"U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, defended plans to carry on air strikes against Afghansitan through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan saying there was a real threat of more terrorist attacks that offer the prospect of still thousands more people being killed," reported the AFP news service.
"Another 1,200 Pakistani tribesman crossed the borber into Afghanistan yesterday taking the total number to 4,4000 volunteers in the past four days," said the head of a Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi religious party, Mohammad Ismael.
According to the Taliban's Ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, "U.S. helicopters have plucked an envoy of Afghanistan's ousted monarch, Mohammad Zahir Shah, from the clutches of his Taliban pursuers, with four of Zahir's followers killed and 25 others captured, together with 600 weapons".
"The United States and Britain are set to launch a wave of sustained ground assaults in Afghanistan in a drive to speedily topple the country's ruling Taliban regime, Military planners have been told to be ready to step up attacks in anticipation in international support for an interim government with the exiled Afghan king, Zahir Shah, as figurehead leader," reports Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
"Four in ten British Muslims believe Osama bin Laden is justified in mounting a war against the United States, while 96% think the air strikes against Afghanistan should stop and 73% think Prime Minister Tony Blair was wrong to back the American offensive," reported Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.
Eleven year old Sath Mohammad had his leg blown off by a U.S. bomb last week and he can't inderstand why. Lying on filthy sheets in Quetta's Sandeman Provincial Hospital, with flies landing on his bloodied stump, Sath pleaded with the United States to stop its bombardment of Afghanistan saying, "Please stop hurting us. Why are you doing this?".
Eight year old Sadima Mohammad is singing to herself, rocking backwards and forwards, clearly in shock. She was trapped when her house was hit by a bomb in Kandahar last week, the mud walls falling and crushing her legs. With tears rolling down his cheeks her grandfather, Khair Mohammad told how their homes were destroyed, "When the planes come we don't see them, its just when the bombs fall. It is terrible. Please stop now. Why is America killing our children. We don't have any guns. This is a poor weak country. Why are you hurting us America?".
The head of the 22-nation Arab League, Secretary General Amr Moussa, dismissed an appeal by Osama bin Laden to Muslims to join a holy war against the West, saying, "Osama bin Laden does not speak for the world's Arabs and Muslims".
U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, dismissed speculation that the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan could drag on for years saying, "Do I think that Afghanistan will take years? No I don't".
"The United States, fearful of a bioterrorism attack similar to the anthrax scare sweeping the country, said on Sunday that key front-line workers were being vacinated against smallpox," according to authorities from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Traces of anthrax have been found at the Pentagon's post office, but the facility was decontaminated over the weekend," Pentagon military officials said yesterday.
"Pakistan's military government has filed sedition charges against a leading Islamic cleric, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, head of the Jamaat-i-Islami party for allegedly stirring revolt against Islamibad's support for the U.S. war on Afghanistan," Pakistan police officials said yesterday.
"A Chicago man,Subash Gurung, 27, was free on bail on Sunday after being caught at a security checkpoint at O'Hare International airport, carrying seven knives and a stun gun," say airport officials.
"ASEAN leaders have expressed their concern for the welfare of the innocent people killed as a result of the U.S. military action in Afghanistan, but the ten leaders failed to reach a consensus on urging a halt to the bombing," reported Malaysia's Star newspaper.
"The Islamic Party of Malaysia(PAS) president, Fadzil Noor, said that ASEAN's condemnation of the September 11th terrorist attacks, but not of the U.S. strikes on Afghanistan shows the regional body has become a tool and supporter of the superpower. The inability of ASEAN to put pressure on America to call off its attacks is regrettable", accordint to an article in Malaysia'a Star newspaper.
"I joined Islam because I realized it was a beautiful religion," said Reina Malonza, a young Filipina nurse held for months by guerillas in southern Philippines and freed yesterday.
"A secret office operated by the CIA was destroyed in terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre seriously disrupting intelligence operations. The station was behind the false front of another federal organisation which cannot be named. The station was a base of operations to spy on and recruit diplomats stationed at the United Nations, while debriefing selected American business executives willing to talk to the CIA after returning from overseas. The agency's officers worked under cover, posing as diplomats and business executives among other things," said a report in the New York Times.
"Arab states, militant groups and the press raged at the U.S. decision to slap financial sanctions on radical Palestinian and Lebonese groups in the name of the U.S. led war on terror," reports the AFP news service.
"It was shameful for Palestinians and Lebanese fighting Israeli occupation to be branded as terrorists," said Syrian Foreign Minister Farus al-Shara, addressing the opening session of an Arab meeting on support for the Palestinians.
Hizbollah's Southern Lebonese chief, Nabil Qaooq said, "When America accuses Hizbollah, we take it as proof of the credibility of our goals".
Hizbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said, "Hizbollah has been listed by Washington as a terrorist organisation because it had refused to halt military operations against Israel following the September 11th attacks".
Al-Jazirah newspaper said that, "The most dangerous aspect of this is that Israel would consider it a green light to continue its bloody policy against the Palestinian people. What is so unfair here is that absolving the occupier and describing national freedom fighters as terrorists reminds us that colonialist powers have always characterized the national liberation movements as terrorists".
Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine savaged America's list of terrorist groups saying, "It convinces us America is not fighting terrorists, but fighting Islam. It shows day by day the anti-terrorism coalition does not favour Arabs".
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, President of the International Movement for a Just World, says, "There are many honest, sincere people who condemn the carnage of September 11th as one of the most heinous and dastardly acts in recent history and are determined to see terrorism eliminated, but are genuinely pained by the continuous bombing of Afghanistan. They are deeply traumatised by the deaths of hundreds of poor, miserable Afghans who are no less innocent than the victims of the September 11th massacre".
"A U.S. helicopter crashed in the Chagi district of Pakistan after coming under fire from the Taliban in Afghanistan killing four Americans," say Pakistani officials.
"The U.S. helicopter took fire in Afghanistan and managed to enter Pakistan before it crashed. The Americans tried to remove the debris. They removed some of it but some is still there. Later three U.S. helicopters came and took all the bodies away," says a senior official of the Baluchistan province of Pakistan.
A Pentagon spokesman saidwhen asked about these deaths, "The U.S. military has received no reports of a helicopter going down in Pakistan".
"The son of Afghanistan's ex-king in Rome, Italy, urged his father to give the go-ahead for a general uprising against the Taliban, saying, "The time has come for Afghan patriots to lay down their lives for their country".
U.S. president george Bush said in a speech to Eastern European leaders, "We have seen the true nature of these terrorists, and the nature of their attacks. They are seeking chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Given the means, our enemies would be a threat to every nation and eventually to civilisation itself".
The Taliban Education Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, yesterday criticised Afghanistan's neighbors for letting the United States use bases in their countries for the U.S. led anti-terrorism war saying, "They should not co-operate with the U.S. military. Islamic and international pressure will force them to stop Americans using their bases".
"Former U.S. President George Bush, father of President George W. Bush, said his son, "has received much more support for his war on terrorism then I did a decade ago for the Gulf War".
"Afghanistan is already close to a humanitarian disaster of mammoth proportions in which many thousands will die even if the United States calls an immediate halt to its bombing campaign. Even if the bombing stops now, even if assistance goes in now, it may be too late. Its simple. The air strikes must stop," says Yusuf Hussan, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, declared on Monday that, "hijackers who slammed airliners into the World Trade Center were terrorists, but members of the Irish Republican Army are not".
"An unemployed villager who looks like the Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden was ordered out of an Indian town after he started to draw crowds," reported the Reuters news agency.
British prime Minister, Tony Blair said on CNN's Larry King Live program, "I think there is a recognition in the Muslim world that those people who are moderates and who follow the true spirit and nature of Islam have to take on on the extremists that are trying to abuse Islam for political ends".
"The Bush administration orchestrated raids on U.S. businesses yesterday in a global crackdown on Osama bin Laden's financial network. The new list of targeted entities, provided by the Treasury Department, covers groups and people affiliated with two suspected Osama financial networks, Al-Taqua and Al-Barakaat. Both are informal, largely unregulated, financial networks that authorities say funnel money to al-Qaeda through companies and non-profits organisations they operate," reported the Associated press news agency.
"An American military officer shot dead a Qatari citizen who opened fire at a major U.S. air base near the capital of this Gulf Arab yesterday, two days before a major World Trade Organisation(WTO) meeting here," says Qatar's Interior Ministry.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry has called in the Taliban ambassador, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, and asked him to ensure he does not attack other countries in remarks at his regular news conferences on the U.S. air raids on Afghanistan. "We called him to the Foreign Office yesterday and advised him not to violate the third country rule(which says diplomats should not attack third countries while in a country other than their own)," said Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aziz Ahmaed Khan.
Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, sparked Palestinian outrage yesterday by telling a British newspaper he has a plan to bring one million more Jews to Isreal. His remarks to the Guardian newspaper provoked a swift and angry retort from the Palestinian envoy to Britain, Afif Safieh, who said in referring to Ariel Sharon, "It is a dangerous dream, a nightmare. He is a pryomaniac on a powder keg".
"Malaysia'a first batch of relief aid for the Afghan people in the form of about five million dollars in food, winter clothing and medical supplies will be sent to Karachi today via the Royal Malaysian Navy vessel 'Mahawangsa'. The 461 tonnes of supplies were collected by Wisma Putra, The Malaysian Medical Relief Society(Mercy Malaysia), UMNO, the Muslim Youth Movementof Malaysia and PAS". reported the Star Newspaper yesterday.
Eliminating Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States, will not rid the world of the new threat brought about by a globalised terrorist movement according to former Malaysian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Tan Sri Razali Ismail. He said, "According to some sources, there are at present 20,000 al-Qaeda gighters from countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia and Britain fighting alongdside the Taliban in Afghanistan. The network has harnessed support from groups in 60 countries. We must accept that we will never rid ourselves of the problem of international terrorism until we deal with the anger that drives these people to terrorism in the first place".
"Afghan opposition forces in tanks and on horseback were poised yesterday for a major assault against the Taliban regime as the United States broadened the financial front of its war on terrorism. Backed by the U.S. special forces, the Northern Alliance said it was closing in on the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif after a series of breakthroughs on Tuesday and Wednesday," reports the AFP news service.
"Opposition forces are far away from Mazar-i-Sharif and they are making false claims," a Taliban spokesman was quoted as saying.
A Taliban intelligence official, who did not want to be named, said that, " We have arrested 20 Afghan men accused of spying for the United States and trying to provoke a rebellion. They were working against the Taliban government and were trying to make a rebellion among the ranks of the people".
In a diplomatic crackdown on its former allies, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry official, Aziz Ahmed Khan, said yesterday that, "We have ordered the Taliban to close its consulate in the port city of Karachi. Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, was also told to stop his regular press conferences, in which he condemned the United States and its coalition partners for the bombing campaign". Because of the press conferences, which were broadcast live by CNN, Zaeef became the most visable spokesman for the Islamic fundamentalist militia.
Polls by the international polling agency, Zogby, revealed that, "More than half of all Americans believe nuclear strikes would be an effective tool against terrorism and are not willing to settle for anything less than ther death or capture of Osama bin Laden. A total of 54% think using weapons from the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal would be effective in the war against terrorism. And, one third of all Americans polled believed nuclear strikes against other countries would be very effective, although the majority did not want a ground war which would result in heavy U.S. casualities. With over 80% saying that launching military strikes against Iraq and removing Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, from power would be an effective move in President Bush's war on terrorism".
"British right-wing activists disguised as clergymen are handing out anti-Islamic leaflets outside churches in order to stir up race tensions over the crisis in Afghanistan," the British Financial Times reported yesterday.
"There are limits to the wave of patriotism sweeping the United States. A Los Angeles city council committee on Wednesday rejected a proposal to paint their famous 'Hollywood' sign red, white, and blue," reports the AFP news service.
U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has warned the United States could turn its attention to Iraq after achieving the goals of its military campaign against Afghanistan. At a meeting with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister, Shaykh Sabah al-hamad Al Sabah, "We must end Osama bin Laden's terrorist threat to the world and deal with the Taliban regime who has given them haven. And nations such as Iraq, which have tried to pursue weapons of mass destruction should not think that we will not be concerned about them, and will not turn our attention to them".
"The Bush administration has been under increased pressure from Republicans in the U.S. Congess to move against Iraq in the wake of the September 11th attacks, even though administration officials have repeatedly said there is no credible evidence implicating Bagdad in the terrorist act," reported the AFP news service.
Lebonese Prime Minister, Rafiq Hariri rejected a U.S. demand to freeze the assets of the Shiite Hizbollah movement, saying, "It a resistance movement, not a terrorist organisation. In defining its position of co-operation, the Lebonese government will continue to insist on the distinction between resistance organisations and terrorist organisations".
Admiral David Shackleton, Head of the Australian Navy said yesterday that, "The government had embellished a story about Afghan asylum seekers throwing their children into the Indian Ocean to protest their ejection from Australian waters". The unprecedented comments ammounted to a damaging attack on the credibility of Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government less than two days from federal elections.
United States tennis officials said, "The September 11th terrorist attacks on America and security concerns in Spain were the reason it withdrew its team from the Federation Cup".
"Malaysia will continue to speak out against the U.S. led bombing of Afghanistan although its voice is being drowned by those getting more publicity from the Western controlled media. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohammed said Malaysia would continue pushing for a halt in the attack as the whole thing was wrong," from Malaysia's Star newspaper.
"The U.S. Justice Department has decided to evesdrop on conversations between lawyers and their clients when they are in federal custody if it is deemed necessary to prevent terrorism. Attorney General John Ashcroft approved the controversial rule a civil rights activist called 'a terrifying precedent' last week without the usual waiting period for public comment and it went into effect immediately," reported the Washington Post newspaper.
In Washington, visiting Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said that the United States was unprepared for war in Afghanistan and that ground forces are now necessary for victory. The Washington Post reported him saying, "It appears Afghanistan's ruling Taliban are well entrenched, so ground forces will have to be engaged".
"Most of the Taliban population has left the Taliban held northern Afghan city of Mazr-i-Sharif, which is under attack from opposition forces," said opposition spokesman, Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem.
"The Pentagon says it has not lost any aircraft to Taliban fire in nearly six weeks of bombing despite Taliban claims to have shot down at least half a dozen planes and helicopters," reports the Associated Press news agency.
"British Government Ministers privately expressed frustration yesterday with the U.S. prosecution of the war on terrorism, the first sign of serious difference between London and Washington since the attacks on September 11th. There is concern on both the diplomatic and military fronts over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the U.S. bombing strategy, the lack of U.S. consultation with its allies, and the insufficient U.S. focus on the humanitarian crisis. The British government is also intent on opposing the expansion of the war beyond Afghanistan, and is horrified at elements within the Pentagon pushing for an all out attack on Iraq," reported Britain's Guardian News service.
"Three activists were killed and four wounded when police opened fire on demonstrators who took over a major highway and railway in response to a call for a general strike by pro-Taliban Islamic parties," said a senior police official in the Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab.
"On Egypt's streets and elsewhere in the Arab world, where U.S. Middle East policies are regularly derided, protests have erupted against the American led strikes against Afghanistan and praise has been heaped on Isama bin Laden as a defender of Islam," reports the the Associated Press news agency.
U.S. State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher said, "The United States sees value in keeping open the Taliban embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, despite efforts to isolate the militia it accuses of harbouring suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden".
"One of the key business interests of the fugitive Saudi businessman, Osama bin Laden, is said to be gum arabicum, an important ingredient in soft drinks and other products. It is possible that every time somebody buys an American soft drink he is putting money on Osama's pocket," said British author, Simon Reeve.
"Nepal imposed strict security around the internation airport here yesterday after receiving information that a cell linked to Osama bin Laden was planning to hijack a Singaporean airliner and crash it into New Delhi," police in Madras, India told Nepalese authorities.
"Five Afghan refugees who fled to Japan to avoid Taliban persecution were released yesterday after being held for more than a month for suspected illegal entry which goes against the United Nations convention of refugees, and is also in contravention of Japan's immigration policy," reports the AFP news service.
"Jewish settlements in the West Bank are the root cause of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians there," said the Director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Paul Grossrieder, repeating the long held Red Cross view that building settlements in the West Bank was a violation of the Fourth Geneva convention, which governs the handling of territories captured in wartime.
