I WISH to support the opinions expressed by Bill Hurley (Irish Examiner letters, June 27) and Michael Higgins (June 28) with regard to our attitude to America.

THE US military, facing an Arab world backlash for its treatment of Iraqi prisoners, announced yesterday it had launched an investigation into a complaint of detainee abuse in Afghanistan.

Suicide boat bombings targeting Iraq’s key oil industry in the Gulf forced the closure of two major terminals in the Gulf for several hours, but the facilities resumed work loading tankers today, Iraq’s top oil marketing official said.

Key European nations, including Iraq war opponents Germany and France, vigorously rejected a truce offer purportedly from Osama bin Laden, saying there could be no negotiating with his al- Qaida terrorist network.

US President George W Bush was determined to "eliminate" al-Qaida before the September 11 attacks but there was no silver bullet that could have stopped the outrage, his national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said yesterday.

The suicide bombers responsible for four explosions in Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh which killed at least 29 people were believed to be the same men who escaped from police five days before, according to Saudi authorities.

At least one person was killed and 60 injured in a series of bomb blasts in Saudi capital Riyadh, including a car packed with explosives that rammed into a residential compound housing westerners, hospital and security officials said today.

A BOMB exploded near a fast-food restaurant at Jakarta’s main airport yesterday, wounding at least seven.

SADDAM HUSSEIN last night denied that Iraq had any links with the al-Qaida terror network and accused Britain and the United States of being more “motivated by war than their responsibility for peace”.

SADDAM HUSSEIN last night denied that Iraq had any links with the al-Qaida terror network and accused Britain and the US of being more “motivated by war than their responsibility for peace”.

US officials received a warning in 1995 that Islamic militants were plotting to attack an American nuclear site and targets in Britain - but did not pass on the information to the agency overseeing nuclear facilities or to the plants themselves, it has emerged.