"The Miss World pageant was cancelled in Nigeria after religious rioting triggered by the contest and a newspaper’s reference to the beauty contest and the Prophet Muhammad. Organisers moved the event yesterday to London," reported the news Agencies.
"Confusion persists within the Baghdad government over how to meet the UN Security Council’s demand for a complete account of all chemical, biological and nuclear programmes in Iraq, even if not weapons-related, a UN spokesman said on Friday. That report is due just 11 days after international experts resume their inspections of Iraqi sites next week – after a four-year suspension – in search of storage or production facilities for weapons of mass destruction. The Iraqis say they no longer have such weapons programmes," reported the AP news agency.
"A 4,000-word letter, purportedly from Osama bin Laden, is being circulated on the Internet containing threats of attacks on civilian targets, the Observer newspaper reported yesterday. The Observer said much of the letter comprised a lengthy list of grievances against the West, and included criticism by Osama of the immorality of the West. The newspaper said there was no way to confirm the letter’s authenticity," reported the AFP news service.
"Australian announced plans yesterday to launch an advertising campaign telling people how to spot terrorists, prompting warnings that it could whip up public hysteria and encourage racial stereotyping. Prime Minister John Howard said the unprecedented television advertisements would be launched in time for the Christmas holidays, reinforcing the need to be alert to terrorist threats. Howard said Australians had to get used to the fact that there may be terrorists amongst them, although they should not allow it to change the way they went about their lives," reported the AFP news service.
"Several groups of Jewish youths went on a rampage on Saturday, damaging Israeli Arab property in Jerusalem, and stabbing an Arab student in the back following a deadly suicide attack on Thursday which left 11 Israelis dead," reported the AFP news service.
"The Israeli army admitted its forces killed a UN official, saying they mistook an object he was holding in his hand for a weapon during a heated battle with Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp. But McCann said the agency’s own initial inquiry found that this (Israeli) report of firing from the compound is totally incredible. He said an investigator would arrive from New York to begin a UN investigation into the incident. The United Nations has officially accused Israeli forces of delaying an ambulance summoned to evacuate Hook. The army said a military ambulance was sent to the Briton’s aid but that when it arrived he was already dead," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Nigerian government lashed out at the international media and one of the country’s national newspapers yesterday, accusing them of a conspiracy to sabotage the Miss World beauty pageant. Miss World contestants and organisers flew out of Nigeria early yesterday after two days of rioting fuelled by Muslim opposition to the contest, which was initially triggered by an article in a Nigerian daily," reported the AFP news service.
"Firefighters manned picket lines across Britain yesterday as an increasingly bitter strike went into its third day, forcing soldiers to assume duties of firemen rather than prepare for a possible war against Iraq. The dispute has quickly escalated into one of the biggest tests of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s rule and has revived memories of the 1978-79 “Winter of Discontent” when union militancy brought down a previous Labour government," reported the Reuters news agency.
"In another display of its immunity to bad news, Wall Street moved higher Monday despite the prospect of disappointing sales at Wal-Mart and Federated Department Stores. Analysts credit the market's resilience to investors' rising confidence that earnings and the economy are strengthening. That optimism has been evident in nearly two months of rallies with the strongest gains seen in the long-battered tech sector," reported the AP news agency.
"UN experts arrived in Baghdad yesterday to begin the first inspections of suspected Iraqi weapons sites in nearly four years, backed by a tough new UN mandate which threatens Iraq with war if it fails to co-operate. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on Iraq to co-operate fully with the weapons inspectors, saying it was the only way to avoid war," reported the AFP news service.
"The United Nations voiced anger on Sunday over Israel’s killing of a UN official in the West Bank, as Israel pressed ahead with military operations against Palestinians it says are behind suicide bombings. The Israeli army admitted its forces killed Iain Hook, a British UNRWA official killed on Friday during a skirmish with Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp, saying troops mistook an object he was holding in his hand for a weapon. But a UN official challenged Israel’s contention that Palestinians had fired at soldiers from the compound," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Miss World contest may have flown from one storm straight into the eye of another. Leading British feminists and academics reacted yesterday with disgust at the agreement to host the increasingly disaster-prone competition in London. Broadcaster Joan Bakewell described the beauty pageant as marginal and not of much interest to Britons, anyway. She added: what is interesting is how the feminist argument, the exploitation of the female body, is shared by the Muslim fundamentalists in Nigeria," reported the Guardian Newspaper.
"South Korean radicals threw petrol bombs at a US military facility here yesterday in protest at the release of two US soldiers accused of killing two school girls in a traffic accident. The attacks came after two US soldiers were cleared in court martials last week at Camp Casey, north of Seoul. They were accused of negligent homicide in the deaths of 14-year-olds Shim Mi-Son and Shin Hyon-Sun, who were crushed to death in a road accident on June 13," reported the AFP news service.
"Security forces ended a siege by suspected militants of two Hindu temples in Indian Kashmir yesterday after the bloodiest weekend since a new state government took power vowing to bring peace to the region. Police chief A.K told reporters a caller who said he was from the banned Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba had telephoned him claiming responsibility and threatening more such attacks. Sheikh Jameel-ur Rehman, secretary-general of the United Jihad Council, an alliance of Kashmiri militant groups fighting to end Indian rule in Kashmir, however said that such attacks do not serve their cause....The code of conduct set for the mujahideen groups by the alliance does not permit any attack against a place of worship...belonging to any religion," reported the Reuters news agency.
"An Indian medical scholar is defending the honour of his countrymen when it comes to urination, arguing the traditional squat method is more healthy than the Western inclination to stand. Ambar Chakravorty, a nerve expert at the Vivekananda Institute of Medical Sciences in Calcutta, said during urination, the blood in the body has the tendency to flow downwards and that is why those urinating while sitting usually avoid blood shortage to the brain. Many men have complained of darkness ahead of the eyes while urinating and dizziness. This is because blood vessels are not reaching the brain. They should adopt urinating in sitting mode," reported the AFP news service.
"United Nations weapons inspectors prepared yesterday to launch their crucial mission in Iraq, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Baghdad the only way to avoid war was to co-operate with them. Looking for nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, the group of inspectors was due today to begin its first search in four years in Iraq, which US President George W. Bush has threatened with war if it does not disarm," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A mainly Muslim state in northern Nigria has pronounced a fatwa urging believers to kill the author of an article on the Miss World pageant which was seen as insulting to the Prophet Mohammed, a state spokesman said yesterday. Zamfara State information commissioner Umar Dangaladima said the fatwa, an Islamic religious decree, had been confirmed against fashion writer Isioma Daniel, whose article sparked three days of bloody sectarian riots. Nigeria’s federal government, however, rejected the decree by Zamfara State and promised it would never be enforced," reported the AFP news sevice.
"Federal prosecutors unveiled on Monday what they believed was the largest US case of identity fraud, involving more than 30,000 victims who had their credit history stolen and savings looted. Three men have been arrested in the three-year nationwide scam, said US Attorney for the southern district of New York James Comey," reported the AFP news sevice.
"Dozens of activists broke into a US military base yesterday to protest against last week’s acquittals of two American soldiers involved in the deaths of two Korean girls. Some 50 protesters entered Camp Red Cloud, north of here, by cutting through a wire fence on a hillside, said Lt Col Steven Boylan, a spokesman for the 8th US Army," reported the AP news agency.
"DNA evidence has cleared the Washington-area sniper suspects of any connection to the serial killings of three Baton Rouge women. Samples taken from John Muhammad and his teenage companion John Lee Malvo did not match DNA left behind in the three murders," reported the AP news agency.
"Australia has closed its embassy in the Philippines and placed round-the-clock security on national icons including Sydney's Opera House and Harbor Bridge amid heightened terrorist threats. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he ordered the closure of the embassy in Manila after receiving an intelligence report Wednesday night," reported the AP news agency.
"Henry Kissinger, who conducted U.S. diplomacy for two presidents during a war in Vietnam, tensions with the Soviet Union and upheaval in the Middle East, brings an incisive mind and a prickly personality to the new task assigned him by President George W. Bush. Now Bush has asked Kissinger to lead an independent investigation of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, hoping to answer many of the lingering mysteries about that day, including the possibility that the tragedy could have been averted if intelligence agencies had been more alert," reported the AP news agency.
"An international roundtable comprising 24 world-renowned academics, theologians and activists in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has voiced its concern about the likelihood of war in Iraq. The guest speakers included Indonesia Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Prof Cecep Syarifuddin, Baylor University’s American and Jewish Studies Prof Marc Ellis, and McGill University Comparative Religion Professor Arvind Sharma," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"UN arms inspectors said yesterday that co-operation provided by Iraqi authorities on the first day of resumed inspections for weapons of mass destruction was a good sign. Meanwhile, an Iraqi civil defence official said Western planes flew over here yesterday, setting off air raid sirens in the Iraqi capital but launching no attacks. US and British military spokesmen quickly denied there had been any British or US activity over Baghdad," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Israeli army killed two senior Palestinian militants in a missile attack early yesterday, sparking furious Palestinian reactions, as the army continued to pound the occupied territories with a helicopter raid on the Gaza Strip. Another Palestinian was killed by troops in Nablus, and a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up near a military post in the northern Gaza Strip, causing no other deaths or injuries. An anonymous Fatah official said afterwards From this time onwards there is no agreement to stop the suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. From now, all agreements will stop," reported the AFP news sevice.
"US President George W. Bush has apologised to the South Korean people for the death of two schoolgirls killed by American soldiers in a traffic accident. Activists have staged regular protests outside US military installations since the deaths of the two 14-year-old girls, burning American flags and scuffling with riot police," reported the AFP news sevice.
"A strike by French air traffic controllers, part of nationwide protests by public workers, forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in and out of France on Tuesday, creating havoc for travellers across Europe. The air controllers joined postal workers, bus, subway and train drivers, hospital workers, and electricity and telephone utility staff in the strike over pay, retirement benefits and the French government's privatisation plans," reported the AP news agency.
"Saudi princess Haifa al-Faisal said she was outraged that her donation to a needy woman was linked to the Sept 11 terrorists, in an interview published yesterday in The New York Times. She said she made her contributions in response to a letter from a Jordanian wife of a Saudi citizen who needed surgery. She said the contribution was one of many she made every year to needy Saudis," reported the AFP news sevice.
"The Nigerian journalist who faces an Islamic death sentence over comments in an article about the Miss World pageant has left the country. Isioma Daniel's story in This Day newspaper spawned Muslim anger for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad and sparked violent riots that left at least 215 people dead. Daniel fled to the United States last week," reported the dpa news agency.
"A mentally disturbed man claiming to be a member of al-Qaeda was arrested yesterday after hijacking a plane flying to France from Italy with more than 60 people on board. Stefano Savorani, an Italian former policeman aged 29, said to have attempted several other hijackings, approached the pilot with a box-like object he claimed was the remote control for a bomb. Paris police spokesman Gerard Laurent said Savorani claimed to be a member of al-Qaeda, but he did not have all his faculties," reported the AFP news sevice.
"Hungry sharks are venturing tens of kilometres up Australian rivers as drought reduces fresh water levels, forcing schools to warn children not to cool off in the local river. Australia is in the grips of one of its worst droughts in 100 years," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The latest audiotape statement attributed to Osama bin Laden is not authentic, according to a report by a Swiss research institute aired on French television late Thursday. The Lausanne-based Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence, IDIAP, said it was 95 percent certain the tape does not feature the voice of the long-absent terrorist leader," reported the AP news agency.
"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon charged that Palestinian terrorists are trying to influence the Israeli electoral process, in a victory speech early Friday after handily winning a primary election. Early returns showed that Sharon defeated his rival, ex-premier and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, by more than 20 percent, to lead the Likud Party into a national election set for Jan. 28," reported the AP news agency.
"Prof Joseph A. Camilleri, an international relations professor from Australia’s La Trobe University in Melbourne, who has published several books, said the United States of post-Sept 11 is much weaker than most of the world understands, even judging that the present apparently very self-confident American administration was not half as confident as it appears on the TV screen. Yesterday at Malaysia’s Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations in his talk, Current Trends in Global Politics and Diplomacy: An Ethical Perspective, he pointed out undoubtedly, it is the greatest superpower right now but the question is can it produce the consequences it desires and prevent the consequences it doesn’t want?," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"He added that the humiliation that Osama bin Laden dealt the US was not something even the Soviet Union could do throughout the Cold War, and that no amount of rhetoric from President George Bush could undo that fact. Camilleri said he was singularly unimpressed with the amount of support the US had in its war against terror, noting that the countries which had pledged support did so only for their own national or regional interests, and that very few would make dealing with Bush’s Axis of Evil– North Korea, Iraq and Iran – a major policy goal. He said that if the US conducted a military strike against Iraq, the bill was going to be very high for the superpower, adding that the US could be expected to de-legitimise the work of the UN inspection team presently in Iraq if it was intent on going to war," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"Three suicide car bombers blew up a hotel full of Israelis in Kenya yesterday, killing 14 people, minutes after missiles narrowly missed an Israeli airliner taking off nearby, in an apparently synchronised attack. Israeli and Kenyan officials swiftly blamed the al-Qaeda network but the previously unheard of Army of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack. Nabil Abdel-Fattah, assistant director of the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said the timing seemed to be aimed at coinciding with the Likud party leadership vote yesterday. It is to show the (Ariel) Sharon option, the Likud option, is not a solution to the Palestine problem," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Minutes before the hotel blast in Kenya, two missiles were fired at an Israeli Arkia airliner carrying 261 passengers as it took off from Mombasa’s airport. Both missiles missed the aircraft. The discovery of an empty but scorched launcher at the Saudi air base prompted the FBI to issue an intelligence alert that terrorists might try to shoot down an American commercial aircraft with shoulder-fired missiles," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel said yesterday it would track down those responsible for twin attacks on Israeli tourists in Kenya. The Mossad spy agency, which has a long record of hunting terror suspects, will lead the investigation," reported the AP news agency.
"A radical London-based cleric suspected of links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda said yesterday he strongly believed the militant network was behind the Mombasa car bomb attack. Abu Hamza al-Masri, the Egyptian-born cleric who the United States suspects of links to al-Qaeda, said he believed the attack was timed to coincide with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s battle with his rival Benjamin Netanyahu for the Likud party leadership. These two have been very hard on the Palestinians. The Kenya attack was a message to the Israeli people that if they elect either of these hardliners in the next election they will be hit like this all over the place," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire yesterday on a Likud Party office crowded with voters casting ballots in a leadership race and also attacked passengers at a nearby bus terminal. Five Israelis were killed and dozens wounded in the attack in the northern town of Beit Shean. The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility. The Al Aqsa militia said two attackers opened fire in Beit Shean to avenge the deaths of two militia leaders in an explosion in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin earlier in the week. The militia has blamed Israel for the deaths, though Israel denied involvement," reported the AP news agency.
"The 300,000 members of Israel’s Likud party started casting their ballots early yesterday to elect their leader for the Jan 28 general election, with polls predicting a crushing victory for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The winner will lead the right-wing party to the Jan 28 general election and most likely become the country’s next prime minister, since opinion polls have shown that either of the two right-wing rivals would beat the Labour party’s new dovish leader, Amram Mitzna," reported the AFP news service.
"A prominent Pakistani doctor, Dr Amer Aziz, who was recently released after being held incommunicado and interrogated for a month by FBI and CIA agents, said he treated Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders before and after the Sept 11 attacks, describing the terrorist mastermind as in excellent health and showing no signs of the kidney failure that he is widely reported to suffer from. Dr Aziz said he met Osama twice. Once he met Osama, he was stunned as the most wanted man in the world....seemed so calm," reported the AP news agency.
"Tension ran high in the port city of Antwerp on Wednesday after a Belgian shot dead a young Arab, triggering riots in the immigrant area of Belgium’s second city – a stronghold of the extreme right. Riot police were deployed near a mosque where some 200 young immigrants gathered for a second day of protests at the shooting of Mohammed Achrak, a 27-year-old Arab, as the authorities sought to play down the political implications," reported the AP news agency.
"US President George W. Bush appointed Henry Kissinger on Wednesday to lead an independent investigation of the government’s failure to prevent the Sept 11 attacks, instructing the former secretary of state to follow all the facts wherever they lead. But critics blasted the choice, citing Kissinger’s hotly contested record during the Vietnam War and a US-abetted coup in Chile. Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists Kissinger is not distinguished as an impartial judge of government misconduct, to put it mildly. To the contrary, he is an investigatee, not an investigator, and one who has stubbornly resisted the disclosure of official information to members of Congress, courts of law, private researchers, and others," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A convoy of four cars carrying inspectors left the UN headquarters on the south-eastern outskirts of Baghdad and drove to the government-run laboratory in the Dora area south of the capital. Another team drove to the Nasr (Victory) complex in the Taji area, some 25km north of here, where there are factories producing light conventional ammunition and heavy civilian machinery. Both teams, who were accompanied by Iraqi officials, were swiftly allowed into the facilities. The two facilities had been mentioned by the United States in recent months as sites suspected of producing banned weapons," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Some restaurants and pubs in South Korea’s capital are refusing to serve Americans following the acquittals of two American soldiers in the road deaths of two South Korean girls," reported the AP news agency.
"Marc Ellis, Professor of Jewish and Merican Studies of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has come out strongly against the actions of the Israeli government and the support the United States is giving to the Jewish state in the Palestinian issue, saying that their actions are wrong," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"Kenyan police said they were holding a dozen people yesterday over the attacks on Israelis which killed 15 people, after Israel vowed to hunt down all those behind the Mombasa bloodbath," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Israeli army demolished yesterday the houses of two Palestinian militants who gunned down six Israelis at a polling station in the north of Israel. Troops also arrested eight of their brothers," reported the AFP news service.
"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won his Likud party’s leadership election on Thursday, defeating the hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu in a vote overshadowed by deadly attacks on Israelis in Kenya and northern Israel. Sharon’s victory was a first step towards keeping the prime minister’s post in a Jan 28 general election. It was also a sharp blow for Netanyahu, whose hopes of returning from the political wilderness in a blaze of glory fizzled at the ballot box," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Nigeria’s supreme Islamic body ordered Muslims to ignore a fatwa issued by a northern state calling for the death of a journalist whose article on the Miss World pageant sparked bloody riots. The Jama’atu Nasril Islam circulated its order a day after Christian leaders vowed their followers would defend themselves by any means available after the sectarian clashes in this city killed more than 200 people," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Times quoted Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal yesterday as saying some Saudi investors would panic and sell US investments because Saudi Arabia was portrayed by some western media as not co-operating with the United States in its war on terror," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Philippines yesterday created a special police squad to protect embassies but hit out at Australia and Canada for closing their missions here without warning for alleged terror threats," reported the Reuters news agency.
