"The government will not demand an apology from defence and intelligence magazine Jane’s Intelligence Review for its allegations that Malaysia could have prevented the Sept 11 attacks on they World Trade Centre and Pentagon, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar," reported The Star nerspaper of Malaysia.
"The Philippine Senate will hold an inquiry soon to discuss the US’ extended war on terrorism on its soil. Senator Rodolfo Biazon said yesterday that he was among several politicians who wanted the inquiry which will tentatively be held between Wednesday and Friday," reported The Star nerspaper of Malaysia.
"Officials here yesterday warned a small Muslim group against using the arrests of suspected Islamic militants here to sow discord in the multi-racial, multi-religious city-state. The group, called Fateha, has urged the Singapore government to withdraw its support for the US-led campaign against suspected terrorists," reported the AFP news service.
"An Iranian translator who believed Australian Prime Minister John Howard had ordered his assassination set fire to a government building to draw attention to his plight, police claimed yesterday," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Chinese intelligence officers have found more than 20 spying devices in a US-built Boeing 767 intended to become President Jiang Zemin’s official plane, military experts said the tiny, satellite-operated devices were far more sophisticated than any available to the general public. One was found in a lavatory, another in the headboard of the presidential bed.President Jiang was reported to be furious at the discovery," reported the AFP news service.
"Richard Reid, accused of trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with a shoe bomb in December, had support in France and Europe, a source close to the investigation said yesterday after the evaluation of e-mails sent by the suspect. French anti-terrorist police and investigators said they had seized hard drives from a cyber-cafe in northern Paris, which Reid is suspected of frequenting shortly before he got on the Paris-Miami flight on Dec 22, reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israeli troops blew up the Voice of Palestine radio station offices yesterday in retribution for a Palestinian attack that killed six people, but failed to stop it from broadcasting locally," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Sept 11 terror suspect Osama bin Laden has probably died of kidney failure but the United States cannot yet claim total victory in Afghanistan, according to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf," reported the AFP news service.
"China remained silent yesterday on reports that a Boeing 767 intended for Chinese President Jiang Zemin was bugged while it was refitted in the United States, with analysts saying Beijing will not likely allow the issue to derail improved Sino-US relations. Chinese intelligence officers found 27 spying devices hidden in the US-built jet intended to be Jiang's official plane," reported the AFP news service.
"India and Pakistan traded small arms fire along their disputed border yesterday, as New Delhi complained its Muslim neighbour had not done enough to rein in Islamic militants. Despite signs of progress on the diplomatic front since a landmark speech by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the visit of US Secretary of State Colin Powell last week, India says it is not ready to withdraw troops from the front line," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Secretary of State of State Colin Powell and other top officials yesterday finalised the US contribution to Afghan reconstruction as they prepared for an international donors conference aimed at cementing stability in the war-torn nation. AFAfghan asylum seekers staging a protest in which they have sewn their lips together were warned yesterday that Australia views their action as offensive and will not be swayed by it. About 70 detainees at the isolated Woomera detention centre in South Australia sewed up their lips as part of a bigger demonstration by 210 Afghans staging a hunger strike in protest against the conditions of their imprisonment," reported the AFP news service.
"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is exploiting Palestinian attacks to destroy the Palestinian people, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said in an interview released on Saturday. We are doing everything we can at the political and security level to exterminate this phenomenon of suicide operations. It’s obvious that Sharon finds in such operations a golden opportunity to damage the reputation of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Authority, and to destroy the peace process," reported the AFP news service.
"A US military helicopter on a re-supply mission crashed in Afghanistan's high mountain terrain yesterday, killing two of the seven Marines on board and leaving the rest injured, two critically, a military spokesman said. It appears to be at the moment a mechanical problem with the helicopter," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"International pressure grew on Saturday for the United States to recognise al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees as prisoners of war protected by international conventions. British legislators and one of Canada’s leaders expressed concern about the treatment of prisoners flown in the past week from Afghanistan to a remote US military base in Cuba. United Nations officials and international rights groups are also questioning whether the United States is upholding the prisoners’ human rights," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"US military cargo planes brought more troops and communications equipment to the southern Philippines yesterday as protests grew against American military involvement in the war against extremist guerillas linked to the al-Qaeda terror network," reported the Associated Press news agency.
Heavily armed attackers on motorcycles sprayed automatic gunfire outside the U.S. government cultural center in Calcutta, India on Tuesday, leaving four dead and 21 wounded, police and U.S. Embassy officials said." reported the Associated Press news agency.
"An Indonesian Muslim group accused by regional governments of being part of an alleged terror network warned yesterday of a backlash if Jakarta arrested militants, and reiterated it was not linked to any ring. Irfan Awwas, director of the Indonesia Mujahidin Council, said President Megawati Sukarnoputri would be playing with fire if she ordered police to follow Singapore and Malaysia by cracking down on Muslim radicals across the country," reported the Reuters news agency.
"China yesterday published a lengthy justification of its crackdown on Muslim separatists in Xinjiang, alleging they were violent terrorists directly funded and trained by Osama bin Laden. The document, issued by China’s cabinet, the State Council, maintains that groups advocating a separate state of East Turkestan in the far western Chinese region have close links with international terrorists. Human rights groups have accused Beijing of using the ongoing global campaign against terrorism as an excuse to crush even peaceful opposition to its rule in Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan," reported the AFP news service.
"The world came together yesterday to pledge billions of dollars to rebuild Afghanistan, whose interim leader told an international conference that his country had known nothing but disaster, war, brutality and deprivation," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Dozens of Israeli tanks, backed by helicopters, took control of the West Bank town of Tulkarem before dawn yesterday, imposed a curfew and arrested dozens of suspected militants, the local governor and the Israeli army said. In 16 months of fighting, Israeli troops have repeatedly entered Palestinian cities, taking control of some neighbourhoods for limited periods. Yesterday’s raid was the largest and marked the first time that forces took over an entire town," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Workplace safety authorities in an Australian state yesterday launched occupational health and safety guidelines for the sex industry. Poorly lit stairways, rickety bed frames, dirty sex aids and repetitive movement injuries are among chief dangers brothel workers face in New South Wales," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Australian government threatened yesterday to remove the children of some asylum seekers from their parents after four youngsters involved in a hunger strike protesting the conditions of their imprisonment were hospitalised to have stitches removed from their mouths. Philip Ruddock, Australia’s hardline Immigration Minister, said the government was considering taking some children away from their parents at the Woomera detention centre, a remote former missile-testing base," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Sri Lanka’s prime minister strongly hinted yesterday that his government would lift a ban on Tamil Tiger rebels to launch a final bid for peace, in a move backed by the influential Buddhist clergy," reported the AFP news service.
"President Gloria Arroyo is headed for a showdown with her vice-president, Teofisto Guingona, over his opposition to deploying US troops in the Philippines as part of a campaign against international terrorism, officials said yesterday. The country’s two highest officials are to meet today with other members of the National Security Council, with Guingona reportedly weighing his options, including quitting his post as foreign secretary," reported the AFP news service.
"The military regime in Myanmar is planning to build a nuclear research reactor and is in negotiations with Russia over the facility, Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win has confirmed," reported the AFP news service.
"China said yesterday that it does not see any impact on Sino-US ties from the reported discovery of a series of bugging devices on President Jiang Zemin’s US-built personal jet," reported the AFP news service.
"Gun battles between government troops and separatist rebels in Aceh province claimed four more lives, a military spokesman, Major Zaenal Muttaqin said yesterday," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"The mullahs of Afghanistan have welcomed the aid for Afghanistan at the international donors conference in Tokyo, but warned the money should not open the door to Western excess and a move away from Islam. It is important that all these dollars don’t cause an abuse of consumption along Western lines, and doesn’t draw good Muslims away from Islam," reported the AFP news service.
"Afghanistan secured aid pledges worth billions of dollars yesterday, but lack of security and lawlessness in parts of the shattered country raised questions over how effective the donations would be," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Civil rights advocates want the US government to provide an explanation about why more than 100 prisoners taken into custody in Afghanistan are being detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. These individuals were brought out of their country in shackles, drugged, gagged and blindfolded, and are being held in open-air cages in Cuba, said University of Southern California law professor Erwin Chemerinsky," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Five Palestinians were killed in exchanges of fire with Israeli troops as tanks drove into a neighbourhood in the West Bank city of Nablus early yesterday, the army said, while Israeli troops started to pull out of the nearby town of Tulkarem. The Palestinians were killed when the army tried to arrest suspected militants in the neighbourhood," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"A group of almost 200 Iraqi prisoners held in Iran for the past decade returned home yesterday, in the first batch of a total of 697 Iraqi detainees whom Teheran has promised to release this week," reported the AFP news agency.
"The military arm of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement claimed responsibility for a shooting in central Jerusalem Tuesday that injured more than 40 people. Forty-six people were taken to hospitals, at least six of them suffering from serious wounds, ambulance workers said. The wounds of two people were said to be moderate while another 38 were called lightly hurt," reported CNN news.
"The book on the spending spree that propelled Mayor Michael Bloomberg to City Hall is officially closed. The final tally: US$74.7 million. The Republican billionaire spent dlrs 73.1 million of his own money on the race to defeat Democrat Mark Green last November. It was the most ever spent on a non-presidential election in the United States," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"In the Hollywood action movie Black Hawk Down, there are only fleeting shots of Asians helping to rescue 75 US soldiers pinned down by militia fire in Mogadishu, Somalia. And that is not good enough for Brig-Jen Datuk Abdul Latif Ahmad of Malaysia. He wants the real story of what happened on Oct 3, 1993 told.the United States recognised that it was the Malaysians who rescued 75 American soldiers trapped in battle at a Mogadishu market but this was ignored in the movie," reported the Asia News Network.
"In the Hollywood action movie Black Hawk Down, there are only fleeting shots of Asians helping to rescue 75 US soldiers pinned down by militia fire in Mogadishu, Somalia. And that is not good enough for Brig-Jen Datuk Abdul Latif Ahmad of Malaysia. He wants the real story of what happened on Oct 3, 1993 told.the United States recognised that it was the Malaysians who rescued 75 American soldiers trapped in battle at a Mogadishu market but this was ignored in the movie," reported the Asia News Network.
"Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo won the backing of the nation’s top security body yesterday over her decision to allow US forces to train local troops as part of Washington’s war against terrorism. The issue has polarised the country. Supporters have welcomed the return of American forces to this former US colony to drive out Islamic militants," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Saudi Arabia’s religious police warned yesterday that the kingdom’s dress code applies to all women after the United States said female soldiers were excused from the strict requirement to cover up. The law under which women must wear black cloaks in public and cover their heads also applies to foreign women in the kingdom, an official from the Authority for Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil," reported the AFP news service.
"Indonesian troops shot and killed the military commander of the separatist Free Aceh Movement in a raid on his jungle base, a military official said yesterday. Military spokesman Lt-Col Supartodi said Abdullah Syafei was shot in the head and chest during fierce fighting on Tuesday in Pidie district, northern Aceh. Abdullah’s wife was also killed," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Indian police charged six people, including three teachers at an Islamic school, with murder yesterday for an attack at an American cultural centre that killed four police officers. But Indian officials backed down from their earlier statements that Tuesday’s attack, which wounded 20 other people, was the work of Islamic terrorists," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Israel says it will respond to a shooting spree by a Palestinian gunman in downtown Jerusalem that killed two women, while Hamas said it’s ready for all-out war after four of its militants were killed in an Israeli commando raid in the West Bank," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Further reports of factional fighting in Afghanistan yesterday marred the optimism generated by pledges of US$4.5bil from international donors. Just a day after representatives from 50 donor countries wrapped up a two-day conference in Tokyo to bankroll the reconstruction of the war-torn nation, a senior Afghan commander said fighting had broken out between local militia chiefs in an ethnically mixed area of northern Afghanistan," reported the AFP news service.
"The military said yesterday it had suspended flights of Afghan war captives to a US Navy base in Cuba to expand makeshift jail facilities and coordinate intelligence gathered in the war on terrorism. The move came amid harsh criticism of treatment of the captives held in small, outdoor cage-like cells under tight guard," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Two members of the militant Jewish Defence League pleaded innocent yesterday to federal charges of conspiring to bomb a Los Angeles-area mosque and a US congressman’s office in a plot their lawyers said was orchestrated by the FBI through an informant. Attorneys for league chairman Irv Rubin and a member of the group, Earl Krugel, said the FBI entrapped their clients in a conspiracy cooked up by a third man named by federal prosecutors as a confidential informant in the case," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Hart Senate Office Building reopened on Tuesday after a three-month cleanup that cost at least US$14mil after an anthrax-laced letter was sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. I feel completely safe, said Daschle, who entered the building after the cleanup involving fumigation with gas, high-tech vacuums, foam and liquid cleansers," reported the Reuters news agency.
"American Taliban John Walker Lindh was flown to the United States yesterday, where he faces trial on charges of conspiring to kill fellow countrymen," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Up to eight children were ordered removed from an Australian detention centre for their own protection yesterday amid claims of child abuse by Afghan asylum seekers taking part in a lip-sewing hunger strike," reported the AFP news service.
"The first US soldiers to arrive with assault rifles strapped to their backs flew into the southern Philippines yesterday to help prepare for a joint military exercise aimed at fighting an extremist group," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Philippine Muslim leader Nur Misuari, who is accused of inciting a shortlived but deadly rebellion in the south, will be tried in a town near a police prison south of manila where he is being held, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The high court was acting on a recommendation by the Justice Department that bringing Misuari back to his southern island stronghold of Jolo could pose security risks," reported the AFP news service.
"A video camera atop a US cultural centre captured the faces of motorcycle-riding gunmen who killed four police guards and wounded 20 people on Tuesday, providing clues to the Indian and FBI investigators, a newspaper reported yesterday," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Aceh separatist rebels in Aceh yesterday accused Indonesian authorities of tracking their slain military commander Syafii, 54, his wife Fatimah, by inserting a microchip into an invitation for peace talks," reported the AFP news service.
"Black Hawk Down, the movie that tells the story of the ill-fated US intervention in Somalia in 1993, is a travesty of history and may herald another military foray, a gunman who fought against the Americans said yesterday. The film is stupid and presents Somali leaders and fighters as inhuman, said Mohamed Said Abdulle, one of the gunmen who took part in the battle that claimed the lives of 18 US soldiers and hundreds of Somalis. The fighting in Mogadishu was a legitimate defence against foreign domination. He said the movie could be a gimmick to prepare the American public for another US military strike against Somalia," reported the AFP news ervice.
"A booby-trapped car exploded yesterday, killing former Lebanese minister Elie Hobeika in Hazmieh district in east Beirut, security sources said. Hobeika was linked to the Sabra and Chatilla massacres, which were conducted by Lebanese Forces militiamen when Hobeika was the head of the intelligence service in the militia during the Israeli invasion in 1982," reported the dpa news agency.
"President George Bush outlined plans for the biggest rise in US military spending in two decades to fund a protracted campaign to wipe out global terrorism. As the United States expanded its war on terrorism beyond Afghanistan, Bush said he would propose a US$48bil boost in military spending for the 2003 financial year," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Australia lifted a freeze on processing Afghan refugee claims yesterday as it emerged that several protesting asylum seekers had tried to hang themselves in frustration at spending months, if not years, behind barbed wire," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Malaysian Defence Ministry is planning to produce a document on the actual account of the Battle of Mogadishu in response to the distorted version shown in the movie Black Hawk Down," reported The Star newspaper of Malaysia.
"US ambassador to Malaysia Marie Huhtala said the al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners detained in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay were treated in a humane way, served halal meals and were allowed to bathe and exercise. The United States had been severely criticised by the international community as well as human rights groups after photographs showed the prisoners blindfolded, shackled and kneeling in the heavily guarded camp. The BBC had reported that an Amnesty International spokesman had said the scene was reminiscent of torture methods used in Eastern Europe in the 1970s," reported The Star newspaper of Malaysia.
"India flexed its muscles yesterday by test-firing a missile seen as the linchpin of its nuclear capability and was immediately slammed by Pakistan which said it could destabilise the already tense region. New Delhi said it had tested a shorter variant of its nuclear-capable Agni missile as part of a series meant to guarantee the credibility of its nuclear forces, a deterrent to nuclear-capable China and Pakistan," reported the Reuters news agency.
"An undetermined number of Abu Sayyaf rebels were believed killed yesterday in fresh fighting in the southern Philippines as American troops geared for joint operations against the gunmen. Additional US troops arrived yesterday in this southern port city across the strait near Basilan for war exercises that will include operations against the Abu Sayyaf," reported the AFP news service.
"An Indonesian Muslim cleric alleged to be a key figure in a terrorist network linked to al-Qaeda threatened yesterday to sue the governments of Malaysia, Singapore and the United States. If the governments of the United States, Malaysia and Singapore keep trying to discredit me, I will sue them, said Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, after one full day of interrogation at Jakarta Police headquarters. I am not a terrorist, and there is no proof that I’m a terrorist, Ba’asyir told a press conference after two days of questioning by police. I am not a member of al-Qaeda, and have had no links with them," reported the dpa news agency.
"Men between 16 and 45 years old applying for visas to work or study in the United States will now have to declare if they have taken part in armed conflict, or have specialist skills in nuclear or biological weapons," reported the Asia News Network.
"Singapore has ordered a Muslim group to register its Internet portal as a political website after its leader said the government had prompted local Muslim terror plots by aligning itself with the United States and Israel. The decision comes at a time of heightened sensitivity after arrests of Muslim militants across South-East Asia suspected of having links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, blamed by Washington for the Sept 11 attacks on the United States," reported the Reuters news agency.
"South-East Asian tourism ministers insisted yesterday the region was safe for travel despite the discovery of alleged Muslim terrorist groups, adding governments were serious about tackling the threat," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A suicide bomber blew himself up in a pedestrian mall in a crowded Tel Aviv shopping area yesterday, killing himself and wounding 24 bystanders, including two who were in serious condition. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. However, the attack came just hours after the militant group Hamas said it would avenge the killing of a senior commander in an Israeli missile attack in the Gaza Strip late Thursday," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Just 10 weeks after the Taliban fled Kabul city, Afghans are already starting to say they felt safer under the now-defeated hardline militia than under the power-sharing interim administration that has replaced it. Murders, robberies and hijackings in the capital, factional clashes in the north and south of the country, instability in Kandahar and banditry on roads linking main centres are beginning to erode the optimism that greeted the inauguration of the interim administration on Dec 22," reported the AFP news service.
"Afghan interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai said yesterday that the United Nations had completed a list of 21 people whose task will be to organise a tribal grand council to decide Afghanistan’s next government. Karzai read out a list of 21 names at a joint news conference with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and took pains to stress that the list was a result of impartial decisions by the United Nations. The commission’s task will be to form a Loya Jirga that will decide the government that will rule Afghanistan for 18 months when the term of Karzai’s six-month interim administration expires," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Australian Prime Minister John Howard refused yesterday to bow to hunger-striking asylum seekers who have sewn their lips shut and tried to hang themselves in protest at his government’s hard line on refugees. Howard, in his first public comments on 10 days of turmoil at a controversial outback camp for illegal immigrants, said he was determined to keep boat people off Australian shores and would continue to imprison them," reported the Reuters news agency.
"United Nations chief Kofi Annan yesterday visited a recently re-opened girls’ school in the Afghan capital where Taliban troops and al-Qaeda fighters had received religious instruction only three months ago," reported the AFP news service.
"United Nations chief Kofi Annan yesterday visited a recently re-opened girls’ school in the Afghan capital where Taliban troops and al-Qaeda fighters had received religious instruction only three months ago. Lindh was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiring to kill Americans abroad and providing support to two terrorist groups including Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, blamed by Washington for the Sept 11 attacks," reported the Reuters news agency.
