BRITISH attempts to improve “dire” planning for the aftermath of the Iraq invasion were repeatedly ignored by the US, the inquiry into the war heard yesterday.

British attempts to improve “dire” planning for the aftermath of the Iraq invasion were repeatedly ignored by the US, the inquiry into the war heard today.

IN the early stages of this recession, politicians assured us we were not returning to the 1980s. Now we are facing something much, much worse. How bad will it get? How long will it last?

Oscar winner Sean Penn's anti-war stance has been praised by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez during the actor's visit to the South American country.

TONY Blair, a major player on the world stage for a decade, won global praise yesterday for defending Kosovo, fighting poverty in Africa and overseeing peace in Northern Ireland — but came under heavy criticism for championing the US push into Iraq.

Australia’s prime minister admitted today that his country’s commitment to the Iraq war was unpopular, but said he was willing to sacrifice his government over the issue at the ballot box this year.

Tony Blair has apparently admitted that the invasion of Iraq by the United States and Britain was a disaster.

An Afghan warlord wanted by the United States declared support for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in a videotape broadcast today by Al-Jazeera television.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the Iraq invasion again today as she faced a second day of anti-war protests on her visit to the north-west of England.

French police clashed with youths protesting a government jobs plan yesterday in an hours-long melee in the French capital that left nine officers injured, one hit in the face with a paving stone, officials said.

REM frontman Michael Stipe is to headline a concert urging the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

ON Wednesday, US President George W Bush received Iraqi president Jalal Talabani in the White House. Talabani’s remarks to Bush could have been written by Karl Rove.

British and American diplomats walked out of a human rights conference in Malaysia today, after the country’s former prime minister called their countries terrorist states and said coalition pilots whose bombs killed Iraqi civilians were murderers.

Terrorism suspects held in the US Navy prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are being dealt with “humanely” and with “dignity,” the nation’s top military officer says in disputing reported abuses.

A US military jury in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, has sentenced a soldier to death for a grenade and rifle attack on his own comrades during the opening days of the Iraq invasion.

A military jury in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, sentenced a soldier to death on Thursday for a grenade and rifle attack on his own comrades during the opening days of the Iraq invasion, a barrage that killed two officers and that prosecutors said was driven by religious extremism.

US troops will be withdrawn from Iraq at the request of the newly-elected government, President George Bush said today.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, testifying before a parliamentary commission investigating Spain’s worst terrorist attack, dismissed any link between his surprise election victory last March and the Madrid train bombings three days earlier.

US and Iraqi troops recaptured police stations and secured bridges in the northern city of Mosul in an offensive aimed at pushing out fighters supporting the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.

Prime Minister John Howard scored a convincing victory in Australia’s federal election, winning a historic fourth term in a vote that will ensure the country keeps its troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard appeared to be heading for a historic fourth-term victory in his country’s federal election today, in a vote that will ensure the country keeps its troops in Iraq.

LEADING allies of the United States sought yesterday to defend the legal basis for their support of the US-led invasion of Iraq after UN chief Kofi Annan said it was illegal.

THE US should not have invaded Iraq, former US President Bill Clinton has said.

US intelligence agencies fell victim to false “group think” when assessing Iraq’s weapons capabilities and ended up giving the Bush administration overstated or incorrect conclusions before the 2003 invasion, a scathing Senate Intelligence Committee report says.

A Shiite surgeon, who survived a Saddam Hussein ordered assassination attempt in London while in exile, tonight appears set to Iraq’s new prime minister.

The Iraq coalition will overcome the wave of terrorist-style attacks destabilising the post-Saddam Hussein state to help it emerge as a free nation, President George Bush vowed today.

The Green Party has expressed concern about plans to introduce a "solidarity clause" in the draft EU constitution following last week’s Madrid bombings.

A US military helicopter crashed west of Baghdad today, killing one soldier, and gunmen shot dead a Kurd as ethnic tension gripped the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

US Vice President Dick Cheney defended the invasion of Iraq as a critical strike against terror, saying today that the US still faced enemies that could inflict hundreds of thousands of American deaths in a single day.

Two terror attacks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad today left at least 11 people dead including a Spanish military attaché who was assassinated.

An investigation into allegations against General Tommy Franks of the US army, the man who would lead any Iraq invasion, has cleared him of all charges except that he allowed his wife to attend classified briefings.