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Lula has impressed Washington since taking office

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - commonly known as Lula - was visiting the White House, the first foreign leader who opposed the US-led war on Iraq to do so.

Mr Bush said the relationship between the countries is "vital, important and growing".

The two men announced a series of joint projects ranging from energy to business development in Brazil and fighting Aids in Africa.

"Brazil is an incredibly important part of a peaceful and prosperous North and South America," Mr Bush said as he received Lula for an Oval Office meeting.

The BBC's Steve Kingstone, in Washington, says the left-wing former trade union leader is not a natural political ally of Mr Bush.

He has maintained warm relations with Cuba's Fidel Castro, long a thorn in America's side.

But since taking office, Lula has impressed Washington with a combination of economic discipline and an ambitious long-term programme to combat poverty in Brazil, our correspondent says.

On a personal prospective I am very impressed by the vision of the President of Brazil  George W Bush

Mr Bush said: "This relationship is a vital and important and growing relationship. 

"On a personal prospective I am very impressed by the vision of the President of Brazil. He not only has a tremendous heart, but he has got the abilities to encourage prosperity and to end hunger."

For his part, Lula spoke of a great partnership but it should, he said, be based on sincerity and trust going beyond a few occasional photo opportunities.

Confrontations

The dynamic between the two men is probably the key to this relationship for the next few years, our correspondent says.

Lula's domestic reforms have provoked trade union protests

Together the two governments are chairing negotiations towards a hemisphere-wide free trade agreement scheduled to come into force in 2005.

The United States is the largest investor in Brazil, with 400 firms and investments of $30bn (£20bn), while Brazil exports some $15bn (£10bn) worth of goods to the US.

With a population approaching 175 million, Brazil is the second largest country in the Americas, after the US - and South America's largest economy.

Lula would like to ensure greater access for Brazil's huge agricultural sector to US markets before agreeing to any trade deals.

Meanwhile, American policymakers are increasingly looking to Brazil for help in resolving some of the most difficult issues between the hemispheres.

These include the confrontation between US companies and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and the drug-trafficking issues in the Andes states.

The Brazilian president is accompanied by no fewer than 10 cabinet ministers, in the biggest Brazil-US summit since World War II when President Frank D Roosevelt persuaded Brazil to join the war effort. 
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Aung San Suu Kyi

The Red Cross team will leave Rangoon Sunday, after being given the go-ahead to see leaders of the democratic opposition, who have been held in an undisclosed location for the past three weeks following a violent clash with supporters of the government.

 The team will be able to meet with senior party members, such as National League for Democracy Vice Chairman Tin Oo, who was accompanying Aung San Suu Kyi during a political tour in northern Burma last month when their entourage was attacked.

 But Michael Ducreaux, the Red Cross representative in Burma, says the government has refused the team access to NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi herself.

 The refusal comes at a time when Burma's military government is under unprecedented international pressure to free Aung San Suu Kyi. Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and the human rights group Amnesty International are among those who have lent their voices this week to the call for her release.
 
 

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Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

 It is highly unusual for members of ASEAN, which groups the countries of Southeast Asia, to comment on each other's internal affairs. 

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff was another calling for an end to Aung San Suu Kyi's detention. He says the release should be just one step towards broad political reform in Burma.

 "In addition to the release of Aung San Suu Kyi we would want to see the immediate release of the 1200 political prisoners held by the regime," he said. " We would want to see the re-opening of the NLD offices and a genuine commitment of the part of the regime to the reconciliation process and embarking on a path to the restoration of democracy."

 Britain and human rights groups say Aung San Suu Kyi is being held at Insein prison outside Rangoon, under a law that allows for detention without trial for up to five years.

 She was freed from in May of last year after 18 months of house arrest. She has been in and out of detention since 1990, after her party won national elections and the military refused to recognize the vote.

 Burma's government says it remains committed to restoring democracy and resuming a dialogue with the opposition. But in the past year there have been few signs of progress, and what dialogue there had been now seems to have been derailed.
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Lawmakers Call on State Department to Expel Burma's US Ambassador Powell Satisfied with ASEAN Position on Burma, N. Korea Japan Ties Relations with Burma to Release of Pro-Democracy Leader

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Indonesian police say they have arrested 10 suspected members of the Islamic militant group, Jemaah Islamiyah. 

Police in Jakarta said the 10 men are members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional terrorist network, accused of plotting or carrying out attacks in several Southeast Asian nations. 

A police official said the men were suspected of involvement in a series of church bombings in 2000 that killed 19 people. They allegedly were under the control of Riduan Isamuddin, who is also known as Hambali. He is said to have been Jemaah Islamiyah's operations chief, and believed to be al-Qaida's top man in Southeast Asia. 

Jemaah Islamiyah has been classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations, and it is allegedly linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network. 

Hambali has never been captured. He is believed to have been replaced as operations chief last year by one of the men accused in last October's bombing on the island of Bali, which killed more than 200 people. 

The arrests are the latest blow against Jemaah Islamiyah. In the past two weeks, four men were arrested in Thailand, allegedly while planning to bomb Western embassies and tourist locations. Just prior to that, three men were arrested in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, also accused of planning terrorist actions.
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Thailand: JI Terrorists Plotting Embassy Attacks 3rd Suspect Goes on Trial for Bali Bombing

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Charles Taylor

 He said reports that he would be stepping down in 30 days were, in his words, a dream.

 Mr. Taylor says he will turn over power to his vice president when his elected term ends in January, for a transition period, but that he also reserves the right to run again for president whenever elections are held.

 The cease-fire deal, signed in Accra by envoys for the government and rebels, called for peace negotiations to establish a national unity government without Mr. Taylor. It was brokered by mediators for the Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS.

 "Seriously, I'm surprised, because what we are talking about is that Taylor should leave by the first of August, at which time his special term will be over," said Edward Farley, a rebel leader in northern Liberia, who says he is stunned by Mr. Taylor's announcement. "Taylor was not elected under the constitution of the Republic of Liberia," he continued. "He was elected through a special arrangement under the auspices of ECOWAS, and so if he refuses to resign, certainly that would derail the peace process."

 Rebels who control most of Liberia, but not Monrovia, have said they will agree to peace only if Mr. Taylor steps down. They say fighting has continued on several fronts, despite the cease-fire.

 At the opening of the peace talks in Ghana on June 4, Mr. Taylor said he would be willing to step down eventually for the sake of peace. He came to power after winning elections in 1997, eight years after launching his own rebellion.

 Mr. Taylor has also called for a United Nations-backed court in Sierra Leone to remove an indictment against him for war crimes, saying it is a stigma to the peace process. 

The court in Freetown is refusing to lift the indictment, saying Mr. Taylor should appear in court, whether or not he is president.

 The court is also calling on west African governments to arrest Mr. Taylor if ever he visits one of their countries. The indictment was issued when Mr. Taylor was in Ghana, but Ghanaian authorities allowed him to return to Liberia.

 Mr. Taylor has been accused of backing rebels in Sierra Leone, but also in Ivory Coast and Guinea. He is also accused of smuggling weapons, diamonds and timber. Mr. Taylor denies all the charges, saying they are part of a U.S.-led plot to topple him.

 Liberia was founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century, but has been savaged by nearly 15 years of continuous civil strife.
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State Department: No Place for Charles Taylor on Any Future Liberian Government Pressure Grows on Liberian President to Step Down Liberia Cease-Fire Opens Way for Transitional Government US Applauds Liberian Push for Cease-fire Accord

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Tunisian rescue workers are searching the Mediterranean for survivors, after a boat carrying about 250 would-be immigrants from Africa to Europe capsized and sank. Forty one people have been rescued, 12 have been confirmed dead and nearly 200 are missing. 

Tunisian officials say the overloaded boat sank Friday in bad weather, about 110 kilometers southeast of the Tunisian city of Sfax. 

They say the boat was among several rickety vessels on route to Italy that were discovered off Tunisian shores in the past few days. Earlier this week, seven would-be immigrants drowned off the North African coast after their ship capsized. 

Illegal immigration to Italy, nearly 3,000 have arrived so far this month, prompted one government minister to call for tougher measures, including sending out Italian naval gunships, to halt immigration. 

Many such immigrant-filled boats leave from Libya, whose leader Muammar Gaddafi has warned European leaders that the only way to stem illegal immigration is to help alleviate Africa's poverty by providing investments and jobs. 

Tunisia and Morocco, due to their proximity to the Italian and Spanish coasts, have become crossing points for thousands of impoverished Africans trying to start new lives in Europe. 

They risk their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean, often in makeshift or inflatable boats. 

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US officials believe Saddam Hussein and his sons are still alive

Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti told interrogators that he, Uday and Qusay Hussein had been with Saddam Hussein after the war started but the group split up, reports say.

The three men later returned to Iraq after being expelled by the authorities in Damascus, according to reports in the Washington Post and New York Times.

Officials caution that the accuracy of the information has yet to be assessed.

But recent US intelligence intercepts suggest Saddam Hussein and his sons are alive and in Iraq, and efforts to capture them have intensified, reports say.

This is a person... who was part of the lies and deception for so long that you have to be very careful about what he tells you  US defence official on Mahmud al-Tikriti

Mahmud al-Tikriti - the "ace of diamonds" in the US pack of cards of top wanted Iraqis - was arrested in Iraq earlier this week.

On Friday, the chief US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer told the BBC that the arrest of the other aces in the pack - Saddam Hussein and his two sons - was still America's "major objective".

 Mahmud al-Tikriti has been questioned over the last four days by US officials in Baghdad.

The information he could give has "enormous potential significance", the New York Times says. 

"You follow up every lead that you can get, and when you get a person who's that high up in the regime, it's obviously in your benefit to move quickly on anything he tells you," the paper quotes a senior defence official as saying. 

Close aide

But he added that Mahmud al-Tikriti's claims are also being treated with some scepticism. 

"This is a person who is very close to Saddam Hussein, who was for many, many years, and who was part of the lies and deception for so long that you have to be very careful about what he tells you," he told the New York Times. 

Mahmud al-Tikriti is the most senior official to be captured

He told the interrogators that during the weeks after the war he spent time in hiding with the former Iraqi leader himself, according to the Times. 

The report says the group subsequently split, and Mahmud al-Tikriti left for Syria with Uday and Qusay, before the trio was expelled. 

In the weeks after the war, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that some senior Iraqi officials had fled to Syria, and called on Damascus to hand them over. 

Syria has strongly denied harbouring Iraqi fugitives. 
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KEY STORIES

Bush challenged over Iraq arms 

US considers 'plea bargains' 

Three dead in Baghdad violence 

Bremer tackles Iraq's economy 

ANALYSIS

Power vacuum 
New attacks by Iraqi militias poses questions for the US army, writes Jim Muir. 

AUDIO GALLERY

Exiles' views on return

HAVE YOUR SAY

Iraq: Is the war really over? 

Full in-depth report 

 

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A 1998 pipeline blaze in Jesse, Nigeria, killed at least 500

Oil from the ruptured pipeline was reportedly ignited by a spark from a passing motorcycle in the village of Amaokwe Oghughe, about 50 km (35 miles) north of the Abia State capital, Umuahia. 

News of Thursday's disaster only broke when the injured began arriving in Umuahia at the end of the week. 

"Whole families were wiped out," said the head of the Red Cross, Emmanuel Ijewere.

"We fear many more will die as there are many people with first-degree burns in local hospitals and private homes." 

The hospital in Umuahia is said to be overwhelmed by casualties whilst many of the bodies at the scene are burnt beyond recognition. 

Police have sealed off the scene in Amaokwe Oghughe where the fire is reportedly still burning. 

'Scooping'

The pipeline appears to have been deliberately ruptured by looters up to six weeks before the blast.

It was carrying fuel from a state-owned refinery in the oil city of Port Harcourt to the city of Enugu, 230 kilometres (140 miles) to the north.

In the meantime, locals had been collecting the petrol in whatever containers they could find, with the police doing little to stop them.

Pipeline looting, known as "bunkering" or "scooping", is common in Nigeria despite the risk of fire or prosecution with security forces known to shoot looters on sight.

This is a tragedy of a type that has become all too familiar in Nigeria, the BBC's Dan Isaacs reports from Lagos.

Pipelines carrying valuable fuel products and running through desperately poor villages provide an immense temptation to the local population.

Over the past few years hundreds of people have died whilst collecting fuel in this way. 
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Workers set up a sign for the extraordinary meeting of the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea resort

The World Economic Forum is convening the special meeting as Iraq and the rest of the Middle East region are trying to recover from war, while dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 Critics say the World Economic Forum meetings are nothing but talk shops, where little substantive work gets done. But Forum leaders hope they can help re-invigorate the economic sector in the Middle East.

 In addition to rebuilding Iraq, hundreds of powerful delegates at the meeting will also discuss the future of the Middle East and business and economics in the Arab world. On the sidelines will be a meeting of the so-called Quartet, dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

 The Quartet consists of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will attend, as will Secretary of State Colin Powell.

 Jordan was chosen as the venue for the meeting because the Forum considers it "a regional leader in political and social reforms," as well as one of the few Middle East countries to have a peace treaty with Israel.

 Jordanian Planning Minister Bassem Awadallah says that, in addition to focusing on regional issues, such as Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Jordanian government hopes to use the meeting as a showcase for its own democratic transition. 

"We would like to make sure that this model of reform is going to be contagious elsewhere in this region," he said. "And we would like the international community, both the political and economic representatives of the international community, to really know the Middle East for what it is, for the dynamic kind of civil society that we would like to bring about in terms of meeting the challenges of this 21st century."

 The World Economic Forum has been meeting annually in Davos, Switzerland, since 1970. Only one other annual general meeting has been held outside Davos, when the group met in New York in a show of solidarity after the terrorist attacks of 2001.

 While so many of the world's political and business leaders are here to discuss the economic future of Iraq, the human rights group Amnesty International is trying to make sure they do not forget about the humanitarian situation in the country. 

Amnesty has launched a new report on the eve of the forum, urging respect for human rights during the rebuilding of Iraq. 

"The main purpose of this report is to refocus the discussion on human rights," said Abdel Salam Sidahmed, the deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East program. "That is to say, human rights should be paramount in any process, in any reconstruction process and any discussion about reconstruction."

 Mr. Sidahmed says Amnesty's concerns involve human rights violations that took place under the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, as well as concerns about how well the current coalition-led transitional administration in Iraq is complying with the Geneva Convention.

 He says Amnesty International wants to remind the assembled leaders that people should be at the center of any strategy to rebuild Iraq.
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Powell Mideast Visit Aims to Boost 'Road Map' Peace Plan Powell Cautions Against Expecting Breakthroughs in Mideast Peace Key US Lawmakers Tour Mideast US Launches Effort to Salvage Mideast Peace Effort

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U.S. Marines raise the American flag at the inauguration of a new U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, March 3, 2003

A source with the Defense Intelligence Agency confirms that a terrorism alert has been issued for Kenya.

 The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says the warning is based on specific information about a threat against a specific target.

 Details of the warning, including the target and the nature of the threat, are classified secret. The source says the warning level for Kenya is already set at "high." The source described the threat as being like a "tornado warning." The source says "we've seen the funnel cloud so we put out the warning." 

U.S. officials say al-Qaida operatives are in the region and intercepted telephone communications indicate terrorists may be planning attacks on embassies or foreign residences. The State Department says the U.S. embassy in Nairobi will be closed at least until the middle of next week.

 A spokesman says the embassy is closed to review security issues.

 Kenya and other countries in the Horn of Africa have been the focus of counter-terrorism efforts for months. A special U.S. task force has been operating in the area since last year. Both the United States and Britain have warned a number of times of possible terrorist attacks in East Africa, especially Kenya.

 Last month Britain suspended British Airways flights between Nairobi and London because of a specific threat to British airlines. There have been several terrorist attacks in the past five years.

 In November of last year suicide bombers killed at least 14 people at an Israeli-owned resort in Mombassa. On the same day two heat-seeking missiles were fired at an Israeli plane leaving from Mombassa on its way to Tel Aviv. The missiles missed the plane and no one was hurt.

 In 1998 terrorists from al-Qaida attacked the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar Es-Salaam, Tanzania killing more than 220 people in both attacks.
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FBI Director Warns Future Threats Could Include Convergence of Terrorism, Organized Crime US To Remain Vigilant, says Attorney General Security Concerns Force Closing of Norwegian Embassy in Kenya US Praises Kenya for Anti-Terrorism Stance

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British Flight Ban Upsets Kenyans Kenya Under Alert Following Terror Warnings Britain Suspends All Flights to Kenya

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