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Egypt led calls for a boycott of any US-led administration of Iraq yesterday as regional states gathered in a belated attempt to exert influence on the outcome of the war. Six neighbouring states of Iraq put aside their rivalries and sent foreign ministers to Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital, to share their fears for the future and try to work out a common position on who replaces Saddam Hussein. Ahmad Maher, the Egyptian foreign minister, set out the Arab position, saying that Washington's plans for a US interim administration in Baghdad with Iraqi advisers were "unacceptable". There would be no...

Iraq TV: No Propaganda CNN Refuses to Participate But TV Channel Chairman Says it Will be Unbiased By Michele Greppi A new U.S. government-backed television service in Iraq will air American news programming with Arabic-language captioning. But it is not meant to improperly influence anyone or spread any false information, according to Norm Pattiz, chairman of radio distributor Westwood One and chairman of the government-backed Broadcasting Board of Governors. Rather, Mr. Pattiz said, it will offer unfettered news coverage in the region, which will be a first for many viewers accustomed to state-controlled broadcasts. "What we are going to do...

<p>After roughly 100 Iraqi exiles, sheiks and clerics gathered in a fortified and air-conditioned tent in Iraq this week to begin piecing together their country's future, U.S. Central Command headquarters released a 13-point summary of the meeting. This included the outcome of the historic first vote in Saddam-free Iraq (the Iraqi proto-body voted to meet again in 10 days) and a string of high-minded resolutions.</p>

THE first stop for any dignitary visiting Iraq is the sparsely furnished office of a British officer who has presided over this country’s most successful regime change. Taking control of Umm Qasr was a thankless task. This nasty little border port town of 45,000 people, home to gun-runners and bootleggers, took far longer for the allied armies to subdue than Baghdad did. When the British Army was given the job of running it, some in Whitehall suggested that a sheriff would have been a better bet than a military governor for Iraq’s answer to Dodge City. Everyone seems to have...

<p>There could be an unexpected beneficiary of the war in Iraq: the environment.</p> <p>More specifically, the late, great Mesopotamian marshes -- a decade ago, the largest wetland by far in the Middle East, and a site considered by many religious scholars as the inspiration for the Garden of Eden in the Bible and Koran.</p>

Marines Guard $1B in Iraqi Gold By ELLEN KNICKMEYER .c The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. Marines with machine guns and tanks stood watch Friday over what they estimated was $1 billion in gold - safeguarding bank vaults that withstood direct rocket-propelled grenade hits by robbers determined to fight their way in. ``Fort Knox doesn't have security like this,'' Staff Sgt. Jack Coughlin of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines said in a bank lobby, as shots rang out outside - U.S. snipers dealing with robbers armed with AK-47s still roaming Baghdad's pillaged banking district. Days of audacious daylight...

Plans Under Way for Christianizing the Enemy April 18, 2003BY MARK O'KEEFE More Mark O'Keefe Stories Two leading evangelical Christian missionary organizations said Tuesday that they have teams of workers poised to enter Iraq to address the physical and spiritual needs of a large Muslim population.The Southern Baptist Convention, the country's largest Protestant denomination, and the Rev. Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse said workers are near the Iraq border in Jordan and are ready to go in as soon as it is safe. The relief and missionary work is certain to be closely watched because both Graham and the Southern Baptist...

Iraqis Rally to Demand Swift U.S. Pullout Email this Story Apr 18, 3:11 PM (ET) By DAVID ESPO (AP) Iraqis hold an anti-USA demonstration under a shelled clock tower at the Abu-Hanifa mosque in... Full Image Less than 10 days after the fall of Saddam Hussein, thousands of Iraqis marched in downtown Baghdad on Friday to demand a rapid U.S. troop withdrawal and a prominent opposition leader said he expects Americans to relinquish most government functions within weeks. The pressure surfaced as American forces destroyed a hidden ammunitions cache north of Baghdad, and troops captured a leader of the old...

<p>April 18, 2003 -- BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops were forced to play bank guards yesterday after daring thieves blew a hole in a packed vault - and hundreds of Iraqis rioted as they tried to get their share.</p> <p>The Americans - alerted to the robbery by residents shouting "Ali Baba!" - got the massive crowd under control and saved $5 million in U.S. currency.</p>

Saddam's 3 Half Brothers Killed for Him .c The Associated Press Saddam Hussein has three half brothers from his mother's second marriage. They have been close to Saddam for most of the past three decades. Their willingness to kill and conspire for him, eliminating even members of their own extended clan, was one of the mainstays of the regime. BARZAN IBRAHIM HASAN, captured Thursday: The youngest of Saddam's half brothers at 53, he served as head of Iraq's secret police, the dreaded Mukhabarat, and as Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. In that position, he reportedly ran Iraq's...

<p>CAMP ASAYLIYAH, DOHA, Qatar — The 4th Infantry Division finally is in the fight. On Wednesday, the 1st Brigade of the Fort Hood, Texas-based division took on the bad guys outside Baghdad, killing some, capturing some and taking control of an airfield.</p>

Saddam Hussein’s regime is dead, as the man himself may be. Three weeks of war freed Iraqis from his tyranny, and the region and the world from the threat it posed. Our coalition has suffered only 154 casualties. Dictators from Damascus to Pyongyang are newly fearful of American power and resolve. And we are confident that the dead regime’s weapons of mass destruction will soon be found and destroyed. This is a victory in which President Bush, Prime Ministers Blair and Howard, our armed forces, and the people of America, Britain, and Australia can take pride. As Brink Lindsey noted...

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, April 17, 2003; Page A01 BAGHDAD, April 16 -- At 8 p.m. on April 3, as U.S. tanks rumbled into Baghdad's international airport to prepare for a final attack, the power went out across this sprawling city. Perhaps the Americans had bombed a power plant, people here figured, or President Saddam Hussein had ordered everything shut down. Either way, they assumed, once the government fell and U.S. forces asserted control here, the lights and the air conditioning would be on again. That never happened. Although it has been a week since U.S....

BAGHDAD (AFP) Apr 17, 2003 Nothing would seem to distinguish Samir Ali Ilawi from the others at the Shiite mosque, except that he is unarmed and roams the courtyard with a forlorn look on his face. He came here to fight the Americans, but now this Lebanese taxi driver is a prisoner of war kept by the people he vowed to defend. "This is my 23rd day in Iraq," he said wearily at his makeshift jail of the Sayed Shabab Ahl al-Jamaa mosque in Baghdad's vast Shiite shantytown known until recently as Saddam City. Samir, 31, left behind his wife...

ATHENS, Greece, April 17--European leaders backed President Bush's call to lift sanctions on Iraq, but continued to push Thursday for the United Nations to play a central role in the country's reconstruction. Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said the four nations were working with Russia to produce a series of draft resolutions on how to assist Iraq. They also met with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. EU diplomats confirmed concerns expressed earlier by U.N. officials that lifting sanctions could be long and difficult, despite U.S. hopes for quick action. European officials cautioned simply removing the restrictions risked undermining the United Nations'...

Sir Richard Branson's airline Virgin Atlantic is to begin flying relief supplies to Iraq, and plans to reintroduce scheduled services to Baghdad. Sir Richard said: "The first few flights would be humanitarian flights delivering doctors, nurses and much-needed aid and supplies to the Iraqi population. "We're working with aid agencies and hope to operate flights as soon as we can. "In addition, by reintroducing scheduled air services we would play our role in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq." Sir Richard added: "Flights to and from Baghdad will be a key element in helping Iraq's long term regeneration, and reuniting families...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Apr 17, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- With the system lights around him glowing a sickly green, the chief engineer of Baghdad's key power plant stood Thursday before a control panel of bad news: Inverter failure. Cooling system failure. Circuit breaker failure. "Red. They should be red," Janan Behnam said of the lights, beacons in the battle to restore Iraq's capital to normalcy and power up the city of 5 million. Baghdad remained in a two-week-old power outage Thursday, giving looters a cover of darkness and leaving families across the capital short on sleep as they...

After 32 years in exile, the author, a well-known Iraqi dissident, returned home on Monday night to meet with fellow Iraqis on determining an interim authority for his country. - - - I entered Iraq from Kuwait City about two hours ago. Some comrades and I are riding in a convoy, accompanied by a former Navy SEAL from Jay Garner's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, en route to the Free Iraqi Forces camp outside of Nasiriya. Our vehicles are carrying cash, equipment and supplies for the 800 or so Free Iraqi Forces and others at camp with Ahmed Chalabi....

In storage tanks at the Turkish port of Ceyhan sit 8m barrels of Iraqi crude oil ready for export. But not a single tanker has arrived to pick up the oil since the start of the US attack on Iraq last month, denying the country a potential $200m (£127m). The problem is not the lack of buyers but the absence of a seller. Defining who will be allowed to sell Iraq's most important resource is at the heart of the debate over the country's future. It is an issue still heavily influenced by the deep division in the United Nations...

Some of New York's Finest may be heading to Iraq to help restore order. The New York Post reports Thursday the U.S. State Department wants to find at least 1,000 present and former police officers to train police and set up new court and prison systems in Iraq. The officers would not enforce law, just advise the Iraqis. The search is nationwide, but sources say the organizers are particularly interested in NYPD officers, with their wide-ranging experience. A salary for the advisers hasn't been set, but officials tell the Post that a close estimate would be about $80,000 a year....