Briefly

Washington: Order sets sights on Saddam

President Bush early this year signed an intelligence order directing the CIA to undertake a comprehensive, covert program to topple Saddam Hussein, including authority to use lethal force to capture the Iraqi president, The Washington Post reported in its editions today.

The presidential order directs the CIA to use all available tools, including:

Increased support to Iraqi opposition groups and forces inside and outside Iraq including money, weapons, equipment, training and intelligence information.

Expanded efforts to collect intelligence within the Iraqi government, military, security service and overall population where pockets of intense anti-Saddam sentiment have been detected.

Possible use of CIA and U.S. Special Forces teams. Such forces would be authorized to kill Saddam if they were acting in self-defense.

The belief that Saddam is continuing to develop weapons of mass destruction is what has largely convinced Bush and his war cabinet that Saddam must be toppled, officials said.

Nova Scotia: 19 people arrested outside G-7 ministers meeting

No injuries were reported in the scuffling between police and protesters outside a two-day meeting of finance ministers from the world’s industrial powers in Halifax. Nineteen people were arrested.

Protesters were complaining about the closed meeting and seeking the Western governments to commit money for worldwide development programs.

Most of the ministers’ discussion, however, dealt with reforming development aid programs.

The finance ministers endorsed a policy for World Bank aid to the poorest countries, agreeing that about 20 percent should be grants with no repayment instead of traditional low- or zero-interest loans.

India: Kashmir violence flares anew

A barrage of Pakistani artillery and mortar fire killed three people and shattered village homes Saturday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, an Indian official said, as hostilities resumed between the South Asian rivals.

Despite international calls for restraint, at least 24 people were wounded in the firing overnight, the official said. There were no immediate reports of casualties on Pakistan’s side of the border.

Tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors has been running high since a December assault on India’s Parliament by five attackers who New Delhi says were backed by Pakistan’s spy agency. Islamabad denied the allegation.

Salt Lake City : Piece added to puzzle in Utah kidnapping case

The man who apparently abducted 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart 11 days ago was wearing a tan golf cap, investigators said Saturday night.

Salt Lake City Detective Dwayne Baird said he did not know how agents concluded that the abductor wore a round, short-billed, golf-style cap, but said the revelation was another “piece of the puzzle.”

The suspect is white, 5-foot-8, and was wearing a tan jacket.