• US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, his job possibly on the line, told sceptical US lawmakers that "nothing improper occurred" in his firing of federal prosecutors last year but he acknowledged the process was flawed. "While reasonable people might decide things differently, my decision to ask for the resignations of these US attorneys is justified and should stand," Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged Iraqi political leaders to step up reconciliation efforts, saying they had to accept Washington could not make an open-ended commitment with troops and support. Gates arrived in Baghdad on his first visit since a US-backed security crackdown was launched in the capital in February to stop Iraq sliding into sectarian civil war and a day after insurgent bombs killed nearly 200 people in the city.

• Anti-Castro Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, wanted in Cuba and Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner and awaiting US trial on immigration charges, has been released on bail, federal officials said. Posada Carriles posted bail totaling $350,000 to get out of jail in New Mexico. He has been in detention since May 2005, after entering the US illegally to seek asylum.

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