Peance

Gunmen seize 50 Iraq security men

Gunmen dressed in Iraqi police uniforms have raided the offices of a security firm in Baghdad, seizing 50 employees.

The incident happened in the eastern Zayouna district of the city. Among those captured was the head of the private firm, al-Rawafed.

It came after the bodies of 20 men were found dumped in the Iraqi capital.

Eighteen were left strangled or shot in a minibus in a western area populated mainly by Sunni Arabs. Two were found in east Baghdad tied up and shot.

I would sure love to know what corner number we have turned in Iraq!

US envoy to Iraq: 'We have opened the Pandora's box'

· 80% of Americans think civil war likely
· Rumsfeld accuses Tehran of fomenting conflict

The US ambassador to Baghdad conceded yesterday that the Iraq invasion had opened a Pandora's box of sectarian conflicts which could lead to a regional war and the rise of religious extremists who "would make Taliban Afghanistan look like child's play".

Zalmay Khalilzad broke with the Bush administration's generally upbeat orthodoxy to present a stark profile of a volatile situation in danger of sliding into chaos.

Rummy it does you no good to blame Iran, Liberals or the Media for your fuck ups in Iraq, in the end you will only have yourself to blame when Iraq slips into full scale civil war.

You can try and spin this clusterfuck anyway you want but Zalmay Khalilzad can see what a vortex of instability Iraq has become.

The US meanwhile is losing the plot - State's abortion ban fires first shot in a long war over women's rights

As conservatives eye new supreme court case activists gear up to do battle across the US

Activists on either side of the abortion divide - the great faultline of American politics - were gearing up for an epic confrontation yesterday after South Dakota passed the most sweeping ban on terminations in more than 30 years.

The law, which would ban nearly all abortions, was signed into law on Monday by a Republican governor, Mike Rounds, who embraced the ban with the intention of provoking a direct challenge to legalised abortion across the country.