"The Israeli government approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday to release about 100 militants in addition to several hundred other Palestinian prisoners," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Cuban President Fidel Castro responded on Saturday to European Union (EU) criticism of human rights abuses in Cuba by rejecting EU aid and closing the door on political contacts. Castro accused European nations of ganging up on Cuba with the United States, which has maintained sanctions against Cuba for four decades. In his speech on Saturday, he attacked European countries for plundering their colonies and leaving billions in poverty," reported the Reuters news agency.
"An Iraqi boy, who touched hearts around the world after losing both arms and most of his family in the US-led war, is to fly to Britain to be fitted with artificial limbs," reported the AP news agency.
"Coming forward three decades after Watergate, a former top aide to president Richard Nixon now contends that Nixon ordered the break-in that would lead to his resignation," reported the AP news agency.
"President George W. Bush will soon propose US$1bil in new aid for Afghanistan, more than tripling the US$300mil it currently receives. The new funds would be for highway and school construction, police training, development of the Afghan army, and programmes to help women enter the workforce," reported the AFP news service.
"A female suicide bomber detonated explosives yesterday near a base of a security force commanded by a son of the head of Chechnya's Moscow-backed administration, killing herself and injuring a woman who was nearby," reported the AP news agency.
"US soldiers based here said they missed catching Saddam Hussein's security chief – and possibly the former dictator himself – by a mere 24 hours early yesterday, and south of Baghdad a US marine was killed in a grenade attack," reported the AP news agency.
"China has shown that a country can become wealthy and strong without conquering and colonising other countries, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad said. He said without conquering the world or even forcing people to accept Chinese systems, China had managed to become a very rich country. Answering questions during a dialogue session with participants after opening the 7th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention, Dr Mahathir said Malaysia’s experience revealed that it was people who came from over 8,000 miles away in Europe that conquered countries," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"Central Iraq, from Baghdad to Tikrit, is still a war zone, the top U.S. military commander, Gen. Richard B. Myers, said Tuesday during a stop in India. Myers said he was not contradicting U.S. President George Bush, who had declared that major conflict operations were over in Iraq," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Meanwhile, the U.S. military said a U.S. soldier was killed Monday in an attack in the capital, while guerrillas blew up a major civilian bridge in an attempt to disrupt the U.S. occupation," reported the AP news agency.
"The number of gay and bisexual men diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, climbed for the third consecutive year in the United States in 2002, fuelling fears that the disease might be poised for a major comeback in this high-risk group. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported the finding yesterday at the 2003 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta, also revealed that AIDS diagnoses overall had risen 2.2% to 42,136 last year," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Heavy gunfire rang out across the capital yesterday as rebels attacked Double Bridge on a route that cuts towards the home of the embattled president, Charles Taylor," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Within days, workers will complete a key part of Israel's separation project from the Palestinians: two snaking barriers of electronic fences, trenches and razor coil that will cut off Jerusalem from Palestinian areas to the north and south. Palestinians, however, bristle at what they see as yet another Israeli attempt to control their movements and divide them from each other and their agricultural lands, places of worship and jobs," reported the AP news agency.
"Men should think twice about how tight they wear a necktie because it could increase their chances of developing glaucoma, a group of serious eye diseases. Research reported in the British Journal of Ophthalmology showed that a tight necktie raises blood pressure in the eye, which is a leading risk factor in the illness that can lead to damage to the optic nerve and loss of vision," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The US prison population grew more than twice as fast last year as in 2001, bringing the total number of people held behind bars in the United States to more than 2.1 million, a new record, according to a government report released on Sunday. The statistics show the United States remains the unchallenged world leader in both the overall number of jailed people and the rate of incarceration," reported the AFP news service.
"The Australian-led intervention force said yesterday that it would boost naval patrols to cut the flow of weapons to the Solomon Islands' civil war, as a key rebel leader offered disarmament talks. Announcing the new operations, intervention force co-ordinator Nick Warner said Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) commander Jimmy Rasta had sent a message asking for talks about handing in weapons," reported the AFP news service.
"Six Muslim militants and two policemen were killed yesterday in the latest Saudi security sweep, which Riyadh says shows it is serious about waging war on terror," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A grenade attack in Baghdad yesterday wounded and may have killed two US soldiers in broad daylight, the latest in an increasingly bold and deadly guerilla campaign," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Fuelling a nervous cycle of fear and resentment between the American occupiers and ordinary Iraqis, people in Baghdad accused jumpy US troops of killing five passers-by on Sunday in what looked like a botched raid in the hunt for Saddam Hussein. US spokesmen refused all comment on the incident," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Some 55% of Poles oppose their country's military presence in Iraq, while 30% favour the mission, an opinion poll published yesterday revealed," reported the dpa news agency.
"US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, accusing two Arab satellite channels of biased reporting from Iraq, said on Sunday that Washington was talking to unnamed governments to try to get more balanced coverage - so far without success," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A study found that some brands of cigarettes deliver a much more powerful nicotine kick than others, adding to suspicions that manufacturers deliberately blend tobacco to boost the addictive effect. American Spirit, a brand owned by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., topped the list. The study adds weight to claims that cigarette makers blend tobacco varieties to manipulate the nicotine potency and boost sales, as some industry critics have charged," reported the AP news agency.
"A hundred firefighters and 20 pump engines battled an office-building fire behind London's Paddington railway station late Tuesday night," reported the AP news agency.
"In a new audiotape attributed Tuesday to Saddam Hussein, a calm voice acknowledged the deaths of the ousted dictator's two sons and called them martyrs. The audiotape was broadcast Tuesday on the Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya, five days after the U.S. military released grisly photos of their bloodied bodies in an effort to convince Iraqis that the sons were dead and to weaken support for an anti-American insurgency," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisted yesterday that construction would continue on a security fence snaking through the West Bank, despite sharp objections from the United States and the Palestinians," reported the AFP news service.
"Palestinians have decried the security boundary as an attempt to establish the boundaries of a future state outside the negotiating process. Bush also reminded Palestinians that the future state which the US-backed roadmap for Middle East peace sees being established was dependent on an end to attacks against Israeli targets," reported the AFP news service.
"Almost one in five Americans was laid off in the past three years, most with little or no warning and without severance pay, according to a survey released on Monday. Carl Van Horn, a Rutgers professor and the report's lead author, said the 2001 recession and ongoing contraction in many sectors of the US economy had created widespread insecurity among Americans about their job security and prospects," reported the AFP news service.
"A Pentagon plan to get information on the Middle East by setting up an online futures market where investors would bet on the probability of war, terrorism and other events is going to be scrapped, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said yesterday. The plan drew sharp criticism from congressional Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who yesterday asked the Bush administration to renounce the plan and apologise for it," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Firefighters yesterday struggled to contain fast-moving fires that have killed five people and ravaged large areas of woodland in southern France, as President Jacques Chirac promised tough penalties for arsonists," reported the AFP news service.
"Prime Minister John Howard's strong support for US President George W. Bush has earned him a new nickname. An outspoken opposition lawmaker Mark Latham said John Howard, someone was saying he's got a new nickname, 'Bonsai', because he's a little Bush," reported the AP news agency.
"A school in Greenwich Village here will reopen in September as America's first publicly run high school for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. The school's first principal, William Salzman, a former Wall Street executive who was recently an assistant high school principal. was quoted in Monday's New York Post as saying: this school will be a model for the country and possibly the world. But the head of the New York State Conservative Party said the school was a waste of tax dollars," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The father of an Australian held for 19 months without charge at a US military camp pleaded on Monday to be allowed to see his son and appealed for a civilian trial," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The White House yesterday rejected a Saudi request to declassify portions of a report on the Sept 11, 2001, attacks dealing with Saudi Arabia, saying it could compromise intelligence sources and methods. Members of the US Congress, including Republican Sen Richard Shelby of Alabama, have also asked that the section be released," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Human Rights Watch said warlords are creating a climate of fear in Afghanistan that is threatening efforts to draft a new constitution and could derail national elections expected next year. Most abuses detailed in the 101-page report were ordered, committed or condoned by government personnel in Afghanistan – soldiers, police, military and intelligence officials and government ministers," reported the AP news agency.
"Despite fears that Afghanistan remains unstable and unsafe, British authorities have deported another batch of Afghans who failed to obtain asylum there. Forty-nine Afghans arrived at the airport here, most of them virtually bankrupt after paying human smugglers thousands of dollars to get them to Britain," reported the AP news agency.
"American soldiers overpowered and arrested yesterday a bodyguard who rarely left Saddam Hussein's side and said they obtained documents and information that could help them close in on the Iraqi leader," reported the AP news agency.
"Heavy pressure from the US occupation authority in Iraq has forced a Bahraini firm to pull the plug on Baghdad's first brief experience with mobile phones, which were previously banned by Saddam Hussein. The US-led authority in Iraq – which wants to hold a tender for three regional mobile phone licences – asked Batelco to shut down. The US Army and development workers now use a network in Baghdad built by WorldCom Inc, a bankrupt US telecom firm – but service is barred to ordinary Iraqis," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Moscow police are investigating a report by Iraqi embassy staff that at least US$3mil has been stolen from a safe in the mission. Russian media said an embassy employee went to a police station around dawn yesterday to report that several armed men had entered the embassy overnight and stolen the money," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A foundation that raises money for improvements at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has received $1 million for health care improvements in Afghanistan. The grant for the Atlanta-based CDC Foundation is from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to the CDC Foundation," reported the AP news agency.
"Reluctantly siding with the Bush administration, a federal judge ruled Wednesday the government can prevent 17 Americans detained during the 1991 Persian Gulf War from collecting $653 million in damages from frozen Iraqi assets," reported the AP news agency.
"U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts wrote that the Bush administration position that the POWs are unable to recover any portion of their judgment as requested, despite their sacrifice in the service of their country, seems extreme. Justice Department lawyers countered that President George W. Bush has the authority to determine how the money is spent. The president wants the funds to help pay for rebuilding Iraq," reported the AP news agency.
"Saddam Hussein himself will determine whether he is taken alive or killed if US troops corner him, Pentagon officials said yesterday, and the commander on the scene will decide how to proceed based on whether the former Iraqi president puts up a fight," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Tears flowed and long-parted relatives embraced yesterday as more than 200 Iraqis set foot in their homeland again after 13 years of exile in neighbouring Saudi Arabia," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that his government had yet to convince the British people that the Iraq war was justified. He refused to comment on questions regarding the suicide earlier this month of weapons adviser David Kelly, who was at the centre of a dispute over claims the government exaggerated the threat posed by Iraqi arms," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Iran acknowledged yesterday that Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in custody in Iran this month, was probably murdered. Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi had hinted as much two weeks ago, but since then an initial government inquiry left open whether a blow to Kazemi's skull had been deliberate or accidental," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The body set up to monitor advertising in Britain yesterday said it had rejected complaints about billboards showing a woman's breasts and sporting the slogan Discover Weapons of Mass Distraction in order to advertise a cheap airline. The ad, which appeared on both billboards and in newspapers, showed a woman's breasts in a bikini top, and also had the slogan: Lowest fares to the sun," reported the AFP news service.
"Palestinians expressed disappointment on Tuesday over remarks by US President George W. Bush after his meeting with Israel's premier, complaining that Bush came down on Israel's side on the main issues," reported the AP news agency.
"In Gaza, Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi dismissed Bush's remarks, arguing that it reflects the total bias of the United States in favour of the Zionist enemy and it reflects also the failure of Prime Minister Abbas' visit to Washington," reported the AP news agency.
"A Los Angeles judge declared a mistrial on Tuesday in the case of a white, former policeman accused of assaulting a black teenager during a videotaped arrest last summer after the jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked," reported the Reuters news agency.
"President George W. Bush accepted personal responsibility yesterday for a discredited portion of last winter's State of the Union address that suggested desposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was shopping for nuclear material in Africa," reported the AP news agency.
"A new rape law in Illinois attempts to clarify the issue of consent by emphasising that people can change their mind while having sex. Under the law, if someone says no at any time the other person must stop or it becomes rape. The National Crime Victim Law Institute said it believed the law is the first of its kind in the country," reported the AP news agency.
"The head of an intervention force won a disarmament commitment from one of the Solomon Islands' most notorious militias yesterday as the lawless nation's premier reshuffled his embattled government," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, citing concerns about his family, is moving close to announcing that he will not run for California governor in a special October election, an aide said on Tuesday. Schwarzenegger had initially suggested he would run as a Republican. Analysts said his name recognition and personal wealth gave him a strong shot at the job in a state where actor Ronald Reagan got his start in politics as governor," reported the Reuters news agency.
"When Superman donned his red cape in the 1950s, he ran faster than a speeding bullet and was able to leap tall buildings with a single bound, but not even he could have known that his S-emblazoned outfit might fetch US$150,000 at auction," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Philippines' most wanted terror suspect, Farthur Al-Ghozi, has been sighted in a coastal area near the southern city of Davao. Despite stepped-up efforts to catch him, Al-Ghozi has eluded arrest since he and two Filipino terror suspects escaped from national police headquarters in Manila on July 14. Al-Ghozi's jail break has deeply embarrassed the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, especially as it coincided with a visit by Australian Prime Minister John Howard to discuss anti-terrorism cooperation with the Philippines," reported the AP news agency.
"Government and industry xperts consider brewing hacker activity a precursor to a broad Internet attack that would target enormous numbers of computers vulnerable from a flaw in Windows software from Microsoft Corp. Experts described an unusual confluence of conditions that heighten prospects for a serious disruption soon," reported the AP news agency.
"The judge heading an inquiry into the suicide of government weapons adviser David Kelly said yesterday he will ask Prime Minister Tony Blair to testify," reported the AP news agency.
"The United States wants Iraqi judges to try Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity, including the persecution of Kurds and Marsh Arabs, if he is captured," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Two daughters of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein arrived in Jordan accompanied by nine children on Thursday and were granted official protection," reported the AFP news service.
"The United States has found evidence of an active programme to make weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, including truly amazingtestimony from Iraqis ordered to dupe United Nations inspectors before the war, David Kay, a former UN inspector now the CIA’s leading consultant who is joint head of the Iraq Survey Group, said. He offered an unprecedentedly bullish assessment of the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. Although he called for patience, he predicted that doubters were in for a surprise by the time his work was done," reported the Daily Telegraph.
"Australia and the United States are the closest of allies in the war on terror but their intelligence sharing has been called into question following a communications breakdown this week over an al-Qaeda hijack warning. Canberra protested – saying that while Australia could be used as a staging post or starting point for suicide hijackers wanting to attack the United States, there was no intelligence to indicate Australia was a target," reported the AP news agency.
"However, Defence Minister Robert Hill said you can always quarrel about particular instances but overall the intelligence capability of the US is a massive asset for Australia," reported the AP news agency.
"US gangsta rap mogul Marion Suge Knight was jailed for 10 months on Thursday after allegedly getting into a fight outside a Hollywood nightclub," reported the AFP news service.
"A poster of a man pretending to suckle a baby has upset New Zealand Health Ministry officials so much they have demanded it be withdrawn. The poster was designed by Women's Health Action to promote breastfeeding at work," reported the AFP news service.
"Russian prosecutors may soon open a criminal case against the Sibneft oil company and its chief shareholder, billionaire Roman Abramovich, Interfax reported yesterday, citing informed sources. The news agency said that the Russian general prosecutor's office had collected material on the activities of Sibneft and several commercial ventures related to Abramovich in preparation for a criminal probe," reported the AFP news service.
"US helicopter gunships killed four guerillas in southern Afghanistan and coalition troops forced another group to flee into Pakistan after attacking a US base," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Liberian President Charles Taylor will not leave the country as soon as a West African peacekeeping force arrives next week but will wait for a political handover of power," reported the Reuters news agency.
"In an open letter to Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday, The Economist magazine challenged the Italian premier to answer questions about a series of corruption allegations against him," reported the AP news agency.
"A drunken Croatian exhibitionist nearly lost his genitals when a dog bit him in Zagreb, the official news agency HINA said on Thursday evening. The man, 36, was visibly intoxicated when he stopped in front of a woman's house. When he opened his fly and put his private parts inside the fence, her dog came from the other side and bit him," reported the dpa news agency," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Two-thirds of American Internet users who download music do not care whether they are violating copyright laws, according to a new survey that highlights the uphill enforcement battle facing the recording industry," reported the AP news agency.
"The Australian government vowed yesterday to fight a court's ruling that it was against the law to detain children as part of the country's policy of arresting illegal immigrants.
