The mother of Icelandic pop singer Bjork is 11 days into a hunger strike in protest at plans to develop part of Iceland's wilderness.

Hildur Runa Hauksdottir is trying to stop the aluminium producer Alcoa building a smelter and power plant in the area above Vatnajokull in east Iceland.

The president's father, after building up Hussein as an international ogre, called the U.S. military off when the Iraqi despot's days seemed numbered. This outcome fed voters' sense of a Bush failure. Since then, the Republican presidential victory in 2000 has not only restored a Bush to the White House but has also brought back the GOP war-management teams of 1974-75 (the end of fighting in Vietnam) and 1990-91 (the Gulf War). Their hunger for revenge must be almost palpable.

This is dynastic-type policymaking never before seen in the United States. True, our sixth president, John Quincy Adams, became president like his father. But that was 24 years later, and his father, who belonged to a different party, left no unfinished war as a legacy.

The return of defense secretaries and White House chiefs of staff from previous wartime periods is just as unprecedented. It suggests a rare combination of unrequited frustrations and motivations. Consider: In spring 1975, when the war in Vietnam ended with the fall of South Vietnam to the communists and Cambodians seized the U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez, Donald H. Rumsfeld, now Defense secretary, was the White House chief of staff and Dick Cheney, now vice president, was his deputy.

Former President Bush recalled Southeast Asian embarrassments in 1991, when he pledged that the Gulf War "will not be another Vietnam." Cheney was around then, too, as secretary of Defense. When the U.S. appeared victorious, Bush exclaimed that, "We've kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all."

On Oct. 1, Fleischer told the White House press corps that "one bullet" into Saddam's head – "if Iraqi people take it on themselves" – would be an easy way to avoid a war with the U.S.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is considering lending surveillance equipment to investigators to be used in the search for the marksman who has been terrorizing the Washington area for two weeks.

The surveillance equipment in question would include Predator drones, the unmanned surveillance aircraft that have been used in Afghanistan for reconnaissance and, in some cases, combat missions.

Also, it would include sensitive audio equipment for reconnaissance and, officials say, the possible use of a C-130 transport plane, although it wasn't known how the massive aircraft would be used.

Military helicopters such as the renowned Black Hawk [ed: which of late has killed more american troops then the enemy] would also be flown, with infrared equipment

"Ralph Nader attended a dinner with Cuban leader Fidel Castro as the consumer advocate began a three-day visit to the communist nation.

Nader, who says he is visiting to learn more about Cuba's disease-fighting efforts, met with Castro on Sunday and was planning to attend another dinner with him. He was invited by National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon.

Nader said he also would meet with the political opposition but he provided no details.

Yasir Arafat has remained the Palestinian leader for more than 30 years in part by not cultivating a long-term lieutenant, avoiding a threat to his pre-eminence by dividing up power beneath himself and encouraging rivalries among his top political and security aides.

That strategy has also left him without a clear successor. ... Despite Mr. Arafat's maneuverings, a varied, experienced group of potential leaders waits in the wings.

A forest fire burned out of control near a New Jersey state park yesterday, engulfing a house, damaging nine others, and shutting a 24-mile stretch of the Garden State Parkway in Ocean County near Toms River.

By nightfall, state forest fire officials said they did not have the blaze contained but had stopped its forward progress. They were "getting the upper hand on it," they said.

Muhammad Dahlan: Head of the Preventive Security Force in Gaza, with rank of colonel. Member of Fatah-RC. b.1961, Gaza, from a refugee family. Former leader of Fatah's Shabiba movement on the West Bank. Was imprisoned for long periods by Israel (1981-late86), before being deported in 1988 to Jordan. He then joined the PLO in Tunis, where he coordinated with the intifada. Returned to Gaza in 1994. Believed to have drawn up an agreement at the Rome meeting in Jan94 with senior IDF & Shin Bet officials a plan for containing Hamas (MEI520); frequent member of negotiating team on security issues for Israeli redeployments during the Oslo process, on the return of those expelled after 1967, and on prisoner releases; coordinates with US agencies often. Speaks Hebrew fluently. Sharon blamed him for an attack on a settlers' bus in Gaza in Nov00, launched attacks on his offices & and said that he deserved to die. Reportedly tendered his resignation on 5Nov01, in opposition to the PA's policy of arresting PFLP & Jihad members; but refused by ‘Arafat. His article, "Our partners in life in this land", appeared in Ha'aretz on 31Jan02. Was a central figure in running the PA through the "Gang of 5" that took over during ‘Arafat's captivity (Mar-May02), backed by ‘Asfur, ‘Urayqat, Rashid, Sha‘th, and favouring the creation of a unitary security apparatus that could return to an Oslo-style process (and opposing Rajub).