"The flags of seven new east European members were hoisted at Nato's headquarters on Friday, but celebrations fizzled out as divisions resurfaced over Iraq. US Secretary of State Colin Powell called on the alliance to consider a wider role to stabilise post-war Iraq, but Germany countered that Nato had enough to do expanding security in Afghanistan, keeping peace in the Balkans and fighting terrorism," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The United States has imposed sanctions against 13 foreign companies in seven countries because of credible information that they sold equipment and technology to Iran that could be used in nuclear, biological or chemical weapons programmes," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Italian police detained more than 100 people suspected of having links to Muslim militants in co-ordinated swoops across the country on Friday. Working with the secret service, police detained 106 people, most of them Moroccan immigrants. Fifteen of those held were to be deported because their papers were not in order," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel will pull out of all the Gaza Strip and four small settlements in the West Bank by next year, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published on Friday, revealing for the first time the scope of his unilateral disengagement plan," reported the AP news agency.
"Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said he was unmoved by a veiled threat from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to assassinate him. Speaking in English at his battered headquarters here yesterday, a day after Sharon made his threat in an interview with Israeli newspapers. Sharon's threat to assassinate Arafat drew criticism from Israel's main ally, the United States," reported the Reuters news agency.
"At least three suspects wanted for the Madrid train bombings set off a bomb when cornered in a Madrid suburb on Saturday, killing themselves and a policeman as officers raided their apartment," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Prime Minister Tony Blair on Saturday came under fresh pressure over the way he took Britain to war on Iraq, after US Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged key intelligence no longer appeared solid. Powell's remarks prompted calls from British critics of the war for Blair's government to explain whether claims it had made about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes in pre-war debate were also from the same source," reported the AFP news service.
"US Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged on Friday that the most dramatic part of his presentation to the United Nations making the case for war on Iraq was based on flawed intelligence. Powell also said he hoped a commission investigating the US intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction would reveal how the CIA ended up depending on unreliable sources for key evidence he used to argue for war," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Nato's Iraq war divisions resurfaced on Friday when the United States urged the alliance to consider a wider role in stabilising the Middle Eastern state but anti-war allies France and Germany refused," reported the Reuters news agency.
"At least two followers of Shi'ite Muslim radical leader Moqtada Sadr were killed on Saturday after throwing themselves in front of US tanks during a demonstration," reported the AFP news service.
"Spanish-led troops and Iraqi police fought a three-hour gun battle with Shi'ite militiamen near Najaf that left 20 Iraqis and four Salvadoran soldiers dead yesterday. The shooting began after protesting militiamen marched on a Spanish-run military base in Kufa, near here, to denounce the arrest of an aide to a radical Shi'ite cleric and last week's closure by US authorities of a militant Baghdad newspaper," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa has dropped Algeria from a North African tour designed to muster support for an early Arab summit to replace the one which Tunisia unilaterally called off last week," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The top US administrator in Iraq declared a radical Shi'ite cleric an outlaw yesterday after his supporters rioted in the capital and four other cities in fighting that killed at least 52 Iraqis, eight US troops and a Salvadoran soldier," reported the AP news agency.
"French counter-espionage services yesterday arrested 15 people in early-morning raids aimed at the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), blamed for the Casablanca bombings in May 2003 as well as last month's attacks in Madrid. Of the nine men and six women detained in the raids, between six and eight are suspected of having links with the GICM," reported the AFP news service.
"Palestinians might not get a state for many years as a result of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in interviews published yesterday. He also said Israel was no longer bound by a pledge to the United States not to harm Yasser Arafat, saying the Palestinian leader and the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah guerillas, Hassan Nasrallah, were potential targets for assassination," reported the AP news agency.
"US troops battled Iraqi guerillas yesterday on the edges of Fallujah, which hundreds of marines and Iraqi troops have surrounded in a major operation to pacify one of Iraq's most violent cities. The military reported four marines killed in the area. The Americans were killed by hostile fire on Monday, bringing to five the number of marines killed that day," reported the AP news agency.
"Iran will stop building and assembling centrifuges for uranium enrichment this week, the country's nuclear chief said yesterday after a meeting with the chief UN weapons inspector. Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said the country would voluntarily suspend its centrifuge work starting April 9," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli troops discovered a weapons smuggling tunnel between Egypt and the Gaza Strip yesterday and blew it up," reported the AP news agency.
"The honeymoon for Australia's new opposition leader Mark Latham appeared to be ending, with an opinion poll yesterday showing a bruising debate over when to bring Australian troops home from Iraq had dented his popularity," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Support among Americans for US President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war has fallen to 40% after last week's mutilation killings of US contractors, according to a new poll issued on Monday. The president's overall job approval and other ratings were also at or near record lows," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Influential Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy compared President George W. Bush on Monday to disgraced former Republican president Richard Nixon and the war in Iraq with the Vietnam war," reported the AFP news service.
"The Spanish government called for calm as troops and police patrolled potential targets after a series of bombings and a purported al-Qaeda threat to create rivers of blood in Spain. Front-page newspaper pictures yesterday showed combat troops guarding a dam, adding to the feeling of a country under siege," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US forces lost at least 12 marines in their worst single death toll in Iraq this year as occupation forces battled Shi'ite and Sunni opponents yesterday and US President George W. Bush vowed to crush those he called thugs and killers," reported the AFP news service.
"Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader called for President George W. Bush to be impeached for deceiving the American people night after night after night about US involvement in Iraq," reported the AP news agency.
"Media baron Rupert Murdoch has backed George W. Bush to win a second term in this year's US presidential elections, saying US voters backed Bush's efforts in Iraq. Murdoch, the Australian-born head of News Corp, said yesterday Bush's handling of Iraq and the resurgent US economy would ensure the electorate kept him in the White House," reported the AFP news service.
"South Korea's government said Friday it will place a virtual ban on travel by its citizens to Iraq after seven missionaries became the second group of South Koreans detained there this week by armed men. The decision came at a snap meeting of the National Security Council to assess the worsening Iraqi violence," reported the AP news agency.
"Gunmen kidnapped three Japanese yesterday in an apparent new tactic to pressure US allies in Iraq while Shi’ite Muslim militias held partial control over three southern Iraqi cities and Sunni insurgents killed a US Marine in the battle for Fallujah. A statement by the hitherto unknown Iraqi group called Saraya al-Mujahideen (Mujahideen Brigades), shown by Al-Jazeera, gave Japan three days from the airing of the video to withdraw its troops from Iraq before it killed the hostages," reported the news Agencies.
"US-led coalition forces do not have control of the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kut, where Shi'ite militiamen have seized control of key buildings in the centre of town, the top American general in Iraq said yesterday. Lt-Gen Ricardo Sanchez said coalition troops in the cities – who include Ukrainian and Spanish soldiers – were in their bases on the outskirts," reported the news Agencies.
"Iraq is on the verge of civil war, former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said in an interview published yesterday. Blix said Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair took us for a ride about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," reported the AFP news service.
"American commanders are considering whether to send more forces to Iraq to quell a surge in violence and some troops scheduled to leave soon might have to stay longer, Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said. In the clearest signal yet that US officials are likely to take steps to increase the overall number of troops, Rumsfeld said on Wednesday officials would be managing the pace of troop rotations to ensure that seasoned troops now in Iraq would remain to see the current spate of violence through," reported the AP news agency.
"Thousands of Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims backed by cars full of food and medical supplies yesterday headed on foot towards the town of Fallujah which has been besieged by US forces. The people answered a call by Muslim groups for a peaceful march to carry supplies to residents of the Sunni town where dozens of Iraqis have been killed since US marines launched an offensive on Sunday to wipe out insurgents," reported the AFP news service.
"Corpses littered the streets of the Iraqi town of Fallujah yesterday as US marines met ferocious resistance in the Sunni Muslim bastion, which their commander compared to the Vietnam war. As the marines inched forward block-by-block taking sniper fire and hit-and-run attacks with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, a US medic said the resistance was more intense than in last spring's invasion," reported the AFP news service.
"Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim uprising is transforming America's coalition partners from peacekeepers into warriors – a role few of them wanted or were equipped to handle. For months, most of the 24,000 soldiers from nearly 40 US partner countries had faced relatively little danger compared with beleaguered American units facing daily attacks in the volatile Sunni Triangle or in the capital, Baghdad," reported the AP news agency.
"Iraq could become a terrorist Disneyland and the conflict there is already inspiring a growing number of attacks worldwide, terrorism experts say. While Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network is the spearhead, local groups of enraged Islamic militants from South-East Asia to Europe are seen as posing an even bigger threat," reported the AFP news service.
"White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said yesterday the administration discussed doing something against Iraq after the Sept 11 attacks and drew up contingency plans, but decided against taking action and to stay focused on Afghanistan," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Spain was building up to a tense long Easter weekend holiday yesterday, keenly aware that a group of Islamic militants who blew themselves up when cornered by police last Saturday had planned more attacks this weekend," reported the news Agencies.
"With just four days to go before Easter, dozens of Palestinian Christians flock daily to the Nativity Church in the hope of hearing that they have received a much-coveted Israeli permit to allow them to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate Easter Sunday. But Israel, which has imposed a complete shutdown on the Palestinian territories following its assassination late last month of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, has only issued a handful of permits, fearing Palestinian militants will use the opportunity to carry out a revenge attack," reported the AFP news service.
"Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip has set off a flurry of contacts between Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority and the militant group Hamas on how to govern the area after a pullout. The Gaza pullout, along with the evacuation of four West Bank settlements, is part of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral plan of disengagement from the Palestinians," reported the AP news agency.
"A Moscow court yesterday handed a 20-year jail sentence to a young Chechen woman who had tried to set off a bomb in the centre of the Russian capital last year, media reported. Although the attack failed, a Russian bomb disposal expert died trying to defuse the bomb hidden in her rucksack, which contained an equivalent of 400 grammes of TNT," reported the AFP news service.
"China expressed concern yesterday about the spiraling violence in Iraq, saying it supports sending a UN team back to the troubled country," reported the AP news agency.
