BP NEWSROOM

BAGHDAD GOES NAKED

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- When the Atlas Cinema last showed "Blue Chill," people screamed: "Yes! Yes!" every time the actors began kissing, only to see the scratched reel jump to the next scene. On Monday, they sat in awed silence as naked couples writhed on screen.

"The movie is much more beautiful now, because there's sex," said a beaming Mohammed Taher, 18. Since Saturday, when the theater reopened with a freshly uncensored version of the low-budget flick, he has seen "Blue Chill" three times.

Baghdad has gone through a revolution in the past three weeks, casting off decades of censorship and state control. Banned books, satellite dishes and video CDs are now sold on the street -- as are alcohol and women.

Nobody knows how long the permissiveness will last. Iraq's American governors brought together Iraqi political leaders Monday to discuss a new government, and many Baghdadis believe that once it's in place, some of their freedoms will disappear.

Conservatives are counting on it.

Horrified by the changes, some Iraqis blame America for what they call a cultural degradation. If it continues for long, they promise to rise up in a holy war against the U.S. forces occupying their country.

"Everything against Islam, everything we hate, has been imported by the Americans like a disease," said Abbas Hamid, a 60-year-old merchant. "We'll fight them. We're tired now, but we'll rest up and use our guns to drive the Americans out."
Brave new world of vice

For now, Hamid appears to be in the minority as Iraqis excitedly discover worlds of vice -- and virtue too -- long forbidden by the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein:

? Teenagers gape at Christina Aguilera's navel via brand-new satellite dishes illegal under Saddam.

? Young lovers smooch in roadside cars, hidden behind tinted windows that were banned by Saddam because they prevented police from spying on motorists.

? Prostitutes walk the streets in some neighborhoods, beckoning passing motorists.

? Bookworms excitedly leaf through political histories that could have gotten them tortured in years gone by.

? Shiite Muslim religious leaders watch grainy VCD images of ceremonies from neighboring Syria, banned for years out of fear that clerics might challenge Saddam for Iraqis' loyalties.

"Before, everything was forbidden except the air," said retiree Mohammed Jabbar. "Now, we don't have electricity, we don't have water, but we are free."

Sahad Hashim, manager of the Atlas Cinema, couldn't be more delighted. Because of the lawlessness, he closes at 3 p.m. instead of 11 p.m. But he's still selling 800 of his 50-cent tickets a day -- double his prewar box office.

"People are hungry for this," he said. "If I stayed open later, I could sell even more."

Under Saddam, Hashim cut sexy scenes from his movies to conform with Information Ministry orders. When the Americans took over, he simply spliced them back in.

Ushers with flashlights yelled from orchestra to balcony, searching for seats for the standing-room-only 11 a.m. showing of "Blue Chill," the American name of the 1989 Italian erotic thriller "Spogliando Valeria." On the screen, a bare-chested man pawed at a woman wearing only fishnet stockings and a feather boa.

Not all the patrons were happy, however.

"I don't like it. It's forbidden under Islam," said Mohammed Mishan, a 26-year-old Iraqi army lieutenant.

"Then what are you doing here?" a man called as the crowd erupted in laughter. Mishan flushed and stalked off.
Books, movies and CDs

A wide selection of titles was available at the VCD market at Tahrir Square. Before the war, the Information Ministry issued a list of prohibited movies, and most others were heavily censored.

Sellers offered uncut versions of old standards and some newer ones as well: One best-seller was "Three Kings," the George Clooney satire about American soldiers in the 1991 Gulf War who loot a stash of Saddam's gold.

Some merchants hawked more serious videos. "The crimes of Saddam!" one yelled. "Executions!" another called. Their offerings were grainy images taken by hand-held cameras of atrocities during the Gulf War and the ensuing rebellions in northern and southern Iraq.

Asked what would have happened if he sold those CDs under Saddam, vendor Majid Jabbar drew his finger across his throat and smiled.

At the al-Mutanabi Street book market, Karim Hanash sold "The Diaries of Seki Kheiri," which chronicles the life of a leader of the Iraqi Communist Party. In 2001, he was imprisoned for selling the book.

"I feel much better, but I hope the coalition forces won't repeat the same tragedy and arrest people for selling books," said religious bookseller Jamal Shaker Mohammed, who said he was tortured for three months for selling a banned religious text.

Also for sale on street corners were cases of Amstel beer and bottles of Jack Daniel's whiskey. In recent years, alcohol was forbidden from public places in Iraq.

"Now I am free to do anything I want," said Firaz Sabi, a former tire repairman selling looted bottles of Dewar's scotch by the roadside. "Maybe I'll be free to leave Iraq."

VIRGIN JET LANDS IN BASRA

BASRA, Iraq -- The first commercial airliner to land in Iraq since the end of the war has brought 60 tons of medical supplies to the southern city of Basra.

The Virgin Atlantic 747 which touched down at Basra International Airport Friday was also the first British passenger plane to land in Iraq for 13 years.

It came hours after U.S. President George W. Bush declared that major hostilities were over in Iraq. (Full Story)

Traveling on the plane was the airline's CEO, Richard Branson, who was greeted by dozens of British soldiers as he walked off the plane.

Branson said the need for humanitarian aid was a priority in Iraq.

The plane carried medical equipment, including incubators and defibrillators, as well as drugs for tuberculosis, blood pressure and heart disease, for hospitals in Basra and the southern region.

Hospitals across Iraq are short of oxygen supplies, cancer and heart disease drugs, medical workers say, after looters stole vital equipment and medicines from the hospitals in Basra after the administration collapsed.

"If there's need for more, there will be more," Branson promised, The Associated Press said.

Once the rebuilding process gets under way, Iraq will also need a commercial airline service, he added.

"The community needs flights. Otherwise, you can't get aid, commerce ... ," he said. "It's got to happen. We'd be happy to put our foot forward." Branson said he would consider commercial routes from London to Baghdad and Basra.

"We know there are over 100,000 Iraqi citizens abroad who want to come back in," he said.

British officials, who have turned the airport into a military base, say the flight sends a message that Basra's airport can be used for civilian flights.

"We've been restoring the airfield to a safe and usable standard. We hope this will encourage other humanitarian groups to use the airport. We are open for business," Group Capt. Ray Lock, commander of the Royal Air Force unit in charge of the airport, told AP.

ROGERS HUMBLED BY WAR COVERAGE

(CNN) -- The war in Iraq played out vividly on television, like no U.S. conflict had since Vietnam, and CNN correspondent Walter Rodgers was in the thick of it.

Embedded with the Army's 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry, Rodgers spent most of the war at "the tip of the spear" -- the cutting lead of the coalition's charge toward Baghdad.

Now back in the United States, Rodgers talked to anchor Arthel Neville about the emotions he felt after the heat of battle had cooled.

RODGERS: There was a humanizing experience in the war coverage, which was almost ethereal. There was one point where we had been under fire for about two days, and we were sitting in the desert in our Humvee; and all four doors were open to let air circulate through. And it was filled with flies.

All of a sudden this tiny bird, either a chiffchaff or an Arctic warbler, migrating through, flies in, lands on us as if it's an ethereal spirit from another world. Then it flies around, and it picks off flies from one of us. And it flies to the next, and it does this for 20 minutes, just landing on us, using us as a perch, flying all through the inside of the Humvee vehicle, picking flies off us.

And all of a sudden through the blood and the gore and the bang-bang, there was this lovely lithe spirit from another world, a very small warbler, migrating north into what would be Russia, and it just touched us. My satellite engineer, Jeff Barwise, said to me in an e-mail recently, "Walt, you know, of all the things I remember, that little bird was the highlight of the trip."

It was a very humanizing experience.

NEVILLE: Because it was almost as if saying, after all, we're all people. It's all about lives. It's all about humanity.

RODGERS: Exactly -- that life is important, and it was a humanizing experience. And I thought it was lovely that Jeff e-mailed me and said that.

Afterward, when you get out, there's a sudden letdown after the exhilaration of bang-bang combat for two weeks. Then suddenly you're flooded, just flooded with this emotional wave; and you're just profoundly humble and grateful to be alive. And I still am. Life becomes much more precious.

NEVILLE: When you're in the heat of the moment, you're doing your job. You're a professional, so you sort of remove yourself from the situation.

RODGERS: That's right.

NEVILLE: And then it hits you.

RODGERS: Exactly. You're always detached.

NEVILLE: But help me understand, Walt, when that moment happens, where are you? Are you at home? You're sitting down reading a book? You're having tea? What happens when you realize, "Whoa, what I just went through..." again?
Rodgers, reporting in Iraq
Rodgers, reporting in Iraq

RODGERS: You sort of put your fingers to your lips and humbly say "I'm grateful to be alive." And it isn't just me. The other embeds -- Martin Savidge, Alessio Vinci, Art Harris, each of us with whom I spoke, all of the CNN embeds, albeit with other units -- had that same feeling, that you just are humble, that you were spared, because it was very, very dangerous, and the embedding process is dangerous.

I heard yesterday a figure of one in 70 correspondents or journalists who went to that war died -- one in 70. And it's going to get worse if the embedding process continues, and that's as it should be. We should be embedded. I totally believe in the commitment to the public's right to know.

NEVILLE: I was just going to ask you that. Do you think that that's a good idea?

RODGERS: Absolutely, absolutely. I got an e-mail from someone a few seconds ago, and they reminded me that when Ronald Reagan invaded Grenada in the Caribbean to drive out the communists or whomever he was driving out at the time, the Reagan administration didn't let reporters on the island until three days after the invasion.

The Bush administration, to their credit, was much, much better about this. They said to reporters, "You want to see what it's about, you whine a lot, you can go." Bam.

NEVILLE: Let's talk about the idea of keeping everyone honest ... because you're right there. You're getting the information firsthand, so therefore you're not relying on the State Department to say, "Well, this is what happened today."

RODGERS: That's right. I think that's terribly important. The greatest innovation in this embedding process was twofold: One, the access we had, which it was without precedent. I had more access covering the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry than any White House reporter has covering the White House, any Congressional reporter has covering Capitol Hill or a reporter covering the state legislature. I had fantastic access.

The other thing is just the standard reportorial relationship that you build with your sources and the people you cover, and that's trust. The trust was so important here because it isn't so much that "I'm going to embarrass senator so-and-so with what I write." The trust was important here it was because "If I do this wrong and I betray your trust, colonel, I get you killed. I get me killed."

SADDAM'S FINAL RALLY



As he prepared to begin the speech, Saddam said to aides, "The sooner we finish it, the better."


BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- In what is purported to be his last known wartime speech -- a video never before televised -- Saddam Hussein appears exhausted, at times confused and seemingly resigned to defeat, but he tells Iraqis that God, somehow, will help them expel the American-British occupiers.

"The faithful will be victorious over the sinners, regardless of the duration of the struggle and the forms it might take," Saddam says. With patience, the "ordeal" can be overcome, he says, and the invaders driven from Iraq.

The videotape, bearing a presidential stamp, was obtained by Associated Press Television News from a former employee of the Iraqi satellite television channel which, under the regime, was responsible for filming and distributing official presidential video.

The employee said it was made on April 9, the day American troops streamed into central Baghdad and pulled down a towering Saddam statue.

There was no way to authenticate that the tape was made on that day. Nor could it be immediately proven that the speaker on the tape was Saddam -- though Iraqis who watched and listened to the leader for decades believed it was him.

An audiotape of the address was obtained and aired April 18 by Abu Dhabi television, which said it also was told the speech was delivered April 9.

At the same time, Abu Dhabi television also broadcast a videotape, also said to have been made on April 9, showing Saddam in the midst of an enthusiastic crowd in the Baghdad district of Azamiyah, a few miles north of the area occupied by U.S. troops that day.

At the time, two senior Bush administration officials cast doubt on the authenticity of the tapes.

Nearing his 66th birthday, in his familiar open-necked olive drab uniform and black beret, Saddam appears deeply fatigued, like someone who had slept little. The bags under his eyes droop more heavily than before. His speech is abnormally slow, and he seldom raises his eyes from the text to look into the camera.

Twice he repeats a sentence of the speech -- not for emphasis, but out of apparent confusion. He seems on edge, not surprisingly for someone whose government has been under devastating air and ground attack for three weeks.

As he prepares to begin the speech, in a generic room with a backdrop of pink-and-orange drapes, he says to aides, "The sooner we finish it, the better."

Then, at the end, Saddam adds an uncharacteristically human note of uncertainty. "How was my reading as a whole?" he asks people off camera, and then adds, "It's OK."

Thickly laced with religious references, Saddam's speech did not strike the most defiant tones of his earlier televised addresses in the first days of the war, which began March 20, speeches in which he told his people their military would humble the U.S. superpower.

Instead, the president seemed to accept the prospect of defeat and occupation. But he said, "The duration of invasion or occupation ... will be the exception, a brief period, compared with the period in which people live free in their homeland."

He said this generation of Iraqis was determined to defend the nation "until the end, as desired by God, in this form or some other form."

His references to a changing "form of struggle" seemed to imply the possibility of a long-term resistance movement or guerrilla war.

"The ordeal, regardless of how bad it might become, requires patience to be overcome, so that those behind it are expelled," he said.

If the April 9 dating is correct, it means the Iraqi president survived an attack two days earlier, when U.S. forces bombed the capital's al-Mansour neighborhood after receiving a tip Saddam had entered a building there.

Since then, Saddam and his sons and aides Qusay and Odai have dropped from sight. The opposition Iraqi National Congress contends they are still in Iraq and have been spotted by INC informants.

BUNGLED BABYLONIAN REVIVAL


BABYLON, Iraq, May 1 ? Saddam Hussein was hardly modest. Among the legendary Iraqi heroes whom he considered his equals were Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar II and Alexander the Great.

Since each had ruled Mesopotamia from Babylon, Mr. Hussein built himself a palace on a man-made hill beside the footprint of the once-great city. And since the view was of a dusty excavation site, in 1987 he ordered construction of a replica of Nebuchadnezzar's vast palace.

For school groups and tourists visiting this latest Babylon, 45 miles south of Baghdad, the message was clear: Mr. Hussein, too, would be remembered centuries hence.

His connection to a glorious past was further reinforced by two museums ? one devoted to Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.), the other to Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C.) ? and by a replica of the open-air theater built here by Alexander the Great around 330 B.C. And as always, portraits of Mr. Hussein were everywhere.

But the history of Babylon since the second millennium B.C. has been one of rises and falls. As soon as Mr. Hussein's ouster by the United States was confirmed three weeks ago, mobs of Iraqis gave their verdict. They climbed the forbidden hill outside Babylon and ransacked Mr. Hussein's enormous stone palace. They also looted both museums and set fire to part of the open-air theater. Only the replica of Nebuchadnezzar's palace resisted demolition.

Compared with the plundering of the National Museum in Baghdad, where priceless treasures were looted or damaged, the cultural losses here were not serious. Everything broken in the two museums or stolen from them was a copy of an ancient art object. In fact, the museums' only authentic pieces ? two reliefs from the original Ishtar Gate, now in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin ? were attached to a wall and went unnoticed by looters.

Yet as an act of political symbolism, the mob violence in Babylon was particularly forceful. Before the mid-1980's, Babylon existed as a powerful myth, a quiet but constant reminder that civilization as we know it ? writing, literature, codified laws, irrigation, astronomy ? was born in this region. But when Mr. Hussein began building here, he reduced this remarkable history to a kitsch expression of his ego.

"At the time, many archaeologists were opposed to rebuilding Nebuchadnezzar's palace," recalled Fatima Abbas, an archaeologist who guided a visitor around the site. "But those who spoke out had to flee the country. Dr. Farouk al-Rawi went to Germany, Dr. Taqi al-Dabbagh went to Britain, both prominent archaeologists. After that, no one dared say a word."

The new palace, which has no roof, is monumental, with five large courtyards surrounded by 40-foot-high walls of pale brown bricks. An archway in the final courtyard leads to what some Iraqi archaeologists erroneously told Mr. Hussein was the probable site of Nebuchadnezzar's Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. A passageway then opens up to a view of Mr. Hussein's palace.

Until last month, visitors were discouraged from even looking at this palace. Now it is occupied by a company of United States marines who, to their distress, arrived after the looters. "I don't know what they have about porcelain, but they smashed all the toilets," Maj. Robert Terselic said as he accompanied a group of marines on a tour of the site. "They took furniture, doors, windows, everything. We have no water, no electricity, only mosquitoes."

A few remnants of old Babylon survive, principally where archaeologists have excavated the foundation stones of some of Nebuchadnezzar's palace. Part of a mile-long Processional Way, which once went from the Ishtar Gate to the Temple of Marduk, also survives, with its original paving stones still visible. But almost everything else is pastiche.

Nebuchadnezzar's museum, which once recounted the Chaldean monarch's epic rule, including his destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., has now been bricked up to protect its two valuable reliefs. But Hammurabi's museum, which recalled his famous code of laws covering all aspects of life and commerce, is open to the elements and strewn with broken glass, loose paper and remnants of an oil portrait of Mr. Hussein.

Alexander the Great, who died in Nebuchadnezzar's palace in 323 B.C. upon his return from India, had planned to make Babylon his imperial capital. But he left only a Greek-style theater. Upon its ruins Mr. Hussein built a still grander theater, with a large glassed-in box, marble floors and stucco ceilings, where the dictator sat on his one visit there, in 1987. The theater was nonetheless used annually for a festival that brought performers from nearby countries.

The theater is approached through an olive grove surrounded by shaded walkways resembling a cloister. Three weeks ago, looters burned the wooden roofs of the walkways and wrecked nearby rooms before smashing Mr. Hussein's presidential box atop the auditorium. Not far away, beside a half-size replica of the Ishtar Gate, mobs also destroyed a restaurant for tourists.

For Ms. Abbas, the archaeologist, there was an additional explanation for the mob fury.

"The Department of Antiquities and the Iraq museum were identified with the regime," she said. "Fear of that system is still in my heart. I hope that a government will come that will give me the freedom to speak what I have on my mind. The only way to create a democracy is to change even the lowest official of the regime. At the moment, lots of bad people are still in power."

Certainly, in the aftermath of the plundering of the National Museum, American authorities seem intent on working with the same team of archaeologists and officials who were in charge under Mr. Hussein's rule. The difficulty is that apart from exiles, most people with expertise in archaeology and museum management had no alternative to working with the Hussein government.

Babylon, however, poses a different problem: What should be done with Mr. Hussein's palace and the replica of Nebuchadnezzar's palace?

To tear them down might please archaeological purists, but it would be immensely costly and would also destroy a possible tourist attraction. Yet to leave them would realize Mr. Hussein's dream of being remembered long after his death.

Today's Babylon, after all, is Mr. Hussein's Babylon.

SARS MUTATION NIGHTMARE

GENEVA/BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese officials said on Friday SARS was at its peak in Beijing, but Hong Kong scientists said the microbe was mutating and the World Health Organization warned that China still lacked the equipment and expertise to fight it.


WHO also removed the United States and Britain from the list of countries affected by SARS, following a 20-day period without local spread of the flu-like disease.

Canada, China -- including Hong Kong -- Taiwan, Mongolia and Singapore remain on the list of countries where national authorities reported the virus is being spread locally as opposed to being imported from elsewhere.

In Beijing, the deputy director general of the Municipal Health Bureau, Liang Wannian, said Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was peaking in the capital, the hardest hit city in the world with 91 deaths and more than 1,600 cases.

"Since April 21, the number of SARS patients in Beijing has entered the peak period," Liang told a news conference.

"My personal judgment is the present high plateau of the number of cases in Beijing will continue for a period of time. Overall the situation in Beijing is stable, and the upward trend has been effectively checked."

SARS has killed close to 200 people in China and infected nearly 4,000 since it emerged in the southern province of Guangdong late last year. Globally, it has infected more than 6,300 people in 30 countries, killing more than 400.

INFECTION CONTROL SHORTFALLS

But WHO said China had a great deal more work to do in containing the virus, which kills between 6 and 10 percent of its victims.

"A WHO field visit to one large hospital not officially designated as a SARS hospital demonstrated the urgent need to review strategies for infection control procedures," WHO said in a statement posted on its Web site at http://www.who.int.

"Current infection control practices in emergency rooms may need to be modified, since health care workers continue to be infected. Among front-line health workers, 15 new cases were reported in Beijing. There are now 300 infected health care workers," WHO said.

Health-care workers have been hard hit by SARS since the beginning because they see patients who may not know they have the contagious infection. WHO says doctors and nurses should wear specific types of face masks, gloves and even goggles when treating suspected SARS patients.

WHO also said China's government needed to do more to reassure worried citizens.

"The public needs to have more information on when and where infection is happening," said Dr. Henk Bekedam, WHO's representative in China. "We don't know that right now."

WHO said China was facing a critical period.

"The next few months will prove crucial in the attempt to contain SARS worldwide, which now greatly depends on whether the disease can be controlled in China," WHO said.

Scientists are hoping that, like its close relative the common cold, SARS will prove to be a seasonal disease and will wane in the summer months, giving public health experts a chance to come to grips with it.

SEEDING SARS GLOBALLY

David Heymann, the WHO head of communicable diseases, said if China did not stamp out SARS, there would always be the danger that it would continue to "seed" the disease throughout the world.

Doctors say immediately isolating SARS patients is key to preventing its spread and quick treatment may help patients survive. Symptoms include high fever, cough and pneumonia, and there is no standard treatment. It is mainly passed by droplets through sneezing and coughing.

Hong Kong scientists said they had isolated four different strains of the virus from patients. It was the first indication the virus was evolving, as earlier analysis had suggested all strains seen so far were virtually identical.

But scientists have said the coronavirus family was very susceptible to mutation. SARS is a previously unknown strain of coronavirus, unlike anything ever seen in animals or people although the coronaviruses have not been widely studied.

"Such a quick mutation means that even if there is a cure it may become ineffective. Even a diagnostic test may not be able to detect it if it has undergone change," said Dennis Lo, one of the microbiologists who reported the mutations.

SARS has killed 170 people in Hong Kong and infected 1,611.

Canada said it would soon launch an aggressive campaign to persuade tourists that it was safe to visit Toronto.

Ontario health officials told a news conference in Toronto that 176 people, or two-thirds of SARS patients, had been discharged from hospital. They also said there were 30 active probable hospital cases as of Friday, compared with 53 on April 23.

DEMAND FOR INTERIM GOVERNMENT

Iraqi preachers sought to calm tensions with U.S. troops on Friday and demanded that the United States establish a government to restore order after President Bush declared the war effectively over.

While grappling with postwar chaos, the U.S. military said it was holding two more of deposed President Saddam Hussein's top aides, including one who helped direct weapons programs.

It named him as Abdul Tawab Mullah Hwaish, head of the military industrialization ministry, which oversaw the development of weapons of mass destruction in the 1980s.

Hwaish was 16th on the U.S. list of 55 most wanted Iraqis. He was taken into custody on Thursday, along with Taha Mohieddin Ma'rouf, an Iraqi vice president and member of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council, and 42nd on the list.

The hunt for Saddam and his inner circle is one reason why Bush stopped short of formally ending the war in a speech on Thursday.

Hitherto unseen television footage of Saddam was aired on Friday, but it shed little new light on the fate of the Iraqi leader. The video, obtained by Associated Press Television News, matched an audiotape that was broadcast on April 18.

"There is nothing in it apparently to indicate when it was done," a U.S. official said. Saddam has been seen in several broadcasts since the war began six weeks ago but there has been no confirmation of when the tapes were made.

POSTWAR PLAN

With Bush having declared major combat operations over, a senior U.S. official announced plans for Iraq to be divided into three sectors patrolled by troops from at least 10 nations led by the United States, Britain and Poland under a postwar stability plan.

The volunteer states do not include France, Germany or Russia, which were not invited to a planning meeting of 16 nations in London that approved the plan on Wednesday, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

A senior British official made a case, however, for the U.S. military to step aside from running postwar Iraq.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, said the Pentagon had done a terrific job in winning the war but it was time for the diplomats to manage the peace.

"If the Pentagon runs the peace, we're in trouble," he said during a panel discussion at Harvard University.

Many Iraqis are happy at Saddam's removal but have made clear they want U.S. troops to leave as soon as possible.

"To America and its allies we say: where are your honey-sweet promises? Now is the time to fulfill them," Sheikh Ahmad al-Issawi said in a sermon at a Baghdad mosque.

"Where is the government?" he asked. "Install a government as quickly as possible even if it is an emergency government.

"Maintain security and protect public and private possessions from looters and get public services, water and electricity, back to normal," Issawi added.

IRAQ FAR FROM SAFE

Speaking a day after Bush declared that U.S.-led forces had prevailed in the military phase of the war, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in London that insecurity remained rife.

"It would be a terrible mistake to think that Iraq is a fully secure, fully pacified environment. It is not, it is dangerous," he said after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the end of a victory tour to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rumsfeld's talks with Blair covered a push for faster reconstruction and humanitarian efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Washington, a U.S. official said the Bush administration had chosen Paul Bremer, a former diplomat who headed the State Department's counterterrorism efforts, to be the civilian administrator guiding reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

The official said Bremer would supplant retired Gen. Jay Garner as the top U.S. civilian official in the country.

The European Union, meanwhile, said it had agreed in principle for the return of diplomats to Iraq.

In the tense western city of Falluja, a Muslim prayer leader called on residents not to fight U.S. soldiers who killed 15 demonstrators earlier this week and then suffered seven wounded in a reprisal attack on a U.S. base.

"I want to tell you, to tell all of the people here in Falluja, not to attack Americans. If you do they will kill you," one prayer leader told worshipers at a mosque opposite the U.S. post. The mayor of Falluja held "peace talks" with a major at the U.S. camp, American soldiers said.

But anger still simmered on the streets, where some said they preferred Saddam's rule to the U.S. "occupation."

In Tehran, a hard-line Iranian cleric predicted that Iraqis would launch a Palestinian-style revolt against U.S. troops.

Iraqis are dismayed at the postwar breakdown in security and angry about shortages of water, power and other services.

However, a vessel with 14,000 tons of rice docked in the southern port of Umm Qasr, the largest to arrive by sea and the first shipment by the U.N. World Food Program since the war began.

SUICIDE PLANE ATTACK

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda was in the late stages of planning an aerial suicide attack against the U.S. Consulate in Karachi when Pakistani authorities rolled up the cell earlier this week, U.S. sources told Reuters on Friday.

"Recent reliable reporting indicates that al Qaeda was in the late stages of planning an aerial suicide attack against the U.S. Consulate in Karachi," said a Department of Homeland Security advisory, dated May 1.

"Operatives were planning to pack a small fixed-wing aircraft or helicopter with explosives and crash it into the consulate," the advisory to pilots and airports to watch for suspicious activity said.

The plot was revealed by one of the six members of an al Qaeda cell captured in a raid in Karachi on Tuesday in which 330 pounds of high explosives were also seized, U.S. sources told Reuters.

At least some of the captured group, which included a suspected mastermind of the USS Cole bombing in Yemen in 2000 and a nephew of senior al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, had been plotting a strike on the consulate, sources said.

Despite those arrests, U.S. authorities remained vigilant because past suspected al Qaeda operations involved multiple simultaneous attacks such as the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane strikes on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

The Department of Homeland Security advisory did not mention any specific threat inside the United States. "We issued this advisory in response to general intelligence regarding threats to airlines, not to a specific threat," a spokeswoman for the agency said.

The advisory was based on information and analysis from the Terrorist Threat Integration Center received during the last 24 hours, it said. The center, which aims to be a hub for terrorism threat information, officially opened on Thursday.

SMALL AIRCRAFT 'FIXATION'

"This plot and a similar plot last year to fly a small explosive-laden aircraft into a U.S. warship in the Persian Gulf demonstrate al Qaeda's continued fixation with using explosive-laden small aircraft in attacks," the advisory said.

A small plane loaded with explosives would be equivalent to a medium-sized truck bomb, it said.

The advisory warned that al Qaeda might attempt to use charter or small aircraft for future attacks because of their "availability, less stringent protective measures, and destructive potential."

"The group has a fair sized pilot cadre and the use of small aircraft requires far less skill and training than some larger aircraft," the advisory said.

Charter aircraft may be attractive to extremists because security procedures typically are not as rigorous as those for commercial airlines and "terrorists" would not have to control a large number of passengers, it said.

"Reliable information obtained last year indicated al Qaeda might use experienced non-Arab pilots to rent three or four light aircraft under the guise of flying lessons," it said.

The Department of Homeland Security said it was asking members of the aviation community to report to law enforcement authorities "all unusual and suspicious activities" such as people, aircraft and operations that did not fit the customary pattern at the airport.

SECURITY AND VIGILANCE

The advisory asked that immediate action be taken to secure unattended aircraft to prevent unauthorized use, verify the identification of crew and passengers before departure, verify that baggage and cargo are known to those on board, and ensure that employees wear proper identification and challenge anyone without it.

It also advised increased vigilance toward unknown pilots and clients for aircraft rentals or charters, unknown service and delivery personnel, aircraft with unusual or unauthorized modifications, and people "who appear to be under stress or the control of other persons."

Separately, U.S. intelligence agencies also have "credible" information from a variety of sources about a possible al Qaeda plot to strike U.S. targets in Saudi Arabia, which led to a recent travel warning, a U.S. official said on Friday.

But the information was not specific about when, other than soon, where or how the attack would be carried out.

The State Department on Thursday renewed a warning for U.S. citizens to avoid travel to Saudi Arabia, saying: "Information indicates that terrorist groups may be in the final phases of planning attacks against U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia."

SOUTHERN GREAT DANE

A veteran Danish diplomat has been appointed post-war head of one of Iraq's four administrative regions, the key southern province of Basra.

Ole Woehler Olsen has worked in several Arabic countries in more than 30 years with the Danish foreign service.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said that Mr Olsen, who is currently ambassador to Syria, knew the Arab world "to his fingertips" and would "create the foundation to the new Iraq".

Mr Moeller made the appointment jointly with his UK counterpart, Jack Straw, because British troops currently control the region.

It is not clear when Mr Olsen will take up his post.

Denmark has been involved in plans for the post-war redevelopment of Iraq because of its support for the US-led war.

Less resistance

It sent a submarine and escort ship to the Gulf as part of the coalition's war effort.

It is now also considering leading a 3,000-man mainly Eastern European peacekeeping force.

Mr Olsen, who is a fluent Arabic speaker and a Muslim, began his diplomatic career in 1969.

Mr Moeller said his background was an advantage, adding that it had been agreed that a Danish leader would meet less resistance than an American or Briton regarded as a representative of the occupying powers.

Among other posts, Mr Olsen served as ambassador in Saudi Arabia for six years and has been ambassador to Syria since 1999.

He is described as a keen traveller and adventurer.

PYONGYANG LINKED TO HEROIN SHIP

An official of North Korea's governing party was aboard a ship accused of bringing $80 million worth of heroin into Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.

Mr Downer today summoned North Korea's ambassador to Australia Chon Jae Hong to a meeting with government officials to express concern about the North Korean government's possible role in trafficking drugs.

Mr Downer said intelligence agencies had told the federal government that the North Korean government had been involved in selling drugs to raise funds for the regime.

Some 26 North Korean crew members of the Pong Su remain in custody after being charged with helping import 50kg of pure heroin into Lorne in south-western Victoria.

Mr Downer said the ship was owned by the North Korean's ruling Korean Workers' Party.

"We are concerned because the ship is Korean owned and it's a totalitarian state, so in effect it (the ship) is government owned," Mr Downer told reporters in Adelaide today.

"Whilst we can't prove that the government made the decision to send this ship and sell drugs into Australia to make money, we are concerned that instrumentalities of the government may have been involved in this.

"It would be a matter of very great outrage to us if evidence continues to point to elements of the North Korean government having knowledge of this".

Mr Downer said the North Korean ambassador to Australia would be told of Australia's concern.

"We understand there was a member of the Korean Workers' Party onboard the ship ... and we are very concerned that there could be any association between North Korea and drug trafficking in order to raise money," he said.

"This was a very substantial amount of material that was brought to Australia and we at this stage don't know the details of what links there may have been between the Korean Workers' Party ... and the actual trafficking which has been taking place here.

"We are laying down some markers to North Korea today that we are very concerned about this.

"We have this ship, we have a large quantity of heroin which has been found.

"We are interviewing now the crew from the ship, trying to establish what the situation really is - we have confirmed there is a member of the Korean Workers' Party who is on board the ship."

SARS MILDER ON CHILDREN

Although the bug has killed at least 394 people worldwide, no children have died. Specialists in Hong Kong today revealed that youngsters hit by severe acute respiratory syndrome develop a much milder strain of the condition.

The research, published in the medical journal The Lancet, centred on ten children - the eldest four were teenagers - who were admitted to either the Prince of Wales or Princess Margaret hospitals in Hong Kong.

Two distinct patterns were discovered, according to paediatrician Professor Tai Fai Fok, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who led the study. Teenage patients presented symptoms similar to adults, such as malaise and muscle-aching but younger children had much milder symptoms, such as a cough or runny nose.

The treatment for the younger children was also much milder and shorter, he said, while the four teenagers required oxygen treatment for severe respiratory problems.

Prof Fok concluded: "Our preliminary observations suggest that younger children possibly develop a milder form of disease and tend to run a less aggressive clinical course."

In a separate study, also published in The Lancet, researchers at the Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong said surgical masks offered the best protection to Sars.

A total of 241 uninfected staff and 13 infected staff who had all been exposed to 11 Sars patients were quizzed on their use of mask, gloves, gowns and hand-washing. All the staff who were infected had omitted at least one of the measures, the research found.

ONJ PLUGS FOR CANCER

OLIVIA Newton-John gently touched Chris Carson's hand in an old Austin hospital ward that is due for demolition.

"It's scary, isn't it?" she comforted him. "That's the scary time."

Treatment is going well for Chris, 31, who was diagnosed with leukemia on January 22.

But between that warm day and early yesterday, there had been thoughts as black as any he has known.

"What do you do with your mind at 2am? What do you do with your mind at 4pm, between treatments?" he pondered before answering himself.

"You find strength in strange places, in childhood memories, songs, all these things you recall to get through the night."

And Newton-John, who found strength for her breast cancer battle in her own places, understood.

"I remember waking up," she said to Chris, without needing to add anything.

The singer's own dark hours had brought her to the hospital to launch a program built on hope.

The Austin is seeking $50 million for a cancer centre in Australia's most ambitious appeal.

Newton-John, 54, was there to support the centre that will bear her name, along with the AFL's Andrew Demetriou, who will chair the appeal. Mr Demetriou lost his wife, Jan, to cancer in 1999.

The Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre will be a world-leading research, education, training and treatment centre.

Its medical facilities will be second to none and its unique wellness centre will bear the stamp of its namesake.

Newton-John had breast cancer in 1992 at a time when a close friend had recently lost a child to the disease.

Her father, Brin, was dying of cancer.

"It was kind of overwhelming at the time. Cancer was all around me and I hadn't zoned into it," she said.

"It's like when you have a baby. You notice babies everywhere."

The wellness centre, to be built in the hospital's Zeltner Hall, is very much the singer's baby.

In television ads for the appeal, she speaks in an empty theatre about being alone and scared.

The wellness centre will be a place patients can relax, share feelings and not feel alone.

If meditation and aromatherapy aren't everyone's cup of tea, maybe a cup of tea will do.

"I've come up with some ideas to make it really beautiful, a healing space," Newton-John said.

"Or somewhere you can just sit together, talk and have a cup of tea."

During her own fight, Newton-John says, she prayed, chanted, meditated - anything she felt helped her.

Something worked and she says she is proud to tell other women "here I am, 10 years later".

Donations can be made by calling 1800 220 210, or online at www.oliviacancerappeal.org.

QUITTING OVER SMARTS

DENVER (Reuters) - The editor of the Salt Lake Tribune resigned under pressure on Thursday, two days after firing two of his reporters for receiving $10,000 each from the National Enquirer tabloid for salacious material about relatives of kidnapped teen Elizabeth Smart.

"This past week was the hardest of my professional career," James Shelledy, who had been editor for 12 years, told the staff at the Salt Lake Tribune after he resigned.

"It became clear to me and the publisher that it will take a new editor to bring an end to the contention in the newsroom over what has become known as the Enquirer affair," he said.

"So today's edition will be my last, make it a good one," Shelledy said. Staffers applauded Shelledy and some said he was leaving the newspaper better than when he found it, according to Deputy Assistant Managing Editor Terry Orme.

Publisher Dean Singleton, who also owns The Denver Post, said a new editor would be named.

On Sunday, in a letter to readers Shelledy disclosed that two Tribune reporters Kevin Cantera and Michael Vigh who were lead reporters on the kidnapping and safe return of 15-year-old Elizabeth, had sold information to the National Enquirer for a July 2 article in the tabloid.

The article, published about a month after the girl was kidnapped at knifepoint from her home, claimed that relatives of Elizabeth were involved in a gay sex ring. The Smart family hired an attorney and on Monday the Enquirer retracted the story and apologized to the Smart family.

But the next day Shelledy, who had originally said he would not fire the reporters, changed course after learning they had played a much more significant role in the Enquirer article than they had originally led him to believe.

However, some Tribune staffers complained that they knew nothing about the reporters' involvement with the Enquirer until they read it on Sunday.

Singleton had also said this week that he felt like "vomiting" when he heard about the scandal and that the two should have been fired immediately. He also said readers should have learned about the reporters' involvement with the tabloid in a newspaper article, rather than in an editorial piece from the editor.

RINGTONE REVOLUTION

You've witnessed it. A cell phone goes off in an office or a commuter train, and all the adults reflexively check their units, unable to identify the generic ring.

Young people don't have that problem. When a cell phone goes off on a school bus or at the mall, you'll hear not an annoying electronic bleat but a catchy pop riff. And everyone has a personal theme song, from rap (50 Cent's "Wanksta") to rock (Linkin Park's "One Step Closer") to novelty ("Macarena").

The kids are leading a ring-tone revolution. Around the world, the hard-core digerati - essentially those under 25 - are thronging to buy 10- to 20-second snatches of hit music to customize their phones. And more services, from concert announcements to downloads of yet-to-be-released singles, also exist or will soon.

"Last year there were $1 billion in ring-tone sales in Europe, Korea, Taiwan and Japan," says Paul Vidich, executive vice president of strategic planning and business development for the Warner Music Group. "It's a huge business outside the United States and it's becoming a big business here."

In this country, ring-tone sales last year were estimated at $18 million, says the Yankee Group, a Boston technology research advisory firm. In 2003, that figure is apt to triple - much to the delight of the beleaguered recorded-music industry, which gets a cut of the profits.


Major phone service providers such as Verizon Wireless, with 72.5 million subscribers, and AT&T Wireless, with 20 million, offer huge online catalogs of musical tones. You can also purchase ring tones from independent Web sites and buy prepaid cards with ring-tone "credits." The cost ranges from 99 cents to $1.99 a song.

"So far, most people have been buying them to make their phone sound different," says Thomas Gewecke, the senior vice president of Sony Music Digital Services. "It's a statement of personal identity."

And hipness. Kelly Janis, 19, of Allentown, recalled hearing her first ring-tone. "Over Christmas my friend had a Nelly song," she said recently, at the Plaza at King of Prussia. "I thought that was so cool." Since then, Janis has purchased several ring tones and is now using "All I Need" by rapper Method Man.

Some cell phone owners change their tones almost as often as they do their outfits. "I like variety," said Albert May, also at the mall. The 16-year-old from Armonk, N.Y., has gone through more than two dozen songs. At the moment, he has settled on blink-182's "Dammit." "I just downloaded it," he said.

With newer model phones, you can assign a different tune to each of your regular callers. Sidney Turner, 17 of West Chester, hears Nas' "Street Dreams" when his best friend calls. And if it's one of the girls on his phone list, R. Kelly's "Bumpy Ride" plays.

"When my mom calls," he said, "it's a police siren. Aarreeee. Uh-oh, you're in trouble."

If you're really ambitious, you can make up your own signature tune. But be warned: It's pretty tedious to input a melody using a dial pad.

Nick Barone, 24, of Doylestown, an aspiring singer and songwriter, has one of his compositions as his tone. "It took me a half-hour to figure out how to do it and 45 minutes to get the tune onto the phone," he said, explaining, "I have a pretty boring job."

You can even play DJ. Some higher-end Motorola phones ($299 and up) allow you to download hits and remix them.

One reason for the rapidly rising popularity of ring tones is that the quality has improved. A year ago, most offerings were monophonic. Now the industry standard is polyphonic with far more sophisticated and recognizable renditions. The difference is like comparing an old Casio keyboard to a full orchestra.

Though hip-hop artists dominate the field, all manner of songs are available: pop songs, oldies, TV themes, patriotic music, even the Philadelphia Eagles fight song.

For the battered recorded music business, ring tones are like found money. And unlike other forms of digital entertainment, pirates haven't yet found a way to tap into this revenue stream.

"The music industry is looking to the wireless industry to make money off what people have previously been stealing," says Travis Larson of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, a prominent trade group.

Acutely aware of how sensitive the music industry is these days about protecting its assets, "we have a level of security whereby the tones can't be removed or redistributed," says Ray Taylor, Verizon's director of multimedia products.

Labels are even starting to think of cell phones as artist marketing tools. If you're old enough to remember music on vinyl, you might consider ring tones the new 45s. "We think this year in the U.S. there will be more ring-tone sales in terms of total dollars than there are of singles sales," says Warner Music Group's Vidich. "In Europe, they started exceeding singles sales back in 2001."

None of this would be possible if wireless music weren't so fiendishly accessible to youth. Their parents don't even have to know - until the end of the month.

Having stumbled onto this gold mine, the music and wireless industries are working feverishly to sink more shafts. You can now download screensavers of popular artists or album covers to your phone screen. You can register to get news about CD releases, concerts and personal appearances. Answer trivia questions to win posters and CDs. Get the voice of your favorite singer or rapper to inform you when you have a call.

Some phones erupt in disco lights, synchronized to their ring tone. A new line of Verizon phones comes equipped with an MP3 player.

So far this season, more than a million votes have been text-messaged to Fox TV's American Idol using AT&T. At one point, the talent show registered more than a 1,000 wireless votes a second. For an additional fee, American Idol will send a photo of the most recently dispatched contestant to your phone.

The potential for wireless entertainment is boundless because technology is making such dramatic advances. Every few months, phones hit the market with more memory, better audio chips, faster processors.

"The music industry hopes in the near future to sell singles of previously unreleased songs on the phone," says Larson, of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association.

"A record company will offer to sell you the new 50 Cent single for $1.25 and send it to you over your wireless phone. Right now fans are taking it for free off the Internet, so why not sell it early for a reduced price?... It could happen in the next year."

Until now, older consumers have been slow to embrace their mobile phones' expanded capacity. But, inevitably, youth will clear the way.

"They're the [chief technology officers] of the home," notes Alberto Moriondo, Motorola's director of Global Entertainment Solutions. "They're the ones who tell Mom and Dad about all the cool things out there."

THE PRICE OF SWAPPING

Four college students learned Thursday that free music downloads can carry a hidden price tag ? $12,000 to $17,500, to be exact.

The major record companies had accused the students ? two at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and one each at Princeton University and Michigan Technological University ? of fueling music piracy by running file-sharing networks on campus and offering hundreds of songs for copying.

On Thursday, the four settled the companies' claims and promised not to violate their copyrights. Although they did not admit to committing or aiding piracy, they each agreed to pay thousands of dollars to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, the labels' trade group.

The settlements mark the first time the record companies have recovered money from individuals in the United States accused of piracy on file-sharing networks. But they may be a harbinger of more lawsuits, as the industry starts taking its battle against online piracy directly to users.

Evan Cox, a copyright attorney in San Francisco who has helped software companies battle piracy, said the amounts are high enough to catch the attention of file swappers.

"I'd personally think twice about doing something that would cost me $12,000 to $17,500 to avoid spending 12 to 15 bucks on the occasional CD," Cox said.

But Howard Ende, an attorney for 18-year-old Princeton University sophomore Daniel Peng, predicted that the tactic would backfire.

"This case had very little to do with Dan Peng and everything to do with the recording industry's attempt to intimidate Internet users around the country and college students in particular," Ende said. "They looked to instill fear, but instead they got fear and loathing."

In the settlements, all four ? Peng; Joseph Nievelt, a 21-year-old junior computer science student at Michigan Tech in Houghton, Mich.; Jesse Jordan, a 19-year-old freshman information technology student at Rensselaer in Troy, N.Y.; and Aaron Sherman, a student studying management and computer networks at Rensselaer ? agreed not to infringe or support the infringement of the companies' copyrights.

Peng and Nievelt each agreed to pay $15,000. Sherman agreed to pay $17,500, and Jordan agreed to pay $12,000.

For Nievelt, who was raised in a Detroit suburb, the payment amounts to nearly three years' tuition. For each of the other three, the settlement translates to about half a year's worth of classes.

None of them appear to have made any money off the file-sharing systems they operated, which were confined to their campuses' computer networks.

"It's been kind of a bad day, and a bad week and a really, really, really bad month," Nievelt said from the dorm room he shares with two other students, where the corkboard is covered with exam announcements and fliers touting anti-RIAA rallies.

The lanky Nievelt started tinkering with computers in the seventh grade and gradually moved on to explore the flexibility of computer networking. Last summer he landed an internship at Microsoft Corp., working as a development engineer in the software giant's headquarters in Redmond, Wash.

There, he met fellow intern Sherman, who also had spent much of his young life steeped in technology. While attending Huntington High School in Long Island, N.Y., the short-haired, clean-cut student launched a Web site dedicated to a rare genetic condition, Triplo-X syndrome.

At Rensselaer, he quickly became involved in a variety of activities, including joining the fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha and publishing extensive research on "Efficient Solutions for Peer to Peer Resource Discovery on Local Area Networks."

When officials from Michigan Tech called him one April afternoon and told him that the RIAA was serving him with legal papers, Nievelt felt sick.

"My dad's not happy. My mom's more on the paranoid side," Nievelt said. "For a while, it seemed that they [the RIAA] were going to get more money than we ever would have had in the family."

Sherman, who could not be reached for comment late Thursday, has written or contributed to several academic papers related to file sharing and MP3, the most popular format for music on file-sharing networks. These include a treatise on FlatLan, the file-sharing software at the center of the record labels' suit against him.

For Jordan, the $12,000 settlement will wipe out his college savings account.

It was money the quiet freshman ? who wrote his first computer program at age 9 and helped test Microsoft's Windows 98 operating system at age 13 ? had earned by working summers at a pet store near the family home in Oceanside, N.Y.

And it was money that the family was counting on to stretch the loans and scholarships that helped cover Jordan's $29,000 annual bill for tuition and housing.

"I've been out of work for a while," said Jordan's father, Andy, 54, a former technology manager for financial service companies. "We had a small fund set aside for his schooling, but that was in the markets and is pretty much gone."

Noting that he owns thousands of records and CDs, Andy Jordan added: "They [the RIAA] have sued one of their most avid customers. The RIAA says that they wanted to teach these kids and their families a lesson. The lesson we learned is that we will never, ever buy another product from any of those companies again. That's the lesson we're going to tell everyone."

Peng, a former salutatorian of Manalapan High School in central New Jersey, is a physics whiz who won a silver medal at the 2001 International Physics Olympiad in Antalya, Turkey. On his personal Web site, the young scientist detailed his hopes of majoring in electrical engineering or computer science, as well as his love of authors Ayn Rand and Isaac Asimov.

The Nievelt, Sherman and Jordan settlements took the form of court orders that, if violated, could subject the students to fines and jail terms. They and Peng were allowed to pay the record companies in installments spread over two or more years.

Many record company executives blame the protracted slump in CD sales on file-sharing networks, which let users copy songs from one another's computers for free. They responded by suing the most popular networks, with mixed results.

The music industry's suit against Napster Inc. effectively shut down the pioneering network and forced the company into insolvency. But a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled last week that two other popular networks, Morpheus and Grokster, were not liable for the unauthorized copies made by their users.

Nevertheless, every judge on the cases has held that users on these networks who offer or download files without the copyright owner's permission are violating the law. Those rulings have supplied the RIAA with ammunition for lawsuits against individual file swappers.

Peng said in a news release, "I don't believe that I did anything wrong." His attorneys also defended him, saying he'd simply set up an index that enabled others on the Princeton network to find and copy all kinds of files from one another's computers.

Lawyers for the record companies, however, said the four students facilitated piracy the same way that Napster did ? by providing on their computers a central directory to unauthorized copies of songs. They also offered 1,800 to 6,000 songs from their own computers for others on their campuses to copy, the companies alleged.

The lawsuits, which were filed early last month, asked for damages of up to $150,000 per infringement. That translated to hundreds of millions of dollars for each of the students.

Matt Oppenheim, senior vice president of business and legal affairs for the RIAA, said the settlements, although well below what the companies asked for, are "the right amount given the situation."

Most students "will view $15,000 as a fairly significant amount of money," Oppenheim said. He also noted that since the four suits were filed, at least 18 campus file-sharing networks have been taken down by their operators.

"The message," Oppenheim said, "is clearly getting through that distributing copyrighted works without permission is illegal, can have consequences, and that we will move quickly and aggressively to enforce our rights."

FOGGY FAREWELL TO ARMS


By MICHAEL R. GORDON

BAGHDAD ? Apache helicopter gunships zoomed toward a band of paramilitary fighters who were stealing crates of ammunition from an arms cache near Saddam Hussein's hometown, Tikrit. As the Iraqis tried to make a getaway, the Apaches opened fire, turning the paramilitaries' truck into a hunk of twisted metal and killing 14.

This is not an old war episode. It took place Wednesday night, just a day before President Bush flew to the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to announce the end of major combat operations in Iraq. And it illustrates the complicated mission American forces now face as they try to bring stability to Iraq.

American forces are operating in a netherworld between war and peace. One moment they may be working on restoring electrical power and the next they may be involved in a vicious firefight. The foe is any of a broad array of forces that oppose the new order: die-hards from the old regime, criminal bands, Iranian agents, suicide bombers and power-hungry Iraqi political factions.

"We are moving into stability operations, and stability operations are characterized by momentary flare-ups of violence," Brig. Gen. Daniel Hahn, the chief of staff for the Army's V Corps, said on Thursday. "It will look at times like we are still at war."

By conventional measures, the war in Iraq has been over for weeks. Allied forces have overthrown the government, moved into Saddam Hussein's palaces and started to patrol the streets of the capital.

But the United States' ultimate goal was not just to topple Mr. Hussein but to stabilize the country and install a friendly government. The American calculation is that as basic services are restored, leaders take power and oil revenue begins flowing, most Iraqis will conclude that they have stake in the emerging order. Gradually, Iraqis will take over policy and other security tasks so they can run the country on their own.

The American military's task is to provide the security in the meantime. The new mission now involves destroying forces that disrupt the new order, prevent agents from Iran and Syria from meddling in Iraq's affairs, and prevent power grabs like the one attempted by Muhammad al-Zubeidi, the self-appointed Baghdad administrator whose insistent efforts to take control landed him in American detention last Sunday.

This is more of an endurance contest than a sprint. It also depends heavily on good intelligence and the cooperation of Iraqi citizens to help locate troublemakers. American forces have shifted from a campaign that was measured in days and weeks to a mission that will take months, if not years.

"As these things move out, more and more people will want to turn away from the violence," General Hahn said. "I expect it to become easier and easier to get rid of these bad actors. Then there will be just a few elements that will go to ground and we will just have to deal with that. It is not to be expected that everything will be rosy and benign. For some time in the future, elements will remain that will not like the direction that the new Iraqi nation is taking."

The past few days have been a taste of what is in store.

On Wednesday, a man was shot near Kut as he tried to run over two marines at a checkpoint.

The same day, soldiers from the Third Infantry Division in Baghdad found a truckload of bombs. They were hidden inside soccer balls, according to the division's report to the V Corps. A soldier from another of the division's units was wounded during a patrol in the capital.

In Falluja on Thursday, two grenades were thrown at soldiers from the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, wounding seven. The attack followed several days of disturbances in the city where American soldiers exchanged fire with an unknown number of attackers as civilians carried out demonstrations against the American presence. As many as 17 Iraqis ? including civilians, according to local residents ? were killed.

In response to those attacks, American commanders plan to seek out former Baath Party officials they believe are behind the provocation. Crowd control techniques ? the use of loudspeakers to influence mobs, rubber bullets and pepper spray ? will also be added to the repertoire of the American troops stationed there.

In Tikrit, the attempted ammunition heist began when scouts from the Fourth Infantry Division detected paramilitary fighters raiding an arms cache. About five of the paramilitary fighters were attacked and killed. When more returned, they were blasted by Apache gunships.

Civil affairs forces have been focusing on restoring essential services and helping Iraqis get back on their feet. But they, too, have been targets at times. Four were recently shot by a lone gunman as they made their way through congested traffic to the Ministry of Health. One of the wounded soldiers shot and killed the attacker.

Each day provides a fresh list or incidents, which are reported up the chain of command. It is part of the routine. The combat phase may be over but the war is not.

The ultimate success of the American military intervention in Iraq will depend on political factors that are beyond the control of American forces, including the emergence of an effective Iraqi leadership. But the political goals cannot be achieved unless order is maintained and the Iraqis understand that the die-hard defenders of the old regime are neutralized once and for all.

The task will require the ability to take setbacks in stride, efforts by the military to forge a good working relationship with the Iraqi population and one of the rarest of American characteristics: patience.

TIES RESTORED

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- India will appoint a new ambassador to Pakistan and resume commercial flights to its neighbor, restoring ties that were broken last year amid the threat of war.

The two countries went on war footing last year after India blamed Pakistan for an attack by Islamic militants on the Indian Parliament in December 2001. Pakistan denied involvement.

Tensions eased after intense diplomacy by the United States and Britain.

Last week, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee conditionally offered talks with Pakistan on Kashmir and other issues. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has voiced some skepticism over the offer, but said it was a sign of improvement.

``It has been decided to appoint a high commissioner in Pakistan and to restore civil aviation links,'' Vajpayee told Parliament on Friday.

Vajpayee's comments came four days after Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali phoned the Indian leader in the first such high-level contact in almost two years.

``We are committed to the improvement of relations with Pakistan and we are willing to grasp every opportunity for doing so,'' Vajpayee told Parliament.

Friction between the nuclear-armed neighbors has roots in a territorial dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan. Both countries claim Kashmir in its entirety, and they have fought two wars over the region since their independence from Britain in 1947.

Last month, Vajpayee said he was ready for talks with Pakistan on issues including Kashmir, but repeated his demand that Islamabad cease funding, arming, training and giving shelter to Islamic militants fighting in the Indian-controlled portion of the region.

Pakistan denies it directly supports the rebels.

Vajpayee said that during the phone call Jamali condemned terrorism and conveyed appreciation for the Indian leader's recent comments favoring peace.

``I emphasized the importance of economic cooperation, cultural exchanges, people-to-people contacts and civil aviation links,'' Vajpayee said of the phone conversation. He said Jamali suggested resuming sporting events between teams from the two nations.

COMBAT OVER, BUSH DECLARES

ABOARD USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN/FALLUJA, Iraq: President Bush told delighted sailors and pilots on the deck of an aircraft carrier that major combat operations in Iraq were over and the United States and its allies had prevailed over Saddam Hussein.

Speaking aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, just hours after seven U.S. soldiers were wounded in a fresh outbreak of violence in Iraq, an ebullient Bush said the six-week war to topple Saddam was "one victory in a war on terror."

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," Bush said on Thursday. "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country."

In the city of Falluja west of Baghdad, angry Iraqis attacked a U.S. base on Thursday in apparent retaliation for the killing of 15 residents by U.S. troops who fired at crowds twice this week, the military said.

"The attack was an expression of the anger of a few people in the city after what happened," said U.S. Capt. Alan Vaught.

The incident made clear Bush will have to work hard to rebuild confidence in Iraq after a relatively easy military victory achieved with what he called "one of the swiftest advances of heavy arms in history."

Bush told the American people in his televised speech that the United States still had important objectives in Iraq.

"We have difficult work to do. ... The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done," the president said.

Washington went to war against Iraq on March 20 because of its alleged weapons of mass destruction. So far it has found none, but Bush said the hunt would continue.

"We have begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated," he said.

Bush also has sought to tie the deposed Saddam government to the al Qaeda group blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, despite a lack of definitive proof.

"The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror," he said. "We have removed an ally of al Qaeda and cut off a source of terrorist funding and this much is certain -- no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime because the Iraqi regime is no more."

GRAND ENTRANCE

Earlier in the day, the president made a dramatic arrival aboard the aircraft carrier, which was steaming toward San Diego on the West Coast with its more than 5,000 military personnel after nine months at sea.

Sitting next to the pilot on an S-3B Viking plane, he made a sudden, stomach-wrenching stop as a cable caught the aircraft on the carrier's flight deck.

Dressed in a green flight suit and carrying his helmet under his arm, Bush emerged smiling to greet crew members, shaking hands, chatting and posing for pictures taken by pilots and flight crews.

As Bush was preparing for his moment of triumph, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had talks in Kuwait on reducing the U.S. military presence in the region and Secretary of State Colin Powell began a European and Middle Eastern diplomatic mission.

Rumsfeld, who said major combat operations were over in Afghanistan, the United States' other war front, is to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's main Iraq war ally, in London on Friday for talks on post-Saddam reconstruction.

Iraqis have largely shown gratitude to the Americans for bringing Saddam down but also have made clear they want U.S. troops to leave as soon as possible.

Pro-American Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, back from decades in exile, said growing frustration about the disruption to basic services in Iraq could prompt new bouts of violence.

Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress, told Reuters an Iraqi force should be set up to patrol towns and cities to prevent more clashes with U.S. troops.

In Baghdad, at least three people were killed and more than 18 were badly burned when Iraqis celebrating the resumption of electricity shot up a gas tanker, which exploded.

Powell began a three-day trip to Spain, Albania, Syria and Lebanon.

He said the overthrow of Saddam had created a "new strategic dynamic" in the Middle East and that Syria, which opposed the war, should review its policies. The United States complained that Syria was allowing Arab volunteers into Iraq to fight U.S. forces and might be letting in Iraqi fugitives.

Next week, Powell meets Israelis and Palestinians for talks on a peace "road map" leading to a Palestinian state by 2005.

ROAD MAP FOR PEACE

JERUSALEM, April 30 -- The United States and other international mediators delivered their long-delayed peace plan to Israeli and Palestinian leaders today, formally launching a new effort to end 31 months of violence.

The proposal, known as the "road map," comes at a time of widespread doubt here about whether Israel and the Palestinians will make the necessary concessions called for in the plan and whether President Bush will invest new energy in the effort.

The plan calls for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire by the Palestinians. That would be accompanied by Palestinian steps to dismantle terrorist organizations, confiscate illegal weapons and "arrest, disrupt and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere."

Simultaneously, Israel would be expected to stop attacks on Palestinian civilians and the demolition of Palestinian homes, dismantle more than 70 Jewish settlement outposts erected since March 2001 in the West Bank, freeze "all settlement activity," including expansion, and "progressively" withdraw the army from areas it has occupied since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000.

The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Daniel C. Kurtzer, delivered the proposal to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at his sprawling Jerusalem residence this afternoon without fanfare or public ceremony. In contrast, about 90 minutes later, four representatives of the international mediation group called the quartet -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- gave copies to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who was sworn in today, with a show of broad smiles, rounds of handshakes and a news conference at Abbas's office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Bush today called Abbas "a man I can work with, and I look forward to working with him and will work with him for the sake of peace."

Speaking to reporters after an Oval Office meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Bush strongly condemned this week's Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel and emphasized that Abbas has "renounced terror."

The White House issued a statement saying that implementation of the road map "will be dependent upon the good faith efforts and contributions of both sides . . . The United States will do all it can to seize this opportunity."

The road map will face its first serious test almost immediately. Israelis and Palestinians have entirely different views of two key aspects. The Palestinians have said they believe the plan as presented today is final and calls for mutual, reciprocal and parallel steps by both parties. The Israelis have said they believe the document should be subject to interpretation and continuing negotiation. They argue that its implementation must be sequential, with the Palestinians successfully cracking down on terrorism before Israel is obligated to take any significant actions.

"We welcome the road map," said a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. He added, however, "We have our comments on the way to implement the road map, which we have presented to the Bush administration."

Even the members of the quartet do not agree on the issue. Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. representative and acting consul general in Jerusalem, indicated that the document was subject to change, saying it was "not a sacred text or treaty," and "the words are meant to be a guideline, a starting point."

U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, however, insisted that "the road map would not be reopened" to debate. Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath agreed, saying, "There can be no talk about preconditions and sequences."

Senior Bush administration officials said this week that any changes in the process should be discussed between Israel and the Palestinians, rather than with quartet members, and that the definition of acceptability would be whatever the two parties can agree upon.

Another threat to the plan is the opposition of Palestinian militant groups, which quickly denounced it. "The road map aims to assure security for Israel at the expense of the security of our people," Sheik Ahmed Yassin, leader of the militant Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, told the Reuters news service. "It is a plan to liquidate the Palestinian cause. It is rejected by us." He added, "Our resistance . . . will continue and no one will stop it."

Hamas and another group, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah Movement, asserted joint responsibility for a suicide bomber who tried to enter a beachfront bar next to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv early this morning, killing three Israelis and himself and injuring 40 people. Israeli authorities said that the bomber was a Palestinian with British citizenship and that a second potential bomber, also British, had escaped without detonating his explosives.

Just over 760 Israelis and almost 2,300 Palestinians have died in the last 31 months of violence.

The road map concept grew out of a June 2002 policy address in which Bush outlined what he called his "vision" of Israel and a Palestinian state "living side by side in peace and security." The document combines elements of failed plans -- from the Oslo accords in 1993 through the Bush administration's 2001 Tenet and Mitchell reports -- that have in general promised the Israelis peace and security in exchange for giving the Palestinians land and sovereignty.

In the end, the earlier accords stumbled over the inability or unwillingness of Palestinian security forces to stop militant attacks against Israelis, and Israel's unwillingness to stop the expansion of Jewish settlements and end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians have complained that all the plans asked them to give up their resistance to Israel's occupation without guaranteeing that they would be rewarded with an independent state in return.

The road map partially altered the dynamic by holding out the possibility of the creation of "an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty" by December 2003, and the promise of negotiations leading to the end of Israel's occupation and the founding of a "sovereign, independent, democratic and viable Palestine" by 2005.

Diplomats and analysts here said the road map is hobbled by mutual distrust and plagued by many of the same problems as earlier peace initiatives.

For example, they said, Palestinians do not believe that Sharon, who is considered an architect of Israel's settlement program, will ever withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Though he publicly endorses the road map, Sharon signaled his disdain for the entire process in an interview with The Washington Post this year when he said the quartet was "nothing -- don't take it seriously." Pro-settlement parties have threatened to withdraw from Sharon's narrow coalition if he implements the road map; this could cause his government to collapse.

The diplomats and others also said that Israelis do not believe that the Palestinians under the leadership of Arafat, the longtime head of the Palestinian Authority, will ever rein in terrorist attacks, even with the appointment of Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, as the new prime minister. The United States and Israel pressured the Palestinians to replace Arafat with Abbas, whom they consider a more moderate, reliable partner in peace talks.

Given the positions, Palestinian political scientist Ali Jawari said, there is little cause for optimism. "If it's a parallel process, then it might have a chance, but if it is in sequence and the Palestinians have to deliver on security before there's any movement from the Israelis, then like Oslo and Mitchell, the road map is going to fail drastically," he said. "I give it two or three months. Either the Palestinians see serious movement from the Israelis or the road map will vanish like all the other plans, and with it, Abu Mazen will vanish, too."

As part of the U.S. efforts, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is beginning the first of two trips to the region this month, which will include visits to Syria and Lebanon. On a trip to begin May 8, he is to hold talks with Sharon in Jerusalem and with Abbas in Ramallah, the first high-level contact between the United States and the Palestinian Authority in more than a year.

Arab and European governments have criticized the White House as less than energetic in promoting the Middle East peace process, and in particular bringing pressure on Israel, since Bush announced in June that he supported the establishment of a Palestinian state. At a news conference following his recent summit in Belfast with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush said his Middle East effort would emulate Blair's aggressive personal involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process.

"I look forward to expending time and energy to move that process forward," Bush said of the road map today.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, asked how much time the president would invest, said: "considerable."

Bush said that "just because history has proven to be unsuccessful doesn't mean we're not going to try, for starters. I'm an optimist. I believe now that we have an interlocutor from the Palestinian Authority that has spoken clearly about the need to fight terrorism that we have a good opportunity. . . . I will work hard."

Not only must the Palestinians end terrorism, he said, but Arab nations in the region must stop all funding and support of terrorist organizations, and "Israel is going to have to make some sacrifices in order to move the peace process forward."

SUMERIAN TRAGEDY

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 30 ? Even though many irreplaceable antiquities were looted from the National Museum of Iraq during the chaotic fall of Baghdad last month, museum officials and American investigators now say the losses seem to be less severe than originally thought.

Col. Matthew F. Bogdanos, a Marine reservist who is investigating the looting and is stationed at the museum, said museum officials had given him a list of 29 artifacts that were definitely missing. But since then, 4 items ? ivory objects from the eighth century B.C. ? had been traced.
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"Twenty-five pieces is not the same as 170,000," said Colonel Bogdanos, who in civilian life is an assistant Manhattan district attorney.

There is no doubt that major treasures have been stolen. These include a lyre from the Sumerian city of Ur, bearing the gold-encased head of a bull, dated 2400 B.C.; a Sumerian marble head of a woman from Warka dated 3000 B.C.; a white limestone votive bowl with detailed engravings, also from Warka and dated 3000 B.C.; a life-size statue representing King Entemena from Ur, dated 2430 B.C.; a large ivory relief representing the Assyrian god Ashur; and the head of a marble statue of Apollo, a Roman copy of a fourth century B.C. Greek original.

Even if the damage may not be as widespread as originally reported, there is still no clear answer to the most important question: just how much has been taken?

"I don't know exactly," said Jabbir Khalil, chairman of the State Board of Antiquities.

John Limbert, an American diplomat who is a senior adviser in the new Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq, concurred. "How bad was it?" he asked. "We just don't know yet."

While many museum officials watched in horror as mobs and perhaps organized gangs rampaged through the museum's 18 galleries, seized objects on display, tore open steel cases, smashed statues and broke into storage vaults, officials now discount the first reports that the museum's entire collection of 170,000 objects had been lost.

Some valuable objects were placed for safekeeping in the vaults of the Central Bank before the war; the bank was bombed and is in ruins, but officials say its vaults may have survived.

Other objects were placed in the museum's own underground vaults; only when power was restored this week could curators begin assessing what was lost. Even in some of the looted galleries, a few stone statues are intact.

Still more encouragingly, several hundred small objects ? including a priceless statue of an Assyrian king from the ninth century B.C. ? have been returned to the museum, in some cases by people who said they had taken the treasures to keep them out of the wrong hands. In addition, a steel case containing 465 small objects was confiscated by soldiers of the Iraqi National Congress and returned to the museum.

But some items that have been handed back to the museum are copies. "One of the storerooms that was looted contained almost entirely documented authenticated copies," Colonel Bogdanos said. "I got six items today. They were all from the gift shop."

The difficulty in determining what is missing is compounded by the lack of a master list of the museum's collection. Although inventories survive, they were compiled department by department and not computerized. And in some cases, they are not complete.

Nor is there a clear consensus about how much of the looting was organized. As evidence of a planned assault, museum officials say they found keys and glass-cutters. One official said he saw two "European looking" men enter the museum with the mob, point to various treasures and leave.

"Behind the looting there were wicked hands," Mr. Khalil said. "They took precious pieces and left less valuable ones."

For Mr. Limbert, the case is undecided. "One theory is that this was done by people who knew which were the best pieces and came equipped to get them," he said. "I'm told 27 pieces were taken from the actual galleries. But the other theory is that this was a smash-and-grab operation, mostly by people from the neighborhood. What supports this is that a lot of very good pieces have been returned. If you like conspiracy theories, you can go on forever here."

RUMSFELD'S BAGHDAD BASH
DONALD Rumsfeld, the United States? defence secretary, made an unannounced visit to Baghdad yesterday, savouring his moment as the liberator of Iraq in front of cheering US troops.

His tour of the country included a back-slapping meeting in Basra with British troops, and an address to the Iraqi people recorded in the ornate setting of one of Saddam Hussein?s former presidential palaces.

As George Bush, the US president, prepared to declare a formal end to hostilities in Iraq, Mr Rumsfeld?s tour marked a victory in a cause he had championed for years - the overthrow of Saddam. It came using a war plan he drafted and ardently defended when its success looked briefly in doubt.

"Iraq belongs to you," he told the Iraqi crowd, as he called on them to help track down former officials of the Baathist regime. "The coalition has no intention of owning or running Iraq."

The trip was not without some ironies. Mr Rumsfeld?s last visit to Iraq, he recalled, was 20 years ago - as Ronald Reagan?s emissary to Saddam. The two men were filmed shaking hands in a meeting that paved the way for the US re-establishing relations with Saddam as a bulwark against the Islamic leadership of Iran. Recently declassified documents show the US state department knew at that time that Iraq was making "almost daily" use of chemical weapons against Iranian forces in the Iran-Iraq war, and that the CIA suspected Saddam would try to build a nuclear bomb.

Mr Rumsfeld hammered home the public message yesterday that the US is not in Iraq to stay. He said: "Our goal is to restore stability and security so that you can form an interim government and eventually a free Iraqi government - a government of your choosing, a government that is of Iraqi design and Iraqi choice.

"We will stay as long as necessary to help you do that, and not a day longer."

Arriving in a special forces aircraft with elite, black-clad special operations soldiers acting as bodyguards, Mr Rumsfeld flew first from Kuwait to Basra to meet British commanders, including Brigadier Graham Bins, the commander of the 7th Brigade, 1st Armoured Division.

At a briefing in Basra airport?s marble-lined terminal, Brig Bins described the bloody fight for the key city.

The two men had tea on a low couch.

"It was hand-to-hand combat. Some of their fighters were climbing on to our tanks. It was brutal," Brig Bins said, adding that his forces had played "artillery table tennis" with the Iraqis.

In Baghdad, Mr Rumsfeld boarded a Humvee jeep and rode in a motorcade to Saddam?s former palace, now the US military headquarters. Later, he toured a renovated electricity plant.

Mr Rumsfeld?s views on Iraq had changed by the late 1990s. In January 1998, he co-signed a letter urging a Middle East strategy on Bill Clinton, the then president, that "should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein?s regime from power". In the Pentagon, serving his second term as defence secretary, Mr Rumsfeld helped a hawkish lobby push the case for war.

To cheers and applause from about 1,000 troops at Baghdad airport, Mr Rumsfeld yesterday could hail "possibly the fastest march on a capital in modern military history" - a mere 40 days after the war started.

QCs to Go After 400 Years



The elite rank of Queen's Counsel, which dates back to the reign of Elizabeth I, is likely to be abolished, the lord chancellor signalled yesterday in a speech to 121 new "silks" who could be the last to win the coveted title of QC.

Swearing in this year's new QCs at the House of Lords, Lord Irvine said: "If silk goes, that would make you the last in an illustrious line of leading counsel recognised by the state as leaders of the profession."

He stressed that no conclusions had yet been reached, but the writing has been on the wall for the QC system since the office of fair trading branded it anti-competitive two years ago and questioned why the state should be involved in it.

The lord chancellor is expected to relinquish his role in the selection process but he made clear yesterday that any alternative system set up by the legal profession to recognise top practitioners would not be allowed to use the title Queen's Counsel.

Lord Irvine said next year's competition for the QC title - given to the top 10% of barristers and a few solicitors - would be postponed pending the outcome of a consultation paper to be published before the summer. This would consider whether QCs should still be appointed by the lord chancellor, but the main issue would be "whether the status of Queen's Counsel should continue to exist."

The OFT report into restrictive practices in March 2001 attacked the QC system and the lord chancellor's role in it, questioning why the government should be involved in a process that makes it possible for the top 10% of barristers to charge enhanced fees.

John Vickers, director general of fair trading, said at the time that the demarcation between QCs and junior barristers affected competition between suppliers "but it is hard to see what benefits it brings to consumers."

The Bar Council claimed the system was a "kitemark of quality" helping solicitors to choose the best barristers for their clients. But the arguments have failed to convince the OFT, or ministers, that there are sufficient public interest benefits to outweigh the anti-competitive effects.

Lord Irvine said the QC selection process was now "better focused, with scrutiny hugely enhanced". But he added: "Still the issues are: first, is the system objectively in the public interest? And second, does it command public confidence?"

He said the director general of fair trading had asked whether a quality mark was necessary in a largely referral profession, where solicitors choose the barristers for cases. The principal arguments in favour were that the system provides a body of advocates recognised as leaders of their profession, assists solicitors in selecting the quality of legal assistance their client needs and enhances competition in the interests of the consumer, by enabling solicitors to shop around among silks.

But there were opposing arguments, he said. "Solicitors know who are the experts in their area of practice. And even if there were any doubt, the market now provides a range of reference books and websites - focused and regularly updated - which solicitors, and perhaps in the future members of the public, can use.

"In addition, many assert that the rank of silk drives up legal costs unjustifiably. And it is also argued that the system reduces rather than increases choice in the legal market by discouraging the use of highly competent junior counsel who have not been awarded silk."

If there was to be a quality mark, he said, the question was whether it should granted by the state and conferred by the Queen. A consultation last year produced support for making it independent of government and granted by the profession or through an independent body.

Lord Irvine said he had to decide whether a quality mark was "of such central importance to the effective operation of our legal system that it should continue to be made by the state". If not, barristers and solicitors could establish their own quality mark, or leave it to the market.

The retired appeal court judge, Sir Iain Glidewell, recently recommended in a report commissioned by the Bar Council that QCs should be chosen by a broadly based panel headed by a senior judge. A Bar Council spokesman said yesterday: "The Bar Council has consistently argued that the silk system provides a benchmark of quality in the public interest. The QC system provides a ready guide for those seeking a leading specialist in advocacy and advice. The Bar Council has endorsed Sir Iain Glidewell's recommendation that in future, Queen's Counsel should be appointed on the recommendation of a panel, chaired by a retired law lord or lord justice of appeal, with a broad membership."

But Lord Irvine warned: "Any notion that the role of recommending the conferment of the title QC - or any other title - to the Queen could be passed from the state to a profession is misplaced." (Guardian)