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In a major disclosure, President Bush has acknowledged for the first time the existence of previously secret prisons around the world operated by the CIA. Mr. Bush said the secret prisons were an invaluable tool in the war on terror and that intelligence gathered from the program has saved innocent lives in the United States and worldwide. Mr. Bush said detainees held in the CIA prisons included those responsible for the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. Our Washington correspondent James Coomerasami looks at the timing of Mr. Bush's speech.

President Bush has faced worldwide criticism for the previously unacknowledged CIA program. But the admission of its existence has more to do with domestic political concerns than with international outrage. It came in the third of a series of speeches, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. The President has used them to remind Americans of the reasons behind his war on terror, and to defend the methods used to fight it. But this was not simply a case of justification, the latest speech also contained a challenge to congressional opponents of Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Early this summer, the White House was dealt a blow by the Supreme Court after it ruled that military tribunal there could not continue without congressional approval.

The Prime Minister of Ivory Coast Charles Konan Banny has dissolved his government after a toxic waste scandal in which three people have died and more than 15 hundred have been made ill. There have been several days of street protests in Ivory Coast biggest city Abidjan where toxic material from a Panamanian registered ship was dumped two weeks ago. James Copnall reports.

The Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny said the extent of the toxic waste scandal obliged him to dissolve his government. More than 15 hundred people have saw treatment and three have died since toxic material was dumped in at least seven locations in Abidjan two weeks ago. It is not yet clear who is responsible, but the Ivorian press is full of allegations of corruption within government. The president Laurent Gbagbo has asked Mr. Banny to stay in office and given him a day to form a new government.

An Austrian teenager who was kidnapped and held in a tiny cellar for eight year has given her first interview since her escape in last month. Natasha Kampusch who was just 10 when she was abducted on her way to school told how she was kept for six months in a cellar without a break. When a later year she was let out, fear under the threats of her abductor Wolfgang Priklopil left her unable to alert anyone to her plight.

There were these nicest people in the DIY shop and they asked very nicely "may I help you", and I stood there in total panic and my heart was pounding. I had problems with my circulation, I was barely able to move and I stood quite helplessly, and saw how he tried to fall bore of the sets person.
19, Natasha Kampusch looked calm and relaxed during her television interview. In the future, she said, she intended to help other women who had been kidnapped.

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The authorities in western Mexico say a gang of armed men has burst into a bar and dumped five severed human heads on the downs floor. The gunmen who were wearing masks first ordered the people in the bar to lie face down in the floor before pulling the male heads out of plastic bags. The authorities say the incident is part of ongoing serious attacks between rival Mexican gangs fighting to control the flow of drugs into the United States. From Mexico city Duncan Cannedy reports.

13 people had been decapitated in the state of alone so far this year. But the so-called NACCO gangs have also spread to areas right across the country. Some say that in the bloody battle to supply drugs to the United States as many as 15 hundred people have been killed this year. The new president elect of Mexico Felipe Calderon says the fight against crime is one of the top three priorities. But some analysts have claimed the current political turmoil over the battle for the presidency may actually help fuel the violence as gangs take the advantage of the crisis to settle scores.

There is intense speculation about when the Prime Minister Tony Blair will leave office after eight / junior members of his government resigned. Mr. Blair had already announced he would step down halfway through the current term but with his personal popularity falling he's faced growing pressure from within his own Labour Party to go sooner.

Germany's national football team has set a new record in the qualifier for the next European Championship beating the tiny south European San Marino by 13 goals to nil. The 13 goals were the most scored in the competition history.

BBC World News.