"Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill charges in a new book that President George W. Bush entered office in Jan 2001 intent on invading Iraq and was in search of a way to go about it. He likened Bush at Cabinet meetings to a blind man in a room full of deaf people," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Danish troops have found dozens of mortar rounds buried in Iraq which chemical weapons tests show could contain blister gas, the Danish army said on Saturday. However, this will not be confirmed until the final tests are available," reported the Reuters news agency.
"One in three Britons believes Princess Diana was the victim of a murder plot, according to a survey by The Mail on Sunday newspaper," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel would react to any Palestinian declaration of independence by formally annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, Health Minister Danny Naveh said yesterday. Our message is clear: if the Palestinians unilaterally proclaim an independent state, Israel will annex parts (of the West Bank) that it judges essential to its security, Naveh told public radio," reported the AFP news service.
"A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli soldiers yesterday morning near the troubled northern West Bank town of Nablus, according to Palestinian security and medical sources. The latest death brings the overall number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in September 2000 to 3,695, including 2,769 Palestinians and 860 Israelis," reported the AFP news service.
"Any plan to split Iraq into ethnic Kurdish, Sunni or Shi'ite Muslim territory would have grave consequences for the Gulf Arab region, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Britain said yesterday," reported the Reuters news agency.
"In a speech on the impact of the New Iraq on Gulf states, Prince Turki al-Faisal warned that Iraq could degenerate into a regional base for terror. His comments reflected regional fears the United States will opt for a federal solution for ethnically and religiously fragmented Iraq, which some of Iraq's neighbours believe could destabilise the Gulf, for example through the rising power of Shi'ites in southern Iraq or Kurdish autonomy in the north," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel will start to implement its own unilateral measures, as part of what is termed a disengagement plan which is likely to see Israel evacuate a small number of settlements but strengthen its control over others, in about six months time if no bilateral agreement is reached by then with the Palestinians, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"The US government is pressing ahead with a controversial security programme to conduct background checks and assign a colour-coded risk rating to all passengers at US airports. Airlines balked at joining a testing phase of the programme after privacy advocates encouraged boycotts of participating carriers, and one carrier was sued for turning passenger data over to the military," reported the AFP news service.
"The TSA is also to begin testing another part of the programme that will allow some travellers to receive streamlined security treatment if they volunteer personal information to the government beforehand. Such passengers would be issued a registered traveller card to display at the airport. Privacy and rights advocates slammed the programmes as discriminatory and inefficient. These kinds of dragnet systems are feel-good but cost-inefficient, said Harvard Medical School privacy policy researcher Richard Sobel," reported the AFP news service.
"Hundreds of Nato troops sealed off the eastern Bosnian town of Pale on Sunday but failed to find Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb wartime leader indicted for Europe's worst massacre since World War II," reported the AFP news service.
"Authorities in Thailand searched Muslim schools in the south yesterday for people who may be responsible for last week's violence in which six security men were killed, bombs planted and buildings torched. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, however, distanced himself from local reports that he had alleged militant groups were using the schools as training grounds," reported the news Agencies.
"China and the United States signed a preliminary agreement aimed at increasing co-operation on nuclear non-proliferation, security and counter-terrorism yesterday, the US embassy in Beijing said," reported the AFP news service.
"A British family doctor convicted of killing 15 patients, and suspected of killing 200 or more, was found dead in his prison cell yesterday, the Prison Service said. Dr Harold Shipman was found hanging in his cell at Wakefield Prison in northern England and was pronounced dead after attempts to resuscitate him failed, the Prison Service said in a statement. High Court Judge Janet Smith, who investigated Shipman's activities after he was jailed, concluded in 2002 that he killed 215 of his patients, including 171 women and 44 men. His crimes horrified the nation and raised questions about how he was able to evade detection for so many years," reported the AP news agency.
"An Army Apache attack helicopter was shot down yesterday, the third downed in less than two weeks, though the crew escaped unharmed," reported the AP news agency.
"O'Neill, who resigned a year ago in a shake-up of Bush's economy team, told the CBS programme 60 Minutes broadcast on Sunday night that he had seen no real evidence during his two years in the administration that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He said Bush had been intent on ousting Saddam Hussein since well before the attacks of Sept 11, 2001, and described his management style as disinterested and unengaged. The US Treasury, acting less than 24 hours after ousted Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill sharply criticised President George W. Bush in a television interview, sought a probe on Monday into how a document marked secret was shown in the programme," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A Palestinian mother of two blew herself up at the main border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip Tuesday, killing four Israelis and wounding seven people. The militant Islamic group Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed joint responsibility for the suicide bombing, which they said was to avenge Israel's killing of Palestinians, and vowed to escalate attacks," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A British activist who had been in a coma since being shot by Israeli troops while acting as a so-called human shield has died nine months after the shooting, a statement from his campaign group said yesterday. The Israeli army said late last year it had arrested a soldier in connection with the shooting. He has since been charged with grievous bodily harm for shooting Hurndall. The soldier initially maintained he had opened fire on a man armed with a pistol but later admitted to firing in proximity to an unarmed civilian as a deterrent," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A car bomb exploded outside a police station Tuesday killing two Iraqis, as the US military confirmed the capture of number 54 on its list of most-wanted Iraqis, a key aide of Saddam Hussein," reported the AFP news service.
"An imam was sentenced to prison in Spain on Wednesday for inciting violence against women in a 1997 book that gave detailed instructions to Muslim men on how to beat their wives, judicial sources said. His lawyer Jose Luis Bravo said he planned to appeal the conviction, saying it was unfair and the result of media pressure. During his trial, Mustafa said he was against wife-beating and that his book was merely a compilation of sacred Muslim texts on women," reported the AFP news service.
"Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through Basra yesterday in support of a call by Iraq's most revered Shi'ite imam for direct elections to be held within months to select a sovereign Iraqi government. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has objected to US plans for a transitional Iraqi assembly to be selected by regional caucuses rather than an election. The assembly will select an interim government that is due to take over sovereignty by end-June. The protest was the latest sign that many of Iraq's majority Shi'ites are backing Sistani's call, complicating Washington's efforts to win widespread support for its plans for the handover of power," reported the Reuters news agency.
"From his hideout after the fall of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein warned the insurgency against working too closely with “jihadists” who had come to fight the US-led occupation, according to a document reported on Wednesday. The document further undermined pre-war and post-war claims by President George Bush's administration that Saddam had close links with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Instead, it confirmed the long-held belief of CIA analysts and British intelligence that the two – one a secular dictator, the other a religious zealot – mistrusted each other deeply, and that Saddam would have been loath to share any weapons secrets he might have had with a group he could not control," reported the dpa news agency.
"The Israeli army sealed off the Gaza Strip yesterday following a suicide bombing which killed four Israelis at a border crossing, the military said in a statement. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the measure was a sign of the government's determination to prevent terrorism after the suicide bomb attack at a main crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Wednesday," reported the AFP news service.
"A leading US congressional oversight panel has launched an investigation into 25 Islamic charities operating in the United States in order to learn more not only about their spending but also their sources of financing. The Senate Finance Committee said on Wednesday it had asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to provide all tax forms filed by these groups – as well as any audit materials the US tax agency may have on them, drawing a strong protest from a leading Islamic organisation. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said the investigative net had been cast so wide that it seemed to target all American Muslims as terrorism suspects," reported the AFP news service.
