"The United States and Britain stepped up pressure on the Security Council on Friday to adopt a tough new Iraq resolution before any resumption of UN arms inspections, but Russia resisted the idea. UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has said his teams plan to go to Iraq on Oct 15, setting in motion a phased timetable that will include a few early inspections designed to test Iraq’s willingness to let them work freely," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Yemen has arrested five Yemeni men on suspicion of links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network following a shootout between the suspects and security forces, a security official said yesterday. Sanaa dismissed on Wednesday reports that US special forces may launch covert operations in Yemen against militants believed to have fled Afghanistan," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The world’s growing thirst for water is becoming a major potential trigger for war, and global warming is set to accentuate that risk, experts say," reported the AFP news service.
"Singapore on Friday signed an agreement to support the move to screen America-bound containers for dangerous cargo, making it the first port in Asia to do so. The move to support the US-led security arrangement called the Container Security Initiative (CSI) means that containers that are shipped from Singapore will be cleared faster upon arrival at US ports," reported the Asia News Network
"Singaporean Muslim leaders yesterday denounced the plans of suspected terrorists to create a Southeast Asian Islamic state by insurrection. Abdul Rahman Sukir, secretary general of the Muhammadiyah Association, said there is nothing wrong with having a political ambition. But the way to achieve it should be in a free, democratic way," reported the AFP news service.
"The Israeli army demolished parts of the building where Yasser Arafat was trapped and under siege yesterday after firing a tank shell that a witness said showered the Palestinian leader with dust," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Police and paramilitary forces patrolled the streets of Baroda city in India’s western Gujarat state yesterday after four people were killed in religious clashes between Hindus and Muslims, police said. The latest clashes on Friday erupted on the eve of the third stage of a controversial political march by Hindu nationalists that non-government groups and opposition parties fear could re-ignite religious violence in the sensitive state," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Army troops killed at least four Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf rebels Monday after stumbling on their camp in the southern Philippines," reported the AP news agency.
"Malaysian PM Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad has urged world leaders to pressure Israel into stopping its attacks on the headquarters of besieged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, following an urgent SOS telephone call from him," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"Thousands of Palestinians, many defying military curfews, poured into West Bank and Gaza streets yesterday to protest Israel’s assault on Yasser Arafat’s headquarters, and four demonstrators were killed by army fire. In the battered compound, Israel threatened several times over loudspeakers to blow up the building where Arafat is holed up – the only one left standing – unless wanted men inside surrendered," reported the AP news agency.
"Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has called on Arab and Muslim states to firmly reject any military attack on Iraq, newspapers said yesterday. They quoted Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Sulman al-Khalifa as saying Iraq’s offer to accept the return of UN arms inspectors to search for weapons of mass destruction had removed any reasons to continue threats against it," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel was pressured by the United States during the Gulf War not to rock an Arab coalition that supported the US-led military campaign to oust Iraqi invasion forces. But The White House has been told by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that his government plans to retaliate if Iraq attacks Israel," reported The New York Times newspaper.
"Abu Salem, India’s most-wanted gangster who was arrested in Portugal last week, has links with terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network," reported the AFP news service.
"A US expert on terrorism reinforced warnings yesterday that Australia should be on the alert for a terrorist attack, saying it is vulnerable as a part of the global economy," reported the AP news agency.
"The president of the US-based Terrorism Research Centre Matthew Devost said it was more attractive to terrorists to act against the United States but attacks could occur where they thought they would have the highest likelihood of success," reported the AFP news service.
"A Muslim leader has warned the United States against trying various propaganda tricks that could cause a backlash among moderates in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, local media said yesterday," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Around 12 members of a group thought linked to al-Qaeda have fled Singapore and are hiding out in other Southeast Asian countries," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli troops armed with tanks and helicopters stormed into Gaza City early Tuesday, sparking violent clashes with Palestinian gunmen that left three Palestinians dead and 20 injured," reported the AP news agency.
"Kashmiris faced the chilling prospect Tuesday of voting at polls inside sandbagged bunkers attacked hours earlier with grenades and gunfire by militants intent on disrupting state elections. Militants say the polls are rigged in favor of the state's pro-India ruling party, the National Conference, and fear the elections will undermine their claims to represent the separatist aspirations of Kashmiris," reported the AP news agency.
"Malaysia and France have warned that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and any US military action against Iraq threaten to undermine the fight against terrorism. Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said yesterday that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad and President Jacques Chirac agreed at their bilateral talks a peaceful resolution of both issues through the UN was paramount," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"President George W. Bush can count on broad support from the US Congress as he mulls over plans for attacking Iraq regardless of what the United Nations decides, key lawmakers said on Sunday, while defiant Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein picked up backing from Shiite religious leaders," reported the AP news agency.
"A senior Catholic nun accused of abusing children in an orphanage here during the 1940s and 1950s has been told she has no case to answer, her order said yesterday. However, the Sisters of Nazareth order said it was making ex-gratia payments worth more than A$1mil to some of the alleged victims and apologised to them," reported the AFP news service.
"Siamese twins were recently born in Iraq, the first such case in the country which has been suffering from a lack of proper medical care due to the 12-year-old international embargo, hospital sources said on Sunday," reported the AFP news service.
"A grenade exploded in a car outside a US embassy warehouse in the centre of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta yesterday in a botched attack that killed one of the vehicle’s occupants. The incident came at a time of heightened security at US embassies worldwide following what Washington called credible terrorist threats marking the anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington," reported the Asia News Network.
"US troops searching women in Afghanistan have found weapons and other items concealed under traditional garments known as burqas, a US military spokeswoman said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"Israeli troops pressed on with their siege of Yasser Arafat’s West Bank headquarters yesterday after halting demolition of his presidential complex following US criticism," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A federal judge declared the federal death penalty law unconstitutional in a ruling defense lawyers said could provide a new argument for challenging capital cases across the country. U.S. District Judge William Sessions said Tuesday that recent cases, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found juries and not judges must hand out death sentences, have rendered existing death-penalty law unusable," reported the AP news agency.
"An American nurse says her arrest and detention, along with a British woman, in Indonesia's violence-torn Aceh province has been an ordeal marked by punches to the stomach, sexual harassment, jeers and marathon interrogations. Maj. Taufik Sugiono, an Aceh police spokesman, said that in conflict zones, soldiers sometimes take strong actions and acknowledged it was possible a knife was brandished during the arrest. However, he denied that any beatings or sexual advances took place," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli troops backed by dozens of tanks raided Gaza City early yesterday in the deepest incursion yet into the Palestinians’ largest metropolis, killing nine Palestinians in gun battles in crowded neighbourhoods. Soldiers destroyed 13 workshops where the army said crude rockets were being made, and blew up the family house of Hamas militiaman who killed five Israeli teen-agers in shooting rampage in a Jewish settlement in Gaza earlier this year," reported the AP news agency.
"Democratic Representative John Spratt, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, who spearheaded a study made public on Monday, said if US allies refuse to back the proposed operation, any new military action against Iraq would have a much larger impact on the budget than did the Persian Gulf War. The congressional study has concluded that a military invasion of Iraq to topple the government of President Saddam Hussein could cost the United States up to US$200bil, if it takes longer than two months and negatively affects the global economy. But given the ballooning US budget deficit, the administration of President George W. Bush will have to borrow these funds on the open market and pay interest," reported the AFP news service.
"Britain issued a long-awaited dossier yesterday saying Iraq had the military planning to launch a weapon of mass destruction at 45 minutes’ notice – a charge immediately dismissed as baseless in Baghdad. Culture Minister Hamed Yousif Hummadi told reporters Mr Blair is acting as part of the Zionist (Israeli) campaign against Iraq and all his claims are baseless," reported the Reuters news agency.
"German relations sank to perhaps their lowest point in decades on Monday as American leaders groused over Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s opposition to US policy on Iraq and a top German official’s comparison of President George W. Bush’s tactics to those of Adolf Hitler. While officials in Washington grumbled over the quick deterioration in relations with one of the closest US allies, Schroeder showed eagerness to restore the German-American link to a more normal footing," reported the AP news agency.
"Iraq’s unprecedented promise to open all arms sites to inspections and rebuttal of British charges about the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction did nothing to dissuade Washington against swift military action. Iraq’s unprecedented promise to open all arms sites to inspections and rebuttal of British charges about the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction did nothing to dissuade Washington against swift military action. Baghdad, answering calls for total access after agreeing last week to allow UN weapons experts to return to the country without conditions, announced that all doors would be open. Unfettered access to suspected weapons sites would include those listed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a dossier he published on Tuesday in a bid to bolster the US case to oust President Saddam Hussein," reported the AFP news service.
"Israel stood defiant yesterday in the face of US pressure to comply with a UN resolution demanding an end to its siege of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s battered West Bank compound. Washington, which has rarely gone public with criticism of Israel, is seeking to calm the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to avoid inflaming the Arab world amid preparations for a possible US military strike on Iraq. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government withheld official response to the US request, but senior Israeli diplomatic sources said Israel had no intention of complying, asserting that the first interest of Israel is to protect the safety of her citizens and not to comply with the kind of anti-Israeli decisions made at the UN almost traditionally," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The State Department has cleared a backlog of 10,000 visa applications, most from Muslim countries, that were delayed for months by investigations into possible terrorism connections," reported the AP news agency.
"A German scientist who caused a storm of protest with an exhibition of flayed human corpses is now looking for someone he can cut up and recreate as a new improved person. Gunther von Hagens, whose Body Worlds exhibition was slammed by critics as a sick freak show when it opened in London in March, said this person will be a landmark human being," reported the Reuters news agency.
"French and US troops moved yesterday to safeguard Westerners trapped in Ivory Coast’s deadliest-ever military uprising. With less hope of rescue, residents of two besieged cities cowered in homes awaiting a final battle. Yesterday, some 200 protesters threw stones at the French Embassy, demanding it turn over an opposition leader with a northern, Muslim base of support who is being sheltered by the mission. They then marched on the embassy of Burkina Faso, scaling the walls to pull down and tear up the country's flag," reported the AP news agency.
"Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair are a first step to repairing damaged relations with the United States, senior German government figures said yesterday. Karsten Voigt, Berlin’s coordinator on US relations, likened the state of affairs to a lovers’ tiff and said he was confident they could be restored. Schroeder’s categorical refusal to join a strike on Iraq, even with a UN mandate, infuriated US President George W. Bush, who was then further angered by an alleged remark by a German minister comparing his tactics over Baghdad to those used by Adolf Hitler. Voigt said he understood why Bush had not yet congratulated Schroeder on his election victory," reported the AFP news service.
"Eleanor Hill, staff director of the joint inquiry into Sept 11 intelligence failures, said at a hearing that the commonly-held view at the FBI prior to Sept 11 was that Osama needed pilots to operate aircraft he had purchased in the United States to move men and material. The reference to Osama buying aircraft in the United States, buried in the middle of her testimony, was left unexplained and congressional officials said they could not go beyond the unclassified report," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Indian troops stormed a temple complex yesterday, killing two young gunmen who had burst into the building and massacred 28 men, women and children. India blamed Pakistan for the attack which it said was carried out by the gunmen apparently bent on avenging Muslim deaths in communal riots in western Gujarat state earlier this year. Islamabad denied any involvement in the temple raid. Police tightened security across the country in case of further attacks and to head off the risk of communal violence," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The time has come for the United Nations to stop merely making statements on Israel and to instead do something to get the country to comply with international laws and UN resolutions, Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said. He said Israel was defiant in ignoring the UN resolution demanding an end to its siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"An influential array of former prime ministers and military commanders yesterday demanded Australia refrain from taking part in any US-led campaign in Iraq that does not have the backing of the United Nations. In a letter to local newspapers, the group, which included former prime ministers Bob Hawke and Malcolm Fraser and former defence force chief Gen Peter Gration, said taking part in any unilateral US action threatened the security of Australia," reported the Reuters news agency
"The Iranian government reacted angrily yesterday to US claims that a suspected Al-Qaeda training camp had been detected near its border with Afghanistan," reported the AFP news service.
"The United States and Britain have made considerable progress in drafting a tough new UN resolution on Iraq and are ready to present specific language to the other members of the UN Security Council, a senior State Department official said yesterday," reported the news Agencies.
"A top Bush administration official charged on Wednesday that Iraq provided some training in chemical weapons development to members of the al-Qaeda organisation blamed for the Sept 11 attacks. In a ratcheting up of the pressure against Iraq, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the information was obtained from some high-ranking detainees from the al-Qaeda organisation captured in the war on terrorism," reported the AP news agency.
"Britain’s dossier charging Iraq with developing weapons of mass destruction pushed world leaders closer to a showdown on Wednesday, with hawks saying it proved the need to confront Baghdad and doves scrambling to avoid war. Two key United Nations Security Council permanent members remained unconvinced. Russia dismissed a “propaganda furore” surrounding the British report, and France said it still had not seen proof to back the allegations. Germany also was unimpressed," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel yesterday defended its week-long siege of Yasser Arafat’s headquarters against world criticism, saying it was preventing Palestinian escalation of violence planned in anticipation of a US war with Iraq," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday pressed international donors to speed along reconstruction aid to Afghanistan and consider sending even more money to Kabul over the next five years," reported the AP news agency.
"Senior officials from 60 governments, organisations and multilateral banks were to meet here yesterday to try to speed up rebuilding Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban last year. A more political aim is to try to show that the world has not lost interest in Afghanistan, where US forces last year drove the Taliban rulers out of power and paved the way for the weak pro-American government of President Hamid Karzai. The United States will not make new pledges to Afghanistan at the meeting, despite Afghans’ complaints that they need more visible reconstruction projects to provide labour and to show the Afghan people that overthrowing the Taliban was worth it," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Britain’s Prince William – one of the world’s most private public figures – is portrayed in a new TV movie as a hell-raising teen who breaks into Buckingham Palace wine cellars and complains he can’t kiss a girl without being watched by the whole world. But news of the film has raised eyebrows in Britain where the privacy of the young prince is protected under strict media guidelines introduced after the death of Diana during a chase with paparazzi. The film, shot in Ireland with a cast of talented but little-known British actors, is unlikely to be seen in Britain because of legal issues," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A senior Catholic nun accused of abusing children in the orphanage she ran in Brisbane in the 1940s and 1950s yesterday defended her actions as those of a disciplinarian. The victims allege they were raped by nuns and priests, forced to eat faeces, vomit and rotting fish while under their care," reported the AFP news service.
"They allegedly plotted to bomb the U.S. Embassy and to attack a pub popular with Americans in Singapore. But the government says 31 suspects thought linked to al-Qaida are just average Singaporeans led astray by militant Islamic preachers. Singapore's Muslim organizations, mindful of the government's strict anti-subversion laws, have made no open criticism about the arrests. But opposition parties and rights activists have urged the government to ease the Malay community's fears by bringing the men to trial, rather then keeping them indefinitely detained," reported the AP news agency.
"Several suspected members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) are believed to be directly linked, not just to al-Qaeda but to the Sept 11 hijackers, Singaporean Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said," reported the Asia News Network.
"Indian troops in trucks patrolled this city yesterday while thousands of other soldiers remained on standby to deter communal violence after two gunmen massacred worshippers in a temple. Elsewhere in India, hardline Hindu groups held demonstrations across India to protest against Tuesday’s Akshardham Temple massacre in which 28 worshippers died in Gandhinagar, capital of the western state of Gujarat," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A German television network said on Thursday it had made a scientific study of 450 photographs of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and concluded there are at least three doubles posing as the Iraqi president. The ZDF public television network, working with a German coroner, said it took the photographs and film clips of Saddam which it had in its archives and used facial recognition technology to determine that men said to be him were lookalikes," reported the Reuters news agency.
"France remains opposed to any UN resolution on Iraq that provides for the automatic use of military force if Baghdad fails to co-operate with UN demands, President Jacques Chirac told US counterpart George W. Bush yesterday. Chirac’s statement came as US Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman was in Paris trying to convince French officials to accept a tough new UN Security Council resolution that would threaten Iraq with a possible military strike in case of non-compliance," reported the news Agencies.
"The US military, meanwhile, said in a statement that allied warplanes bombed two Iraqi surface-to-air missile sites southeast of Baghdad late Thursday, the second air strike in a day. The US Central Command said the bombing was in response to what it called Iraqi hostile acts against coalition aircraft," reported the news Agencies.
"The United States intensified its campaign for a tough UN resolution against Iraq by dispatching a senior official to France and Russia, both wary of giving Washington a green light for military action. France, Russia and China, all permanent members of the Security Council with veto power, still have doubts about allowing the United States to decide when to launch a military strike and appear to be devising a joint response," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A second man has been arrested in an alleged plot to attack Islamic centres in Florida, US officials said on Thursday. Samuel Valiant Shannahan of Dunedin, near Tampa, was arrested on Wednesday by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and charged with illegally transferring five weapons to Robert Goldstein, the US Attorney’s Office in Tampa said in a complaint. ATF agents said Goldstein, 37, had more than 15 explosives, several automatic weapons and a list of 50 Islamic centres in Florida in his home located near St Petersburg," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel said yesterday a Hamas militant who tops its most-wanted list survived a helicopter attack on his car in Gaza City, a strike that revived criticism of tactics Israel says are necessary to stop suicide bombings," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Ecstasy, the popular club drug favoured by young party-goers, may damage the same brain cells hurt in Parkinson’s disease, US researchers said on Thursday. Their finding adds to fears that users of the drug, often teenagers or young adults attracted by the euphoria it induces, may be doing long-term damage to their brains," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Tropical Storm Isidore weakened as it pushed inland through Mississippi on Thursday after inundating south-eastern Louisiana with torrential rains and a tidal surge that battered the central US Gulf Coast," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Police detained a dozen students yesterday after they rallied at the US Embassy to demand an official apology for the deaths of two Korean teenagers struck and killed by a US military vehicle in June. The students carried a banner and shouted slogans that called on US President George W. Bush to apologise for the deaths of the 14-year-old teenage girls killed on June 13 when they were run over by a US armoured vehicle on a training mission," reported the AP news agency.
