”Art diagnostician” Maurizio Seracini has examined Leonardo da Vinci’s The Adoration of the Magi minutely using a technique that exploits the fact that infrared light passes through paint but reflects off the under-drawing. After a four-year investigation, what he has found will electrify conspiracy theorists.

Iraqi authorities are preparing an arrest warrant for the country’s former defence minister in connection with a massive fraud case involving the ”disappearance” of more than -billion from ministry coffers. But Hazim Shaalan, who is understood to be living in Jordan, has denied complicity in the scandal.

The chances of Angela Merkel becoming Germany’s next chancellor suffered a setback on Monday when the Greens appeared to rule out joining a coalition with her conservative Christian Democrat party. With the country in political gridlock, speculation is growing that the Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, will try to force new elections.

British troops used tanks on Monday night to break down the walls of a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Basra and free two undercover British soldiers who were seized earlier in the day by local police. The governor of Basra on Monday night condemned the ”barbaric aggression” of British forces in storming the jail.