THE new Tory leader yesterday made what may be his most popular but high-risk move by bringing Conservative clown prince Boris Johnson back to frontline politics.

THE very quick and safe release of reporter Rory Carroll in Iraq is to be welcomed. However, as in all such incidents, questions should be asked concerning any proposed methods that might have been used to gain his release.

Irish and British politicians tonight called for the speedy release of Dublin journalist Rory Carroll who is believed to have been kidnapped while reporting for The Guardian newspaper in Baghdad.

The Guardian newspaper said today one of its reporters has disappeared in Iraq and it believes he was kidnapped.

Pat Kinsley, managing director of the Neworld group, a brand building consultancy, talks to David Clerkin.

Coalition forces killed six insurgents in raids targeting the terror network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi near the Syrian border today, the US military said.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday defended his decision to go to war with Iraq as the decision to invade the battered country came back to haunt him in a final 48 hours of frantic election campaigning.

Iraqi forces have captured what the government described today as a trusted aide to al-Qaida terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

In some of the worst violence in recent weeks in Baghdad, rebels launched attacks against Iraqi security forces in the capital today, killing at least 30 people.

Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Sunni rebel group, al-Qaida in Iraq, has claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on a police station in the country today.

Iraqi troops, searching terrorist hideouts in Fallujah, discovered a chemical weapons laboratory with manuals on manufacturing explosives and toxins - including anthrax.

The terror leader whose gang beheaded Ken Bigley today lashed out at Muslim scholars for not speaking against the US actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The terror group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility today for kidnapping three members of Iraq’s interim prime minister Iyad Allawi’s family.

Aid worker Margaret Hassan was shown in three harrowing videos before her reported death at the hands of her Iraqi captors.

British conservative MP Boris Johnson (pictured) was contemplating backbench life again today after being sacked as shadow arts minister amid fresh details of an affair with columnist Petronella Wyatt.

The family of murdered Iraq hostage Ken Bigley including his mother Lil and his wife Sombat, were in Liverpool today for a memorial the service at the city’s Anglican Cathedral.

Several Irish politicians are to attend a memorial service for murdered British hostage Ken Bigley in Liverpool today.

THE Iraqi kidnappers of Irish-born British aid worker Margaret Hassan have threatened to turn her over to the group that beheaded British hostage Ken Bigley.

The group that kidnapped Irish-born aid worker Margaret Hassan in Iraq has threatened to hand her over to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi if Britain does not withdraw its soldiers from the country.

THE kidnappers of Iraq hostage Margaret Hassan, 59, last night threatened to hand her over to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi if their demands are not met within 48 hours.

At least eight people were killed when a car bomb exploded near the Ministry of Education in a busy commercial area of northern Baghdad today.

Gunmen stormed the compound of a Saudi company in a fashionable Baghdad neighbourhood, seizing an American, a Nepalese and four Iraqis after a gun battle in which a guard and one of the attackers were killed.

Gunmen stormed the compound of a Saudi company in Baghdad today and seized an American, a Nepalese and four Iraqi guards after a gunbattle in which two people were killed.

An American and three other foreigners were kidnapped from their Baghdad office today after “an exchange of fire”, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

In the North, prayers have been said for Annetta Flanigan, the Armagh-born woman who is being held hostage in Afghanistan along with two other UN workers.

MILLWALL and Liverpool fans have blamed each other for the violence which marred the Carling Cup third-round tie at The New Den.

Millwall and Liverpool fans have blamed each other for the violence which marred the Carling Cup third-round tie at The New Den.

Liverpool FC supporters said they were “sickened” today after Millwall fans taunted them with chants about the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster.

Iraqi officials suspect that 50 US trained Iraqi soldiers murdered by insurgents – many of them execution-style – may have been set up by rebel infiltrators in their ranks.

An Irish-born aid chief held hostage in Iraq was seen weeping in distress as she begged not to be killed like Ken Bigley in a new videotape released today by her captors.

A family of six, who had just returned to the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah, were killed today when rockets fired from US jets levelled their house.

The husband of charity chief Margaret Hassan, kidnapped at gunpoint in Baghdad yesterday, made an emotional plea for her release today.

GOVERNMENT authorities in Ireland and Britain were last night working behind the scenes for the release of the Irish female aid worker kidnapped in Iraq.

INSURGENTS in war-ravaged Iraq have kidnapped more than 150 foreigners in their campaign to drive out coalition forces and hamper reconstruction.

The negotiator for the militant Shiite stronghold of Fallujah was freed from US custody today but refused to resume peace talks.

THE British Government yesterday rejected accusations that it might reposition British troops to more dangerous areas in Iraq to boost US President George W Bush’s political position in the US presidential election race.

US forces battled insurgents around the rebel stronghold of Fallujah today after two American soldiers died as their helicopters crashed south of Baghdad.

American warplanes pounded the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah today after the city’s leaders suspended peace talks and rejected the Iraqi government’s demands to turn over terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The terrorists who beheaded British hostage Ken Bigley claimed responsibility today for daring suicide attacks inside Baghdad’s heavily guarded Green Zone that killed five people, including three American civilians.

British Chancellor Gordon Brown today ordered financial institutions to freeze any funds held on behalf of the terror group which kidnapped and murdered Ken Bigley in Iraq.

The Bank of England has frozen the assets of the Jama'at Al-Tawhid Wa'al-Jihad (JTJ) terrorist group which admitted involvement in the kidnap and murder of Ken Bigley, Chancellor Gordon Brown told the Commons.

THE beheading of two Iraqi intelligence officers by their kidnappers appeared in a video on an Islamic website yesterday.

THERE are moments on the journey which is the Northern Ireland peace process when a news story comes along that jolts us from the moral anaesthetic we must stay under in order to get through this process.

A suicide attack and roadside bombings killed six American soldiers as coalition troops stepped up pressure on Sunni insurgents before this week’s start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.