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13:05 Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin out of a coma in a Saudi hospital but still in serious condition (Reuters)

Long before the intifada, Oslo, the Sinai Accords and the nation's political upset in the late 1970s, there was Entebbe. The legendary heroic raid, code-named Operation Thunderbolt, when Israeli commandos rescued hostages being held by hijackers who had diverted their plane to Uganda. The commander of the IDF operation, Yonatan Netanyahu, was killed during the rescue, and the name of the operation was changed to Operation Yonatan in his memory. It was Sunday, June 27, 1976, when armed terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, together with some German accomplices, hijacked Air France flight 139, diverting it...

Former Ugandan leader Idi Amin - whose 1971 to 1979 regime was one of the bloodiest in African history - reportedly remains in a coma after three days on a life support machine. A hospital official told the Associated Press news agency that his condition had deteriorated on Monday after stabilising on Sunday. "He is still alive. But he remains in critical condition in the intensive care unit" at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, one of Saudi Arabia's top medical centres, another medical source at the hospital was quoted as saying by...

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States wants to keep using military bases in friendly Persian Gulf countries, including a high-tech command center in Qatar where planners directed the war in Iraq, U.S. officials said Sunday. Gen. Tommy Franks, the top war commander, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld met with officials in the United Arab Emirates on the first stop of a tour of the region. After talks with the UAE's defense minister and chief of staff, Rumsfeld and Franks said American military forces were not going to leave any time soon. "We assured them...

Another Iraqi official in custodySunday 27 April 2003, 10:30 PM US-led forces were Sunday holding the former head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, who figures on a list of 55 wanted Iraqis, the US Central Command announced.Amin, also known as Hossem Mohammed Amin al-Yasin, was the six of clubs on the US deck of cards listing the most wanted figures.The general was among the key figures in Saddam's weapons programs and would have detailed knowledge of any illegal armaments, if Iraq still possesses them.For more than a decade as head of the monitoring commission, the former air force communications...

Federal authorities arrested a Jordanian national possibly linked to Mohamed Atta, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, at a Hollywood train station early Thursday.Mohammed Amin, who sources say has a dozen aliases, was arrested as he boarded an Amtrak train with a ticket to Palatka, a town of 10,000 people 60 miles south of Jacksonville.Federal sources told WTVJ-NBC 6 that Amin's final destination might have been Washington, D.C.When Amin showed up for his 11:01 a.m. train, three FBI agents and two Immigration and Naturalization Service agents were waiting for him.They later transported Amin to Krome Detention Center in Miami-Dade,...