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Bahrain expels Iraq diplomat for alleged blast link MANAMA, April 2 (Reuters) - Bahrain on Wednesday expelled an Iraqi diplomat it accused of having links to a blast that occurred near a U.S. Navy base in the capital Manama last week. The official Bahrain News Agency said the foreign ministry asked Iraqi First Secretary Nadim Jawad Ali to leave the kingdom because of his alleged ties to an Iraqi man suspected of carrying out the March 24 blast. There was no immediate comment from the Iraqi embassy. A small cooking gas cylinder exploded near the gateway of the headquarters of...

THE Sunday Times has tracked down a mysterious middleman who was a key figure in the notorious Niger uranium hoax before the Iraq war, writes Nicholas Rufford. Speaking to a reporter in a cafe in Brussels last week, he claimed he had been an unwitting dupe in the scam, which embarrassed both Tony Blair and George W Bush over Saddam Hussein’s phantom weapons of mass destruction. The middleman, an Italian who uses the name Giacomo, is a small-time tipster said to have worked for Italy’s armed forces and intelligence services. He says Sismi, the Italian foreign intelligence service, used him...

The Swiss government has rejected a United States request for the immediate expulsion of Swiss-based Iraqi diplomats. The cabinet on Wednesday said the conditions for expulsion – as governed by international conventions – had not been met. A statement from the cabinet said Switzerland would only close a foreign embassy if ordered to do so by a United Nations resolution, or if diplomatic relations with a country had been terminated. The decision not to expel the Iraqi diplomats follows similar requests by the Bush administration to 60 countries around the world. The US state department earlier this month said the...

Sweden has decided to expel two Iraqi diplomats from Stockholm in response to a request from the United States. The two are said to have been involved in illegal surveillance of Iraqi dissidents in Sweden. The Swedish Prime Minister, Goeran Persson, said the decision to expel the two diplomats was made after careful consideration and a thorough investigation by the Swedish secret police. It is thought Iraq's charge d'affaires in Sweden, Qassim al-Zuhairi, is one of the diplomats, who will now have until next week to leave the country. Swedish authorities say the expulsions are linked to illegal surveillance of...

<p>BUCHAREST, Romania (March 10, 10:50 a.m. AST) - Five Iraqi diplomats were expelled from Romania over the weekend for "activities incompatible with their status," diplomatic jargon for spying. The expulsions came after Washington's request last week for dozens of countries to expel suspected Iraqi agents because of fears they could attack American interests overseas if there is a war.</p>