The Christian Science Monitor – After years of operating in Iraq as a shadowy force who was sometimes heard but never seen, the Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi stepped out of the shadows with a video released on the Internet Tuesday that showed him planning operations against US forces and walking freely about the desert of what was claimed to be Iraq's Anbar Province.

Reuters – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said on Thursday she and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
found the leaders building Iraq's new government "inspiring"
and urged them to create a team for all Iraqis.

AP – A sister of Iraq's new Sunni vice president was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad on Thursday, police said.

Reuters – Gunmen killed the sister of Iraqi Vice
President Tareq al-Hashemi in Baghdad on Thursday, Interior
Ministry sources and two officials in his party said.

AP – The grieving relatives of an Australian soldier killed in Iraq were distressed to learn that the wrong body accidentally was sent home, the defense minister said Thursday.

THE dollar was sharply stronger at noon today, buoyed by an ailing US currency and heightened expectations of a local May interest rate rise. At 1200 AEST the local unit was trading at $US0.7529/32, almost three quarters of a US cent above yesterday’s close of 0.7458/63.

AP – Accusing the Bush administration of a failed policy in Iraq, all 23 Democrats on the House International Relations Committee on Wednesday demanded congressional hearings on what they said was waste and fraud in reconstruction efforts.

AP – A new press secretary for the White House. A new leader for Iraq. A new ray of hope for immigration overhaul. New promises to curb gasoline prices.

Reuters – A deeply-divided Senate on Wednesday
refused to prune an emergency spending bill to finance the war
in Iraq and hurricane rebuilding, defying a veto threat from
President George W. Bush.

BAHRAIN signed an open sky air transport agreement with Thailand last night.