"After 35 years in the business of titillating, pornographer Al Goldstein says his magazine can't compete anymore. Just over a month ago, Goldstein stopped publishing Screw magazine and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, giving him a chance to cut costs, relaunch the magazine and refocus attention on his Web site. Similar pressures are seen throughout the adult publishing field. Bob Guccione's General Media Inc., for instance, has also filed for Chapter 11 protection, although the company's trademark Penthouse magazine continues publishing while the company restructures," reported the AP news agency.
"A car bomb attack Saudi officials said appeared to be by al-Qaeda killed at least 11 people and wounded more than 100 in an upscale Riyadh neighbourhood. Saturday's attack occurred a day after the US Embassy issued a warning that terror attacks could be imminent in the tense Gulf kingdom. America's three diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia were closed indefinitely starting Saturday as a result of the terror threat," reported the AP news agency.
"Their homes lie in ruins, the survivors are in disarray as rescue workers pick through the rubble at a bombed-out expatriate housing compound on the edge of the capital yesterday. The latest target of suspected al-Qaeda militants was mourning at least 11 dead in a midnight suicide bombing that struck at a time when Muslims celebrate the holy month of Ramadan," reported the APF news service.
"Families with husbands, sons and other relatives serving in Iraq gathered San Antonio on Saturday in this military-dependent Texas city to voice their opposition to the way in which the US-led war is being handled," reported the AP news agency.
"Fifty per cent of registered US voters do not want President George W. Bush re-elected to a second term, and 44% do, according to a Newsweek poll out on Saturday," reported the APF news service.
"Officials from Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction denied on Saturday that the Palestinian Authority paid members of an armed group inside Fatah to stop them attacking Israelis," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei announced yesterday a deal to form a new government that would keep security powers key to a US-backed peace plan under President Yasser Arafat's thumb. Qorei said his candidate for Interior Minister, pro-reform General Nasser Yousef, would not hold a Cabinet post. Instead, Arafat loyalist Hakam Balawi would get the job and oversee police, civil defence and the preventive security service," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel's Cabinet yesterday narrowly approved a contested prisoner swap with Hizbollah, even though it does not include Israel's most famous MIA, an air force navigator captured 17 years ago. The ministers debated for eight hours before approving the swap by a vote of 12-11, Cabinet members said. In Lebanon, Hizbollah officials threatened to kidnap more Israelis if the deal collapses," reported the AP news agency.
"President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was set to be sworn-in for a record sixth term Tuesday, becoming the longest-serving head of state in Asia. He was the only presidential candidate on the ballot," reported the AP news agency.
"Nearly one-fifth of the members of Japan's lower house of Parliament believe Japan should consider the option of possessing nuclear weapons if the international situation warrants it, a major newspaper reported Tuesday. Japan has no nuclear weapons, and possessing them would be a huge switch in longstanding policy in a country where even discussing the possession of nuclear weapons has long been taboo," reported the AP news agency.
"China will switch its cable television broadcasting to digital technology by 2010 and phase out analog broadcasts altogether by 2015," reported the AP news agency.
"Smaller, more accurate nuclear weapons could reduce collateral damage and be more persuasive in the complex calculus of nuclear deterrence, Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists say. For nuclear weapons to do their job of deterring conflict, an enemy has to believe one is willing to use them, they say. But the bombs stockpiled during the Cold War are so destructive that potential enemies may think no one would be willing to use them, the scientists wrote in a paper in the British journal Comparative Strategy addressing the central paradox of nuclear weapons," reported the AP news agency.
"The US-led forces in Iraq are under a sort of obligation to find weapons of mass destruction, billed as the chief reason for going to war, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said on Sunday. A poll released on Oct 26 said more than 40% of Britons believe Prime Minister Tony Blair – the strongest backer of the American-instigated war – had deliberately distorted information on the alleged weapons," reported the AFP news service.
"The domestic shorthair gained fame in February last year when she was announced as the first cloned cat. This year, she moved in with Duane Kraemer (holding CC), one of the Texas A&M researchers who made her birth possible," reported the AP news agency.
"Former Vice-President Al Gore accused President George W. Bush on Sunday of failing to make America safer after the Sept 11 attacks and using the war against terrorism as a pretext to consolidate power. Gore chided the administration for what he said was its implicit assumption that Americans must give up traditional freedoms in order to be safe from terrorists," reported the AP news agency.
"Pakistani-Americans are working to make sure that Bobby Jindal, an American of Indian descent running for state governor, is not elected to office, the head of a major US-Pakistani group said on Sunday. When Jindal declared his candidacy, the first remark he made was derogatory to Muslims. He was saying that he qualified for the job because he's not a Muslim.. If elected, Jindal will be the first Indian-American governor in US history," reported the AP news agency.
"Britain's Prince Charles huddled with his inner circle yesterday to try to put a lid on a media frenzy triggered by allegations that he was involved in a sexual incident with a royal servant," reported the AFP news service.
"Singapore has deployed military personnel to Iraq to further its national interests in oil and to stop the spread of terrorism, the city-state's Defence Minister, Teo Chee Hean, said yesterday. Singapore is a tiny South-East Asian nation with no oil reserves of its own. It is also one of Washington's strongest Asian allies in the war against terror," reported the AFP news service.
"The United States says al-Qaeda wants to topple the pro-Western Saudi government and royal family but Riyadh insists the militants who killed at least 17 in a weekend suicide attack will not destabilise the kingdom," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Seventeen people, including five children, were killed in a midnight suicide bombing that ripped through a residential compound west of Riyadh. The dead included seven Lebanese, four Egyptians, one Saudi and one Sudanese," reported the AFP news service.
"Hizbollah's leader yesterday repeated his group's refusal to go ahead with a prisoner swap deal with Israel if it did not include the longest-held Lebanese prisoner. But Nasrallah did not slam the door, saying the group still awaits to hear from the German mediator on the issue," reported the AP news agency.
"US warplanes bombed targets in Iraq on Sunday in air strikes that resumed last week for the first time in more than six months after the shooting down of three US helicopters. In the new air strikes, F-16 fighter-bombers dropped three 500-pound bombs near the flashpoint town of Fallujah, in the area west of Baghdad where 16 American soldiers were killed when a US Chinook helicopter was downed a week ago," reported the news Agencies.
"Denounced and all but disowned by her country of birth, Miss Afghanistan Vida Samadzai has won a special award at an international beauty contest held in the Philippines. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's minister for women's affairs last month condemned Samadzai. Minister Habiba Surabi said We condemn Vida Samadzai, she is not representing Afghanistan's women, and this is not women's freedom. Appearing naked before a camera or television is not women's freedom but in my opinion is to entertain men," reported the AFP news service.
"Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia's new Cabinet was expected to pass a parliamentary vote of confidence and take office despite some opposition to allowing Yasser Arafat to retain significant power. The vote was set for Wednesday, and if it passed, the Cabinet was to be sworn in immediately afterward, ending a two-month Palestinian political stalemate that has stymied talks on stopping three years of conflict and carrying out the U.S.-backed road map plan for a Palestinian state in 2005," reported the AP news agency.
"Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's support ratings dropped after national parliamentary elections in which the opposition made sharp gains," reported the AP news agency.
"Saudi Arabia has detained suspects in the devastating suicide bomb attack on a housing complex in Riyadh after vowing to strike back with an iron fist. The diplomat said the arrests took place in the capital and the outskirts but did not disclose when they occurred," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel's secret services have been called in to help a police probe into a scandal over a non-dairy baby formula which has led to the deaths of three babies as the German manufacturers admitted mistakes were made in the production process. The overseas agency Mossad and its domestic counterpart Shin Beth will now assist the investigation which centres around the soya-based formula, marketed in Israel under the Remedia label but manufactured by the German firm Hu-mana," reported the AFP news service.
"Princess Diana believed a former royal valet's claim that he had been raped by another servant, her former butler said in an article published yesterday. But Paul Burrell, in a bylined article in the Daily Mirror, said he didn't know Diana's views about any other claims made by the former valet – which presumably included the current sensational but dimly reported claim of an incident involving Prince Charles," reported the AP news agency.
"A train transporting nuclear waste from France moved across the border into Germany on Monday on its slow progress to a storage site in the north of the country despite continuing attempts by protesters to hold up the shipment," reported the dpa news agency.
"Lee Boyd Malvo, the teenager charged in last year's Washington-area sniper murders, declared on Monday that he was not guilty on the opening day of his trial. Before jury selection got under way in Chesapeake, Virginia, Malvo's attorney also told the judge that he would mount a defence claiming his client was innocent because of mental illness. Meanwhile, 25km away, the prosecution at Muhammad's trial rested their case after 13 days of testimony from more than 100 witnesses," reported the dpa news agency.
"A bomb exploded as a guerrilla was planting it beside a road here yesterday, killing him and at least two other Iraqis and scattering dismembered body parts across the street. In Baghdad, a bomb explosion outside the Court of Appeal wounded six Iraqis including two policeman as US soldiers were bringing prisoners out of the building," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A shaken nation mourned 18 Italians killed in Iraq in Italy's single worst military loss since World War II as a political storm brewed over the nation's policy in Iraq. Premier Silvio Berlusconi -- who supported the U.S.-led war, despite the opposition of most of his people -- told Parliament after the suicide bombing Wednesday at an Italian compound in southern Iraq that political bickering should go silent. His opponents largely respected that wish Wednesday, but warned that it wouldn't last," reported the AP news agency.
"Two years after the fall of the Taliban, remnants of the ousted regime still claim a role in the violence in Afghanistan -- even taking responsibility for attacks in which the Islamic militia seems to have played no part," reported the AP news agency.
"His voice cracking with emotion, Colombia's normally gruff armed forces commander said he is quitting, adding his resignation letter to a growing pile on hardline President Alvaro Uribe's desk. That so many heads have rolled since Uribe suffered a setback last month in his drive to crack down on rebels and on corruption raised questions on his governing style and whether the counterinsurgency war -- partly financed with US$2.5 billion in U.S. aid -- might falter," reported the AP news agency.
"The US Congress on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved tough new sanctions on Syria for its alleged ties to militant extremists and purported efforts to obtain nuclear, biological and chemical weapons," reported the AFP news service.
"The legislation, the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Act, also calls on Damascus to end its occupation of Lebanon. The bill also bans the exportation of dual-use technology and allows the US government to freeze Syria's assets in the US and restrict overflight rights for Syrian aircraft inside US airspace," reported the AFP news service.
"George Soros, one of the world’s wealthiest financiers and philanthropists, has declared that getting George W. Bush out of the White House has become the central focus of his life, and he has put more thanUS$15mil of his own money where his mouth is. Soros argues that the Bush White House is guided by a supremacist ideology that is leading it to abuse US power in its dealings with the rest of the world, and creating a state of permanent warfare," reported the Guardian.
"Between 21,000 and 55,000 people have died as a direct result of the war in Iraq, most of them Iraqi soldiers and civilians, a report estimated on Tuesday. Medact, an activist group of health professionals, said it had derived the figures – which it called tentative– by adding numbers it obtained from news reports and a website that estimates the number of Iraqi civilian deaths by tracking all those reported in the media. The report, partly funded by the British charity Oxfam, said the war's impact on Iraqis' health and the country's environment had been enormous, although it was difficult to quantify," reported the AP news agency.
"Migraines, back pain, arthritis and a raft of other painful ailments take a toll on US economic productivity to the tune of some US$61.2bil a year, a study out on Tuesday found. Nearly 13% of the US workforce reported loss of work time due to pain at least once every two weeks, resulting in slower work but rarely absenteeism, the authors of the study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association said," reported the AFP news service.
"Humana Milchunion, based in the western German town of Herford, said on Tuesday tests showed that the soya-based milk substitute contained at least 10 times less than the advertised quantity of Vitamin B1. It said that was a result of an error when Humana and Remedia, the Israeli partner for which it made the product, developed the formula for Remedia Super Soya 1 in February. Remedia is partly owned by US food giant H.J. Heinz Co," reported the AP news agency.
"The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in London, which regulates fertility clinics and research centres, said in a report published yesterday it had rejected the idea of allowing couples to choose the sex of their child for social reasons such as balancing the number of boys and girls in their families. Various methods of gender selection have been used – with different degrees of reliability – ranging from timing of intercourse to favour the conception of a child of a particular sex to the abortion of foetuses that are shown on ultrasound to be of the undesired sex," reported the AP news agency.
"McDonald's may not like it, but the editors of the Merriam-Webster dictionary say McJob' is a word that's here to stay. The 11th edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, published in June, defines a McJob as a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement," reported the AP news agency.
"President Jacques Chirac has gone slightly deaf in one ear, it has emerged, sparking a debate on how far a head of state should be expected to come clean about his infirmities. The weekly news magazine L'Express said a Cabinet minister had confirmed that a small hearing aid had been fitted discreetly into Chirac's left ear. His impediment is a problem not because it disqualifies him from doing his job but because he seems to have decided to keep quiet about it," reported the AP news agency.
"Pornographer Larry Flynt says he bought nude photos of former prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch to publish in Hustler magazine, but changed his mind because she's a good kid who became a pawn for the government. Lynch's attorney, Stephen Goodwin, said in a statement: It's incredulous that anyone would think it appropriate in any way to attempt to publish unauthorised photos of Jessica – photos taken before she was deployed to Iraq and before her capture and rescue," reported the news Agencies.
"Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali has ordered authorities to crack down on fashion shows because they are unIslamic and give Pakistan a bad image," reported the AFP news service.
"Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei received overwhelming endorsement for his new government here yesterday, after calling for a new ceasefire with Israel and committing himself to the troubled “roadmap” peace plan," reported the AFP news service.
"Muslim militants planning attacks in Mecca booby-trapped copies of the Quran to kill and maim pilgrims. The London-based daily Asharq al-Awsat quoted Saudi security sources as saying that this novel weapon was discovered in the arms caches police found after raiding militant hideouts in Mecca and this capital in recent weeks," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, the second-largest American mission in the world after Cairo, Egypt, began collecting the fingerprints using an electronic process that does not require ink and takes just seconds," reported the AP news agency.
"U.S. troops mounted air and ground attacks in the Iraqi capital for a second straight night, targeting suspected insurgent positions around Baghdad. They bombarded the al-Jazeera dye factory on Baghdad's outskirts which had been targeted the night before by an AC-130 gunship. George Bush said he wants to forge friendship between the Iraqi people and America. Is this how he wants build this friendship? said the plant's owner, Waad Dakhel al-Boulani, as he watched the shelling. The only weapon that they found inside was a Kalashnikov rifle for the guard," reported the AP news agency.
"Syria's state media yesterday brushed off the threat of American sanctions, saying they would not harm Damascus and were only an attempt to force Syria to toe the line on Israel. In an editorial, the al Baath daily said It's clear that the Syria Accountability Act neither serves America nor harms Syria, something reasonable people in Washington grasp completely, arguing that the bill proved Syria's importance to the region. The emphasis that US officials, including supporters of 'Accountability', place on Syria's role reflects their anxiety that (Washington's policy of) falling in line with the Israeli project will not benefit the Americans," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The number of hate crimes declined sharply in the United States last year after a sharp rise in violence against Muslims and Arabs blamed on passions stirred by the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, the FBI said. Jews remained far more likely to be the victims of anti-religious attacks than Muslims, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual report, which compiles data from more than 12,000 law enforcement agencies from across the United States," reported the AFP news service.
"Rights groups, however, say the number of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim incidents is on the rise if harassment and discrimination is taken into account, though both credit authorities for cracking down on criminal acts. It's been one after another since 9-11 said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, which has noted a 15% increase in violence, discrimination and harassment of Muslims in the past year," reported the AFP news service.
"Saudi Arabia, reeling from a suicide bombing in Riyadh, has tightened security in Mecca to thwart any possible militant attacks on Islam's sacred city in the climax of the holy month of Ramadan," reported the Reuters news agency.
"With a Palestinian political crisis resolved, Palestinian and Israeli officials said yesterday they expect their leaders to meet for peace talks – possibly within 10 days. Both sides talked about the need for peace after veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat swore in a new Cabinet on Wednesday. The ceremony ended a two-month Palestinian stalemate that had stymied talks on ending three years of violence and implementing the “road map'' peace plan," reported the AP news agency.
"Troubled Hollywood actress and rocker Courtney Love on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to drug possession charges stemming from a reported overdose she suffered last month. She faces a separate arraignment today in another courthouse here on a misdemeanour count of being under the influence of a controlled substance when she was arrested on Oct 2," reported the AFP news service.
"The British government’s food watchdog is proposing to ban junk food companies from sponsoring pop concerts and sports to combat obesity among children. The Food Standards Agency said its targets would include Pepsi-Cola, which sponsors concerts by Britney Spears, Miss Dynamite, Beyonce and Enrique Iglesias, and Coca-Cola, which has sponsored the boy band Busted and the girl band Mis-Teeq. McDonald’s, the sponsor of Justin Timberlake and ITV’s Pop Rivals, and Nestle, which supports ITV’s Pop Idol, would also be affected by a ban," reported the Sunday Telegraph.
"Italy's defence minister visited yesterday Italian soldiers wounded in a devastating suicide attack in southern Iraq that killed 27 people, and the US military said another American soldier had been killed. As Italy reeled from Wednesday's bombing of a military base in Nasiriyah that killed 18 Italians in the country's highest military death toll since World War Two, Japan announced it was deferring the planned despatch of non-combat troops to Iraq," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Some US generals believe the well-organised attacks on US-led occupation forces in Iraq are part of pre-war planning by ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his generals," reported the AFP news service.
"As the United States pledged to hand power to Iraqis faster, the Pentagon said yesterday that did not mean pulling out troops before they crushed guerillas who fight on, seven months after the fall of Saddam Hussein," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The US death toll in Iraq has surpassed the number of American soldiers killed during the first three years of the Vietnam War, the brutal Cold War conflict that cast a shadow over US affairs for more than a generation," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Preparations were being made yesterday for a first meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qorei, who has promised his new government will focus on securing a truce," reported the AFP news service.
"Four former heads of the Israeli Shin Beth interior security services warned in interviews published yesterday of the “disastrous” consequences of Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian territories. In the interviews with the top-selling daily Yediot Aharonot published yesterday, the four men accused the successive Israeli governments of carrying a large part of the blame for the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock and called for dismantling Jewish settlements," reported the AFP news service.
"Eight years after a war that left more than 200,000 Bosnians dead and two million driven from their homes, a Serbian leader visited the Bosnian capital on Thursday and for the first time said sorry. Svetozar Marovic, president of the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro, admitted that the people of Sarajevo, held within a brutal Serbian siege for more than three years, had suffered evil," reported the Guardian.
"It seems like a colossal case of bad timing on both sides of the Atlantic, a state visit to Britain while both President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are mired in slumping approval ratings because of continuing turmoil in Iraq. Blair stands to lose the most politically from the visit, US and British analysts suggest. Recent polls show a clear majority of British voters think Bush was wrong on Iraq and regard Blair's closeness to the president as bad for Britain," reported the AP news agency.
