News in English

US Marines fired a rocket and dropped a 225kg laser-guided bomb on a mosque compound on Wednesday, and witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed. Shiite-inspired violence spread to key cities in Iraq.

Deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is being held at a US military base in Qatar, rather than in Iraq, according to a British newspaper.

A 17-year-old, who was one of nine people arrested in British police raids last week that apparently foiled a bomb plot, was remanded in custody Wednesday after appearing in court.

Dozensf people rampaged through a southern Russian market today, killing one Central Asian trader and wounding six, authorities said.

Shite militia in Iraq are preparing to launch simultaneous attacks on coalition forces on Good Friday that could also target foreign civilians working in Iraq, an Italian newspaper reported today.

Twelve US soldiers have been killed in a battle west of Baghdad as fighting with supporters of a firebrand Iraqi cleric continues to spread through the area.

British and US intelligence services foiled a plot to detonate a chemical bomb in Britain by a group thought to be sympathetic to al-Qaeda, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

The United States has called for a "fully autonomous and open" Hong Kong after a landmark ruling in Beijing that China should dictate the pace of democratic reforms in the former British territory.

Shite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose militiamen have risen up against the US-led coalition, is wanted for the killing of a rival last year and for questioning in another murder case, a legal adviser to the US-led coalition said today.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has brushed off recent threats to his life by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, saying he feared no-one but God.