All 50 000 troops who served in the first Gulf war might have been exposed to low levels of chemical warfare agents during the fighting and its aftermath, a United States investigation has suggested. The report indicates that possible chemical contamination of troops could have been much more widespread than suggested by previous official government estimates.

The precise origins of rock’n’roll may be lost in a fog of competing claims, but few single incidents in the early history of modern popular music seem more significant than the night in November 1954 when Ray Charles and his band entered the studio of a college radio station in Atlanta, Georgia, to record a song called I Got a Woman.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was on Thursday night hailing success for the attempt by Britain and America to secure deeper debt relief for the world’s poorest nations, after the G8 summit unveiled a package of measures at the end of its three-day meeting.

Chuck Thompson and his family left home in Indiana after dark and arrived in Washington at dawn on Thursday after 10 hours driving, just as the sun was beginning to reflect off the Capitol’s gleaming white dome. Thompson was ebullient. President Reagan had been a lifelong hero, and with every step he was taking his family closer to history.

Libya’s leader, Colonel Moammar Gadaffi, ordered a covert operation to assassinate the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, according to statements by two alleged participants in the conspiracy, it was reported on Thursday. United States officials said investigators were assessing the credibility of the alleged plot against Crown Prince Abdullah described by an American Muslim and a Libyan intelligence officer.

Even great minds wander. When I hear our leaders, national or global, spilling forth the predigested pabulum of their public statements, I often wonder what’s going on in their minds. As they speechify, roll out all the platitudes and clichés, what are they really thinking?