26 March 2004 Friday 04 Safar 1425 Three US soldiers killed in Iraq BAGHDAD, March 25: Bombs and gunfire hit US army convoys outside Baghdad, killing two soldiers and a Marine the past 24 hours, while an explosion Thursday set ablaze a main oil well in northern Iraq ... Blast sets oil well ablaze near Kirkuk KIRKUK, March 25: An explosion on Thursday set ablaze an oil well in northern Iraq that feeds exports through Turkey, the director general of the state-run Northern Iraqi Company (NOC) said. ... Western firms fuel corruption abroad: Transparency LONDON, March 25: Western companies fuel corruption in the developing world and flaunt their governments' anti-bribery laws, an international corruption watchdog said on Thursday. ... 3 Britons, 23 others get jail in Egypt CAIRO, March 25: Egypt sentenced 26 people, including three Britons, to between one and five years in jail on Thursday for promoting the goals of an illegal Islamist group. ... Russia threatens Nato with nuclear option MOSCOW, March 25: Russia's defence minister on Thursday repeated an earlier warning to Nato that he might order a buildup of the country's nuclear defences should the US-led alliance continue to expand and take an unfriendly view of Moscow. ... Bush's former aide apologizes over 9/11 WASHINGTON, March 25: The White House counter-terrorism adviser at the time of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks made a public apology on Wednesday to the relatives of the some 3,000 victims saying that the US government had failed them. ... US tables resolution on WMD sat UN SC UNITED NATIONS, March 25: The United States and Britain submitted on Wednesday a draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would ban the transfer of weapons of mass destruction to terrorists and others acting without state authority. ... 'Peaceful intifada' RAMALLAH, March 25: Sixty leading Palestinian personalities appealed for a "peaceful intifada" in a petition to local newspapers on Thursday. In the letter published in the Ramallah-based Al Ayyam, the signatories condemned Monday's assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin". ... Tagore's Nobel medal stolen CALCUTTA, March 25: The Nobel medal of Indian poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel laureate, was stolen from a museum in eastern India, police said on Thursday. ... Bush's new enemy is the truth WASHINGTON: One of the first official acts of the current Bush administration was to downgrade the office of national coordinator for counter terrorism on the National Security Council - a position held by Richard Clarke. ... Palestine is now part of an arc of Muslim resistance LONDON: Ariel Sharon's decision to incinerate a 67-year-old blind quadriplegic cleric outside his local mosque will certainly go down as one of the most spectacularly counter-productive acts of violence in the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. ... All Israelis face attack, warns Hamas leader DAMASCUS/GAZA, March 25: Hamas's political leader Khaled Meshaal warned all Israelis, from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to ordinary people, that they will not be safe from attack until Israel abandons occupied land. ... Laws complicate Al Qaeda hunt ISLAMABAD: From calls for blood revenge to codes of honour, centuries-old tribal laws are complicating the sweep for Al Qaeda fighters and the hunt for Osama bin Laden on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. ... Riyadh rebuffed Straw, says paper RIYADH, March 25: Saudi Arabia has rebuffed a plea by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urging Riyadh to encourage other Arab countries to consider a US initiative for democracy in the Middle East ...

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