US senators who want a hearing into the Lockerbie bomber’s release were urged to sign a letter asking the Scottish Government to hold its own public inquiry into the tragedy, it emerged last night.

A string of high profile British witnesses who refused to testify at a US Senate hearing into the release of the Lockerbie bomber were today facing accusations of “stonewalling”.

Embattled BP chief executive Tony Hayward is negotiating his exit package with an announcement on his future expected in the coming 24 hours, it was reported today.

A cancer specialist who examined the Lockerbie bomber did not endorse the view that he had less than three months to live, it was reported today.

Detailed plans for the new US embassy being built in Baghdad have appeared online in a major breach of the tight security surrounding the sensitive project that will be America’s largest diplomatic mission abroad.

US Congressional aides who went to North Korea’s disputed nuclear plant in the first visit by outsiders in more than a year, were in Seoul today to discuss with South Korea the communist country’s “nuclear deterrent”.

An unofficial delegation of Americans who visited North Korea said today they had toured the country’s disputed Yongbyon nuclear facility.

A US DELEGATION flew to North Korea yesterday, hoping to visit a nuclear complex at the heart of the North’s atomic arms programme, as Pyongyang pitched what it called a “bold concession” to restart talks.

By Ryle Dwyer

FACING the increasing possibility of US military action, Iraq yesterday gave the first solid indication in nearly four years that it will allow UN weapons inspectors to return and invited the chief inspector to Baghdad for talks.

Facing the increasing possibility of US military action, Iraq today gave the first solid indication in nearly four years that it will allow UN weapons inspectors to return and invited the chief inspector to Baghdad for talks.