P. 224 A. Allied spies taped Blix mobile phone. The United Nation's chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix had his mobile phone tapped by allied spies from the United Kingdom and the United States according to fresh allegations in the British Media. Gossips and rumors emerged the day after former Cabinet minister Clare Short claimed that British agents spied on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in the run-up to war in Iraq.

P.224. Bin Laden’s inspired artwork on Turner list. An artwork which has been inspired by Osama Bin Laden is one of the four art pieces nominated in London for this year's £40,000 Turner Prize 2004.

P.224. Who's to blame? A move is afoot to blacken the museum's name. This may not be just. “AS SOON as there's a government that decides that others should do this job, they're welcome,” says Donny George, the research director at the Iraq National Museum. He thus acknowledged his own vulnerability to the de-Baathifying zeal of Pietro Cordone, the Italian diplomat whom the Americans recently put in charge of Iraqi culture.

P.229. THIEVES WITH CLASS AND FINE TASTE FOR ART. There is no doubt that the image of the suave and sophisticated gentleman art thief has been enhanced down the years by a succession of Hollywood icons, from Cary Grant in the Hitchcock classic To Catch a Thief to Sir Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment. But when it comes to the world of art heists - with beautiful paintings, elegant locations and connotations of an exotic millionaire lifestyle - the reality is closer to dangerous criminal gangs operating on an international scale.

P.229. Scandal: AUCTIONEERS, PRICE FIXERS AND ART MIXERS, CROOKS AND GREEDY WITH CLASS FOR THE HIGH CLASS END UP IN JAIL!! The former chairman of Sotheby's has been convicted of conspiring with rival auction house Christie's to fix the commissions paid by sellers of fine art. Alfred Taubman, 76, of Michigan, faces up to three years in prison for conspiring to fix prices. He will be sentenced on April 2 next year.

P.230-234.  PEOPLE IN THE NEWS: From Sharon Stone to  Cindy Crawford. Hot hot stories, gossips and hidden news...