The Observer

The current American deal with Russia was on offer a decade ago. Meanwhile the Republican right continues to make the world a less safe place.

Open societies are safer places to be

The laywer representing Israeli conscripts who refuse to serve beyond the 1967 ceasefire lines explains why a growing number of soldiers are disobeying orders, in order to protect the basic values on which Israel was founded.

Peter Beaumont in the West Bank meets eyewitnesses who accuse Israel of massacre Observer Worldview

The US's pro-Israeli bias must be tempered by European pressure to ensure a just peace agreement in Israel, writes Ian Gilmour

Part three: On 10 September the papers were filled with intimate details of Kate Winslet's love life. Then all hell broke loose

Part two: May to August: John Prescott threw a punch... but that was the only impact the general election seemed to have on much of the nation

Part one: January to April: Mandy quit. There was a George Bush in the White House. The royals were behaving badly. All in all, it was business as usual. Then the stench of burning animals choked the land. It was the biggest news story of the year... wasn't it?

American forces have already flown surveillance flights over Somalia looking for al-Qaeda forces to target in the next stage of the global war on terror, The Observer has learnt.

President George W. Bush has ordered the CIA and his senior military commanders to draw up detailed plans for a military operation that could begin within months.

Early on Thursday, Hamid Mir, a senior Pakistani journalist, spent two hours in an undisclosed location close to Kabul, with Osama bin Laden.

They put some cloth in his mouth to keep the noise down. Then they pushed him face down on the floor, with a member of the Taliban sitting on each arm. In a prison cell in the bombed-out ruins of Kabul, Abdul Menan was last week beaten on his bare back with thick electric cable.