Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels of Iraq's daily output of roughly two million barrels is missing, it said. The discrepancy was valued between $5m and $15m daily, using a $50 per barrel average, the report said. That adds up to billions of dollars over the four years, since March 2003.

A State Department official who works on energy matters offered possible explanations including pipeline sabotage, or inaccurate reporting of oil production in southern Iraq. "It could also be theft, " the Times quoted the unnamed official as saying, with suspicion falling on southern Shi'ite militias.

Sheryl Crow adopts child
US singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow has adopted her first child, she has announced on her website.

The Grammy-winning star, known for hits such as 'All I Wanna Do' and 'Run Baby Run', said the boy was two weeks old and had been called Wyatt Steven. "We are enjoying some very private family time, " the 45-year old added. Crow had surgery for breast cancer in the same month last year as splitting up with fiance Lance Armstrong.

Body found in bed after seven years THE decomposed corpse of a German man was found in his bed after nearly seven years, police in the western city of Essen said yesterday.

The police said the man was 59 and unemployed at the time of his death. He most likely died of natural causes on 30 November, 2000, the date he received a letter from the Welfare Office found in the apartment. Next to the body police found cigarettes, an open television guide and Deutschemark coins, which came out of circulation after the euro was introduced in 2002.

"No one missed him. No missing person report was ever filed, " the police said.

Five soldiers missing in Iraq
FIVE coalition soldiers have been killed and three are missing after an attack by insurgents south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the US military says. The patrol of seven Americans and their Iraqi interpreter were attacked near the town of Mahmudiya, spokesman Maj Gen William Caldwell said. He said that within an hour other troops were at the scene of the attack, hunting for the missing soldiers.