Free Republic

JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli government has declared Ariel Sharon permanently incapacitated.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranians will hear "good news" on their country's atomic programme on Tuesday night, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. "After hearing all the good news tomorrow (Tuesday) night, Iranians should prostrate themselves before almighty God," he said in the northeastern city of Mashhad on Monday night. A conservative newspaper close to key officials has speculated the news would be that Iran had enriched uranium to the 3.5 percent level needed for fuel to run nuclear power stations. A reporter for the Arabic-language Al Arabiya satellite channel said Iran had...

ROME (Reuters) - Police have arrested Bernardo Provenzano, the head of the Sicilian Mafia who has been on the run for more than four decades and is Italy's most wanted man, Italy's Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

ROME (Reuters) - Polls reopened for the Italian general election on Monday with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi facing possible defeat by his centre-left rival Romano Prodi. Polls remain open until 3.00 p.m. Exit polls will be released minutes after that, with the official results likely to be clear in the late evening. Italians began casting their votes on Sunday with the national election being held for the first time over two days.

The lawsuit of Saddam Hussein began again in Baghdad BAGHDAD - the lawsuit of Saddam Hussein in the business of the massacre of villager Shiites of Doujaïl took again Wednesday in front of the High Iraqi penal court in Baghdad, noted a journalist of AFP. The deposed president entered only the courtroom where it must continue his deposition and answer the questions of the Attorney General.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. forces were involved in heavy fighting with Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan on Saturday but there was no immediate word on casualties, a provincial official said. Afghanistan has seen a surge in attacks by Taliban insurgents and their militant allies in recent months and the Taliban have vowed to launch a spring offensive against U.S.-led foreign forces and the Western-backed government. The clash erupted after U.S. troops backed by helicopter gunships launched an operation in the Sangin district of the southern province of Helmand, said an administrative official in the province. "It's very heavy," the...

North Korea suggested Tuesday it had the ability to launch a pre-emptive attack on the United States, according to the North's official news agency. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the North had built atomic weapons to counter the U.S. nuclear threat. "As we declared, our strong revolutionary might put in place all measures to counter possible U.S. pre-emptive strike," the spokesman said, according to the Korean Central News Agency. "Pre-emptive strike is not the monopoly of the United States." Last week, the communist country warned that it had the right to launch a pre-emptive strike, saying it would strengthen...

Che Hague - Slobodan Milosevic took délibérement a drug not prescribed "cancelling" the effect of its treatment against hypertension, indicated to Monday to AFP the Dutch toxicologist Ronald Uges after an analysis of the blood of the former Yugoslav president. "It took (a drug containing) rifampicine, a drug which cancels the effect" of the treatments against hypertension, explained Mr. Uges who carried out an analysis of the blood of the former Yugoslav president two weeks ago. "It took this drug itself and it it wanted to obtain an one-way ticket towards Moscow", he added. Slobodan Milosevic had required in...

ALARM - Resumption of the lawsuit of Saddam Hussein and her seven co-defendants BAGHDAD - the 15th audience of the lawsuit of Iraqi president deposed Saddam Hussein and seven of her lieutenants began Sunday towards 12H40 (09H40 GMT), in front of the High penal court in Baghdad, noted a journalist of AFP.

ALARM - Iran has enough uranium gas to produce 10 bombs VIENNA - the United States estimates that Iran has enough uranium gas to manufacture after enrichment ten nuclear bombs, and they claim new inspections, indicated a diplomat at the IAEA Wednesday to AFP.

Iraqi prosecutors submitted to the court trying Saddam Hussein Tuesday what they said was a signed execution order showing his guilt in the killing of 148 Shiite civilians in reprisal for a 1982 assassination bid. The document, dated June 16, 1984 and allegedly signed by the ousted president, confirmed death sentences passed by a tribunal two days earlier. A second document purported to be letter dated March 23, 1985, and confirmed the executions had taken place, adding that a doctor had been on hand to confirm the deaths. The prosecutors said the villagers had been sentenced after a show...

TIKRIT, Iraq, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A bomb attack on Tuesday badly damaged a small mosque shrine Saddam Hussein had built over his father's grave, police and local officials said. The officials, confirming earlier reports of blasts at the site by residents, said bombs were planted at the shrine at dawn.