition of marriage as a solely man-woman union. On Tuesday, he criticized it as a very activist court in making the decision it made," reported the AP news agency.
"President George W. Bush had said on Monday the United States and Iraq would organise Saddam's trial but Iraqis would decide whether he will face possible execution. World leaders have called for a fair trial for ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein," reported the news Agencies.
"Israeli commandos planned to assassinate Saddam Hussein at his uncle's funeral after the 1991 Gulf War, but the mission was aborted after five soldiers were killed in training, officials said yesterday. Military censors lifted an 11-year-old ban on reporting the plan on Monday, allowing newspapers to publish details of the aborted 1992 mission just days after the ousted leader was captured by US forces in Iraq," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Lebanese authorities denied on Monday that the wife of captured former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was in Lebanon. The Directorate of General Security denied there was anyone in Lebanon called Samira or Khadijah Shahbandar, the name given in media reports of the presence of Saddam's wife in Lebanon," reported the dpa news agency.
"A French lawyer known for his notorious clients said on Monday he would be ready to defend Saddam Hussein and that the former Iraqi leader must be presumed innocent at any trial. Jacques Verges, who has represented Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and international guerilla Carlos the Jackal, said hiding Saddam away was against international conventions. US troops captured the deposed leader on Saturday, but his whereabouts remain a mystery," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Iraq's foreign minister accused the United Nations yesterday of failing his country by leaving Saddam Hussein in power for decades and appealed to the world body to assume a leading role in Baghdad immediately," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Bosnian Muslims welcomed the arrest of Saddam Hussein on Monday but voiced frustration at the West's failure to capture Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, still one of the world's most wanted men. Karadzic, indicted for genocide in Bosnia's 1992 to 1995 war by the UN war crimes court, could have been brought to justice just as easily had there been the same political will that led to Saddam's capture, the Muslims believe," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The International Red Cross said on Monday it expected to be allowed to visit Saddam Hussein in his Baghdad jail and defended his rights as a prisoner of war. While the former Iraqi president may face charges of war crimes or other offences, he is entitled to protection from torture and any other inhumane treatment under the Geneva Conventions, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a briefing note to the media," reported the AFP news service.
"For the first time in two years, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has an opponent whose rising popularity could present a real challenge in next year's federal election, according to an opinion poll yesterday. Mark Latham assumed leadership of the opposition Labor Party last month," reported the AP news agency.
"Chechen rebels held up to 10 people hostages yesterday a day after killing nine border guards in an incursion into the restless Russian republic of Dagestan that has put Russia on edge again. It was unclear if the group of rebels crossed into Dagestan from separatist Chechnya or the former Soviet republic of Georgia where some of the rebels are believed to be based. The incursion has topped Russian news for two days amid fears that the Chechen insurgency was growing," reported the AFP news service.
"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is considering the evacuation of all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and some isolated settlements in the West Bank," reported the Maariv newspaper.
"Saddam Hussein’s daughter Raghad said yesterday she and her sisters wanted an international trial for their father caught by US troops this week. Raghad said her father must have been drugged before his capture – her explanation for the humiliating pictures of a man who was seen by many Arabs as a hero for his anti-Western stance. Saddam’s sister also said he would never have surrendered meekly and that US forces must have used drugs or gas to paralyse him. Jordanian newspaper commentators also charged yesterday that Saddam had been drugged during his capture," reported the news Agencies.
"Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Justice and Peace Department and a former papal envoy to the United Nations, said I felt pity to see this man destroyed, (the military) looking at his teeth as if he were a cow. They could have spared us these pictures. Seeing him like this, a man in his tragedy, despite all the heavy blame he bears, I had a sense of compassion for him," reported the news Agencies.
"US forces shot dead 11 attackers who tried to ambush them in Samarra, the American military said yesterday amid an upsurge in violence in restive Iraqi towns since the capture of Saddam Hussein," reported the AFP news service.
"Three days after his capture, questions abound about the fate of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, with an international debate erupting over how he should be tried and whether he should face execution. Little news has filtered out about Saddam since he was found by US troops on Saturday evening cringing at the bottom of a hole in northern Iraq and taken haggard and dazed to Baghdad for identification by Iraqi officials," reported the AFP news service.
"Saddam Hussein's capture leaves two household names on the US “terror” wanted list. But unlike Saddam, neither al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden nor Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is likely to be taken alive, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, a top Pakistani cleric with close ties to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime warned. Shamzai said Even if you (Western) people manage to arrest them, the Taliban and al-Qaeda movements will not end. They are not fighting for personal rule. Their movements will not die out," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A fuel truck bomb killed 17 people in a huge fireball here yesterday as violence gripped Iraq in the wake of Saddam Hussein's capture. US President George W. Bush said the ousted Iraqi president, held by US forces at an undisclosed location, deserved to die. US officials have said any trial is still some way off. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Central Intelligence Agency had taken over the interrogation of Saddam," reported the Reuters news agency.
"President George W. Bush admitted on Tuesday that he has taken some heat in private from his wife for tough-talking comments he has made in public. In the wide-ranging interview, the Bushes opened a narrow window into their private lives with rare comments on their twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Asked at a news conference about reports that US forces had moved Saddam to Qatar, council member Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said There is no proof or confirmed information on this. Saddam is still in Iraq. God willing, he will be tried in Iraq in public by an Iraqi court. US officials said Saddam, captured near Tikrit on Saturday, was at an undisclosed location," reported the Reuters news agency.
"David Kay, the former UN weapons inspector who leads the Iraq Survey Group, said in October that evidence gathered by US teams suggested that Iraq had little or no capacity to produce chemical warfare agents because of damage inflicted by US air strikes and years of sanctions. But Kay said the group has begun to unravel a clandestine network of laboratories and facilities within the (Iraqi) security service apparatus that was previously unknown and had never been declared to the United Nations," reported the AFP news service.
"British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday that US-led teams had found massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories and plans to develop long-range ballistic missiles in Iraq. Blair did not go into details, but a spokesman for the prime minister said the findings were part of an interim report produced several months ago by the Iraq Survey Group, which is hunting for weapons of mass destruction," reported the AFP news service.
"Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter, Raghdad, said in remarks published yesterday that she was looking into the legalities of being able to visit her father, who was captured over the weekend by US forces in Iraq. Raghdad told Al-Arabiya television on Tuesday that Saddam Hussein must have been drugged before he was captured by US forces. But interim Governing Council member Muaffak al-Rubaie, one of the first Iraqi officials to meet Saddam after his capture, said yesterday in Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat: Never, he was not drugged ... but he was demoralised, without hope and humiliated," reported the AFP news service.
"Ex-right wing Freedom Party leader Joerg Haider has accused the United States of fraud over Saddam Hussein's arrest. The whole thing had been an American farce, he said on Tuesday. The arrested person might just as well be one of Saddam's numerous doubles, he said, adding that the DNA test meant nothing, as there had been nothing to compare it with beforehand. Haider said the Americans had needed the arrest of Saddam to lead Bush out of a dilemma. It should not be overlooked that a country was attacked by another country, which waged war against the will of the United Nations," reported the dpa news agency.
"Iran will almost certainly sign a binding international protocol that allows intrusive snap inspections of its nuclear facilities today, Cabinet ministers said yesterday. The question of whether it should sign the protocol sparked heated debate in Iran earlier this year, hardliners saying the short-notice inspections it permits were tantamount to allowing spies into the country," reported the Reuters news agency," reported the AFP news service.
"French President Jacques Chirac called yesterday for a law banning Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols in state schools, despite protests from Muslims in France and across the world. Opinion polls show the ban is backed by a large majority of French citizens although Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders have opposed it. Chirac hopes his tough stand to maintain the official division between the church and state will help boost his sliding popularity," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Six years after Princess Diana's fatal car crash, the royal coroner on Thursday announced an inquest next month into her death - an inquiry that could help dispel lingering suspicions of a conspiracy to kill the princess," reported the AP news agency.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin went on national television yesterday to confirm widespread expectations that he will run for a second term in presidential elections in March 2004," reported the AFP news service.
"Israeli troops killed four Palestinians in a West Bank raid yesterday, ahead of a much-awaited speech by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in which he could announce unilateral measures as an alternative to the peace process," reported the AFP news service.
"Guerillas ambushed a US military patrol with small arms fire, killing one soldier, the military said yesterday, as troops hunted down members of the Iraqi insurgency that continues to claim American lives. North of the capital, US forces encircled the town of Samarra as part of a major raid on the area. Troops smashed down the gates of homes and the doors of workshops and junkyards there on Wednesday in an effort to quash the violence that have persisted since the capture of Saddam Hussein last week," reported the AP news agency.
