WAR ON TERROR

Telegraph: Spies force retreat on 'al-Qa'eda link'
Colin Powell, the United States secretary of state, yesterday appeared to pull back from claims that he would show the United Nations a link between al-Qa'eda and Iraq, amid anger among Washington's spies over the way intelligence was being distorted to prove the link existed.

There will be "no smoking gun" in the evidence he will present to the Security Council tomorrow in an attempt to persuade it to back force against Iraq, he said.