"The president of an international aid organisation said he was expelled from Israel along with four colleagues as they arrived to start a medical mission in the Palestinian territories partly funded by the European Union," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"The United Nations agreed to delay a mission to the West Bank Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, while Washington mulled a Saudi peace plan and called again for an immediate halt to Israeli military operations. Israel had initially accepted the mission, then threatened to block it, apparently fearing its work would add to a worldwide outcry at the devastation in the camp, scene of the fiercest fighting of the West Bank offensive. Nabil Abu Rdainah, an adviser to Arafat, said that it is a challenge to the Security Council and it is obvious that Israel has something to hide," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Afghanistan yesterday just hours after Kabul airport was hit by rockets and new fighting broke out near the site of the biggest ground battle of the Afghan War. A further cloud was thrown over Rumsfeld’s first visit to Afghanistan in more than four months when an Afghan Air Force MiG-21 crashed on the outskirts of this capital just before he landed at Bagram, the main US military base in Afghanistan just outside the capital," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Many Americans believe lawyers are greedy, corrupt and care more about winning than pursuing justice, but confidence in the legal profession has improved since the Sept 11 attacks, according to a survey," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The United States said yesterday that its intensified military presence in Asia was aimed at preventing terrorist networks from regrouping and was not intended to counter China. Some analysts have suggested Washington could be using the war on terror to spread its forces in Asia and increase its influence in a region that is coming under China’s shadow," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Indian troops deployed in the world’s highest battlefield in Kashmir have to brave more than harsh weather and enemy fire - the brutal conditions also lead to impotence, a report said yesterday. However, the army’s Research and Referral hospital here has found a solution for the problem - an inflatable penis implant which uses a bladder and a pump to maintain an erection, the report said," reported the AFP news service.
"A kidnapped Philippine TV reporter, whose guides were beheaded as she tried to contact guerillas linked to al-Qaeda, was freed yesterday after nearly 100 days in captivity," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Pakistan’s Supreme Court rejected yesterday an opposition plea to halt an April 30 referendum on extending military President Pervez Musharraf’s rule for another five years," reported the Reuters news agency.
"German police revised down yesterday the death toll from a high school shooting in the eastern town of Erfurt, saying 17 were dead including the gunman instead of 18," reported the AFP news service.
"US Roman Catholic cardinals, battling a child sex scandal in the church, said on Friday they support a zero-tolerance policy toward abusive priests. The statement seemed designed to reconcile divergent positions on the matter ahead of an upcoming conference of bishops that will vote on a nationwide policy. While cardinals and bishops agree on the need to defrock priests found guilty of the most serious offences, they have been divided about the best way to handle one-time-only sex abusers," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A Hong Kong barrister has stirred up outrage by referring to a gang sex attack as a more gentlemanly sort of rape, a news report said yesterday. Peggy Lam, chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Women, argued and said that rape is rape, and there is no degree of gentlemanliness to it," reported the dpa news agency.
"The chief of the US armed forces flew yesterday to an island stronghold of Muslim rebels linked to the al-Qaeda network and said the United States was ready to help the Philippines rescue two Americans held hostage for almost a year," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US forces based in the troubled eastern Afghan province of Paktia have held talks with rival warlords in a bid to halt clashes feared to have left more than 100 dead or injured, US sources said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"Ahmad Shah Masood, the legendary Northern Alliance military chief who was assassinated two days before the Sept 11 attacks in the United States, was yesterday declared Afghanistan’s national hero," reported the AFP news service.
"The three dozen participants, Japanese- American men, women and children, were re-enacting what happened to their relatives in 1942, when 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forced into 10 US internment camps on orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbour. Artist Howard Ikemoto said it’s the kind of incarceration that is still happening and can happen at anytime to any group, which right now it’s focused on Arabs. He asserted that It’s not about feeling sorry for oneself, but it’s about making sure that it doesn’t happen again," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"The Bush administration is plotting a potential major air campaign and ground invasion early next year to topple the Iraqi government of President Saddam Hussein, the New York Times reported yesterday," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Boys dressed as suicide bombers and girls brandishing cardboard swords took part in a massive anti-US street parade in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday to celebrate Saddam Hussein’s birthday. Zuhair, a local merchant, said the celebrations are large this year because of the American threat to bring down Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Besides, devastating Israeli sweeps into Palestinian towns since late March added extra momentum to the parade," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) are taking credit for President George W. Bush’s election, saying they’re taking aim next at unseating gun control advocates in Congress and defeating campaign finance reform in court," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"A top Central Intelligence Agency official has warned Americans that a new terrorist attack is unavoidable, despite all efforts to prevent it and the fact that the CIA is now stealing more secrets than ever. CIA Deputy Director for Operation James Pavitt said that now for the hard truth, despite the best efforts of so much of the world, the next terrorist attack – it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when," reported the AFP news service.
"Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is set for a comfortable victory in a referendum tomorrow to extend his rule for five years, but in the process he has damaged his credibility both at home and abroad," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The head of Afghanistan’s interim administration Hamid Karzai may have been labelled the best dressed man by Italian designer Gucci, but Indian animal rights activists have strong reservations about his attire. According to animal rights activists here, the downy black hat which Karzai sports is made by an act of extreme cruelty to ewes," reported the AFP news service.
"Nine people were killed in separatist-linked violence in Kashmir and a soldier died in an exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani troops in the disputed region, officials said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"Armed attackers raided a Christian neighbourhood here yesterday, killing 12 people and raising fresh doubts about the chances for peace in the troubled Maluku region," reported the AFP news service.
"Israel agreed on Sunday to a proposal by US President George W. Bush to end a month-long siege of Yasser Arafat, but defied the United Nations over a fact-finding mission to the ravaged Jenin refugee camp," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A sudden blast rips through the calm that has settled on Jenin camp after the battle that left much of the jerry-built neighbourhood in ruins: a bulldozer on its mammoth clean-up mission has just triggered one of the many explosives left behind," reported the AFP news service.
"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told his Cabinet yesterday that US President George W. Bush had proposed sending US or British security forces to act as jailers for Palestinian terrorists holed up in Yasser Arafat’s offices, an Israeli official said," reported the AFP news service.
"A radical wing of the Chechen rebel leadership confirmed yesterday that the notorious Arab warlord Khattab was dead, in a statement to the separatist news agency Kavkaz-Centre. However, Chechen rebels repeatedly dismissed the claims as Moscow’s propaganda, even after Russian RTR state television broadcast several minutes of amateur film apparently showing the body of Khattab, recognisable by his trademark flowing black hair and beard," reported the AFP news service.
"The US government plans to decide this week whether it will let airline pilots carry stun guns in the cockpit, an anti-terror measure that key officials favour over arming crew members with hand guns," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A Roman Catholic priest in the southern Spanish tourist town of Nerja has temporarily stepped down after his former homosexual lover distributed a videotape of the two of them among parishioners. Spain's Catholic Church regards homosexuality as a sin but condemns discrimination against gay people. However, it insists that priests strictly uphold their celibacy vow," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Urns with the remains of two children murdered by the Nazis in so-called hospital experiments in the early 1940s were buried in a ceremony in Austria on Sunday afternoon. Their remains had been preserved in bottles for medical purposes and kept on the hospital premises for decades. The ceremony was also for hundreds of other children killed by the Nazis at Spiegelgrund Hospital here," reported the dpa news agency.
"Bitter feuding among warlords has turned eastern Afghanistan into a war zone, causing furious residents to turn their anger on an interim regime they say is weak and the United States, which they say is uncaring. Some say they are even praying for a return of the Taliban, whose heavy-handed rule sent most of the country’s warlords into exile. He warned that if it continued, US forces could come under attack by the people of the area," reported the AP news agency.
"Six Palestinian militants wanted by Israel will be transferred to a jail in Jericho under international guard as part of a deal lifting the month-long siege around Yasser Arafat’s office, a Palestinian official said yesterday," reported the Agencies.
"The European Court of Human Rights yesterday rejected an appeal from a terminally ill and paralysed British woman seeking the right to commit suicide with the aid of her husband," reported the AP news agency.
"Indonesia’s military said yesterday it wants martial law imposed on the Maluku islands after at least 12 people were killed in weekend attacks that raised fresh doubts about a fragile peace pact in the troubled region," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Pakistanis appear to believe the result of today’s referendum to give military ruler Pervez Musharraf five more years as president is a foregone conclusion despite protests from opposition parties," reported the AFP news service.
"Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is prepared to make a substantial formal offer to compensate the families of the Lockerbie airliner bombing within a month, according to Time magazine," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Camp X-Ray was emptied on Monday as the US military finished moving 300 al-Qaeda and Taliban captives out of the hastily built chain-link cells and into a more permanent prison at the US Naval Base in southeast Cuba," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel defied the United Nations over a probe into death and destruction at Jenin refugee camp yesterday, but began to pull its forces out of Palestinian-ruled areas here following US appeals. But in a snub to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Israel’s security cabinet decided to keep UN investigators away from the battered Jenin refugee camp despite his call for the fact-finding mission to begin immediately," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Philippine police shot dead four suspected Muslim guerillas yesterday and said they had foiled another rebel plot to attack this southern Christian city," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Philippine government yesterday rejected a call by Muslim guerillas linked to the al-Qaeda network for negotiations on the release of a US missionary couple held hostage for almost a year," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Indonesian government yesterday urged local authorities in the troubled Maluku islands to take tough action against those inciting religious violence but stopped short of imposing martial law," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Pakistan’s military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, said yesterday he was confident of victory as voting got under way in a controversial referendum on whether to extend his rule for five more years," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for the past 18 months, will be released within a day or two a government source said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"A student in eastern Bosnia burst into his high school, shot and killed one teacher and wounded another before killing himself on Monday, police said. The school shooting was the first of its kind in Bosnia and the second in Europe within days. On Friday, a former pupil at a school in Germany gunned down 16 teachers and pupils before killing himself," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Four men who say they were molested by a priest in the 1960s sued Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of the largest US Catholic community, on Monday, for allegedly covering up sexual abuse by clergymen for years. Mahony was at the centre of a controversy earlier this year after he sacked or retired seven priests accused of child abuse - including the man accused in Monday’s lawsuits - but refused to divulge their identities. His silent and low-key approach to the growing global scandal sparked public anger and concerns that some abuse cases were covered up," reported the AFP news service.
"A court in Indonesia’s Central Java province has sentenced a priest to four years in prison for sexually abusing refu- gee children under his care, the Jakarta Post reported yesterday. The prosecutor had sought a five-year sentence for the priest, who ran the Foundation for the Village Bible Society," reported the AFP news service.
"A new restaurant opened here on Monday catering to the most exotic of palettes, offering bugs, ants, worms and hornets on the menu," reported the AFP news service.
"May Day brought pomp and protest worldwide yesterday but all eyes were on France, where the labour holiday turned into a mass street protest against the extreme right. Politics also took centre stage in other nations as International Labour Day was marked with a general day of peaceful protests for a wide range of social and political causes," reported the AFP news service.
"US President George W. Bush and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia agreed on a new strategy of joint action and pressure to break the deadlock in the Middle East crisis, according to American and Saudi officials, The New York Times reported yesterday. The two leaders agreed last week that as part of that division of labour, as one official described it, American officials plan to talk bluntly with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during his visit to Washington next week about breaking the psychology of violence, the Times said," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Federal agents on Tuesday arrested the Syrian-born leader of an international Muslim charity, saying he had long-time ties to Osama bin Laden and used the group’s funds to support terrorist activity. Enaam Arnaout, 39, executive director of the Benevolence International Foundation, was arrested at his home in the Chicago suburbs and charged with lying under oath in documents his group had filed in federal court, the Justice Department and the FBI said," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Foreign citizens seeking asylum in the United States or fighting deportation say they have been physically and sexually abused in the Virginia jail where they are being held. they had been beaten by guards, slammed against walls and floors, shot with pepper spray pellets at close range, deprived of medical care and prescribed medication, denied regular outdoor recreation and often placed in isolation for no good reason. Women alleged that last month an entire female cell block had been ordered to stay in bed for over a week and allowed to get up only to use the toilet and shower. They also said they had been forced to strip naked directly under a video camera which male guards have access to outside the cell block," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Abu Sayyaf rebels yesterday threatened to execute an American couple held captive on a southern Philippine island after the government rejected their final offer for negotiations on their release. Abu Sabaya, a spokesman of Abu Sayyaf rebel group, challenged US to show the whole world if it wants to finish them off, it will only fail," reported the dpa news agency.
"Yasser Arafat reached a tentative agreement with US and British officials yesterday on Wednesday that could pave the way for the Palestinian leader’s release from the West Bank compound besieged by Israeli forces. Arafat agreed in principle to put an initiative by US President George W. Bush in motion by moving six men wanted by Israel from his Ramallah headquarters to a jail supervised by Americans and Britons in Jericho, a Palestinian official said," reported the the Reuters news agency.
"Pakistan’s Election Commission declared yesterday that President Pervez Musharraf had won a referendum to extend his rule by another five years, with over 97% of votes in favour of him staying in power. But, the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported widespread irregularities during the voting including the stuffing of ballot boxes," reported the Reuters news agency.
"India’s ruling coalition was licking its wounds yesterday after surviving a bruising parliamentary censure motion over recent Hindu-Muslim violence, but analysts say its credibility and unity have been damaged. The motion was not expected to topple the Hindu nationalist-led government, but it opened rifts in the coalition as three of its 19 members withheld their support," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel stood defiant yesterday in the face of growing international criticism of its decision to block a United Nations probe into its crushing military assault on the Jenin refugee camp," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A defiant Yasser Arafat emerged from his shattered headquarters yesterday for the first time since the end of a month-long Israeli siege, flashing a V-for-victory sign to cheering supporters. Arafat's defiant appearance underlined how the siege ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon failed to isolate the Palestinian leader, whose popularity among his people has grown along with international sympathy for him. He slammed the tactics of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, saying that it is racism and fascism, as he began a tour of buildings here, shattered by Israel's military occupation. Shocked by the damage, Arafat accused Sharon of repeating the depredations committed by the Israelis and their allies in Lebanon when he was defence minister," reported the Reuters news agency.
"President George W. Bush said yesterday that important progress is being made in ending the violent standoff in the Middle East and declared that Israel must negotiate an end to its occupation of Palestinian areas in the West Bank," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he cannot guarantee that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat would be allowed to return to the West Bank if he travelled abroad to consult with Arab leaders. The end of the Ramallah siege met a key demand of world leaders seeking an end to the Israeli offensive and smoothed the way for a visit by Sharon to Washington next week," reported the Reuters news agency.
"UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s decision to abort his fact-finding mission into Israeli military actions at the devastated Jenin refugee camp threw the Security Council into disarray yesterday. He argued that with the situation in the Jenin refugee camp changing by the day, it will become more and more difficult to establish with any confidence or accuracy the recent events that took place there," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Yasser Arafat will undergo the toughest test of his popularity in years as he swaps the role of defiant prisoner for the burden of rebuilding the shattered Palestinian government," reported the Reuters news agency.
"British Royal Marines, backed by US troops, special forces and air power, swept through soaring mountains in southeast Afghanistan yesterday in a major new hunt for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s victory in a referendum that gives him five more years in power has been given tacit approval by the US, but domestic opponents yesterday dismissed the poll as deeply flawed and accused the army general of being a dictator," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A Philippin fighter jet exploded and crashed into an elementary school as it prepared to land after taking part in exercises with US forces yesterday," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Seven people were killed and 127 injured by a grenade thrown by a group of irate teenagers during a church concert in the southern Philippines, police said yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld commended Malaysia yesterday for its efforts and co-operation in the war against terrorism. Najib was given a warm welcome when he arrived at the Pentagon, his first official visit to the United States since 1992, with Rumsfeld present to greet him personally. Najib told newsmen that Malaysia was resolutely steadfast in the fight against terrorism and spoke on the country’s achievements against terrorists and the excellent co-operation the two countries enjoyed," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the country is saddened by the decision of the United Nations to abort its planned fact-finding mission to the refugee camps in Jenin on Wednesday. Dr Mahathir said Malaysia felt that the first step to solve the problem was to have a UN presence in Palestine and for Israel to stop its violence against innocent Palestinian civilians. The next step, he said, was for Israel to leave all the occupied areas and return them to the Palestinians. Asked whether he would discuss Malaysia’s proposal with US President George W. Bush during their scheduled meeting middle of this month in New York, Dr Mahathir said he could only try," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"A senior aide of a rebel leader was captured in a southern Philippine city rocked recently by bombings that killed 15 people, police said yesterday," reported the the Associated Press news agency.
"The West Bank was named the world’s worst place to be a journalist by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in a list marking World Press Freedom Day on Friday. CPJ, which issues the annual ranking of places where dangers and restrictions represent the worst threats to press freedom, slammed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government for using extraordinary force to keep journalists from covering its recent military incursion," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A member of a United Nations team appointed to probe Israel’s assault on the Jenin refugee camp blamed loss of support from the major powers for the collapse of the mission, and the group’s leader called it a missed opportunity. Cornelio Sommaruga said he regretted the team had been barred from carrying out an investigation which he said could have made a contribution to a certain detente in the region," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Frustrated that a deadlocked UN Security Council would not denounce Israel for blocking a probe into its assault on the Jenin refugee camp, Arab nations said on Friday they would ask the UN General Assembly to accuse the Jewish state of war crimes. Syrian UN envoy Fayssal Mekdad said Arab diplomats would shift the argument from the 15-nation council to a reconvened emergency special session of the 189-nation General Assembly that they hoped would take place tomorrow and Tuesday," reported the Reuters news agency.
