SADDAM'S ESCAPE CLAUSE

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has reportedly offeredSaddam Husseinpolitical asylum in the hope that the rogue regime in Baghdad might be replaced. An advance copy of Saturday's Al-Hayat, a London-based Arab newspaper, obtained by the Associated Press quotes Mubarak explaining his offer as "a solution to the problem of the Iraqi people and to prevent a bloodbath in Iraq."World editor James Collinssays the plan probably doesn't mean Saddam will leave Iraq anytime soon. "Given current circumstances, it's not a highly meaningful offer.The cracks in the Baghdad regimeare widening, but Saddam isn't that desperate yet."