New images of naked prisoners, some bloodied and lying on the floor, threatened to revive public anger over abuse by US guards at Abu Ghraib prison at a time when tensions with the west are already running high in the Middle East.

The regime of Saddam Hussein rejected repeated requests from Jordan to hand over Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who now heads al-Qaida in Iraq, the Jordanian king said in an interview published today.

Photographs of British soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq were decried in the Arab media today as shameful but were not receiving the same intense attention as the images of US abuses at Abu Ghraib prison last year.

OPEC oil ministers today joined in supporting a cut in output toward production target levels early next year in a bid by the organisation’s 11 member states to stave off further falls in the world price while trying to avoid a new frenzy of buying.

CRUDE oil futures rose in New York yesterday after a blast damaged an oil pipeline in Iraq, renewing concerns that violence will disrupt exports from the Middle East’s fifth-biggest oil producer.

ATTACKERS detonated a car bomb near police and government buildings in the western city of Haditha yesterday, killing 10 Iraqis.

Yasser Arafat’s wife today accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of being behind reports of a probe by French prosecutors into alleged transfers of millions of pounds to her Paris bank accounts.

Ukraine denied today that some of its scientists had sold suitcase sized nuclear weapons to the al-Qaida terror group.

Saddam Hussein has acknowledged depositing billions of dollars abroad and has given interrogators the names of people who know where the money is, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council said today.

Iraqi police have arrested four men – including two Saudis – in connection with the bombing of Iraq’s most holy Shi-ite Muslim shrine.

A militant who is suspected of masterminding the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh has been arrested, state radio reported.

A militant who is suspected of masterminding the May 12 suicide bombings in the Saudi capital has been arrested, state radio reported today.

TWO Arab-language newspapers placed Saddam Hussein and his son Qusay in Baghdad last week on the day US tanks drove to the heart of the capital and Iraqis toppled a massive statue, symbolically ending his 24-year rule.

Jailed terrorist Carlos the Jackal says he admires Osama bin Laden.

Saudi Arabia will not allow foreign security personnel to interrogate 13 detained al Qaida suspects, a Saudi official has said.

The Harry Potter series and George Orwell’s Animal Farm are among 26 books that have been banned from schools in the United Arab Emirates.