Britain and the US have been forced into more concessions in their demands on Saddam Hussein in a desperate attempt to try to win over wavering countries on the UN security council.

With a war against Iraq perhaps days away, the world’s richest governments have given the United Nations barely a quarter of the funds its agencies have asked for to deal with the expected humanitarian catastrophe.

Hamas has accused Israel of launching a strategy to assassinate Palestinian leaders who oppose Ariel Sharon’s plans to impose an emasculated form of independence on the occupied territories.

French soldiers in Ivory Coast said yesterday they had found the bodies of around 200 civilians massacred on Friday, as fresh violence in the divided west of the country jeopardised its stop-start peace process.

Why should African cinema have a special place in the genre? Why should it even be regarded as a special sub-genre within the weird sub-genre that film already is in the world of the arts?

Municipalities spent less than 10% of their capital budgets in the first six months of the financial year, raising fears that they are using loans earmarked for capital projects to cover operating costs or that “their planning is skewed”

I believe that the world will be a much better place sans Saddam. I have no objection to his being overthrown by American force if, as seems likely, the job can be done without massive loss of life. But I am acutely aware that this puts me in the camp of a certain Texan moron, who happens to be leading the only campaign that seems likely to get rid of Saddam