"A Roman Catholic priest, who according to church documents told his superiors he sodomised children, was arrested on Thursday on child rape charges in a case that has engulfed his then-superior, Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, and reverberated all the way to the Vatican," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel presented yesterday documents it says proves Yasser Arafat was personally involved in terrorism. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is taking them with him to Washington to show US President George W. Bush," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Two months before deadly Sept 11 suicide attacks with hijacked airliners, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) office in Arizona sought and apparently failed to organise a nationwide probe of suspicious foreign students attending US flight schools, US officials said on Saturday," reported the AFP news service.
"Intense US and European efforts were under way yesterday to break the 34-day siege of the Nativity Church by transferring wanted Palestinians into international custody, as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon headed for Washington," reported the AFP news service.
"Forcing out Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has become a tricky proposition for the United States because of the war on the West Bank. Just weeks ago, the Bush administration was talking as though Saddam was a new target in the war on terrorism, and military action was an imminent possibility. But the violence between Israelis and Palestinians has thrown the region into turmoil and further polarised the Arabs, which makes an American military move against Iraq politically more unlikely, said many analysts," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Deadly battles raged through the West Bank yesterday, with 54 people reported killed as Israel scorned US calls to withdraw and pressed ahead with an army assault on the Palestinians. The Palestinians charged Israel was using the time before the arrival of US Secretary of State Colin Powell to unleash massacres of its people, and called for urgent help from world leaders to stop the onslaught. Sharon’s popularity in Israel had been plummeting in the face of the deadly terror attacks but a new poll this week showed overwhelming support for the offensive," reproted the AFP news service.
"Palestinian militants are reportedly handing out explosives-packed belts to residents willing to strap them on and challenge Israeli soldiers," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Sri Lanka’s main minority Muslim party accepted talks with Tamil Tiger rebels, who have apologised for the ethnic cleansing of thousands of Muslims in their bid to create a separate state, yesterday," reproted the AFP news service.
"Julio Ribeiro, known as India’s “super cop” for his success in quelling religious riots, battling militants and fighting crime, says he has never seen communal hatred on the scale that exists in riot-hit Gujarat. He said in an interview on Friday that they (Hindu hardline groups) have brainwashed people. Even children of four go around with (symbolic Hindu) tridents saying they’ve got to kill the Muslims. This time, though, he said problems plaguing Gujarat, known for its history of religious violence, were far tougher to cure. Both governments have been accused of turning a blind eye to the violence when it was at its peak - charges they have denied," reported the Reuters news agency.
"General Pervez Musharraf’s plans to extend his term as president through a referendum received a mixed response at home and only muted criticism from abroad. While most ordinary Pakistanis shrugged off Musharraf’s widely expected announcement, political and religious parties said they were planning to mobilise supporters to boycott the vote, scheduled next month," reproted the AFP news service.
"China has asked the United States for an explanation on why US President George W. Bush referred to Taiwan as a country during a speech last week in Washington, a Foreign Ministry official said yesterday. Reports in Taiwanese newspapers on Friday said Bush called the island the Republic of Taiwan and a country in an apparent slip of the tongue during a speech to diplomats and business executives on Thursday," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Palestinian officials reported yesterday a deal to end the siege of the Church of the Nativity and remove the last flashpoint in Israel’s West Bank offensive as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepared for talks in Washington. Sharon arrived in Washington ahead of talks with Bush today, and he came ready to make a new case for sidelining his old nemesis Arafat from an upcoming round of international meetings on the Middle East. The Israeli carried a 100-page intelligence file that aims to prove Arafat’s Palestinian Authority both financed and oversaw the suicide strikes that sparked Israel’s West Bank drive," reproted the AFP news service.
"Rural carriers planned to deliver mail as scheduled yesterday despite the discovery of 14 mailbox pipe bombs across the Midwest in recent days, authorities said on Sunday. But postal officials warned customers that the doors of roadside mailboxes must be kept open. Affected are customers in Nebraska, Iowa and northwest Illinois," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"The wages of war are starkly visible across Afghanistan, in silhouettes of broken walls, in mounds of pulverised brick. But the most lasting damage can’t be seen: the wounds to the minds of Afghans, after 23 years of dread punctuated by moments of terror. Those cases are encountered recently by a reporter, by-products of the US bombing campaign. There are millions more, psychiatrists say, after a generation of non-stop war in Afghanistan," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"The US magazine Newsweek reported in its edition yesterday that terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has been seen inside Pakistan. The report quoted the Afghan chief of military intelligence, Hazrat Uddin, as saying he received credible reports about the sightings," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was freed yesterday from 19 months of house arrest in Myanmar and told hundreds of rapturous supporters that she would carry on her fight to bring democracy to the military-ruled country," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Hamid Karzai’s interim administration agreed unanimously this week to a decree that offers Afghan farmers US$250 (RM950) for every jerib (about two square kilometres) of opium poppies they destroy," reported the Guardian News Service.
"Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, The head of the United States’ largest Catholic diocese, said in a letter faxed to media that he had been accused of sexual misconduct by a woman who was a student at a Catholic high school in central Califor- nia in 1970. But the cardinal vigorously denied the allegation and said he had called on law enforcement and church officials to investigate it," reported the AFP news service.
"A woman is eight weeks pregnant with a cloned embryo, the Italian fertility specialist Severino Antinori has told an Arab newspaper. Rudolf Jaenisch, professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the world’s leading specialists in cloning, said yesterday that there are no normal clones in existence. The lucky ones die early. The ones who survive are unlucky because the prediction is that they will be abnormal. He then argued that those people need to be stopped, as what they did is evil," reported the Guardian News Service.
"A suicide bomber set off nail-studded explosives at the entrance to a pool hall in this Israeli city late Tuesday, killing 15 people and wounding at least 60, as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was meeting in Washington with U.S. President George W. Bush to discuss the future of peace talks with the Palestinians," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"The trilateral agreement on terrorism among Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia was signed yesterday to increase co-operation by the three governments to address cross-border incidents and transnational crimes," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"Palestinians and Israelis reached agreement yesterday to end a 36-day armed standoff at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, but Italy said it had been steamrollered into playing a part and put the deal on hold. Final details were still being worked out for an agreement that would smooth the way for talks between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George W. Bush in Washington, but hopes for a quick resolution were fading," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Police said Seven men were killed as Hindus and Muslims hurled acid-filled light bulbs and stones at each other yesterday in the latest religious violence to hit India’s riot-torn western Gujarat state," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Just a little bit of second-hand smoke can cause measurable damage to a child’s learning ability, affecting reading, math and reasoning, researchers said on Monday," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A woman who claims she had a baby after being seduced by seven Catholic priests has asked a US cardinal to help her find her daughter’s father and to explain why he helped hide him for two decades," reported the AFP news service.
"A former altar boy sued the Vatican, the Miami Archdiocese and two Roman Catholic priests on Monday, saying he was forced to participate in orgies as a teenager 30 years ago," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Delegates from 42 Muslim countries ended a three-day meeting here yesterday with a call to all nations and international organisations to push Israel towards accepting the United Nations resolutions for peace in West Asia. The Kuala Lumpur Declaration, adopted at the end of the Seventh Conference of Ministers of Endowment and Islamic Affairs, stated that Israel’s expansion programme was a threat to Muslims and all countries should, therefore, unite to overcome it," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"In the wake of a deadly suicide bombing in Israel, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told Palestinians in a televised address yesterday he has ordered security services to prevent terror attacks against Israeli civilians. However, Arafat said, his police were too weak to carry out his orders in the wake of Israel’s large-scale military operation aimed at crushing Palestinian militias in the West Bank. A senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Sharon and Bush agreed that Arafat, if not removed, should be elevated to a purely symbolic position, leaving another leader in charge of running the Palestinian Authority," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"At a news conference at the Saudi Embassy, Adel al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz said it is unfortunate that the Israeli prime minister comes to Washington with every intention of trying to derail the peace process by levelling charges against Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries that are baseless," reported the AFP news service.
"Eleven French naval workers and two Pakistanis were killed when a car packed with explosives ploughed into a bus in an apparent suicide bombing outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi yesterday, police said. Pakistan’s largest and most industrialised city Karachi is plagued by recurring violence that has claimed thousands of lives over the past two decades. But the massive suicide bombing yesterday has dramatically upped the ante for police trying to control the escalating violence," reported the AFP news service.
"Two gunmen on motorcycles killed a prominent moderate Islamic scholar, Ghulam Mustaza Malik, and his driver on Tuesday night, spraying their car with bullets in the eastern city of Lahore before speeding off, police and doctors said," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"An agreement to end a 38-day Israeli siege at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is to be implemented starting at daybreak Friday, a Palestinian negotiator said," reported the AP news agency.
"The 5 1/2-week standoff at the Church of the Nativity neared an end Friday with a complex deal to scatter 13 Palestinian militants among up to eight countries and clear the way for Israeli forces to withdraw from the last West Bank city they occupy. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has come under strong criticism from other Palestinians for agreeing to let the men be deported, the first time a Palestinian leader has assented to such a punishment," reported the AP news agency.
"Up to 25 people, including six children, were killed and more than 100 others wounded yesterday when a bomb exploded during a military parade in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan, state prosecutors told the RIA Novosti agency.The landmine blast in the town of Kaspiysk targeted a bus carrying an army brass band as a column of marines marched to a ceremony marking the 57th anniversary of victory in World War II, an interior ministry spokesman said," reported the AFP news service.
"Nation building and economic reconstruction are as important as military might if the United States is to win its self-styled war on world terror, a leading think-tank said yesterday. Since Sept 11, US President George W. Bush has been slow to make long-term political and economic commitments abroad, preferring to focus on fighting wars, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). In its annual Strategic Survey, it said that in the US campaign against terrorism, victory means bringing the fruits of the democratic capitalist system to those who have not yet fully enjoyed them and that task is ultimately one not for generals but for political scientists. The IISS said Washington had failed to make a major commitment to lasting stability in Afghanistan, where it crushed the ruling Taliban militia in a major offensive last year," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) tried to kill Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has vowed to topple interim president Hamid Karzai and strike at US and allied troops in Afghanistan, The New York Times said yesterday. The failed attack was the first against an Afghan factional leader who does not belong to either the terrorist al-Qaeda network or the former Taliban regime that supported it," reported the AFP news service.
"Pakistani police have rounded up more than 100 people from extremist groups with suspected links to the Taliban and al-Qaeda after a suicide bombing which killed 11 French nationals," reported the AP news agency.
"Palestinian security forces arrested 14 members of the Islamic militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip yesterday after President Yasser Arafat ordered measures to foil attacks on Israeli civilians, a security official said," reported the Reuters news agency..
"A former Boston priest on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to charges he raped a young altar boy some 50 times, although over a dozen other individuals have come forward with claims the cleric abused them as well, a spokesman for the Essex County District Attorney said," reported the AFP news service.
