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From 'The Guardian's' daily news roundup
>>> AN EXILED SADDAM 'WOULD NOT BE PROSECUTED'
The front pages are a typical Monday ragbag of big interviews, polemic
and the odd exclusive - but Iraq still leads most of the broadsheets.
They all report Donald Rumsfeld's efforts, backed by Saudi Arabia and
Turkey, to encourage Saddam Hussein to go into exile and avoid war.
Mr Rumsfeld promised him immunity from prosecution: "If to avoid a
war, I would ... recommend that some provision be made so that the
senior leadership in that country and their families could be
provided haven in some other country," the US defence secretary said.
Iraqi translators are no doubt labouring over that sentence this
morning.
But despite widespread anti-war protests - notably in Washington - the
White House said a decision would be made on whether to attack Iraq
in "a matter of weeks" and that UN approval would not be a
prerequisite.
"Opposing war in the abstract is easy," argues the Independent. "The
opponents of this war need now to focus on the practicalities of Mr
Blix's 'peaceful alternative'." The Guardian suggests the Liberal
Democrats could be the main beneficiaries of left wing opposition to
war - "if [Charles Kennedy] can rise to the opportunity".
The Times has some fun at the expense of the "business-class radicals"
who turned out to demonstrate in San Francisco. "One family said that
they had spent the last part of the rally trying to stop protesters
stomping all over the flowers in the civic centre square," reports
the paper.
* US offers immunity to Saddam
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,878269,00.html
* Times: US peace protesters flaunt wit and wealth
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-548848,00.html