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The death toll from the terrorist bomb attack in the Southern Philippines has risen to 21. The terrorist group Abu Sayyaf is being held responsible for the atrocity. Hamsiraji Sali, a commander in an Abu Sayyaf terrorist group was hiding out on the southern island of Basilan, admitted that he is getting funds from Iraq. Sali bragged the money would be spent "on chemicals for bomb-making and for the movement of our people." His boast led to the expulsion of Husham Hussein, an Iraqi diplomat, last week. Husham had been discovered contacting Abu Sayyaf by phone. Intelligence linked him to...

AN accused Iraqi spy awaiting expulsion says he will fight Australian troops if they join a US-led war on his country. Helal Ibrahim Aaref, who has been told to leave Australia by Wednesday, told the Herald Sun he would have no option but take up arms. "I hope Australians don't go to Iraq," Mr Aaref said. "But anyone, from all the world, who attacks Iraq, enters my cities, enters my country, I fight him. "You know, Iraq has a long history, from about 8000 years, and all that time we are fighting enemies because Iraq has oil and resources." Mr...

The attacks on US targets culminating in the September 11 suicide hijackings were only a fraction of the onslaught planned by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, it emerged yesterday. Over the past three years, US intelligence detected plots against US embassies in 14 countries, mostly in Asia and Africa, and there were over 600 more "credible threats" of attacks. Some were thwarted by arrests or stepped up security. Others appear to have been suspended or may still be pending. The global extent of al-Qaida's terrorist ambitions is revealed in a new book by Peter Bergen, CNN's terrorism analyst, who interviewed ...

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...