The US government and UBS on Sunday stepped back from the brink of a damaging court battle - scheduled to start on Monday - over the Swiss bank's refusal to reveal the names of thousands of its offshore customers to the US Internal Revenue Service. Prospects for a settlement between the sides improved after the US Department of Justice, UBS and the Swiss government asked for a three-week delay to the hearing to allow time for an "alternative" resolution to US demands for the names of 52,000 US taxpayers holding offshore accounts.

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to conceal a highly secret counter-terrorist programme from Congress for eight years, possibly in breach of longstanding oversight laws. Democratic leaders in Congress are planning hearings to establish how and why information about the programme was withheld. The details have been revealed to members of intelligence committees but not been made public. The revelation in the US press on Sunday that Cheney played a primary role in keeping the programme secret suggests that it would have been highly contentious. Attention has focused on reports earlier this year that he oversaw an assassination programme.....In March, the respected investigative reporter Seymour Hersh revealed that he had uncovered evidence during research for an as-yet unpublished book that Cheney oversaw an "executive assassination ring" for years. ..."It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us."....The CIA, meanwhile, could face further scrutiny after it emerged that the attorney general, Eric Holder, is considering appointing a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that the agency illegally tortured terrorism suspects.

At least six British soldiers were killed Friday in Helmand Province, bringing the number of U.K. combat deaths in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion to 184. The toll for the British military in Afghanistan is higher than in Iraq, where 179 soldiers have been killed, The Times of London reported. More soldiers were killed in ground operations Friday than on any day since military operations began....The number of British casualties in Afghanistan jumped upward in May as the Taliban began to use more powerful improvised explosive devices.

The deaths of eight British soldiers in Afghanistan within 24 hours triggered a debate in Britain on Saturday that could undercut public support for the war just as the U.S. is ramping up its own participation in the conflict. With pictures of hearses and anguished relatives splashed across Britain's influential media, the government is under pressure to explain the reason for the soldiers' sacrifice and to defend the quality of its support for combat troops. The deaths, on Thursday and Friday, pushed Britain's overall toll in Afghanistan to 184 -- five more than the total British deaths in the Iraq war. The number is less than a third of the 657 American forces' deaths since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, according to U.S. figures. But to a country that has not suffered significant casualties in years, the images of flag-draped British coffins are haunting. Increasing British unease could have severe consequences for the Americans. With other European nations unwilling to send in more troops -- and Afghan forces not ready to take up overall security -- Britain's support is crucial to any American effort. ..The high number of recent battle deaths has brought into focus the problems and inconsistencies of a war that started with a limited objective -- find Osama bin Laden and defend Britain from terrorism -- but which has now embraced broader goals... Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended his country's course Saturday after the spike in combat deaths. .."This is a fight to clear terrorist networks from Afghanistan and Pakistan, to support the elected governments in both countries against the Taliban, to tackle the heroin trade which funds terrorism and the insurgency, and to build longer term stability," he wrote....President Barack Obama has said he wants to make Afghanistan -- not Iraq -- the main focus of the war against Islamic extremism and has ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops there this year. There are about 57,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the number is expected to rise to at least 68,000 by the end of this year....Britain has had a difficult history in Afghanistan, having fought two wars there in the 19th century to protect British interests in India....In November, an ICM poll conducted for the BBC asked if Britain should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan within the following 12 months. Of the 1,013 adults questioned, 68 percent said yes and less than a quarter, 24 percent, said they should stay.

Since U.S. troops first set foot in Afghanistan in 2001, the Defense Department has gone to significant lengths to control and suppress information about the human cost of war. It banned photographers on U.S. military bases from covering the arrival of caskets containing the remains of soldiers killed overseas. It paid Iraqi journalists to write positive accounts of the U.S. war effort. It invited U.S. journalists to "embed" with military units but required them to submit their stories to the military for pre-publication review; according to some reports, the policy was meant to co-opt the embedded journalists and make independent and objective reporting more difficult. It has erased journalists' footage of civilian deaths in Afghanistan . And it has refused to disclose statistics on civilian casualties. "We don't do body counts," General Tommy Franks has said. But it is critical that the public have full and accurate information about the human cost of war. ...In an effort to obtain more information about the human costs of war, the ACLU filed Freedom of Information Act requests with various components of the Defense Department.

President Obama has ordered national security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001....The inquiry stems from the deaths of at least 1,000 Taliban prisoners who had surrendered to the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in late 2001. The fighters were in the custody of troops led by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a prominent Afghan warlord who has served as chief of staff of the country's post-Taliban army.Dostum, a former communist union boss and militia leader who fought against the U.S.-backed mujahedeen in the 1980s, is known for switching sides as Afghanistan's political conflict has evolved. When the United States invaded Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, Dostum sided with the Americans and received military and CIA support to battle the Taliban....Dostum, a key ally of Karzai, was reportedly living in exile in Turkey until last month, when he was reinstated to his post as defense minister.

uropean antitrust regulators have charged a number of companies, including Philips Electronics and LG Display, of supplying liquid crystal display panels with running a price-fixing cartel. The European Commission, which has been investigating the sector said on Monday that it had sent a formal statement of objections to a "number of companies" active in this area two months ago. It did not specify the number or nationality of the businesses involved. It added that that its allegations focused on cartel behaviour, which it believed was in breach of EU rules on restrictive business practices.

The White House made clear on Sunday that Barack Obama will proceed with his push for diplomatic engagement with Iran, no matter the outcome of the current upheaval in the Islamic Republic. Appearing on several Sunday morning talk shows, Susan Rice, Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, and David Axelrod, one of the president's top advisers, stressed the same basic theme: that this month's election shouldn't dissuade the U.S. from trying to resolve the nuclear issue with Iran since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and not the president, is the real decision-maker in Tehran.

In an arrogant response to the President of the United States Barack Obama recently, Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said neither Obama nor the United States has the right to interfere in the affairs of Israel...."No one has the right to dictate terms to Israel because it is a sovereign state and its borders span across the Nile and the Euphrates", Liebermann added. The minister also boasted that two of the largest politico-religious movements in the world, namely, Christian Zionism and Jewish Zionism, have been supporting Israel.....The belligerent statement was issued after President Obama called on Israel to freeze settlement activities as a mark of good will between Palestine and Israel before they embark on peace talks. Echoing the rhetoric of Lieberman, the Israel radio announced shortly after Obama's call that the country's budget allocated $250 million for settlements in the West Bank including new constructions and infrastructure development. The radio report added that $40 million has been allocated for the Adomim Height - the largest settlement to the east of Jerusalem - in the West Bank and $125 million for security arrangements."