"Several European airlines have cancelled some of their flights to the United States on Sept 11, the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks, given the reluctance of many people to fly then. However, Virgin Atlantic said it planned to operate a full service on Sept 11," reported the AP news agency.
"A federal judge gave the US administration 15 days from last Friday to publish the names of most people being held for suspected links to the Sept 11 attacks on the United States. Most of the suspects are being held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The department must also disclose the names of the detainees’ attorneys within the same time frame. Judge Gladys Kessler said secret arrests are a concept odious to a democratic society and profoundly antithetical to the bedrock values that characterise a free and open one such as ours. Some 751 people were detained for immigration violations after Sept 11 and 74 remained in custody as of June 13," reported the AFP news service.
"The United States scoffed on Friday at Iraq’s offer of talks on UN arms inspections and renewed its call for the ouster of President Saddam Hussein," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The United States is providing the Philippines with an extra US$55mil in aid for the fight against domestic terrorism, Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday. Arroyo brought up several issues, including trade financing, development co-operation, tourism, World War II veterans and the global war on terrorism. She also offered thanks for the US training exercise," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli troops hunted down militants here yesterday, a day after soldiers poured into the northern West Bank city that Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer has dubbed a terrorist capital. Tanks flanked the rim of Nablus’s old quarter, known as the Casbah, while soldiers conducted house-to-house searches for Palestinian militants, witnesses said, adding that snipers stood with guns poised on rooftops. Two Palestinians, including an 85-year-old woman, were also killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip on Friday," reported the AFP news service.
"An elite force of karate-kicking anti-terrorist fighters will begin riding on domestic Pakistani passenger jets this month. The new sky marshals are gaining attention in Pakistan’s conservative society – not only for their skills but because they include nine women. However, after the Sept 11 attacks in the United States – and fears that Pakistan would become a new terrorist battleground – the sky marshals were revived, this time unarmed," reported the AP news agency.
"Developing countries should voice their dissatisfaction to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on unfair competition which affects them in attracting foreign investments, said Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar. He said the WTO must be fair and take into account the disparity in development in all countries," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"At least eight people were killed yesterday when a bomb gutted a bus carrying soldiers and pilgrims to a Jewish shrine in northern Israel, in the latest attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas which has sworn bloody vengeance against Israelis. In a statement read out on a sympathetic Lebanese television station, Hamas’ military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassem Brigades, said the attack was a “martyrdom operation,” its term for a suicide bombing," reported the AFP news service.
"Palestinian militant factions launched a wave of bloody anti-Israeli attacks yesterday, with a bus blown apart in northern Israel, three killed in a Jerusalem shooting spree and a rash of other strikes, including a failed seaborne assault by a frogman. Thirteen people were killed in the attacks from the far north of Israel, where a suicide bomber blew apart nine people on a packed bus, to an attack on coastal Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip in the south, in which an armed Palestinian frogman was shot dead. The massive eruption of violence withered hopes that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon might meet with two new Palestinian ministers seen by Israel as moderate alternatives to Yasser Arafat," reported the AFP news service.
"The Israeli army early yesterday blew up nine houses in the West Bank belonging to families of Palestinians who carried out anti-Israel attacks," reported the AFP news service.
"For all its bluster in the face of the possibility Washington would use military means to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, his regime would collapse under a US onslaught, military experts in the region say. Retired Gen Salah Halaby, Egypt’s former chief of staff, said in an interview that the Iraqi army was too weak and demoralised after the 1991 Gulf War and years of doing without new weapons to be a serious match to the US troops and their smart weapons. The comments by Halaby and other Arab experts came as the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee conducted hearings in Washington on a possible military attack on Iraq. Those hearings raised the prospect that US forces might have to stay in Iraq for some time should the country fall apart if Saddam is ousted," reported the AP news agency.
"Taliban leader Mullah Omar is still alive and on the run inside Afghanistan, but there has been no sign of Osama bin Laden for months, a senior Afghan official in the south of the country said yesterday. Ahmad Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai and his special representative for the south, said there were regular reports of Mullah Omar travelling in southern Afghanistan with a small entourage," reported the Reuters news agency.
"More than 1,000 suspected paedophiles have been snared in a swoop targeting computer users accessing pay-per-view child sex websites based in the United States, a British weekly said yesterday. US authorities tipped off the British National Criminal Intelligence Service and the operation was co-ordinated by the National Crime Squad," reported the AFP news service.
"Israel fired missiles at a suspected weapons factory in the Gaza Strip and announced a total ban on Palestinian travel in the northern West Bank, striking back at the Palestinians for a day of deadly attacks," reported the AP news agency.
"Two Palestinian gunmen, including a local militia leader suspected of sending two suicide bombers to Israel last month, were killed early Tuesday in what witnesses said was an Israeli helicopter attack. The Israeli military had no immediate comment," reported the AP news agency.
"Osama bin Laden, the head of the al-Qaeda network, may not have been behind the Sept 11 terror attacks in the United States, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview with a US magazine," reported the AFP news service.
"A plan for the United States to take on al-Qaeda languished for eight months because of the change in presidents and was approved just a week before the Sept 11 attacks on America, Time magazine reported on Sunday. A White House official disputed parts of the Time story, saying no plan was handed over and arguing that US President George W. Bush’s administration moved quickly to take steps against al-Qaeda, which it blames for the Sept 11 attacks," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The love affair between Americans and their media, which appeared to blossom in the immediate aftermath of the Sept 11 attacks, has gone sour, according to a new opinion poll. Two-thirds of Americans also believed news organisations were unwilling to acknowledge their errors," reported the AP news agency.
"Israel announced yesterday a total ban on Palestinian travel in much of the West Bank and sealed off a chunk of the Gaza Strip with tanks in response to Palestinian attacks on Israelis that killed 13 people over 24 hours," reported the AP news agency.
"As thousands assembled in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park to mark the 57th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reaffirmed Japan's policy against building or possessing nuclear weapons. Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba criticized what he called the prevailing international philosophy of I'll show you and I'm stronger than you are, and accused the United States of trying to impose Pax Americana on the rest of us.He then invited U.S. President George W. Bush to visit Hiroshima and confirm with his own eyes what nuclear weapons hold in store," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli tanks and armored vehicles, backed by helicopters, pressed into the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, firing at houses and prompting hospitals to go on alert for casualties," reported the AP news agency.
"As three Palestinian Cabinet ministers headed to Washington, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld slammed the Palestinian Authority, calling it entangled with terror, and said he doubted Israel could turn over territory to it. Rumsfeld declined to call on Israel to abandon Jewish settlements. He referred to the West Bank as so-called occupied territory, signaling he does not share the Bush administration's view of Israel's presence on the land. His feelings about the so-called occupied territories are that there was a war. And Israel urged neighboring countries not to get involved in it once it started. But They all jumped in and they lost a lot of real estate to Israel because Israel prevailed in the conflict," reported the AP news agency.
"Malaysia has expressed grave concern over the escalation of violence in the bitter Middle East conflict and the rising death toll, particularly of civilians, on both sides. Its charge d’affaires to the United Nations Zainuddin Yahya said Israel had been warned time and again that its violent actions through military force in pursuit of its elusive goal of ensuring total security would lead to further violence. He said Israel must realise that the root cause of Palestinian militancy and anger towards Israel was its occupation of Palestinian territories, expansion of illegal settlements in the territories and its continued denial of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"Militants lobbed a grenade and opened fire yesterday on Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir, killing nine of them and wounding 27, police said. In other parts of the disputed region, five suspected militants and three soldiers were killed, a news report said. The violence could exacerbate the already serious tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, who have been on a war footing for eight months due to similar attacks," reported the AP news agency.
"After a joint US military operation against armed Islamic militants, Philippines troops are redeploying to confront communist rebels plotting attacks to paralyse the economy," reported the AFP news service.
"Fifty-seven years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on this city, some 45,000 people observed a minute of silence for the victims. The ceremony yesterday at the city’s Peace Memorial Park near ground-zero was held at 8.15 am local time, the same time as the 1945 bombing that devastated the western Japanese city. The annual memorial for A-bomb victims was the first since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the United States and subsequent US-led military campaign in Afghanistan," reported the dpa news agency.
"A 16-year-old Palestinian girl planning a suicide attack in Jerusalem in the near future has been arrested by Israeli security forces," reported the AFP news service.
"Israeli helicopter gunships killed two Palestinian militants, including one wanted for a suicide bombing last month, as they were returning to a West Bank cave where they had been hiding from Israeli forces. The Palestinians swiftly rejected the Gaza First plan as a public relations game, indicating there had been no major breakthrough at the talks late on Monday," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A briefing last month for a top Pentagon advisory panel depicted Saudi Arabia as an enemy to the United States and a backer of terrorism. The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, told the newspaper he did not take the briefing seriously," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has urged Britain and other allies to emulate the Americans in building up oil reserves to help prevent global economic disruption in the event of a war in the Middle East. Yesterday Abraham insisted that the US move was merely a matter of overall energy security and not linked to fears that oil supplies from the Middle East could be disrupted by a conflict with Iraq," reported Guardian News Service
"German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his Social Democratic party (SDP) on Monday broke ranks with America’s other European allies by declaring at the start of their election campaign that Germany would refuse to provide troops or money for an invasion of Iraq. Germany’s rebuff to Washington came as Iraq further tried to split western opinion by inviting the US Congress to send a mission to Baghdad, offering free access to any site alleged to be developing weapons of mass destruction. The White House dismissed the invitation," reported Guardian News Service
"Saudi officials and newspapers responded in kind yesterday over a briefing to a Pentagon advisory board that portrayed the kingdom as an enemy of the United States active at every level of terrorism. Although the Washington administration was quick to distance itself from the briefing, the press blasted a growing current in the United States aimed at damaging the 60-year-old US-Saudi relationship," reported the AFP news service.
"Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is making a live televised speech marking the anniversary of the end of the 1980-1988 war with Iran. Speaking in an interview with the BBC in Baghdad, Mr Sabri reiterated that Iraq would only readmit United Nations arms inspectors if the economic sanctions against Baghdad were also lifted," reported the BBC news agency.
"There are clear signs that the United States military is gearing up for a potential Iraqi operation. However, the Pentagon has not yet decided on how it would set about attacking Iraq," reported the BBC news agency.
"Saddam Hussein is back on his old tactical path of trying to divide his enemies and so head off a military attack. He now appears to be making an effort to drive a wedge between the United States and Britain by capitalising on anti-war sentiment in the UK," reported the BBC news agency.
"War with Iraq is neither imminent nor inevitable, according to the UK minister holding historic talks in Libya with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien says the ball is in Saddam Hussein's court but allowing weapons inspections would make a difference," reported the BBC news agency.
"The Palestinians have accused Israel of changing its offer to withdraw from areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip - hours after the Palestinian Authority had agreed in principle to accept the Israeli proposals. A senior Palestinian official emerged from a meeting, during which details of the plan were to have been mapped out, saying that Israel had imposed unacceptable conditions," reported the BBC news agency.
"The Bush administration hopes to find promises of democracy and reform within the Palestinian movement in meetings with three Cabinet ministers appointed by Yasser Arafat. The head of the delegation, Saeb Erekat, said before Thursday's meetings that the administration should help prod Israel and the Palestinians into a settlement," reported the AP news agency.
"A U.S. Army cargo plane crashed in a wooded mountain area of east-central Puerto Rico on a rainy and foggy Wednesday night, killing at least one person, officials said. Sandra Virella, a spokeswoman for the State Emergency Management Agency of the U.S. Caribbean territory, said at least 10 people were believed to have been on the plane, and she said initial information from rescuers indicated at least one of them had died. She had no reports on injuries," reported the AP news agency.
"Saudi Arabia will not give the United States access to bases in the kingdom for an attack on Saddam Hussein, but the foreign minister said Wednesday the longtime U.S. ally does not plan to expel American forces from an air base used for flights to monitor Iraq," reported the AP news agency.
"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld telephoned his Saudi counterpart to mend fences over an explosive Pentagon briefing that branded the kingdom a terrorist enemy," reported the AFP news service.
"The Afghan government has identified a dozen gunmen who escaped from detention and were killed in a shootout with Afghan soldiers here on Wednesday They were Pakistani members of al-Qaeda who had escaped from intelligence service detention just hours earlier," reported the AP news agency.
"The first round of Israeli-Palestinian security talks on easing Israel’s military grip in the West Bank broke off without agreement yesterday and violence flared when tanks swept into a Gaza Strip town. A 17-year-old Palestinian boy died in hospital after being shot while riding his bicycle close to where Israeli troops fired to disperse stone-throwers confronting tanks and bulldozers that entered the town of Beit Lahiya, witnesses and hospital officials said," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said yesterday he was not frightened by US threats to topple his administration and his country was ready to repel any attack. Speaking on the anniversary of the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Saddam also called on the United Nations Security Council to answer a series of questions recently posed by Baghdad," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Bankrupt telecommunications firm WorldCom Inc. said Thursday it uncovered $3.3 billion more in bogus accounting, bringing the total amount of misstated earnings to some $7.1 billion. WorldCom also warned it may find more accounting problems as it continues an internal investigation," reported the AP news agency.
"A coalition of Iraqi opposition groups will present a unified stand when they meet Friday with State and Defense Department officials to discuss ways of deposing President Saddam Hussein," reported the AP news agency.
"An explosion at a Christian hospital outside of Islamabad killed at least three people Friday in what appeared to be the latest attack by terrorists against Western interests in less than a week," reported the AP news agency.
"In the Independent newspaper yesterday, British ministers and government officials have strongly advised the United States against attacking Iraq, warning that such action would intensify conflicts in the region. The warning came as The Times reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced increasing pressure from his own Labour Party and trade unions not to back any US strike. While they share the US’ belief that Saddam has acquired weapons of mass destruction, ministers have seen no evidence he can deliver them in any meaningful way against the West," reported the AFP news service.
"Deputy US Attorney-General Larry Thompson on Thursday defended the aggressive tactics used by the Bush administration to detain and hold suspects in the president’s war on terrorism. Thompson also defended the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners captured during the US invasion of Afghanistan who are being held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying the strategy was arrived at openly," reported the Reuters news agency.
"In a speech marking the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki yesterday, the city’s mayor accused the United States of using its fight against terrorism as an excuse to opt out of nuclear non-proliferation agreements," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Four Pakistanis, including three nurses, died in an apparent grenade attack on a Christian missionary hospital in Pakistan yesterday, and up to 20 people were wounded. Islamic militants have been incensed by President Pervez Musharraf's decision to support the US-led war on terror against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and the former Taliban government in Afghanistan," reported the Reuters news agency.
"At least six and possibly more than 20 people were killed yesterday in a massive explosion at a non-governmental organisation near the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. AIP said the explosion could have been caused by the detonation of explosives stored at the unit for use in road construction," reported the Reuters news agency.
