"Facing a deadline, thousands of men from 13 mostly Arab or Muslim countries lined up to register with US immigration authorities under a post-Sept 11 crackdown that has alarmed civil liberties groups and stirred fears of mass arrests. Civil liberties advocates say the programme is an inefficient way to find terrorists and will alienate people who could help the government. Adam Carroll, a member of the advocacy group Islamic Circle, called the registration a form of ethnic profiling, saying that terrorism is not just a Muslim manifestation," reported the AP news agency.
"Americans need to be very careful in the Philippines and should not travel to some regions at all because of terrorist threats," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday ordered nearly 35,000 more US forces to the Gulf, including US Marine ground and air units, in the biggest deployment yet to confront Iraq," reported the AFP news service.
"A North Korean diplomat said yesterday that the controversial Yongbyon nuclear reactor, focus of spiralling tensions with the United States, would become operable in a few weeks’ time," reported the Reuters nwes agency.
"British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to hold talks with US President George W. Bush and chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix to prevent early military action in Iraq becoming inevitable. Observers have said that absence of proof that Saddam is developing weapons of mass destruction puts the British government in a tricky position: it would like to loyally support Washington, but is cautious about waging war against Iraq without a green light from the UN," reported the AFP news service.
"Palestinian president Yasser Arafat urged Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israeli civilians ahead of an Israeli election which could change the course of more than two years of conflict. Arafat's comments coincided with a funding scandal that severely eroded support for Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon," reported the Reuters nwes agency.
"The wife of Europe's most powerful banker is never shy about supporting the Palestinian cause, even going so far as to hang a Palestinian flag from the couple's Amsterdam home. Duisenberg, whose husband Wim heads the European Central Bank, is chairwoman of a private Dutch advocacy group called Stop the Occupation, which presses Israel to get out of the Palestinian territories. Activist Mustafa Barghuti said the Jewish lobby in Holland is preventing Duisenberg from telling the truth about the situation of the Palestinians," reported the AFP news service.
"North Korea escalated a nuclear crisis yesterday with a threat to end a moratorium on missile testing on the day it became the world's first country to withdraw from a treaty preventing the spread of atomic weapons. Ambassador Choe Jin Su said at a news conference because all agreements have been nullified by the United States side, we believe we cannot go along with the self-imposed missile moratorium any longer," reported the news Agencies.
"Iraq shrugged off the U.S. and British military buildup in the Persian Gulf, as the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Turkey urged President Saddam Hussein to cooperate with the United Nations and avert a war they said would be disastrous for the region. News of the military buildup in the Gulf, however, appeared to have little impact on life in Baghdad, a city of 5 million people," reported the AP news agency.
"Details of a US-Iraqi skirmish in cyberspace, in which Baghdad blocked US e-mails aimed at key figures, emerged on Saturday after Washington ordered more troops to the Gulf for a possible war," reported the Reuters nwes agency.
"Israeli helicopter gunships fired two missiles into a Palestinian orchard yesterday, killing two teenagers in the latest escalation of military action against a Palestinian uprising since a major suicide bombing last week," reported the Reuters nwes agency.
"Fears of an al-Qaeda terrorist attack have prompted Queen Elizabeth II to install panic rooms at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle," reported the AP news agency.
"Four North African men, accused of manufacturing one of the world’s deadliest poisons in a north London flat, became the first to be charged under Britain’s chemical weapons laws on Saturday. Police said the charges were brought following the discovery of a small amount of ricin, a lethal toxin, during a raid on the apartment by anti-terrorist police a week ago which sparked fears in Britain of a looming terror campaign," reported the Reuters nwes agency.
"Brazilian women, beautiful but downtrodden by a macho Latin culture, look forward to a fairer deal in a new civil code that came into force on Saturday. The father is no longer considered to be head of the family and the mother now has an equal say in the upbringing of children," reported the Reuters nwes agency.
"North Korea denied yesterday ever admitting to US officials that it had a secret nuclear weapons programme and threatened to unleash a sea of fire on the United States, as a top US envoy arrived in South Korea for talks on diffusing the crisis," reported the AP news agency.
"President Saddam Hussein will stay in Iraq until the last Iraqi bullet is fired, a senior official vowed, as thousands more US troops readied to head for the Gulf region for a possible attack over Baghdad’s alleged weapons of mass destruction," reported the AP news agency.
"The United States, stepping up mobilisation for a possible war with Iraq, has evidence of a plot to blow up an aircraft carrying troops and cargo to the Gulf region. A Pentagon spokesman declined direct comment on the report," reported the Reuters news agency.
"As Washington faces a possible showdown with Iraq, the trial begins this week for a former US intelligence analyst who faces the death penalty for allegedly trying to sell top secret defence information to Iraq and Libya," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The top US envoy for Asia said yesterday that Washington was willing to talk to communist North Korea and would even address its energy shortages if the nuclear crisis could be resolved," reported the Reuters news agency.
"UN arms inspectors are using new US and British intelligence to widen a search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq amid conflicting signals on the timing of any war to enforce disarmament," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US officials and defence experts said political and logistical pressure could delay any invasion of Iraq for months, despite the Pentagon’s huge build-up of warplanes, ships and tens of thousands of troops in the oil-rich Gulf region. But the United States and close ally Britain face a dilemma in war planning as April heralds the start of Iraq’s fierce summer heat and sandstorms. Therefore, they seem increasingly keen to show patience as long as Baghdad co-operates with UN inspectors," reported the Reuters news agency.
"North Korea said yesterday that direct talks with the United States were the only way to end their standoff and dismissed worldwide condemnation of its nuclear brinkmanship. The United States’ attempts to internationalise Korean nuclear problem is merely an attempt to evade its responsibility," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Federal Reserve's latest survey of business conditions around the United States found economic growth was sluggish as the old year ended and the new one began. The Fed's survey, known as the Beige Book, tended to support other recent surveys that showed the economy slowing significantly in the final three months of the year, continuing a stop-and-go pattern in which a quarter of strong growth was followed by lackluster activity," reported the AP news agency.
"The administration of President George W. Bush announced Wednesday it had cleared away the last hurdle to a free trade agreement with Singapore, wrapping up the deal a month after a similar one with Chile. At present, the United States has free trade agreements with Canada and Mexico, its partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement, and with Israel and Jordan," reported the AP news agency.
"Top al-Qaida leaders planned suicide bombings in the Philippines two years ago, but the plot was shifted to Singapore because of tight security at the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Philipine," reported the AP news agency.
"Weapons experts inspected a key presidential site in the Iraqi capital yesterday amid US and British warnings that time is running out for Saddam Hussein to disarm. UN monitors entered the 2.5 square km Republican Palace, the site of the president’s main office, but it was not known if Saddam was present," reported the AFP news service.
"Germany’s top security official has outlawed an Islamic organisation, Hizb ut-Tahrir, which he accused of extremism and spreading anti-Semitic propaganda in universities. Interior Minister Otto Schily said yesterday premises across the country had been searched overnight in connection with the ban. The ban was imposed under legislation introduced after the Sept 11 attacks in the United States that allows German authorities to outlaw foreign-based extremist groups," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in the West Bank yesterday and began demolishing the East Jerusalem homes of a militant cell behind a suicide bombing which killed seven people, including five Americans. The army also closed the Islamic University and Polytechnic Institute in the West Bank city of Hebron, saying they were a hotbed for terror attacks," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Security for today’s launch of the space shuttle Columbia, carrying the first Israeli astronaut, is so tight that even the Israelis say they have seen nothing like it," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A British policeman was stabbed to death and four others were injured in an anti-terror raid which police said was linked to last week’s discovery of a chemical weapons agent in London. Prime Minister Tony Blair said the first killing of a British police officer in an anti-terrorist operation since the Sept 11 attacks in the United States was an appalling tragedy and wicked in the extreme," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Idiots are being confused with terrorists in the security scare whipped up by a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign. Brisbane magistrate Jim Herlihy said the Be Alert But Not Alarmed television advertising campaign was prompting the arrest of people with psychiatric problems," reported the dpa news agency.
"Demonstrators are mobilizing in Washington and cities across the country for what they consider their last chance to speak as one great multitude against the gathering clouds of an Iraq war. The focus was on America's weapons of mass destruction, not the ones inspectors are looking for in Iraq," reported the AP news agency.
"President George W. Bush has not yet convinced Americans that war with Iraq is justified, a major poll finds, suggesting the White House has much work to do to win public support for military force. Democratic lawmakers like Michigan Sen. Carl Levin caution that the United States must not prejudge the outcome of the inspections. Some in the public will be skeptical no matter what the president tells them about Iraq. 23-year-old Rachel Wheatley of Washington, said that they're not really interested in what the inspectors have to say," reported the AP news agency.
"United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq yesterday found empty warheads designed to carry chemical warfare agents, a UN spokesman said in Baghdad. Hiro Ueki did not elaborate on the possible significance of the find during an inspection of the Ukhaider Ammunition Storage Area," reported the AFP news service.
"Former Bay City Rollers pop group manager Tam Paton and popular television presenter Matthew Kelly have joined a growing list of British showbiz stars arrested over paedophilia allegations," reported the AFP news service.
"An infamously smelly fruit in the cargo hold of an Australian airliner forced a full-scale security alert and evacuation of the plane yesterday as baggage handlers feared they faced a possible terrorist threat. The chief executive of Virgin Blue flight, Brett Godfrey, was later forced to defend his staff from charges they overreacted in the current climate of terrorism fears," reported the AFP news service.
"South Korea said yesterday that its army was prepared for any outcome to the nuclear standoff with the North - including the worst-case scenario of a full-scale war on the peninsula," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Demonstrators are mobilising in Washington and cities across the country for what they consider their last chance to speak as one great multitude against the gathering clouds of an Iraq war. The organisation International Answer is behind the national rally here today and the one in San Francisco," reported the AP news agency.
"Saudi Arabia has proposed that to head off an attack on Iraq either the United Nations or the international community should offer amnesty to all but the most prominent Iraqis. The idea would be to encourage a last-minute coup against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, averting the bloodshed and devastation that a war would cause," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The key issue in the discovery of 11 warheads in an Iraqi bunker is whether they were intended to be filled with lethal chemical agents or explosives. Iraq said they were not for biological or chemical use. And according to Terry Taylor, a former UN inspector who heads the Washington office of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, Iraq is allowed to have conventional 122mm rockets containing explosives," reported the AP news agency.
"The White House called the discovery troubling and serious and said the warheads had not been declared by Iraq, clear evidence that Saddam was not disarming as required under a tough new UN resolution passed last November. UN weapons chief Hans Blix adopted a softer stance, saying the find was no smoking gun, or key evidence that could trigger a US-led invasion," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The president of Cuba’s parliament said on Thursday that the sale in Florida of a small plane taken from the island by a defector was just the latest example of the United States aiding and abetting terrorism," reported the Reuters news agency.
"An air force physician sang the praises on Thursday of amphetamines used by two US fighter pilots who bombed a Canadian infantry unit in Afghanistan, saying fatigue, not speed, kills. The pilots could face charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and dereliction of duty that could bring them up to 64 years in military prison if convicted," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A defiant President Saddam Hussein marked the 12th anniversary of the 1991 Gulf War yesterday with a vow to defeat US troops in Baghdad. He said Western forces he described as crows of evil were still harbouring evil against Iraq 12 years after the war," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Indonesia advised its citizens yesterday to defer non-essential travel to the United States, to avoid unwanted difficulties from a new requirement that men from Indonesia and other predominantly-Muslim countries register with immigration authorities," reported the AP news agency.
