"The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report outlines how Libya relied on an intricate network of illicit atomic suppliers who skirted international sanctions to sell sensitive technology to states like Libya, Iran and North Korea," reported the Reuters news agency.
"President George W. Bush yesterday defended his decision to go to war in Iraq and his administration's post-war efforts to bring democracy to that country against Democratic criticism. The President's remarks in his weekly radio address marked the second time this week he has emphasised his leadership on the war on terror, with Iraq cited as the chief example. The address reprised a speech he gave earlier in the week during an appearance at an army base in Louisiana," reported the AP news agency.
"The US administrator in Iraq has said it will not be possible to hold elections for a year to 15 months, putting him at odds with the country's most powerful religious leader who has insisted any delay must be brief. Paul Bremer, speaking in an interview with the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television channel, said Iraq needed time to prepare for elections," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Japan kept security tight across the country yesterday as its largest contingent of troops to date prepared to leave on a controversial mission to Iraq. About 140 ground troops were expected to set off later in the day from Chitose airport in Hokkaido on a humanitarian mission that has been criticised as a violation of Japan's pacifist constitution," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The international Red Cross visited Saddam Hussein in jail for the first time yesterday, and the ousted dictator wrote a letter to his family. We want to see whether he is getting enough food and water and also to check his health condition and to give him the possibility to write a message to his family which he did," reported the AP news agency.
"Britain's defence ministry could face lawsuits over the deaths of at least 18 Iraqi civilians allegedly killed by British soldiers, a leading London-based newspaper said yesterday. The incidents, the Guardian daily said, were hitherto unreported in Britain and related to Iraqis who died when they were fired on by mistake or were innocent bystanders to operations allegedly conducted by British troops," reported the AFP news service.
"Nearly all of the donor countries who made large pledges to Iraq's reconstruction have committed to make good on their promises, World Bank officials said on Friday, a week ahead of an international meeting to decide how the funds should be channelled. One official, who asked not to be named, said the bank was optimistic it could start routing the aid into projects in Iraq after June, perhaps even earlier," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, flying to Kuwait yesterday on a previously unannounced trip to the Gulf, blamed al-Qaeda guerillas for violence in Iraq," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Palestinians called on the International Court of Justice yesterday to declare Israel's West Bank barrier illegal, arguing it would wreck the chances of a peaceful settlement in the Middle East and would not halt suicide attacks. Israel stayed away from the proceedings it regards as political but encouraged anti-terror protests outside the court and cited a suicide bombing that killed eight passengers on a Jerusalem bus on Sunday as proof the barrier was necessary. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip declared a Day of Rage against the project that has separated them from their fields, schools and medical services. Israeli troops fired tear gas at some 2,500 protesters near Tulkarem," reported the news Agencies.
"The International Court of Justice (ICJ) now sitting in the Hague has the competence to give an advisory opinion to the UN General Assembly on the legal consequences of the wall built by Israel in occupied Palestinian territory despite objections that it would politicise the Court, Prof Michael Crawford, legal counsel for Palestine, said at the opening of the case in the Hague yesterday. On assertions by Israel, which has refused to recognise the Court's competence on this issue he said it was not a matter within Israel's domestic jurisdiction and not a matter where it has a sovereign privilege to act," reported the Bernama news agency.
"The presiding judge in former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial has resigned for health reasons just days before the prosecution begins wrapping up its case," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew into Iraq yesterday to gauge security risks ahead of a handover of power to Iraqis and weigh an insurgency highlighted by a fresh suicide bombing in northern Iraq," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A subtext to this year's presidential campaign is the intense anger that many Democrats are directing towards Bush, an attitude that has been growing in recent months. Fully a quarter of Americans mostly Democrats tell pollsters they have a very unfavourable opinion of the president, more than double the number from last April. When only Democrats are polled, more than half report they feel that way," reported the AP news agency.
"Four young Australian men of Sri Lankan origin have accused officials in the United States of ethnic profiling, saying they were hauled off a flight before departure, handcuffed and interrogated for hours on suspicion of terrorism. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday he doubted the men were targeted for racial reasons but added that his staff raised concerns about last month's incident at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey with a senior US State Department official," reported the AP news agency.
"South Korea inaugurated its controversial Iraq troop dispatch yesterday, but the ceremonial mood was marred by a deadly explosion in the city the soldiers will soon be guarding and by North Korea's blistering condemnation over joining a US war of aggression. The mission is unpopular with the South Korean public, but backed by all major political parties. President Roh Moo-hyun called it an important show of support for the United States, South Korea's top ally," reported the AP news agency.
"Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is confident that the United States will not impose sanctions against Malaysia because a Malaysian company had unwittingly gotten involved in the production of components of a nuclear centrifuge. The Prime Minister believed that the United States understood that the Malaysian Government was not involved in the affair. Commenting on a foreign news magazine report that the United States was considering sanctions against the country for its role in producing nuclear weapon components, Abdullah said: I dont think they will go to such an extent because of this small incident," reported the Malaysia Star newspaper.
"Malaysia has reiterated that the wall built by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal and must be dismantled and its further construction immediately halted. Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the wall, with sections constructed deep inside the occupied territory, was illegal under international law and a de facto attempt by Israel to annex substantial parts of the Palestinian territory. Syed Hamid rejected views from some countries that the UN General Assembly, by requesting the ICJ to give an advisory opinion on the wall, was trying to politicise the world court, saying Malaysia is quite astonished by the position adopted by some states that clearly hold the view that the construction of the wall is contrary to international law, and yet at the same time request that the court does not arrive at such a conclusion because the matter was 'highly political'," reported the Bernama news agency.
"Pakistani troops detained at least 25 suspects and blew up two houses in an offensive against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants yesterday in a remote tribal area near the Afghan border, officials said. A day earlier, US and Pakistani military officials said the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden remained a mystery, despite a British news report saying his location had been narrowed down to Pakistani mountains near the Afghan border," reported the Reuters news agency.
"One in five Americans would likely pay to watch a televised execution of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden if he were found guilty and sentenced to death but more than a third said executions should not be televised, a poll released on Monday said. A national telephone poll of more than 1,000 people aged 18 or older, done for TRIO cable network by Harris Interactive, asked respondents who they would most likely pay to watch executed if executions were shown on pay-per-view television," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed yesterday to complete his security fence regardless of the opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as Israelis and Palestinians followed closely the second day of hearings on the legality of the West Bank barrier at The Hague," reported the news Agencies.
"A top al-Qaeda leader warned US President George W. Bush in an audiotape broadcast yesterday to prepare for more attacks on the United States. Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, also appeared yesterday to single out France in its league of enemies, accusing Paris of displaying Crusader hatred towards Islam by banning Muslim headscarves from state classrooms. France is the country of freedom which defends freedom to show the body and to be immoral and depraved. In France you're free to show yourself but not to dress modestly, he said in reference to the headscarf ban newly approved by parliament," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The world court hearings into Israel's West Bank barrier wrapped up yesterday with arguments by pro-Palestinian parties that the massive structure was destroying the chances for peace in the Middle East. Israel, which boycotted the three days of hearings at The Hague, voiced hope afterwards that the UN's International Court of Justice (ICJ) would not fall into a trap and decline to issue any verdict on the barrier's legality. The Palestinians, who argue Israel is in clear breach of international law by building the barrier on their land, were optimistic that the court would find against the Jewish state," reported the news Agencies.
"Israel is to shorten the planned route of its West Bank separation barrier by some 80kms, military sources said yesterday as world court hearings on the legality of the vast project entered the third and final day. It was the second move in four days to reduce the overall length of the West Bank barrier and was clearly timed to coincide with the ongoing arguments on the barrier's legality in the International Court of Justice (ICJ)," reported the AFP news service.
"Israeli security forces raided four branches of Palestinian banks yesterday, trying to seize money transferred to Palestinian militant groups from abroad and other areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Dozens of Palestinians threw stones at soldiers who clamped a curfew on downtown Ramallah during the raids. Seventeen Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets and live rounds, with three of them in critical condition. The raids by the Shin Bet security service marked Israel's largest-scale effort yet in more than three years of fighting to stop the flow of funds to Palestinian militant groups, including from Lebanese Hizbollah fighters," reported the AP news agency.
"The British government was accused by leading charities yesterday of allowing the export of deadly weapons components to countries where human rights abusers could use them to kill, torture and rape at gunpoint. International charity Oxfam accused the government of exercising double standards on export licences, making it easier to obtain a licence for weapons components while tightening up on licences for entire weapons," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The United States has charged two suspected al-Qaeda members with conspiracy to commit war crimes, the first Guantanamo Bay prisoners to face criminal charges, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. The Defence Department said Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul of Yemen and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi of Sudan were charged on Saturday with a single count each and would be brought before a military tribunal for the first US trials of their kind since World War Two," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US President George W. Bush's decision on Tuesday to back a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage may put his vice-president in a tough spot. Vice-president Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary, who works for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, is openly gay.," reported the Reuters news agency.
"For the first time in nearly two decades, U.S. oil companies with holdings in Libya received White House permission on Thursday to negotiate the resumption of once-lucrative deals stalled by bilateral sanctions imposed in 1986. The Bush administration ended a long-standing ban on travel to Libya and invited American companies to begin planning their return after Moammar Gadhafi's government affirmed that it was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988," reported the AP news agency.
"British intelligence spied on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in the run-up to the Iraq war, former British Cabinet minister Clare Short said yesterday. Yes, absolutely? These things are done, and in the case of Kofi's office it's been done for some time, said Short in an interview on BBC radio. She added that she had read transcripts of Annan's conversations," reported the AFP news service.
"The United States lifted a long-standing ban on travel to Libya yesterday after Muammar Gaddafi's government affirmed that it was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988. The White House announced it had lifted travel curbs that have been in place for 23 years against Libya, a country which the United States had long branded a sponsor of state terrorism," reported the AP news agency.
"Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the leading Shiite cleric in Iraq, demanded in a statement released yesterday that the United Nations Security Council pass a resolution setting a date for general elections by the end of the year," reported the AFP news service.
"An unarmed man who said he was a victim of terrorism and needed help from US President George W. Bush climbed over the White House fence on Wednesday, and was heading across the front lawn when Secret Service agents in black SWAT-team uniforms apprehended him, witnesses and officials said. The man, dressed in jeans, a beige jacket and sunglasses, climbed the fence along Pennsylvania Avenue and was quickly brought down by a security dog as the agents approached with guns drawn," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Afghanistan yesterday amid stepped up American and Pakistani operations against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. US officials said he would meet US military commanders and President Hamid Karzai to discuss long-term security for Afghanistan, still racked by violence blamed on rebels including remnants of the ousted Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. The US military appears increasingly confident of finding al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and other senior militant figures this year," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Pesident George W. Bush has an unlikely ally in his effort to show that he did his National Guard duty during the Vietnam War: the often political and frequently irreverent Doonesbury comic strip. The strip is offering $10,000 to anyone who can show Bush served in the Alabama Air National Guard. The hitch is the winner will not actually receive the reward. Instead the cash will be donated in the winner's name to the United Service Organisation, which entertains American troops," reported the Reuters news agency.
