The Pentagon scored its fourth successful missile interception on Friday when a ground-based interceptor missile destroyed a dummy warhead in a test high over the Pacific, Pentagon officials said," reported the AFP news service.
Kenzo Oshima, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said that it is important that decisive and timely action is taken to end the suffering of millions of innocent victims of warfare, including many women and children," reported the Reuters news agency.
The new US nuclear posture review, which hints at abandonment of an international moratorium on nuclear testing, could lift the taboo on use of such weapons and possibly encourage proliferation, experts suggested," reporeted the AFP news service.
Spanish riot police baton-charged demonstrators on Friday as hundreds of anti-capitalist protesters took their grievances onto the streets of Barcelona during a summit of European Union leaders," reported the Reuters news agency.
President George W. Bush on Friday watched elite US commandos show off the latest weapons in the war against terrorism in a mock helicopter assault on armed anti-American rioters as he prodded Congress to pass his US$379bil (RM1,440tri) defence budget without delay," reported the Reuters news agency.
The US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, Christina Rocca, said Washington was taking a higher profile in supporting Sri Lanka’s peace process following the changed global situation since Sept 11," reported the AFP news service.
Indian newspapers expressed relief yesterday that a showdown between police and radical Hindus over a ceremony related to the building of a temple on the ruins of a razed mosque in Ayodhya never materialised," reported the AFP news service.
Some 500 Hindu activists ransacked the legislature in the eastern state of Orissa yesterday in a protest linked to the explosive row over a disputed holy site in Ayodhya, police said. A group broke away and invaded the assembly, crying “Hail Lord Ram”, police said," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Saudi leaders have told US Vice-President Dick Cheney that the United States cannot use the kingdom’s territory to launch military strikes on Iraq, a newspaper reported yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat insisted yesterday that ceasefire talks with Israel will have to await a full Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian self-rule areas," reported the AFP news service.
"A man named by US President George W. Bush as one of the 22 most dangerous in the world has been captured in Sudan, the Sunday Times reported. Sudan is on a US government list of state sponsors of “terrorism”. But Khartoum and Washington opened a dialogue on terrorism in mid-2000, leading to what the United States described as “some positive results”," reported the Reuters news agency.
"British Home Secretary David Blunkett warned Prime Minister Tony Blair that military action in Iraq could provoke serious civil unrest in Britain, the Sunday Telegraph said. “Muslim youths were angry and frustrated at the action in Afghanistan. That frustration may lead to further incidents if there is action in Iraq,” said Ahtsham Ali, an author of a government report into last year’s race riots in Bradford, northern England," reported the AFP news service.
"To some veteran Afghan commanders, the recent US offensive against al-Qaeda fighters in eastern Afghanistan failed because most of them got away," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"More than 1,400 crimes, including rapes and kidnappings, have been committed over the last three years by British prisoners released early under a British government electronic tagging scheme, a Sunday paper said," reported the AFP news service.
"Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe started a new six-year term of office yesterday, vowing to speed up a controversial land reform programme and launching a scathing attack on former colonial power Britain. The European Union will maintain its humanitarian assistance to the people of Zimbabwe and will consider possible additional targeted measures against its government," reported the Reuters news agency.
Five people, including a US diplomat’s wife and daughter were killed and dozens injured in a grenade attack yesterday during a prayer service at a protestant church here," reported the AFP news service.
Two people died in riots yesterday, despite efforts by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to cool tempers amid opposition pressure over a radical Hindu drive to build a temple on the ruins of a razed mosque," reported the AFP news service.
Washington wants to boost a US military mission in the Philippines to nearly 1,500 troops to win “hearts and minds” in strongholds of the local allies of Osama bin Laden, Filipino officials said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
Washington wants to boost a US military mission in the Philippines to nearly 1,500 troops to win “hearts and minds” in strongholds of the local allies of Osama bin Laden, Filipino officials said yesterday.
"Unidentified gunmen walked up to a well-known religious scholar on Tuesday and shot him to death in the eastern city of Lahore, police said. Police believed the attacks are part of a campaign by militants to spread terror here and undercut efforts by Musharraf to crush Islamic extremism in this nation of 147 million," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Three Malaysian UN peacekeepers who lost their lives rescuing American Rangers trapped in the Bokhara market in Somalia in 1993 were among 23 Malaysians who were honoured with the Dag Hammarskjold Medal. While glorifying the Rangers, the movie conveniently forgot the role played by the Malaysian rescuers," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"Admitting that it was presiding over a frightening rise in street crime, Britain’s Labour government said on Sunday it was accelerating a blitz on thieves and muggers in a bid to restore public confidence," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Amid a widening scandal implicating numerous members of the US Roman Catholic clergy in paedophile activity, the issue of celibacy came under scrutiny on Sunday in a Boston archdiocese publication," reported the AFP news service.
"Iraq may allow UN arms inspectors back into the country if the United Nations draws up a list of sites and a timetable for inspections, Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan said in comments published yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"Kuwait said yesterday it would not support strikes on Iraq and urged the Baghdad regime to fully comply with UN resolutions after talks with US Vice-President Dick Cheney," reported the AFP news service.
"Israel planned to pull its army out of reoccupied Palestinian areas yesterday in a move that could hasten a ceasefire sought by US Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni. While Zinni made progress in his truce efforts yesterday, Palestinians expressed irritation over the absence from Cheney’s agenda of a meeting with their president, Yasser Arafat," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Palestinian officials will boycott any meeting with Dick Cheney in order to protest against the US vice president ruling out talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during his visit to the region, information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
The US military was on the defensive yesterday over suggestions its “body count” from the biggest battle of the Afghan War was inflated and that large numbers of Taliban and al Qaeda forces had escaped. “Only 50 to 60 were killed. Most of them escaped,” said Gulbuddin, a top aide to Afghan Defence Minister Mohammad Fahim,' reported the Reuters news agency.
The Bush administration is reducing the number of fighter jets on round-the-clock patrols over the United States after the Sept 11 attacks, relying instead on a combination of planes in the air and on stand-by on the ground, defence officials said on Monday. The magazine admitted it was unlikely Bush would come around to the critical views on US policy expressed in an accompanying series of article. ," reported the Reuters news agency.
Israeli troops pulled out of the Bethlehem area early yesterday, boosting chances for a truce to end nearly 18 months of violence. Though Cheney had not scheduled a meeting with Arafat, it was widely believed that if the two sides declared a truce, Cheney would see the Palestinian leader. It would be Arafat’s highest-level contact with the Bush administration," reported the Associated Press news agency.
Four people were killed yesterday as riot police in India’s troubled western state of Gujarat opened fire to break up clashes between Hindus and Muslims, officials said," reported the AFP news service.
The United States has indicated that it wants to question Yazid Sufat, the KMM member, who allegedly allowed two of the terrorists who crashed the aircraft into the Pentagon and the New York World Trade Centre to use his apartment in Kajang,' reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
Zimbabwe summoned opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to court on treason charges yesterday as President Robert Mugabe faced mounting pressure over his re-election in a poll widely seen as fraudulent. President Robert Mugabe faced mounting pressure yesterday over his controversial re-election, with Zimbabwe suspended from the Commonwealth, new sanctions announced and a general strike at home," reported the Reuters news agency.
Vice President Dick Cheney ended an 11-nation Mid-east tour yesterday by promising Turkey financial aid for peacekeeping in Afghanistan. Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit became the latest leader on Cheney’s tour to criticise US proposals to widen the war on terrorism to Baghdad. He suggested such strikes could hurt Turkey’s tottering economy. Still, Ecevit told reporters after the meeting that Cheney had “very clearly stated that there will be no military action against Iraq in the foreseeable future’’, reported the Associated Press news agency.
A suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in northern Israel yesterday, killing at least seven people including himself and wounding 27 others, police said," reported the Reuters news agency.
Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters attacked US and other coalition troops around an airfield in eastern Afghanistan overnight, a US military spokesman said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
