The dollar is the de facto world reserve currency: the US currency accounts for approximately two thirds of all official exchange reserves. More than four-fifths of all foreign exchange transactions and half of all world exports are denominated in dollars. In addition, all IMF loans are denominated in dollars.

"If article 61 of the interim constitution is not changed, Imam (Ayatollah Ali) al-Sistani may issue a fatwa declaring illegitimate all those (Iraqis) to whom power is transferred in June," said Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Mohri.

He insisted repeatedly that he had based his decision to go to war on "good, solid intelligence." Yet the intelligence was hardly "good" or "solid" according to the folks who actually looked at the stuff. Last summer, the White House acknowledged that Bush never even bothered to read the entire NIE on Iraq before resolving to go to war. It was 90 pages long.
(In September 2002, Rumsfeld said, "There?s no debate in the world as to whether they have those weapons... We all know that. A trained ape knows that." Was this trained ape relying on "always imperfect" intelligence?)


A senior Uzbek al Qaeda member was wounded in recent fighting with Pakistani forces on the border with Afghanistan (news - web sites) and is on the run, the Pakistani military said on Saturday.

Courts and doctors have construed the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision to mean abortions can be legally performed until the "point of viability," when a healthy fetus can survive outside the womb. That milestone is usually reached 24 weeks to 28 weeks after conception.


A strong signal of life on Mars has been detected by scientists at the US National Aeronautics and Space Admin- istration (Nasa) and the European Space Agency.
Each group has independently discovered tantalising evidence of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Methane, a waste product of living organisms on Earth, could also be a by-product of alien microbes living under the surface of the Red Planet.

Saddam Hussein was finally betrayed by a relative who was one of his closest bodyguards, a BBC programme reveals.


The 15-nation Caribbean Community refused recognition Friday for Haiti's new U.S.-backed government amid continuing concerns over the departure of ousted leder Jean-Bertrand Aristide, senior Caribbean officials said.

officials say they believe an existing United Nations resolution approving the presence of a multinational force in Iraq, approved by the Security Council in October, gives American commanders the authority needed to maintain control after sovereignty is handed back.

Some Iraqi politicians maintain that United Nations mandate was intended to lapse at the return of sovereignty. But American officials, citing a passage in the resolution saying that the mandate would expire "upon the completion of the political process," argue that it will not lapse until a permanent Iraqi government takes office.

The document also outlined plans for Mr. Bremer to appoint an Iraqi forces chief of staff and a national security adviser for three-year terms, and an inspector-general with a five-year term.

For Sharon the choice is stark: victory or holocaust. To this way of thinking, a negotiated settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict based on compromise and mutual accommodation must be ruled out. One or other party must achieve total victory. Sharon's strategy, therefore, is a 'strategy of fear': Israel's enemies must spend their energies and resources protecting themselves, rather than attacking Israel. They must not, even for one moment, think that Israel is weak. No one is immune from physical extermination