Baghdad Museum Staff Ready to Retaliate

And now the most absorbing two minutes in television, the latest from the wartime grapevine:

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Implicates Insiders?
Now that the celebrated story about the looting of the Baghdad Museum (search) has turned out to be largely a fraud, the museum's managers are facing a mutiny from the staff. London's Guardian says more than 130 of 185 employees at Iraq's Board of Antiquities, which runs the museum, have signed a petition demanding the resignation of the directors for staging an inside job to plunder the museum themselves. Staffers say they found secure doors into the building unlocked but not broken after the first day of looting, and they say a secret entrance to underground storage rooms, known to only a handful of senior officials, was knocked down. Staffers also say Board Director Donny George instructed them to shoot at U.S. forces. George denies the allegation.

Regretful Remarks
Former Vermont Governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean (search) is now apologizing for saying fellow candidate Bob Graham is "in single digits in all the states" and he's "not one of the top-tier candidates." Dean tells the AP the remark was "not intended to be dismissive" of Graham's chances. The Boston Globe notes that this is the fourth time in four months Dean has had to back away from something he said. Most recently, he apologized for telling Americans he voted against a resolution in Congress authorizing war in Iraq. Thing is, Dean has never been in Congress.

Can't Find It, Plane and Simple
A Boeing 727 aircraft that stood still for more than a year at an airport in Angola's capital city of Luanda has now been stolen and flown somewhere, but neither African agencies from across the continent, the CIA or the U.S. State Department seems to be able to locate the 153-foot-long, 200,000-pound aircraft. U.S. authorities tell The Washington Post the aircraft was most likely stolen as part of a business dispute or scam, but a Homeland Security Department spokesman says there is a "concern" the plane was stolen by terrorists to restage the Sept. 11 atrocities somewhere in Africa.

Curbing Crowds
British authorities have been trying to reduce binge drinking (search) and, more importantly, curb the crowds of drunken people who file onto London's streets when most British bars close at 11 p.m. Politicians and citizens alike tell the Baltimore Sun's London correspondent that it's a "quality of life" issue. So what have those in the British House of Commons done about it? They've passed a bill letting bars stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.