"The Russians have delivered the [nuclear] fuel. We now have it," a senior Iranian official tells NewsMax.com. The confidential source confirmed that the nuclear poker game between Washington and Tehran has moved up another notch.

Syria will abide by a 1989 agreement in withdrawing its troops from Lebanon, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday in the first government statement since an international uproar arose against Damascus from the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

A man wearing a police uniform drove a car bomb inside the main police compound in Saddam Hussein's hometown north of Baghdad on Thursday, setting off a massive explosion that killed 15 police and wounded 22, officials and witnesses said.

For the first time in his presidency, the judo black-belt appears unsteady on his feet. Once known as the Teflon president for his deft handling of public opinion, Putin is increasingly seen as a ham-fisted leader who is out of touch with the needs of ordinary Russians.

Newly released documents from the Bush administration show that a former member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle has resurfaced inside the new Iraqi government, bringing charges of corruption, bribery and bid-rigging. French and Chinese companies are involved, reports Charles Smith, and as a result, millions of U.S. aid dollars and billions in Iraqi government funds have disappeared in an ongoing scandal that is poised to engulf Baghdad and Washington.

The Colombian Supreme Court has authorised the extradition of a self-confessed drug-trafficker, Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, to the US.Mr Rodriguez Orejuela and his brother, Gilberto, founded the Cali Cartel, which dominated the global cocaine trade in the 1990s -BBC

Russian prosecutors yesterday charged a Chechen with the murder of US journalist Paul Klebnikov, shot dead outside his Moscow offices in July last year.Mr Klebnikov, 41, was the high-profile editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, which revealed the obscure, extravagant and sometimes criminal world of the country's most wealthy businessmen -Guardian UK

Washington, D.C. leaks like a sieve.Its political culture is marked by the rampant, unlawful leaking of government secrets.Some of these leaks consist of classified information - and one example is the unauthorized disclosure, in 2003, of Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIA agent.At this point, one might expect to witness a debate over whether the leakers themselves ought to be jailed -Mark S. Zaid/FindLaw

State lawmakers issued a rebuke of President George W. Bush's education overhaul Wednesday, calling it a coercive, unconstitutional act that sets an unreachable goal of getting every child up to par in reading and math.The National Conference of State Legislatures wants to change how the No Child Left Behind Act measures student progress, punishes schools that fall short and decides when the rules are waived for struggling districts. The proposal would give states more power to administer the law

Britain, America and India were accused by the Nepalese army yesterday of aiding the Himalayan kingdom's Maoist insurgency after they suspended military aid.All three countries want the king to restore democracy before they resume supplies -Telegraph UK

The suspension of military aid is the most definitive action taken against the royal government by India since the king's drastic measures.India had earlier sharply criticized King Gyanendra after he took over.More than the fact that India sees King Gyanendra's moves as an attack on the principles of democratic norms, it will be the impact on the military operations against the Maoist insurgents who control most of Nepal's countryside that will be India's main cause for concern -Siddharth Srivastava/Asia Times

When newly appointed CIA Director Porter Goss recently warned that China’s modernization of its military posed a direct threat to the U.S., was it standard budget time scare tactics?Or did it signal the growing influence of hard-liners in the Bush administration who want to “contain” China and re-institute the Cold War in Asia?In short: corner the dragon -Conn Hallinan/Common Dreams

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei has won the backing of the main Fatah faction for a new cabinet.Fatah MPs had called on Mr Qurei not to give jobs to veterans of Yasser Arafat's time - widely seen as corrupt.Instead it is mostly made up of technocrats and other experts brought in to tackle corruption and social issues -BBC

THE Pope is embroiled in new controversy over his latest book, which critics say compares abortion in modern democratic states to the Nazi Holocaust.Pope John Paul II's Memory and Identity claims both were the result of governments clashing with divine law.He writes that abortion and the mass murder of six million Jews both came about as a result of people usurping the "law of God" beneath the guise of democracy -Scotsman

During his swing through three European nations aimed at patching up transatlantic relations, he(Bush) has repeatedly returned to his oft-stated theme of spreading democracy around the world. Putin, meanwhile, has rolled back democracy in his nation by eliminating elections of provincial governors, imprisoning critics, restricting news coverage and ousting opposition members of parliament -Washington Post

Prime Minister Paul Martin will deliver a firm "no" to Canadian participation in the U.S. missile defense plan and break a lengthy silence that fomented confusion on both sides of the border.

French President Jacques Chirac called anew for a withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in talks Wednesday with the king of Jordan, the presidential spokesman said.