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A nephew of Saddam Hussein has been shot dead in a Yemen restaurant, a local news agency has said. The attack took place at a Chinese restaurant, where dining Ali Hamad Hassan al-Madjid started a brawl with a local merchant. Other guests to the restaurant managed to end the scuffle, and the merchant left the site. Shortly after, he returned with a loaded gun and fired at the nephew of the former Iraqi dictator. The murdered man was the son of Saddam's step-brother.

'WASHINGTON - Sen. John F. Kerry's brash offer to meet privately with former foe President Bush [related, bio] to discuss foreign policy before Bush's meetings abroad next week with key European leaders has apparently fallen on deaf ears at the White House. ``We've offered to have Sen. Kerry (D-Mass.) meet with President Bush to discuss his trip to Iraq, if the White House is interested,'' Kerry spokesman David Wade said yesterday. ``There are many areas where genuine bipartisanship would make a difference in leading our country forward, whether in national security or children's health care.'' The White House declined comment...

Dodging bullets from the fighting in Fallujah's neighborhoods, U.S. troops laid cables, built toilets and settled in at the city's train station Tuesday, transforming it into a new forward base hours after U.S. and Iraqi forces captured it from insurgents. The night before, Marines launched their assault on the station, located in the desert just north of the city. Forces crept forward across the sand in tanks and armored personnel carriers to within 200 yards of the station's empty loading platforms — then opened fire with a barrage of tank rounds and .50 caliber machine-gun fire. The fight lasted hours,...

WASHINGTON -- Like everyone else in America, I open my Inbox every day to confront a glut of spam e-mails from pitchmen for virility-enhancing drugs and deposed African finance ministers. None of those missives, however, are as bizarre as a message that materialized the other day from an online florist: Endless Choices this Boss' Day. Boss' Day? They had to be kidding. I was aware of the propensity of the "celebration community" -- florists, balloon manufacturers and greeting-card companies -- to hype dubious holidays and prolong established ones (as in the "Halloween Season" that seems to begin in late August)....

The head of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank city of Hebron, Imad Kawasme, surrendered to the Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday morning when troops surrounded his safe house in an arrest raid. Kawasme is suspected of dispatching two suicide bombers who carried out the August 31 terror attack in the southern city of Be'er Sheva in which 16 people were killed and 100 others wounded.

<p>MIAMI — A Yemeni captive in isolation at the Guantanamo Bay (search) prison acknowledges being Usama bin Laden's (search) $200-a-month driver in Afghanistan but denies being a member of Al Qaeda (search), The Miami Herald reported Wednesday.</p> <p>He fully admits that he was an employee of Usama bin Laden" from 1997 until the U.S. attack on Afghanistan in 2001, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift told the newspaper. "He worked for Usama bin Laden solely for the purpose of supporting himself and his family."</p>

Men ages 73 and 80 brawl over handicapped parking spot in Boca Sun-Sentinel Posted January 15 2004, 11:32 AM EST BOCA RATON -- Two men got into a fight over a parking spot in the Denny's parking lot at 3249 N. Federal Highway, a police report said. The fight started about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday when Richard Bohemi, 73, asked Bruce Foster, 80, why he had parked in the last handicap spot, the report said. Foster, who had a handicap placard, told Bohemi it was none of his business. According to the report, Bohemi began screaming racial slurs at Foster, who...