"US Secretary of State Colin Powell met Yasser Arafat in the Palestinian leader’s besieged headquarters yesterday after failing to persuade Israel to end a crushing 16-day-old military assault on the West Bank," reported the Reuters news agency.
"It is impossible for the Palestinians to agree to a truce without an Israeli troop withdrawal as it would amount to a surrender, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa warned in an interview yesterday. He added that halting the resistance without a withdrawal would mean a surrender, which Arab countries refuse. If Arafat is asked to accept security measures which amount to a surrender, all the Arab countries will support Arafat in rejecting these conditions. He also said that if the Palestinians were forced to sign a treaty which meets only Israeli interests, this treaty would have the same fate as the Israeli-Lebanese accord of May 17 (1983) which was thrown out the window," reported the AFP news service.
"Although Israel came into being on May 14, 1948, public holidays and commemorations are marked according to the Hebrew calendar, independence day falling this year on Wednesday, fifth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar. Israeli authorities have cancelled most of the festivities to mark the country’s national day on Wednesday for fear of attacks, a press report said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"Forces of rival Afghan commanders which clashed just west of here last week, exchanged fire again overnight and appeared to be preparing for more battles, witnesses and travellers from the area said yesterday," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Veteran Serbian politician and war crimes indictee Vlajko Stojiljkovic, who shot himself in the head outside the Yugoslav parliament on Thursday, died in hospital on Saturday evening, a doctor said," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez formally re-assumed the presidency early yesterday after he returned to the capital in the aftermath of a failed coup against him," reported the AFP news service.
"The death of the Queen Mother, said by royal insiders to be an arch-conservative, has opened the way for a modernisation of Britain’s tradition-bound monarchy, analysts believe," reported the AFP news service.
"Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called on the Islamic world yesterday to ban oil exports to Israel’s supporters for one month in an attempt to end the Israeli incursion into autonomous Palestinian territories," reported the dpa news agency.
"Israeli troops yesterday captured Marwan Barghouti, a close aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and a leader of a group that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks against Israel, including suicide bombings," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"The United Nations top human rights body condemned Israel yesterday for mass killings of Palestinians and demanded that it end its military offensive in the occupied territories. The annual session of the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights approved a resolution sponsored by Arab and Muslim states that also blasted Israel for gross violations of humanitarian law and affirmed the legitimate right of Palestinian people to resist. Israel, which has been denied the support of the US after Washington lost its seat on the commission last year, is routinely criticised at the annual commission sessions for its treatment of Palestinians," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday called for Lebanon and Syria to rein in Hizbollah guerillas whose recent border attacks against Israel, he said, threatened to escalate into a regional conflict. With no concrete gains to show for his first three days of peacemaking efforts, Powell appeared to be getting bogged down in the same intractable differences that wrecked earlier US and international missions to end the bloodletting," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The United States believes Osama bin Laden is hiding in the mountains of Pakistan along its border with Afghanistan and is seeking Islamabad’s permission to stage a raid there, the US newsweekly Time reported on Sunday," reported the AFP news service.
"US troops and their Afghan allies have come under fresh attack from al-Qaeda extremists in Afghanistan and are expecting more clashes over the summer, a spokesman said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"After surviving a failed coup attempt, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez worked on Sunday to improve his relations with the military while urging troops to forge a closer bond with civilian society," reported the AFP news service.
"The international scientific community closed ranks against human cloning, terming attempts to clone people as outrageous and wrong here yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"The return to power of Venezuelan populist President Hugo Chavez after a failed coup left officials in the United States and Europe red-faced on Monday and at odds with his Latin American neighbours. Leaders in Latin America, while they disliked Chavez’s fiery populism, had forcefully condemned his ouster on Friday, defending the principle that he was democratically elected," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israeli tanks rolled into three Palestinian suburbs of Jerusalem and re-entered a West Bank city yesterday, despite Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s promise to the United States to withdraw soldiers from most Palestinian areas by next week," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Palestinian intifada leader Marwan Barghouti will be tried in an Israeli court for the murder of hundreds of Israelis, babies, children, women, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"Tens of thousands of demonstrators, encouraged by a message from President George W. Bush, chanted and cheered solidarity with Israel at the US Capitol on Monday, equating the military onslaught on Palestinian militants with Bush’s war on terrorism. But the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations called the rally a desperate attempt to put positive spin on (Israel’s) brutal occupation of another people," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Hailing what it said would be a perfect match, Britain’s tabloid Sun daily called yesterday for Prince Charles to finally marry his long-term partner Camilla Parker Bowles," reported the AFP news service.
"Police have arrested 14 more suspected hardcore Kumpulan Militant Malaysia members, including a woman, under the Internal Security Act as they step up the war against terrorism. This brings to 62 the number of KMM members picked up since May last year. Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Norian Mai said the authorities had also identified more than 100 KMM members who are still at large," reported the Malaysian Star news agency.
"Israel was completing its pullback from the West Bank town of Jenin Friday, the military said, redeploying its forces on the outskirts of the town and allowing residents to search for relatives and belongings in a devastated refugee camp, where a U.N. official called the scene 'horrifying beyond belief," reported the Associated Press news agecny.
"A small plane slammed into the upper floors of the Pirelli Tower in the centre of Milan yesterday, killing at least three people and triggering fears of a repeat of the Sept 11 attacks," reported the Associated Press news agecny.
"An American fighter jet mistakenly dropped at least one laser-guided bomb on Canadian forces in Afghanistan during a live-fire training exercise yesterday. Canadian officials said four soldiers were killed and eight were injured. The bombing is among the worst friendly fire accidents since the US-led campaign began in October," reported the Associated Press news agecny.
"Three imprisoned Muslims on Wednesday filed a first class-action lawsuit accusing the US government of using ethnic and religious profiling to jail non-citizens after the Sept 11 attacks on the United States," reported the Reuters news agency.
"In its latest rebuff to demands for an independent body to decide the legal status of captives held here, the United States says the detainees have no right to lawyers now, and can be held as long as the US-led war on terrorism is on. Human rights lawyers say US authorities are holding the men illegally," reported the Associated Press news agecny.
"Fearing a fresh wave of Middle East violence, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Security Council yesterday it was in Israel’s interest to reverse course and accept a large armed international force in Palestinian areas," reported the Reuters news agency.
"An Indonesian man who allegedly planned a series of almost simultaneous bombings that killed 22 people in Manila in 2000 pleaded guilty yesterday to illegal possession of explosives and was sentenced to 12 years in prison," reported the Associated Press news agecny.
"The United States is sending another 2,700 troops to the Philippines for a joint military exercise aimed at helping the South-East Asian ally improve its external defence and ability to participate in UN peacekeeping missions, officials said yesterday," reported the Associated Press news agecny.
"Afghanistan’s ex-king Mohammad Zahir Shah stepped onto the soil of his homeland yesterday after 29 years in exile in Italy, carrying on his frail shoulders hopes for a sea of change in the nation’s warring politics. Pashtuns, mainly from southern Afghanistan, hope the king can become a rallying figure for them, particularly at a Loya Jirga, or grand council, in June that would either endorse Karzai’s Western-backed administration or choose a new government," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A leading US rights group issued a damning report yesterday on the Israeli army’s conduct, accusing soldiers of routinely forcing Palestinian civilians to open suspicious packages and search homes of suspected militants. New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said witness testimony suggests discipline among Israeli troops has unravelled severely over the past six months, and that some recent army violations on the West Bank amounted to war crimes. But, the Israeli army dismissed the HRW allegations as preposterous. However, HRW noted that the army had turned down repeated interview requests for its report. It said the Israeli government was taking a dangerous approach by turning a blind eye to mounting evidence of military abuses," reported the AFP news service.
"Israel pledged yesterday to withdraw from most West Bank cities by the end of the week but said its forces would besiege Yasser Arafat’s compound and Bethlehem’s Nativity church until militants inside surrendered," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The devastation of Jenin refugee camp, invaded by the Israel army, is horrific beyond belief, UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said yesterday, slamming Israel for not allowing rescue teams in after the battle," reported the AFP news service.
"Philippine gambling chiefs are planning to set up what is believed to be the world’s first casino university to spread the art of dealing cards and spinning a roulette wheel," reported the AFP news service.
"Thousands of mummies have been found in an Inca cemetery located beneath a shantytown on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, the archaeologists who made the discovery announced here on Wednesday," reported the AFP news service.
"Two youths squirted tomato ketchup in French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin’s face at his final presidential campaign rally on Wednesday - and were promptly given a ticking off by the former university professor. It has been a dull campaign, although last week two youths threw cream pies at another candidate, centrist Francois Bayrou," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Muslim countries that are economically weak can be easily terrorised by others and they will have to ask the non-Islamic world for help, warned Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad. He said it was rumoured that destroying Mecca and Madinah with nuclear bombs was one of the options some people were thinking of in the aftermath of the Sept 11 attack," reported the AFP news service.
"The Palestinians accused US Secretary of State Colin Powell of offering phoney promises of an Israeli army withdrawal, as Powell’s Middle East peace mission ended in apparent chaos," reported the AFP news service.
"International peacekeepers declared yesterday the Afghan capital was safe for the return home of former King Mohammad Zahir Shah after 29 years exile in Rome," reported the AFP news service.
"Israel this week re-opened a sprawling desert detention camp to hold some of the thousands of Palestinians it has rounded up during its 19-day West Bank sweep, an Israeli military official said on Tuesday, confirming reports by several human rights organisations. Palestinian West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub said re-opening the prison would only increase Palestinian desires for freedom and liberation. He said the Israelis will discover that they are wrong in their belief that opening this prison ... will break the determination and the unity of the Palestinian people," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in October 1999, will ask the people of Pakistan in an April 30 referendum if they want him to stay in office for another five years to continue his economic and political reforms. But he refused to say on Tuesday whether he would step down if he were to lose a referendum on extending his rule later this month," reported the Reuters news agency.
