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LONDON: In a significant trans-Atlantic pincer movement to make the case for war, US secretary of state Colin Powell has given British television viewers advance notice of next week’s second United Nations resolution, while America’s chief ally, Tony Blair, canvasses support on the European mainland. In a rare interview to the BBC, billed by the organisation as "exclusive", Powell revealed that the second UN resolution would contain no deadline and would not authorise or specify military action. Meanwhile, in an apparent quickening of the pace to war, President Bush and Blair are reported by at least one British paper to...

BBC News Online has asked a range of contributors to comment on the Iraq crisis. Here, Kanan Makiya, an Iraqi dissident, academic and author, argues that regime change in Iraq could become a force for democracy in the Arab and Muslim world. Regime change in Iraq will provide a historic opportunity - one that is as large as anything that has happened in the Middle East since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Iraq is rich enough and developed enough and has the human resources to become a great force for democracy and economic reconstruction in the Arab and Muslim...

Marine gunfight rules With U.S. military forces ready for war with Iraq, troops around the nation are preparing to ship out for the Middle East. The Marines have taken a lighter look at some rules of ground combat, and we obtained a copy of them. Among the 24 rules are such gems as, No. 1: "Bring a gun. Preferably, bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns," and, No. 2, "Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive." Rule No. 7 is: "In 10 years nobody will remember the details...

Feb. 6 — A snapshot of America’s mood shows increases in President Bush’s approval ratings and in the percentage of Americans ready to support military action against Iraq, according to an NBC Poll released Thursday and taken soon after Secretary of State Colin Powell laid out the U.S. case before the United Nations. TIM RUSSERT, NBC’s Washington bureau chief, said the bumps were “largely” due to the president’s State of the Union speech last month and to Powell’s presentation on Wednesday, which many observers felt offered strong evidence for action against Iraq. Below is a summary of the survey of...

Iraq moving troops, artillery closer to Kuwaiti border By JUAN O. TAMAYO Knight Ridder Newspapers KUWAIT CITY - Iraq is moving troops and artillery closer to its southern border with Kuwait and deploying them astride highways in preparation for U.S. attacks, according to military officers with access to the region. Iraqi forces also are increasing intelligence activities along the demilitarized border, sending tough-looking "civilians" to visit the area, the officers said. U.S. commanders, meanwhile, have dispatched crew-cut American "engineers" to the border, the officers said. Most of the Iraqi troops look ragged, and some complain that they are eating only...

No change in position despite 'persuasive' U.S. argument OTTAWA - Despite a "disturbing and persuasive" argument that Iraq is trying to deceive UN weapons inspectors, Canada will await further word from the inspectors themselves before deciding whether to join the United States in any military response. Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said today that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell made a convincing presentation to the UN Security Council suggesting that "Iraq seems to be trying to fool" UN teams searching Iraq for caches of forbidden weapons. But, Graham added, Canada will await the decision of the council later this...

BUCHAREST, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Ten east European states threw their weight on Wednesday behind the U.S. bid to disarm Iraq, saying Washington had shown the United Nations it must act to rid Baghdad of its banned weapons of mass destruction. After U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the U.N. Security Council Iraq had conspired to hide weapons of mass destruction from inspectors, the 10 NATO aspirants said they were convinced by Washington's "compelling evidence". "The clear and present danger posed by the Saddam Hussein regime requires a united response from the community of democracies," the ex-communist states...

The talking has to stop and the UN has to actJack StrawI prayed it would never come to this, but now we must confront Saddam The United Nations has given President Saddam Hussein a choice between co-operation and confrontation, between disarmament through inspection or disarmament by force. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Saddam has made his choice. I have hoped and prayed all along that this crisis could be resolved by Iraq’s co-operation with weapons inspectors. But as each day passes without an Iraqi response to the inspectors’ outstanding questions, so the prospect of a peaceful...

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix hoped aloud Tuesday U.S. Secretary-of-State Colin Powell won't tip off Iraq and ruin any surprise visits when he gives his evidence presentation to the Security Council."I assume that he's not going to indicate any sites which we should visit because I would assume that the United States would have given the sites to us rather than telling the Iraqis that here is where we think the inspectors should go," said Blix, executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission.Powell was to be accompanied by CIA...

Stocks to rise when bullets fly if history a guide By Haitham Haddadin NEW YORK (Reuters) - If history is a guide, rockets raining down on Baghdad could spark a rally on Wall Street. Macabre as it sounds, stock market rallies have been a consequence of war in the past. And an attack on Iraq would remove some of the uncertainty that has clouded the market. "As soon as the bullets start to fly we get resolution," says Ken Tower of CyberTrader Inc. "That's positive for consumers and the economy, so we expect the market takes off in a continuation...

British troops will remain in Iraq after a war for three years and beyond on peacekeeping duties under contingency plans being drawn up by the Ministry of Defence. Between 10,000 and 20,000 troops from the UK might be needed in an American-led stabilisation force aimed at preventing the disintegration of the country following the fall of Saddam Hussein. The disclosure comes amid speculation that British ground forces will play only a subsidiary role in the invasion of Iraq, which is expected to begin in weeks if Saddam fails to co-operate with United Nations inspectors. A ministry source said planners had...

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard has challenged his political opponents and skeptical citizens on the need to disarm Iraq, delivering a strong statement explaining why his government is supporting the U.S. effort. Howard told lawmakers that failure by the international community to act against Iraq now would "gravely compromise the authority of the United Nations." It would also encourage other rogue states to mimic Saddam Hussein and make a regime like North Korea - which has threatened to resume a frozen nuclear program - almost impossible to deal with, he added. Howard also made a...

US Customs and the Federal Bureau of Investigations are looking into the possible transfer of thousands of Sony PlayStation 2s from US retail stores to Iraq, military intelligence sources have reported. An astounding 4,000 PlayStation 2s have apparently been shipped to Iraq in the last two to three months, according to a secret Defense Intelligence Agency report. With the under-whelming shipment of PS2s that have hit North American shores, this recent news makes strange sense. But is this the real reason that Sony can't meet US gamers' demand? Or is the news really real at all? According to the news...

Turkish leader warns that chances for war increasing, prepares legislators for vote to allow in U.S. troops Tue Feb 4, 1:35 PM ET By LOUIS MEIXLER, Associated Press Writer ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkey's top politician began preparing the public for a possible war, saying Tuesday that Iraq is not "taking the necessary steps" for peace and that Turkey would lose any say in the future of Iraq if it does not join in an operation. The dramatic shift by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has long emphasized peace in Iraq, came before an expected Friday vote in parliament that could allow...

PORT SAID, Egypt: Seven US warships crossed the Suez Canal on Tuesday heading to the Gulf to join the US military buildup in preparation for a possible attack on Iraq. The seven amphibious ships, based in Norfolk, Virginia, carry more than 4,750 sailors and 7,000 Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. They are the USS Kearsarge, Bataan, Saipan, Ponce, Gunston Hall, Ashland and Portland. In Washington, defence officials said on Monday that the USS Abraham Lincoln, one of the Navy's latest Nimitz-class carriers with more than 5,000 sailors and naval aviators aboard, had re-entered the Arabian Sea over the...

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The Pentagon has deployed F-117A "Nighthawk" stealth fighters, which played a key role in the 1991 Gulf War, from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico for use in a possible war with Iraq, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. Robert Pepper, spokesman for Holloman Air Force Base, said the black, angular, precision-strike fighters left the base on Monday night, marking their first deployment for possible hostilities since 1999 in Kosovo. The F-117A was the only American or coalition aircraft used to strike targets in downtown Baghdad during the Gulf War, according to the Air...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon has launched an investigation into allegations of possible misconduct by the man who would lead U.S. forces in the event of a military strike on Iraq, CNN has learned.</p> <p>Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of the U.S. Central Command, has been under investigation for some weeks now by the Pentagon inspector general's office. It is not clear how serious the allegations are, or what direction the probe has taken.</p>

Pentagon chatter says Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld finally has his own man at U.S. Central Command to supervise a war against Iraq: Army Lt. Gen. John P. Abizaid. Officials said the hard-charging Mr. Rumsfeld was not always happy with the way Gen. Tommy Franks ran the war in Afghanistan. He has worried that Gen. Franks, chief of U.S. Central Command, will not be innovative enough in waging war against Iraq. Now, however, Mr. Rumsfeld has plucked a general from the Joint Staff at the Pentagon and sent him to Central Command as Mr. Franks' deputy. In fact, Gen. Abizaid...

BAGHDAD, Iraq Feb. 4 — U.N. arms investigators found another empty chemical warhead on Tuesday as they pressed ahead with a dozen surprise inspections, on a mission in which President Saddam Hussein, in a rare interview, said he hopes they "reach the truth.""The question is whether the other side wants to reach the truth or whether it wants to find a pretext for aggression," the Iraqi leader said in a television interview with British politician Tony Benn.The chemical warhead found at the al-Taji ammunition depot, north of Baghdad, apparently was the 17th turned up since Jan. 16, when inspectors found...

19:57 Kuwait news agency: Kuwait declares northern area closed military zone from February 15 (Reuters)