"Former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said in comments published yesterday that he suspected both his UN office and his home in New York were bugged by the United States in the run-up to the war in Iraq. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Blix said that he expected to be bugged by the Iraqis but that he found the same behaviour from the United States disgusting. His comments echoed those of fellow former chief weapons inspector Richard Butler who said last week that at least four permanent members of the UN Security Council monitored his calls –the United States, Britain, France and Russia," reported the AP news agency.
"Pentagon and Pakistani officials yesterday denied an Iranian state radio report that Osama bin Laden was captured in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan a long time ago. The radio quoted its reporter as saying Osama had been in custody for a period of time, but a US announcement of the capture was being withheld by US President George W. Bush until closer to the November election," reported the AP news agency.
"US Roman Catholic priests reportedly molested more than 10,000 children over the past 50 years, according to two studies released on Friday documenting the scope of the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the American branch of the church. The offences typically occurred in the priest's home or in the church, and involved boys aged 11 to 14, according to the study by John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, which relied on self-reporting by the dioceses. Most of the alleged offences dated to the 1960s and 1970s, and 80% of them were homosexual in nature," reported the AFP news service.
"Several hundred Islamists held a rally in Bahrain on Friday to protest against the television reality show Big Brother produced in the Gulf Arab state, complaining that the programme was un-Islamic. We don't want such programmes because our families will be influenced. Our children would think that living together without being married is acceptable in Islam," reported the Reuters news agency.
"About 10 percent of Qalqiliya's 40,000 people have left during the past three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, the mayor's office says, either to go abroad or move deeper into the West Bank. The flight from Qalqiliya mirrors migration patterns across the territory and to a lesser extent in the Gaza Strip. Thousands have moved to other towns to avoid the hardships of living too close to army checkpoints and battle zones. There are also signs that thousands more," reported the AP news agency.
"Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council put aside its differences yesterday and agreed to an interim constitution, a pillar of Washington's plan to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis by June 30. The document will be officially signed tomorrow. The 25-member council had missed the Saturday deadline to strike a deal because of divisions over the role of Islam, quotas for women in government and Kurdish demands for autonomy," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The interim constitution's backing for a federal state also recognises the northern zone Kurds have run since wresting it from Baghdad's hands after the 1991 Gulf War, one element of a bid for autonomy that some Arabs fear will split Iraq," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The United States' Homeland Security Department is planning to station American inspectors in foreign airports to screen passengers, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Citing US Customs chief Robert Bonner, the story said the initiative, which is still being developed, would aim to identify and catch possible terrorists before they board a US-bound plane. US Customs was considering seven specific cites but has yet to seek support from host countries, the story quoted Bonner as saying," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The United States is concerned that Russian President Vladimir Putin is accumulating too much power, US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said in an interview published yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"Thousands of Aboriginal workers whose wages were paid into official trust funds and never returned have been compared to Nazi slave labourers in a secret government document," reported the AFP news service.
"A day after being accused by a parliamentary panel of exaggerating the case for joining the Iraq war, the Australian government changed its emphasis yesterday by citing its alliance with the United States as a crucial factor in the decision. Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer both stressed the importance of the alliance in the decision to commit 2,000 Australian troops to the US-led conflict," reported the AFP news service.
"Some 3,000 would-be secret agents have responded to an official drive to boost the size of Britain's domestic intelligence service, a newspaper reported yesterday. The government announced last month it would increase its home security service, known as MI5, by 50%, hiring 1,000 new staff to counter terrorism," reported the AFP news service.
"The Bush administration has insisted that Haiti's exiled president was not kidnapped or strong-armed into fleeing, despite Jean-Bertrand Aristide's claims that the US military forced him to leave," reported the AP news agency.
"Simultaneous explosions ripped through crowds of worshippers yesterday at Shi’ite Muslim shrines in Baghdad and Karbala on the holiest day of the Shi’ite calendar, and a US official said at least 143 people were killed. It was the bloodiest day since the end of major fighting. The blasts, using a combination of suicide bombers and planted explosives, came during the Shi’ite festival of Ashoura," reported the AP news agency.
"Gunmen shot and killed a well-known adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza early yesterday, security officials said, feeding fears of growing lawlessness and chaos in Palestinian areas. The murder of Khalil al-Zaben, 59, who was hit by 12 bullets as he left his office, is an apparent sign of the weakening of Arafat's Palestinian Authority, which is accompanied by growing violence and rising poverty," reported the AP news agency.
