Here we go....

ME-GEN--APNewsAlert,0 00 20/03 2:35 28 1779 BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Air raid sirens, flashes of light and sounds of planes in skies over Baghdad. 200234 mar 03GMT $INS2; Line AP GEN From Story '#153127'. Job 906.

02.35 HANDFUL OF BLASTS HEARD IN BAGHDAD, JETS OVERHEAD, ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE -WITNESS MORE $INS4; Line REUTERS2 From Story '#153374'. Job 908.

NA-GEN--APNewsAlert,0 00 20/03 2:47 26 1805 WASHINGTON (AP) The disarmament of Iraqi regime has begun, White House spokesman says.

02.40 Explosions rock Baghdad, jets overhead BAGHDAD, March 20 (Reuters) - A handful of explosions rocked Baghdad at dawn on Thursday as jets roared overhead, Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries opened up and air raid sirens sounded. Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki, reporting from the city centre, said the blasts appeared to come from the southern suburbs. He heard two or three explosions, followed by a similar number at about 5:30 a.m. (0230 GMT), an hour and a half after a US deadline for war on Saddam Hussein had passed. MORE

02.55 US MILITARY BROADCASTING IN ARABIC ON IRAQI STATE RADIO FREQUENCY IN BAGHDAD MORE $INS4; Line REUTERS2 From Story '#154079'. Job 119.

02.56 "THIS THE DAY WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR" -APPARENTLY US BROADCAST ON IRAQI RADIO MORE $INS4; Line REUTERS2 From Story '#154208'. Job 135.

03.33 BRITISH MILITARY SPOKESMAN SAYS NO ORDERS YET GIVEN FOR US/UK IRAQ GROUND ATTACK MORE

03.51 U.S. TV networks jump in as war in Iraq starts By Ben Berkowitz LOS ANGELES, March 19 (Reuters) - US cable and broadcast television networks jumped in on Wednesday night as the long-awaited war against Iraq began, with CBS News anchor Dan Rather declaring "Good morning Baghdad" as the bombing started.

04.47 IRAQI TV SAYS SADDAM HUSSEIN TO BROADCAST TO THE NATION SHORTLY MORE $INS4; Line REUTERS2 From Story '#159267'. Job 418.

04.53 BAGHDAD SIRENS GIVE ALL-CLEAR, SIGNALLING END OF U.S. AIR RAID MORE

Trying desperately to avoid confronting the war head-on (just waiting around for the 48-hour deadline to expire at about 1am tomorrow morning) here's probably the last non-war stuff we'll feature for a few days...

This, from Business 2.0, is brilliant...

Meanwhile, congrats to Marc and his colleagues at the Cleveland Plain Dealer....

A week after ABC News announce they were suspending The Note during the upcoming conflict for resource reasons, they unveil their all-news, broadband internet broadcast service, ABC News Live. In addition to regular programming, it plans to offer near-raw feeds of events and pressers, sort of like CSpan. $4.95 a month if you have the connection to take it.

Will have interesting implications for political coverage, and is one more hungry mouth to feed with content. To mix a metaphor sightly, Cal Thomas said on Fox News Watch this morning it was like "adding one more item to a restaurant menu that's already ten pages long".

Turns out 60 Minutes are less than pleased with the Bill and Bob show, (kinda hard to create and ambience when they're not even in the same city, let alone eyeball-to-eyeball across a desk) and there are rumours that CBS are talking to Newt Gingrich about replacing Dole in the hope he'll be more combative (read "provocative").