WASHINGTON (AFP) — Opposition Democrats on Tuesday used President George W. Bush’s secret visit to Iraq as an opportunity to renew their calls for speedy end to America’s military involvement there.

TRIPOLI (AFP) — The retrial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of contaminating hundreds of Libyan children with AIDS reopened Tuesday with the judge calling for the process to be speeded up.

BEIRUT — The identity of Abu Hamza Muhajir, named to succeed Abu Mussab Zarqawi as leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, has mystified outsiders wondering if he will replicate the bloody tactics of his slain predecessor.