31.   He said former government leaders had fled to Jablus Siraj, in northern Kapisa province, considered the bastion of former defence minister Ahmed Shah Masood.

32.   He was arrested during a failed attack on the Jerusalem home of former defence minister Ariel Sharon.

33.   Hundreds of well armed fighters, loyal to former defence minister Ahmed Shah Masood, entered the northern end of the base in the early hours of Tuesday.

34.   Israel and Syria are very close to a peace agreement, according to former defence minister Ariel Sharon.

35.   It has now nominated former defence minister Aftab Shabaan Mirani for the post of speaker, these sources said.

36.   It said the new prime minister was General Likulia Bolongo, a former defence minister and now a law professor.

37.   Israeli prime minister elect Benjamin Netanyahu will exclude former defence minister and right-wing hard-liner Ariel Sharon from any key cabinet posts, Israel television said Monday.

38.   A key witness in the trial of former defence minister Magnus Malan Tuesday told how apartheid-era military officers secretly trained a squad of Zulu kidnappers and killers.

39.   A ruling party lawmaker Chung Ho-Yong, a former defence and home minister who headed the villified special forces command during the massacre, also faces trial.

40.   A former defence minister, Jansa is likely to be more dangerous in opposition, the paper said.