Times of London

"Three hundred of the new Iraqi army’s 700-strong 1st Battalion were discharged after they refused to obey orders following a row over pay and 'terms and conditions.' " [more]

"Two years after they fell from power, the Taleban are back, rearmed with guns and a determination to stop the march of democracy in an attempt to win back the hearts and minds they once controlled." [more]

"[Bush] is travelling to Tokyo with two really major asks in mind. First, there is the question of Japan sending troops, as well as money, to Iraq. The Japanese public are understandably nervous. The nation has been branded 'Washington's ATM' by sections of the domestic and international media." [more]

" 'If they can do that to the CIA and FBI, imagine what they can do to people like us,' one witness, who was too scared to give his name, said. 'This means the Americans are very weak.' " [more]

"I am haunted by the fear that Tony still sees [Iraq] as an issue of manipulating press and public opinion, and has not grasped that on the substance of the issue the public and he are so far apart that he cannot win this one ... I never doubted that No 10 believed in the threads of intelligence which were woven into the dossier. But that does not alter the awkward fact that the intelligence was wrong and ministers who had applied a sceptical mind could have seen that it was too thin to be a reliable basis for war." [more]

"In a rare act of defiance, Kofi Annan dispatched a senior official to brief reporters on his alternative proposal, which is almost identical to that favoured by Germany and France. Mr Annan’s rejection of the US-British approach has stopped the coalition partners’ draft UN resolution dead in its tracks." [more]

"Why have American and British Forces not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? The most plausible answer is that there are none, in the true sense of the word, even though forces are likely eventually to come across some very unpleasant weapons created by Saddam Hussein." [more]

"Washington acknowledged for the first time yesterday that Tony Blair’s political troubles could force the US to go into battle alone against Iraq." [more]

"So far the atmosphere had been one of stalwart good cheer, but the physical experience was not unlike that of commuting where you often find yourself shuffling along en masse ... We were surrounded by thousands of stationary people. The only thing we needed was a banner saying 'Queue Against the War'." [more]

"War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity." [more]

"Three Afghans released after months of captivity at the US military base in Cuba included a man claiming to be 105 and a man in his seventies who says that American troops dragged him from his sickbed." [more]

"Diplomats say that Britain and the United States can count on the support only of Bulgaria, Colombia, Norway and Singapore for its latest proposal. Russia, China, France and Syria do not support the present US-British text. The swing votes are Cameroon, Ireland, Guinea, Mauritius and Mexico." [more]

"IRAN told Washington yesterday that it would never accept an American attempt to impose military rule on Iraq if Saddam Hussein were toppled from power. " [more]

"Unmovic now has a roster of 220 trained inspectors from 44 countries – including Steven Hatfill, the former US government researcher whose home has been searched repeatedly by the FBI in connection with the investigation into last year’s anthrax attacks." [more]

"The White House is aware that it lacks substantial new intelligence on Saddamís nuclear programme or evidence directly linking Baghdad to the September 11 attacks. But it will build on the contents of Presidentís Bushís speech made to the UN General Assembly last week, in which he listed Saddamís violations of UN resolutions." [more]

"General Schwarzkopf, now retired from the US Army but still a commanding voice on matters relating to Iraq, said that the success of Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and the expulsion of President Saddam Husseinís troops from Kuwait was almost entirely based on the existence of a broad international coalition. He said: ìIn the Gulf War we had an international force and troops from many nations. We would be lacking if we went it alone at this time.î" [more]

"The biggest danger, though, lay in allowing other countries to use Americaís intervention to justify their own acts of pre-emptive hostility, he said. ìIt is not in the American national interest to establish pre-emption as a universal principle available to every nation.î Potentially the most ìfateful reactionî, he said, would be if India used the example of US military action in Iraq to attack Pakistan." [more]

"The paper, prepared by Laurent Murawiec, a former adviser to the French Defence Ministry and an analyst at the US military think-tank, the Rand Corporation, was uncompromising in its recommendations. ìSaudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies,î the report, obtained by The Washington Post, states." [more]

"Israelís likely reaction would be nuclear ground bursts against every Iraqi city not already occupied by US-led coalition forces. Senators were told that, unlike the 1991 Gulf War, when Washington urged Israel not to retaliate against Iraqi missile strikes, Israeli leaders have decided that their credibility would be hurt if they failed to react this time." [more]

"[South-East Asia] Regional officials have agreed a landmark declaration of co-operation with the US that will give the Americans, which has 100,000 troops in the region, far greater latitude to operate against terrorists in their countries. It will be signed by Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, who meets Foreign Ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) in Brunei tomorrow." [more]

"A UN source said that the report was produced by a team of 'experienced and reputable UN people, who have been in the region a while and know it well'. It states that there was clear evidence that human rights violations had taken place and that coalition forces had arrived on the scene very quickly after the airstrikes and 'cleaned the area', removing evidence of 'shrapnel, bullets and traces of blood'. Women on the scene had their hands tied behind their backs." [more]

"Speaking in a committee room of the House of Lords, Dr Haley said he had uncovered evidence of 'chemical disturbance' in the brain. A similar study of British veterans by Goran Jamal, consultant physician at Imperial College School of Medicine, London University, which also revealed brain damage, had been ignored by the authorities, Dr Haley said." [more]

"If the United States decides to make surprise strikes on other countries, it will mark a big change in strategy for the US military, which traditionally acts only in self-defence." [more]

"Speaking in an interview with ITN, President Bush said: 'I made up my mind that Saddam needs to go.' He refused to go into details about how he planned to remove the Iraqi leader and said simply: 'Just wait and see.' " [more]

"For the first time since violence between Israel and the Palestinians erupted 18 months ago, the bloody conflict threatened last night to spill over into the Arab world." [more]

"One of the many activists now based in Pakistan, he said: 'We have some 300 suicide bombers ready to attack the American installations in Afghanistan.' They are confident of mobilising support among the Pashtuns, who they believe would not accept a foreign-propped government in Kabul. 'People are still with us and the Americans are being sucked into a war which they can never win,' he said." [more]

"Underlining the new threat posed by new al-Qaeda and Taleban tactics, George Tenet, director of the CIA, also warned the Armed Services Committee: ìYouíre entering into another phase here that actually is more difficult, because youíre probably looking at smaller units who intend to operate against you in a classic insurgency format.î" [more]

ìThey were not trained for the kind of fighting we do in the mountains and, in these conditions, their kind of fighting is useless,î Commander Allah Mohammed said. ìThey were weakening our morale, it was better for them to go.î [more]

"A US official said that there should not be any doubt that America was going to act to bring about a change of regime and that it was prepared to take unilateral military action if necessary. With no clear blueprint for the kind of government that would be established in Baghdad after the removal of President Saddam Hussein, Mr Cheney will spend much of his time soliciting the views of Iraqís neighbours." [more]

"Kandahar is filled with 10,000 armed men loyal to anti-Taleban warlords. Nooruddin said that while the extremist Taleban had won the arguments in the past, there were many Taleban moderates. 'The people know this,' he said. 'Now we should win their hearts with more mildness. For the people, they hate the Americans.' " [more]