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LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair said God and history would judge whether he was right to go to war in Iraq, according to the transcript of a television interview to be broadcast later on Saturday. In a rare reference to his Christian religious faith, Blair told broadcaster Michael Parkinson he had struggled with his conscience over the decision. "That decision has to be taken and has to be lived with," he told ITV's Parkinson programme. "In the end there is a judgement that, well ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell is to separate from her husband David Mills after the strain of a probe into their finances, Mills's lawyer said on Saturday. Jowell, a close ally of Prime Minister Tony Blair, survived a inquiry this week into whether she had broken a ministerial code over the couple's financial arrangements. But she has remained under pressure as doubts lingered over her tax-lawyer husband's business dealings in Italy, where he faces a high-level corruption p ...

By N.Ananthanarayanan NAGPUR, India (Reuters) - England brushed aside a double strike by seamer Irfan Pathan off successive deliveries to take command on the fourth day of their first test against India on Saturday. The injury-depleted tourists cruised to 155 for two in their second innings at tea to extend their overall lead to 225 runs and raise hopes of an unlikely victory on a slow Nagpur pitch where India will have to bat last. At the interval, debutant opening batsman Alastair Cook was  ...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush gave no sign on Saturday that he would support granting Pakistan the same kind of nuclear agreement just reached with India. The subject came up in private talks between Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. The pact, announced on Thursday, marks a major breakthrough for New Delhi, long treated as a nuclear pariah by the world, as it a ...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush said on Saturday he was convinced of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's commitment to the war on terrorism despite ongoing militancy in Pakistan and the presence of al Qaeda members. "Part of my mission today was to determine whether or not the president is as committed as he has been in the past to bringing these terrorists to justice," Bus ...

NEW YORK (AP) -- E.L. Doctorow's "The March," his acclaimed story of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's ruthless Civil War campaign, received yet another literary honor Friday night, winning the National Book Critics Circle prize for fiction. "I've wondered for many years if awards are good for literature," said Doctorow, who also won the critics' prize for his 1989 novel, "Billy Bathgate." "But I find when I'm offered an award I tend to accept it." Doctoro ...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A three-year-old boy from Indonesia's Central Java province has died of bird flu, a senior health official said on Saturday, citing the results of local tests. If confirmed by a U.N.-recognised laboratory, the boy would be the country's 21st death from the H5N1 virus, which is now endemic in poultry in the world's fourth most populous nation. "A local test of (the boy) who di ...

NAGPUR, India (Reuters) - India added only one run to their overnight score of 322 for nine before being bowled out to leave England with a 70-run lead in the first test. England seamer Matthew Hoggard trapped last man Shantakumaran Sreesanth leg before in the second over on the fourth morning of the first test on Saturday, giving him six wickets so far. The 29-year-old Yorkshireman ripped through the formidable top order batting in a devastating 11-ball spell on Friday. Mohammad Kaif top-sco ...

BEIJING (Reuters) - An adviser to the Chinese parliament has urged curbs on civil servants' body weight to aid the fight against corruption. In a country where people often complain that police officers seem too well fed to catch villains, Miu Shouliang said limiting the weight of officials would stop them spending government money on wining and dining, the Xinhua news agency reported. Such a me ...

By Zeeshan Haider and Tabassum Zakaria ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Anti-U.S. Islamist parties promised more protests on Saturday, as President George W. Bush prepared to round off a South Asian tour in Pakistan by urging President Pervez Musharraf to do more in the war on terrorism. Bush arrived in Islamabad late on Friday, a day after a suicide car bomber killed an American diplomat and two other people outside the U.S. consulate in the southern city of Karachi. Bush was due to meet Musaharraf at  ...