In a show of support for Iraq’s emerging government, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in the capital Baghdad unannounced today for meetings with Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki and other newly selected leaders.

NEWSWEEK ran an absorbing story this week featuring bitter criticism by retired US generals of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today urged the world to work for a "diplomatic solution" to halt the nuclear program of Iran, a nation he called the "leading state sponsor of terrorism".

Iraq’s leading Shiite religious bloc has said that it is ready to discuss Sunni Arab participation in a coalition government, while thousands of Sunni and secular Shiite demonstrators took to the streets claiming election fraud.

President George Bush has authorised new cuts in US combat troops in Iraq, below the 138,000 level that prevailed for most of this year, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today.

IRAQ'S president indicated yesterday that he was ready for talks with anti-government opposition figures and members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Ba'ath Party.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today focused on cooperation between the US and Thailand as he met with Thai officials during a one-day stopover, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said.

The leaders of Iraq’s emerging new government must not allow “turbulence or incompetence or corruption” to slow or foil progress toward building democracy and defeating the insurgency, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.

The top US commander in Iraq authorised prisoner interrogation tactics including the use of dogs, stress positions and isolation, according to a memo.

Human rights groups filed a lawsuit against US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of eight men allegedly tortured by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld offered to resign twice during the height of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal last year. He said he wanted the decision on his future to be placed in President George Bush’s hands.

A gas tanker truck wired with explosives blew up in a west Baghdad neighbourhood, killing one person, wounding 19 and lighting up the night sky with a fireball just hours after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld left the Iraqi capital.

People outside the US could only watch, wait and fume as Americans lined up to vote today in an election that provoked an extraordinary degree of emotional involvement beyond US borders.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is due to arrive in Romania today to visit an air base used by US troops during the war in Iraq and attend a meeting of Nato defence ministers.

DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate John Kerry called yesterday for US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign over the Abu Ghraib scandal.

THE Pentagon will release secret orders from US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on interrogating terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay following intense criticism of US treatment of prisoners.

More than 300 Iraqi detainees, some weeping and waving to friends, were released from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison today, a day after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit and insisted the Pentagon did not try to cover up abuses there.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, making a surprise visit to the Iraqi prison at the centre of the abuse scandal, said today lawyers were advising the Pentagon not to publicly release any more photographs of Iraqi prisoners being treated badly by US soldiers.

Beleaguered US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today extended “my deepest apologies” to Iraqi prisoners abused by military personnel and told Congress he accepts full responsibility for the shocking events.

Amid calls for his resignation, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld prepared to apologise today for not keeping Congress informed about abuses of Iraqi prisoners, his officials said.

Escalating criticism of the Bush administration’s handling of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners raised new questions today as to whether US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would hold on to his job.

Saddam Hussein has been given the status of a prisoner of war, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today.

THE American military machine is not geared to fighting the war on terror and has not made “truly bold moves” against al-Qaida, according to a leaked memo by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Concerns persist about security at Afghanistan’s borders and terrorists’ infiltration of the country, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today.

President George Bush is expected to decide today whether to send US peacekeeping troops to the war-torn West African nation of Liberia.

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.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pledged during an unannounced visit to Iraq yesterday that his troops would leave as soon as possible, but fresh bloodshed erupted at an anti-American protest.

US military officials investigated nearly 1,500 unmarked graves near the Kurdish-controlled northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, and a half-brother of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was captured in a US commando raid in Baghdad.

US TROOPS, buoyed by the recovery of seven prisoners of war, battled the remnants of the Iraqi army in Saddam Hussein’s last stronghold of Tikrit last night and top American officials warned Syria not to grant refuge to fleeing Iraqi leaders.

Almost the entire Iraqi leadership vanished as American armour rolled into the capital Baghdad, it was reported today.

RETIRED military commanders have accused US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of putting Allied troops at risk by underestimating the strength of the Iraqi resistance.

US officials are seeing signs of renewed control by Baghdad over military and security forces in Iraq, but said they don’t know whether it is coming from Saddam Hussein or his senior chiefs.

US and allied forces have now taken in ”excess of 3,500 Iraqi prisoners,” US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said tonight.

UN inspectors fly to Iraq today, resuming the search for alleged weapons of mass destruction in a mission that could determine whether the Gulf is plunged into a new war.

AN audiotape attributed to Osama bin Laden threatening more terror against America and its allies has US officials concerned that the long-absent terrorist leader has re-emerged to direct new al-Qaida attacks.

British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon is to visit the United States for a six-day trip surrounding the first anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, it was confirmed tonight.

Al Qaida fighters may be operating in the Kashmir region dividing India and Pakistan, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.

A US military tanker plane crashed into a mountain in Pakistan, killing seven marines, the Pentagon said. It was the worst US casualty toll of the Afghanistan campaign.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov met in Moscow today to discuss US-Russian co-operation in the anti-terrorist campaign.

The Pentagon says it is too early to judge the success of the missions against the Taliban.

The Pentagon says it is too early to judge the success of the missions against the Taliban.

There are reports that the US has admitted losing an unmanned spy plane over Afghanistan.