Veteran diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, the current US ambassador to Afghanistan, has been named to be the country's next envoy to Iraq.Khalilzad, who is of Afghan origin, was chosen to replace John Negroponte, who will leave the post in Baghdad to fill the newly-created position of National Intelligence Director

A EUROPEAN directive controlling the sale of some vitamins and other food supplements, which is due to become law this year, was declared illegal by a top judge yesterday.The health food rules, which affect thousands of products on sale in Britain, were seriously deficient and broke basic legal principles, an Advocate-General at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg said -London Times UK

The planned nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada won't be built unless the Energy Department is confident of the supporting science after investigating e-mails that showed workers discussing fabricating data, an official said Tuesday.The inspectors general of the Energy and Interior departments are conducting criminal investigations with help from the FBI, and the Energy Department is studying the impact on the scientific underpinnings of the planned waste dump site

This document -- a "confidential" cable from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow -- is a translation of a report sent on Jan. 11, 1993, from the national security committee of the Russian legislature to a U.S. House task force that was then investigating the so-called "October Surprise" controversy.That case centered on allegations that, during the summer and fall of 1980, the Reagan-Bush campaign conducted secret negotiations with Iran's Islamic fundamentalist government, which was holding 52 Americans hostage -Robert Parry/Consortium News

Pakistan and China tonight signed 22 agreements including a treaty of friendship, cooperation and good neighbourly relations between the two countries coinciding with the visit of the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.Mr. Wen and the Pakistan Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, signed the treaty of friendship after bilateral talks -The Hindu IN

A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization.But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign -Washington Post

Only a handful of days after the Feds made the Associated Press issue a correction to their original report, the Attorney General has announced that the AP had it right the first time.The statement was notable because the Justice Department has previously denied that the Patriot Act came into play in the Mayfield case.In fact, Gonzales said so earlier Tuesday at the same hearing -Portland Communique

Even though the Patriot Act was approved by overwhelming majorities in both chambers of Congress in the month after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, some legislators voted for the measure with the understanding that key portions would be revisited in 2005.This week, the Senate and the House of Representatives are kicking off what promises to be a tumultuous series of hearings on the topic -CNET

THE Iranian president said yesterday he was saddened by the 2001 terror attacks on the United States, but he condemned the US response — the invasion of Iraq — saying that war and terror have the "same roots".Mohammad Khatami was speaking at a conference in Paris, where he also met Jacques Chirac, the French president, for talks on Iran's nuclear programme and the situation in Lebanon -The Herald UK

Kofi Annan’s long-awaited reform report, “In larger freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all,” is a laundry list of changes designed to strengthen the United Nations’ grasp on global governance.Virtually every recommendation in Annan’s report is a regurgitation of recommendations first advanced a decade ago by the U.N.-Funded Commission on Global Governance -Henry Lamb/NewsWithViews

Iraq’s squabbling factions reached agreement yesterday on the country’s next president and vice presidents, leading politicians said, in a key step towards overcoming a political stalemate and forming a new government.Leaders of the main political blocs said veteran Kurdish politician Jalal Talabani would be named president at a parliament meeting today, more than nine weeks after millions of Iraqis braved insurgent bombs to vote -The Peninsula QA

Kansas voters on Tuesday approved an amendment to the state constitution that bars same-sex couples from marrying, making the conservative farming state the 18th in the nation to take such a stance.More than 70 percent of voters favored passage of the Kansas measure, considered one of the country's most restrictive to date, angering opponents who said it is discriminatory

A first trip by a president to a papal funeral signals a shift in how the US views Rome.—Christian Science Monitor

"If we do not manage to consolidate the elite, Russia could cease to exist as a unified state," the chief of the administration of President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, warned in an interview published in Expert magazine.

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday asked lawmakers to expand the bureau’s ability to obtain records without first asking a judge, and he joined Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in seeking that every temporary provision of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act be renewed.—MSNBC

"You should think about what you put in that search box, because it may not be as anonymous as you think," warns Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com.