"The United States should seek a meeting rather than confrontation with North Korea, diplomats and analysts said worldwide. Some said Washington helped trigger the crisis by accusing Pyongyang of comprising part of a global axis of evil, along with Iran and Iraq. Politicians around the world have condemned North Korea’s actions, but some also have expressed alarm at US rhetoric, including Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld’s recent assertion that the United States has the military strength to wage war against Iraq and North Korea at the same time. That view was echoed by former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, saying the American and international reaction has to rely less on rhetoric and more on traditional, sensitive diplomacy," reported the AP news agency.
"Russian rescue and salvage teams searched for survivors from the debris of the Chechen Government headquarters in Grozny after a suicide bomb attack destroyed the building, killing at least 40 people and injuring 152. Chechen rebels consider the pro-Russian administration as traitors and have killed several of its representatives since Russian poured troops into the republic in 1999 to put down a separatist insurgency," reported the AFP news service.
"Chechen rebels consider the pro-Russian administration as traitors and have killed several of its representatives since Russian poured troops into the republic in 1999 to put down a separatist insurgency," reported the AFP news service.
"Preparing for an Iraq without President Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration is drawing up plans to secure key cities, reopen schools and hospitals and use Iraqi oil revenue for reconstruction after a possible US-led invasion. The Bush administration is under pressure to come up with post-invasion plans as quickly as possible. Some US officials have advocated seizing control of key Iraqi oil production facilities for security purposes and to avert major oil market disruptions, but that proposal has come under fire from others in the administration and outside experts who fear a backlash from Arab allies in the region," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Iraq delivered a list to United Nations officials yesterday naming over 500 scientists who have worked on nuclear, chemical, biological and missile programmes. Before receiving the list, UN weapons inspectors had been speaking to engineers and experts at sites they have searched, and made their first request to interview a scientist privately on Tuesday," reported the AP news agency.
"A cloning company whose leader believes space aliens launched life on Earth made a splash by claiming it had created the first cloned human. Now comes the wait for proof. Cloning experts have said they need to see DNA matching - like the kind used in criminal cases - done by independent experts before they believed Clonaid’s claims," reported the AP news agency.
"Strong winds blasted coastal Oregon and Washington state on Friday, knocking out power to more than 200,000 homes and businesses and claiming at least one life as it moved inland. A winter storm with winds gusting as high as 112kph toppled trees and snapped power lines from southwest Oregon to the Seattle area as utility crews scrambled to restore service to customers and braced for more outages," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The United States has sent the first of what is expected to be a 1,000-strong force to Israel to bolster its defences against missile attacks in the event of a war in Iraq. The soldiers and a number of Patriot missile batteries are being sent in the light of Ariel Sharon’s threat to retaliate if Israel is attacked with chemical or biological weapons. Critics of his government accuse Sharon of overstating the threat to Israel... . They say this is intended to distract public attention from a deepening political corruption scandal before the general election next month. They express their scepticism in private, for fear of being accused of undermining national security, but they scoff at the prime minister’s claim of a greater threat to Israel than during the last Gulf war. US and British diplomats are also sceptical of the claim," reported the dpa news agency.
"A booby-trapped car exploded early yesterday in the heart of west Jerusalem, injuring the would-be suicide bomber, police said hours after two Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis before being shot dead in an attack on a West Bank settlement. The operation was a clear message to the Zionist enemy that it can enjoy no security while it continues to commit massacres against the Palestinian people like that on Thursday," reported the AFP news service.
"The religious sect connected to the company claiming it has produced the first human clone is clearly unlike anything that science has grappled with. The group’s founder says he met little green space aliens on a visit to a French volcano in the 1970s. That man - a former French journalist named Claude Vorilhon, who now calls himself Rael - says the extraterrestrials told him they created life on earth through genetic engineering. Brigitte Boisselier, the chemist who made Friday’s cloning announcement, is a Raelian herself - a bishop, in fact. Experts have dismissed the notion that Clonaid is capable of producing a human clone because Boisselier does not have a track record in the field of either animal cloning or human reproduction," reported the AP news agency.
"President George W. Bush praised their homeland as a staunch ally in the war on terrorism. So Pakistanis living in the United States can’t understand why many of them will soon have to register with the government under the same programme designed to keep track of visitors from nations suspected of harbouring terrorists. Failure to do so could result in immediate deportation. But Pakistani community leaders said the alternative is not much better, citing the arrests of hundreds of Iranians who went to register earlier this month in Los Angeles," reported the AP news agency.
"An Iraq trounced into submission by U.S.-led forces could tend to splinter into three ministates, but the United States is committed to preserving it as a single nation, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said. At the same time, Powell said repeatedly on the Sunday talk shows that war is not inevitable. He said U.N. weapons inspectors, now working with U.S.-supplied intelligence information, should be given time to do their work. But if war should come, he said, the United States and its allies would win decisively," reported the AP news agency.
"Saudi Arabia would allow the United States to use its air bases and an important operations centre in a possible war with Iraq. Saudi embassy officials in Washington were not available for comment," reported the news Agencies.
"Britain is considering legislation that would enable the security forces to forcibly evacuate or quarantine large parts of this and other cities in the event of a catastrophic terrorist attack," reported the AFP news service.
"Australia launched a nationwide counter-terrorism advertising campaign yesterday, warning people to be alert and to report suspicious behaviour to a national security hotline. Islamic Council of Victoria President Yasser Solimon argued the government should punish people who make false reports, saying here should be some guidelines for reporting and also warnings for malicious reporting that those who falsely report things should be dealt with severely by the law as well," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Six Saudi Islamic charities have decided to contest a lawsuit filed by relatives of September 11, 2001 attacks seeking trillions of dollars in damages, their lawyer said on Sunday. The names of the charities appeared on a list along with several dozen individuals, fund-raising charities and other organisations accused of funding terrorism," reported the AFP news service.
"Israeli soldiers shot dead an 11-year-old boy in the West Bank yesterday, the second Palestinian child killed by Israeli gunfire in two days. With world attention focused on possible US war on Iraq, Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged since Israeli forces killed eight Palestinians in operations against militants in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Thursday," reported the Reuters news agency.
"An internal White House document outlining President George W. Bush’s re-election agenda starts with War on terrorism (Con’t) and homeland security. There is no further elaboration, but the abbreviation for continued also is noted with the next four issues: health care costs and access; legal reform, faith-based services and education. Higher education, Social Security reform, tax reform and immigration reform round out the list," reported the AP news agency.
"Russian politicians have vowed to press ahead with the Kremlin’s peace plan for rebel Chechnya, a day after a bomb attack killed 55 people at the pro-Moscow government headquarters in the region. Moscow has faced international criticism of its military campaign in Chechnya, which it depicts as part of a global war on terror," reported the Reuters news agency.
"North Korea warned yesterday that confrontation with the United States was inevitable as tensions escalated over its decision to expel United Nations monitors from a controversial nuclear site. Inevitable is the confrontation with the imperialists as long as they do not abandon the aggressive and predatory nature, said a commentary in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling communist party. The accusation coincided with an anti-US rally in Pyongyang by some 10,000 people who called for sacred anti-US resistance," reported the AFP news service.
"Terrorists are planning imminent attacks on a range of targets, including churches and hotels, in four Indonesian cities, the Canadian embassy in Jakarta has warned. Canadians already in Indonesia are also urged to consider leaving the country if their presence is not essential," reported the AFP news service.
"In Australia, more than 1,000 people have called a new terror alert hot line since it opened two days ago. Attorney General Daryl Williams told Australian Broadcasting Corp that the majority of them have been people providing information about matters they have a concern about and people seeking a general assurance about, for example, attending a public event," reported the AP news agency.
"Americans are wary of a war with Iraq and much more likely to view Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network as threats than Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. On the domestic front, two out of three Americans believe it's prudent to hold off on more tax cuts, a centerpiece of President George W. Bush's home policy agenda. On economics, even most Republicans said it would be better to hold off on tax cuts to avoid deeper deficits. They greet the new year more cautious about their personal spending yet somewhat optimistic their financial situation will improve," reported the AP news agency.
"World oil prices have soared in recent weeks because of supply concerns stemming from the crippling of Venezuela's petroleum industry and a possible war in Iraq. A hint from Kuwait's oil minister that OPEC would consider increasing supplies if prices remained at current levels for much longer soothed energy traders Monday and cooled red-hot energy markets around the world," reported the AP news agency.
"The United States moved to reassure jittery financial markets, saying it will take special care to protect Iraqi oil fields from sabotage and destruction in case of a US-led military invasion of the country. The strategy calls for setting oil fields on fire to prevent their use by any post-Saddam government, destruction of other key economic infrastructure, and mass killings of civilians in an attempt to blame their deaths on the US military. Fears that Iraq’s oil industry could be severely damaged as a result of the war have been weighing heavily on the US stock market in the second half of the year, prompting investors to hedge their bets," reported the AFP news service.
"Saudi Arabia denied reports of a secret promise to make its airspace and bases available for use by the United States in the event of war against Iraq. Saudi Arabia was the main staging area for American forces in the 1991 Gulf war, but conflicting public statements by top Saudi officials over the past several months have cast doubt on Saudi Arabia’s assistance against Iraq," reported the AFP news service.
"At the request of the United States and Britain, the Security Council voted in favour of new restrictions on Iraqi imports yesterday in an effort to prevent Baghdad from acquiring equipment that could be used in war. But Russia and Syria abstained from the vote, arguing that it hurt deliveries of humanitarian goods to Iraq, which has been subject to international economic sanctions for more than a decade," reported the AFP news service.
"A suspected extremist shot dead three American missionary doctors and badly wounded a fourth yesterday in the first major anti-US attacks in Yemen since the sinking of the USS Cole in 2000. Two women doctors and the director of the Baptist hospital in the southern Yemeni town of Jibla died while a second male doctor was in intensive care," reported the AFP news service.
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Sunday it was hunting five men in its war on terrorism and asked the public to be on the lookout for them. The FBI displayed pictures of the men and named them as Abid Noraiz Ali, 25, Iftikhar Khozmai Ali, 21, Mustafa Khan Owasi, 33, Adil Pervez, 19, and Akbar Jamal, 28. Although the FBI has no specific information that these individuals are connected to any potential terrorist activities, based upon information developed in the course of ongoing investigations, the FBI would like to locate and question these persons," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal yesterday by reserve soldiers refusing to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but avoided making a landmark ruling on the legality of Israel’s occupation of the territories. In its ruling, the high court sidestepped the controversial issue included in a petition by eight reservists who argued they had to refuse to serve because the occupation violated international law. Founded in January, the group has since grown to 512 members. Referring to Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian land, the signatories have vowed they would not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people. In their petition to the Supreme Court, the soldiers described the occupation as the collective penalisation of the civilian population, and accused the army of committing war crimes. To return to prison is the best and most important duty a soldier in the army can perform today for Israel," reported the AP news agency.
"Israel demolished yesterday the homes of two Palestinian militants who killed four seminary students when they infiltrated a Jewish settlement last week. The army said house demolitions were carried out to deter further attacks. Palestinians and human rights groups protest such actions as collective punishment. Israel has signalled that it plans to strike even harder at militant groups behind violence against its citizens," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Egypt has invited (President Yasser Arafat’s faction) Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to try to minimise differences and agree on one, unified stance," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Thousands of people, many Westerners on holiday, will gather in public places across Asia to say goodbye to 2002 hoping to party but wary they could be the targets of similar terrorist attacks to those that have marred the past 12 months. As revellers around Asia strap on their party hats and chill their drinks to welcome in the New Year, security forces across the region are gearing up for one of their most difficult assignments," reported the AFP news service.
"South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung rejected yesterday US policy on North Korea, saying pressure and isolation were doomed to failure as the nuclear crisis deepened. Kim, who is to step down in February, said his engagement policy was the only effective way to avert a showdown over the Stalinist country’s nuclear weapons ambitions," reported the AFP news service.
"UN secretary-seneral Kofi Annan said yesterday he saw no room for a US military strike on Iraq before UN inspectors present their report on Iraqi weapons to the world body in late January. Annan also said there was no justification for Iraq to attack Israel in the event of a US-led war. Meanwhile, Iraq has protested against a US air strike which killed three Iraqis in southern Iraq, calling it a material breach to Security Council resolutions. In a letter to Annan, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri described the Dec 26 air strike as a barbaric and terrorist act, with a direct participation of the rulers of Kuwait, and it represents a material breach to the Security Council resolutions. He said US, Britain and Kuwait should be held legally responsible for such terrorist aggression," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The cost of a possible US war against Iraq will be US$50bil to US$60, less than the cost of the 1991 Gulf War and far below previous government estimates, The New York Times said yesterday. Office of Management and Budget director Mitchell Daniels said the previous estimate of the possible war of between US$100bil and US$200bil put forth in September by Lawrence Lindsey, President George Bush's chief economic adviser until his ouster earlier this month, were too high. Daniels did not provide specific cost for either a long or a short military campaign or say why his estimates were below the cost of the Gulf War Bush's father waged against Iraq in 1991," reported the AFP news service.
"Military experts say the Pentagon has developed a series of accurate and powerful new weapons, including a microwave bomb, that could be used in a war against Iraq. But they point out that it is the round-the-clock reliance on precision-guided munitions known as JDAMs and unmanned drones that is expected to make a difference in the war against the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The electromagnetic E-bomb, designed to destroy electronic nerve centres, could already be in the US arsenal, although Washington has not announced it publicly," reported the AFP news service.
"On New Year’s Eve here, children marched through the streets chanting anti-war slogans, visiting American Christians prayed for peace, and Iraq invited the chief of UN weapons inspectors to visit in hopes of averting a war that the United States and Britain threaten to wage in 2003. But the anti-war mood in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday also had a distinct anti-American tinge," repoted the AP news agency.
"Iraq urged the Arab world yesterday to take inspiration from fellow member North Korea, which has relaunched its nuclear programme in the face of stiff US criticism. Ath-Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party, said t is unacceptable that America continues to provide the Zionist entity with financial, technological and scientific support to develop its military arsenals and asks Korea, for reasons that have nothing to do with peace, to renounce its nuclear programme. US President George W. Bush voiced US hopes on Tuesday that the crises with Iraq and North Korea - which he has lumped with Iran on an axis of evil - could be resolved peacefully, but reiterated that Baghdad faced a military strike unless it eliminated weapons of mass destruction," reported the AFP news service.
"Israel’s rightist-dominated electoral commission banned MP Azmi Bishara and his Balad party late on Tuesday from running in the upcoming legislative elections, in a crackdown on Israeli Arab politicians which sparked accusations that the Jewish state was violating democratic rules," reported the AFP news service.
"Pope John Paul II opened 2003 yesterday with a fresh plea to end the fratricidal and senseless conflict in the Middle East - as well as for peace elsewhere in the world. The pope made no explicit mention then, or yesterday, of the possibility of war with Iraq, although he referred generally in his homily to the threatening tensions of the moment and the need to solve them with peaceful means," repoted the AP news agency.
"The United States stepped up security in its major ports and seaside cities late yesterday after receiving information that terrorists might be planning a maritime attack. Although the official stressed the information received was uncorroborated and of suspect credibility, the warning was expected to cast a cloud over New Year’s celebrations in port cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle that usually attract crowds of revellers," reported the AFP news service.
"The US Immigration and Naturalisation Service said on Tuesday it would require all commercial airlines to submit detailed passenger manifests before arriving or departing the United States," reported the Reuters news agency..
"Overused cliches, wordy redundancies and hyperbolic phrases including the Bushism make no mistake about it were declared banished yesterday by the university overseers of an annual list of banned words. Other favoured utterances of President George W. Bush such as material breach, weapons of mass destruction, and homeland security were the tired targets of the New Year’s Day list compiled by the public relations staff at Lake Superior State University," reported the Reuters news agency..
"Showing no willingness to ease tensions over its nuclear weapons programme, North Korea vowed yesterday to build an army-based powerful nation and defy pressure from the United States," repoted the AP news agency.
"Prime Minister Tony Blair's government relies too much on an army of spin doctors to boost its image and should communicate with journalists directly. House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin said the government's special advisers, who briefed the news media and helped present policy, were a nuisance and should be swept away. Blair's government is continually accused of being image obsessed and putting media spin ahead of real achievements. It was severely embarrassed by the disclosure that a government press adviser had recommended Sept 11 as a good day to bury any bad news," reported the AP news agency.
"A Pakistani jeweller said on Wednesday his picture is among those of five suspects who the FBI says may have entered the United States on falsified passports - even though he has never been to the United States," reported the AP news agency.
"Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, Tareq Aziz, accused Washington of planning to invade his country, regardless of what UN arms inspectors turn up, as part of a plan to control the region’s oil supplies. He said that the design is to invade Iraq, to occupy Iraq and use the national resources of Iraq for the purposes of...the American capitalist regime,” reported the Reuters news agency.
"Iraq severely criticised the UN Security Council yesterday for adopting a US-backed resolution that tightens controls on imports to Iraq, saying the measure will inflict deliberate damage and harm to the people," reported the AP news agency.
"The United States has accused two major US companies of illegally transferring intercontinental missile technology to China," reported the AFP news service.
"Nine US states have filed a lawsuit against the administration of President George W. Bush, arguing that its new environmental rules for power plants and other industrial facilities will result in dirtier air and more acid rain. New York Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer said in a statement that this action by the Bush Administration is a betrayal of the right of Americans to breathe clean, healthy air," reported the AFP news service.
"The imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti called upon the Palestinians to escalate the Intifada struggle against Israel and intensify strikes on Jewish settlers. Barghouti, who was detained in April last year in Ramallah by the Israeli army, called upon all the Palestinian people, including all the armed groups to consider the year 2003, the year of the Israeli occupation collapse," reported the dpa news agency.
"The Israeli army said it sent infantry and armour, supported by assault helicopters, into the Nusairat, Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps in Gaza city as part of its continuing battle against terrorism,” reported the Reuters news agency.
"The United States thinks Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should consider resigning and leaving Iraq but the State Department said on Thursday it was not aware of any attempt to promote such proposals," reported the Reuters news agency.
"President George W. Bush warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Thursday his day of reckoning is coming Bush said there was little evidence the Iraqi leader would disarm peacefully," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The death toll from a bitterly cold winter in Poland was nearing 200 yesterday while several other European countries faced the prospect of devastating flooding as river levels continued to rise amid heavy rain," reported the AFP news service.
"Thousands of glistening bits of toxic fuel oil lapped up on some of France's most popular beaches on Thursday, as prosecutors launched a criminal probe into a tanker whose wreckage has spawned an environmental disaster on Europe's Atlantic coast. The Society for Protection of Birds said about 170 seabirds had been found dead off the south-western Aquitaine coast," reported the AFP news service.
"The eighth largest US carrier America West Airlines will begin a three-week trial next week to find out whether passengers are prepared to pay for in-flight food that has long been the butt of jokes, ridicule and complaints. The introduction of paid-for meals on the carrier could set a new standard for the US aviation market as carriers struggle to survive in the aftermath of the airborne terror strikes and the ensuing economic slump," reported the AFP news service.
"The head of the Raelian sect, Claude Vorilhon, who has assumed the name Rael, which claims to have created a human clone, ordered the halt of planned DNA tests on the baby that would establish the veracity of the claims," reported the AFP news service.
"The US military said yesterday it reserved the right to cross from Afghanistan into neighbouring Pakistan in pursuit of fugitive Taliban or al-Qaeda militants. The military said this was a long-standing policy which had the express consent of the government of Pakistan, although it has never been acknowleged publicly before and the government in Islamabad denied any formal agreement to allow US troops to cross into Pakistan. Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said there was no blanket acceptance of such an action," reported the Reuters news agency.
