new U.S. intelligence report says Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and it remains on hold, contradicting the Bush administration's earlier assertion that Tehran was intent on developing a bomb.

case that came before a federal judge in Brooklyn last week may - some believe for the first time - send someone to prison for importing bushmeat - in this case, pieces of baboon, green monkey and warthog

A detailed insight into the inner workings of the Guantánamo detention camp, ranging from items allowed in cells to how many witnesses should be present for cavity searches, is provided in a leaked Pentagon manual.

All this, says Richard Feldman, a former NRA insider and gun lobbyist, is bad news for an organisation that likes nothing better than a fight. Confrontation enables the NRA to engage in "financial bloodsucking" of its members and to make "deceitful appeal

.S. State Department investigators looking into the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad last month offered immunity deals to Blackwater security guards, The New York Times reported on Monday.

A funding request sent to Congress this week seeks $196.4bn (£96bn) for counter-terrorism in 2007-8, $25bn up on this year. The Pentagon's separate budget request amounts to an additional $481.4bn.

Blackwater contractors sitting on the Mambas at the terminal at Baghdad International Airport after a run, smoking a cigar and waiting for new team members to arrive.

The US Air Force has relieved several officers of their commands after a B-52 bomber was mistakenly flown across the US loaded with nuclear-armed missiles.

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is reported to have promised US backing for Russian human rights activists.

assessment by retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was one of the harshest yet by a top military leader involved in the war.