IRAQ

Years of economic policy mistakes after the fall of Saddam Hussein left unemployed young Iraqis easy targets for recruitment by al Qaeda and other insurgents, a U.S. Defense Department official said on Sunday.

The Ministry of Tourism has 417 employees and big plans: 'We need three or four times as many hotels as we have now,' says Nimrud Youkhana, the minister, 'and we need to get more airlines to fly here.'

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged governments, businesses and volunteer groups on Tuesday to unite in a show of people power to put the world back on track toward slashing extreme poverty by 2015.

British PM Gordon Brown wants to keep close ties and says his nation shares its ideals with America.

Crude oil prices are trading near $76 a barrel and topped $78 on Monday, within sight of the record high hit in August 2006 of $78.65.

The Dow closed at a record on Tuesday, though retreating from the 14,000 mark it earlier crossed for the first time, while the Nasdaq rose to a six-and-a-half-year high on a cascade of stronger-than-expected earnings.

For the BBC and commercial broadcasters across Britain, their problems right now are all summed up in one word -- trust.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown denied on Friday a shift in foreign policy away from the United States after one of his ministers told an audience there that a country's strength depended on alliances not military might.

President George W. Bush admitted on Thursday his troop buildup in Iraq had made limited progress but said he would wait for a September security report before considering a change of course.

Thieves have stolen nearly $300 million from a bank in Baghdad, police and a bank official said Thursday, in what is probably one of the biggest thefts in Iraq since the 2003 war to topple Saddam Hussein.

Foreigners don't have a high opinion of the United States, owing to the war in Iraq, but that hasn't done much to deter a ferocious appetite for American goods and services, as had been expected.

World oil demand will rise faster than expected to 2012 while supply lags, the International Energy Agency said on Monday, leading to a tighter market than previously anticipated.

Police were holding eight people on Tuesday, at least four of them foreign doctors, over a suspected al Qaeda plot against Britain that has triggered a manhunt stretching as far as Australia.

Iraq's cabinet approved changes to a draft hydrocarbon law on Tuesday and sent it to parliament for immediate debate, taking a big step towards meeting a key political target set by the United States.

KBR Inc. and its former corporate parent Halliburton Co. have been sued by four women claiming they suffered sexual harassment and, in two cases rape, by co-workers while working for KBR in Iraq, the Houston Chronicle reported on its website Friday.

China on Thursday forgave Iraq's debt owed to the Chinese government and pledged to help rebuild the country's war-shattered economy.

Shares of engineering consulting services firm Washington Group International, Inc. (NYSE: WNG) fell Thursday, a day after the firm reported slightly higher quarterly revenue but also a profit that missed Wall Street estimates.

Shares of Armor Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AH) jumped more than 5 percent in Monday trading after the company agreed to be acquired by BAE Systems for $4.1 billion.

Engineering and construction firm KBR Inc. (NYSE: KBR) reported that its first fiscal quarter profit rose 7.4 percent on Friday, helped by government and infrastructure operations for Iraq related contracts.

AWB could face terrorism-related charges amid claims some of its staff knew money being funnelled to Saddam Hussein's government could have been funding atrocities against his own people.

A former AWB manager was accused by one of his colleagues of collecting $US16 million ($A21.3 million) in kickbacks from wheat shipments to Saddam Hussein's regime, the Cole inquiry has been told.