"The Arab summit set to begin in two days was postponed Saturday after foreign ministers failed to bridge differences over peace overtures to Israel and plans for political reforms, the Tunisian hosts announced. The decision reflects deep divisions with the Arab world over peace initiatives after Monday's Israeli assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and over American efforts to pressure authoritarian Arab states into providing greater freedoms," reported the AP news agency.
"A series of first attempts by Palestinian militants to avenge the death of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin have failed, but the radical Islamic movement promised on Friday that it was only the beginning," reported the dpa news agency.
"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will meet with US President George W. Bush on April 14 in Washington as prospects for moving forward in the peace process worsened following the assassination of Hamas' spiritual leader earlier this week," reported the dpa news agency.
"A diplomatic rift between Britain and Mexico deepened on Friday when President Vicente Fox refused to accept London's explanation of what a British military group was doing in a Mexican cave system. Fox said Britain had not clarified questions about the six cave explorers, four of them members of the military, who were plucked from a cavern late on Thursday after spending 11 days underground. Flood waters trapped them in the caves," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Richard Clarke went from faceless bureaucrat to near-celebrity with a soaring bestseller blasting the Bush administration's handling of the war on terror, and the White House savaged in his book may have inadvertently helped create his perfect storm of publicity. Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, hit the shops on Monday and Clarke's book is already in its sixth printing with 550,000 in print and book stores clamouring for more copies as it stands atop the Amazon.com bestsellers list," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Al-Qaeda-linked militants have executed eight Pakistani soldiers taken hostage in fighting near the Afghan border. The latest deaths could spark an outburst of anger against the al-Qaeda militants, many of them Uzbeks, Arabs and Chechens whose local support could be threatened by the brutal killing," reported the Reuters news agency.
"North Korea yesterday rejected a US demand for a complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of its nuclear weapons programmes, calling it a plot to start a war and overthrow the government," reported the AP news agency.
"Egypt has offered to host a summit of Arab leaders, trying to resurrect a meeting that collapsed because of deep divisions over how to bring more democracy to the Middle East and tackle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Arab League leaders had planned to use the summit, which was slated to start Monday, to submit proposals for political reforms in response to U.S. calls for greater freedoms in the region," reported the AP news agency.
"During a 13-day reign of terror, a right-wing extremist set off nail bombs in three separate attacks on blacks, Asians and gays in London. Motivated by neo-Nazi beliefs and a hatred of minorities, David Copeland, 23, killed three people and wounded 129. He was convicted four years ago after being caught on some of the surveillance cameras which have proliferated around London, and after police spent thousands of hours poring over closed-circuit TV footage from the areas around the explosions," reported the AP news agency.
"The Australian government is examining the roots and scale of terrorism worldwide so it can better inform the public about the threat of attacks, Prime Minister John Howard said Monday. This is all part of the process of informing the Australian public about the nature of the terrorist threat," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should resign if he is formally charged with receiving bribes, one of his own Cabinet ministers said yesterday. Israel's chief prosecutor yesterday officially recommended indicting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on charges of accepting bribes from contractor David Appel," reported the news Agencies.
"Two foreigners were killed in fresh violence yesterday, as US overseer Paul Bremer delivered the keys of the first ministry to Iraqi officials as part of a gradual handover of power by June 30," reported the news Agencies.
"Spanish police probing the deadly train bombings here found the fingerprints on Saturday of two leading suspects at a rural house where traces of suspicious explosives were found," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Australia is to step up its war on terror again by expanding its key intelligence agency and bolstering anti-terrorism powers under new laws approved by the Cabinet, Prime Minister John Howard announced yesterday. Coming in the aftermath of the Madrid bombings which claimed more than 200 lives, Australia's new laws would allow suspects to be detained by police for questioning for up to 24 hours rather than for an initial period of four hours under current legislation," reported the AFP news service.
"Mexican Attorney-General's office announced it has opened a preliminary investigation against 13 members of a British caving expedition for carrying out unauthorised activities in Mexico," reported the AP news agency.
"An angry miner with dynamite strapped to his chest blew himself up inside Bolivia's congress Tuesday, killing himself and two police officers, authorities said. Authorities said the dead officers were members of the security police unit at the congress. President Carlos Mesa said the miner was a desperate man>/i> whose action had no political motivations," reported the AP news agency.
"Eight people were arrested under Britain's anti-terrorist laws yesterday in police raids in and around London which also netted half a tonne of a fertiliser that could be used to make a bomb. The eight men were all British citizens held under the Terrorism Act 2000 for suspected involvement in planning a terrorist attack, said Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch," reported the AFP news service.
"At least 10 people, including two suicide bombers, were killed in confrontations between alleged terrorists and police yesterday, as Uzbek forces laid siege to a group of terror suspects near the president's residence. There were reports of explosions and shooting throughout the day," reported the AP news agency.
"A suicide bomber blew up explosives in his car yesterday outside the house of a police chief south of here, killing himself and wounding seven others. In east Baghdad on Monday, gunmen fired at an Iraqi police checkpoint, killing a lieutenant," reported the AP news agency.
"Police and military clashed with suspected terrorists, including three suicide bombers, and 23 people were killed in a third day of violence yesterday that rattled the Uzbek capital during a sweep to round up Islamic militants," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he is determined to carry out his plan to disengage from the Palestinians despite a corruption probe and threats by his coalition partners to quit the government. And if his current centre-right government does not approve the disengagement plan, Sharon said, he would set up a new, moderate government instead. The tough talk came a day after Israel's state attorney recommended indicting Sharon for accepting bribes, a legal entanglement that could force his resignation," reported the AP news agency.
"President Bush agreed Tuesday to do what he had insisted for weeks he would not: allow National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify publicly and under oath before an independent panel investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The turnabout reflected administration concern that the president's strongest point with voters - his leadership in the war on terror - could be eroded if the high-publicity dispute over Rice's testimony lingered," reported the AP news agency.
"Still unable to find banned Iraqi weapons, the new U.S. weapons inspector said Tuesday his strategy is to expose Saddam Hussein's intentions regarding weapons of mass destruction," reported the AP news agency.
"The Spanish government named a Moroccan extremist group linked to al-Qaida as the main focus of the Madrid bombing probe and said Tuesday that investigators were making swift progress," reported the AP news agency.
"Pakistani officials on Tuesday again backed off claims that they killed or captured a major al-Qaida fugitive, saying a man they believed had been an intelligence chief for Osama bin Laden's organization was in fact a much less senior local figure," reported the AP news agency.
"Bomb threats against three U.S. passenger jets and two Amtrak trains triggered extensive security checks on Tuesday but no explosives were found, authorities said. Security officials, aided in some cases by sniffer dogs, took hours to sweep through the planes operated by Northwest Airlines. But the searches, of passengers and luggage as well as the airliners themselves, ended without incident," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The U.S. search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq will continue despite the failure so far to find them but the focus now includes whether Saddam Hussein intended to develop such weapons. The new direction of trying to determine whether the former Iraqi president was actively pursuing the development of banned weapons reflects the Bush administration's evolving public rationale for the war on Iraq," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Jubilant Iraqis dragged the burnt body of what appeared to be a foreigner through the streets of the volatile town of Falluja yesterday and threw stones at a corpse still inside a car engulfed with flames. In what appeared to be a separate incident, the US military said five of its coalition soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb west of Baghdad yesterday morning," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The White House reversed course under mounting pressure to allow Condoleeza Rice, President George W. Bush's national security advisor, to give sworn public testimony to the commission looking into the Sept 11 attacks. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have also agreed to appear in a private meeting before all 10 members of the commission, instead of just the chairman and vice chairman," reported the AP news agency.
"The White House reversed course under mounting pressure to allow Condoleeza Rice, President George W. Bush's national security advisor, to give sworn public testimony to the commission looking into the Sept 11 attacks. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have also agreed to appear in a private meeting before all 10 members of the commission, instead of just the chairman and vice chairman," reported the AFP news service.
"The Department of Justice on Tuesday filed a complaint on behalf of a Muslim girl who was suspended for wearing a religious head covering to her public school in Oklahoma," reported the Reuters news agency.
"British Muslim leaders urged every imam in the country yesterday to help police fight terrorism after the arrest of eight men believed to be Muslims in a major national anti-terror sweep. The appeal for vigilance was being sent to prayer leaders in over 1,000 mosques following the arrests and seizure of explosives on Tuesday in Britain's biggest anti-terror operation since the Sept 11 attacks," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israeli soldiers battled Palestinian gunmen holed up in a mental hospital yesterday in a flare-up of violence as US envoys began a visit to sound out Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on a Gaza pullout plan," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A roadside bomb injured three American troops in a US military convoy yesterday near Fallujah, a day after the grisly killing and mutilation of four American contract workers in the city. The top US administrator in Iraq said the deaths would not go unpunished," reported the AP news agency.
"The administration of US President George W. Bush is under investigation for its anti-terrorism policies before and after 9/11. Rice is due to testify under oath to an independent panel which last week heard from former counter terrorism expert Richard Clarke, who slammed the Bush government for not taking terrorist groups like al-Qaeda seriously and for focusing too much on Iraq in the aftermath of 9/11," reported the AFP news service.
"Many people focus on the so-called hawks around President George W. Bush but more attention should be given to the Vulcans, a pro-military group that runs US foreign policy, according to a new book. The group that includes Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice were given the name of the Roman God of Fire during the 2000 presidential election campaign, according to James Mann in his new book Rise of the Vulcans," reported the AFP news service.
