"Why Iraq and why now? If he decides to invade Iraq, US President George Bush will justify the action by arguing Baghdad’s development of weapons of mass destruction and especially his nuclear programme pose an imminent danger to the United States and the rest of the world and must be stopped. But many analysts believe domestic and personal factors may also play a part in the president’s decision. In addition, Bush the son may feel he has the duty to redeem his father’s honour by finishing the job. There is also the question of payback for Saddam’s foiled 1993 assassination plot against his father that prompted then-President Bill Clinton to order cruise missile attacks against Baghdad," reported the Reuters news agency.
"In the highest level discussions the often fractious and sometimes discredited Iraqi opposition has held with the Bush administration, visiting representatives of six groups spoke with Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the US policy of bringing about Saddam’s removal," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Trying to do the right thing by drinking eight full glasses of water a day may do little more than make a person run to the bathroom. Dr Heinz Valtin of Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire said there was no scientific evidence to back up this advice, which had helped create a huge market for bottled water," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld openly wished for the liberation of Iraq, saying a longstanding US strategy of using sanctions and no-fly zones to contain Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was not working as a visiting group of opposition leaders presented State Department officials with a plan to unseat him," reported the AFP news service.
"The United States’ wants to go to war in the Philippines, the head of the nation’s communist insurgents said yesterday, following the superpower’s decision to label the rebels as terrorists," reported the AFP news service.
"Young Arab listeners rave about the cool international playlist on the new U.S. government radio station designed just for them but they complain that when the programming switches from music to news, it deteriorates into propaganda. The 33-year-old engineer believes the Radio Sawa station, with its music format, amounts to American propaganda that could very well affect the impressionable young. But unfortunately he said it will do quite well," reported the AP news agency.
"The United States has no set a schedule for an attack on Iraq, but the country’s President Saddam Hussein will remain an enemy until he proves otherwise," reported the dpa news agency.
"An overwhelming majority of French people would oppose their country’s involvement in UN-sanctioned military strikes against Iraq. The majority of those polled were also opposed to the possibility that the United States would go ahead with plans to overthrow the regime of President Saddam Hussein unilaterally, as threatened by US President George W. Bush," reported the AFP news service.
"Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein has promised a British parliamentarian that he will give weapons inspectors access to his country. Blair is the only major Western leader seen as strongly backing Washington’s tough line on Iraq, although British officials say no decision has been taken on whether to launch a war to topple the Iraqi leadership," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Iran has quietly expelled to Saudi Arabia 16 al-Qaeda fighters who sought refuge in the country after fleeing neighbouring Afghanistan, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Faisal told the Washington Post in an interview published yesterday. The co-operation with Iran comes despite the Bush administration’s characterisation of Teheran earlier this year as forming part of an axis of evil, along with Iraq and North Korea," reported the AFP news service.
"The US State Department is warning foreign governments they could lose American military aid if they fail to promise to protect American peacekeepers from the reach of a new international war crimes court. Two countries, Romania and Israel, have pledged not to turn over US peacekeepers to the court, which the Bush administration opposes," reported the AP news agency.
"An Australian schoolboy’s suggestion that rose petals be strewn in the streets of Manhattan as part of commemorations for Sept 11 has been taken up by city officials," reported the AFP news service.
"American schools are now becoming increasingly segregated by race, according to a new study. Nearly half a century after the famous battles to integrate the school system, classrooms have become “re-segregated” and more race-based, according to the survey," reported the Guardian news agency.
"The case against Jose Padilla, whose detention for allegedly plotting to build a “dirty bomb” was dramatically announced in June by US Attorney General John Ashcroft, is going nowhere and appears to have been “blown out of all proportion,” Newsweek reported yesterday. The Justice Department has brought no charges against Padilla, a New York native who goes by the name of Abdullah al Muhajir," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel told the United States that if it were attacked by Iraq, the country would respond vigorously," reported the dpa news agency.
"As CIA chief George Tenet discussed security reforms with a Palestinian delegation in Washington late Saturday, in the West Bank a Jewish settler was gunned down and a Palestinian killed by an Israeli tank," reported the AFP news service.
"Israel has prevented American peace activists travelling with US congressional staff members on a fact-finding mission to the Palestinian territories and Israel from entering the West Bank," reported the AP news agency.
"Human rights groups say they'll contest a decision by an Israeli military court to expel three relatives of suspected Palestinian attackers from the West Bank to Gaza. The decision late Monday was a precedent - the first time a court has ruled that relatives of suspected bombers and other attackers can be punished," reported the AP news agency.
"In a measure demonstrating how desperate the Israelis see the situation, the government ordered construction of a fence between Israel and the West Bank to keep attackers out. It is an extreme measure for a government whose veteran hardline leader, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, is hesitant to hand over more land to the Palestinians or to indicate that Israel might one day pull out of almost all of the West Bank," reported the AP news agency.
"Biologist Dr Steven Hatfill insisted on Sunday he is innocent of widely publicised accusations he was involved in mailings of deadly anthrax bacteria last year, saying the methods of those involved in the case have ruined his life. Dr Hatfill, 48, has been involved in top-secret biological weapons research and worked at the US Army biomedical laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland – the suspected source of the anthrax bacteria used in the mailings, but said his research involved viruses such as Ebola and not anthrax," reported the AFP news service.
"Colombia’s new President Alvaro Uribe declared a limited state of emergency yesterday to fight what the government described as a regime of terror following an upsurge of war violence," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe refused to back down on his controversial land reforms yesterday and said defiant white farmers must surrender their properties without delay to landless blacks," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Saudi Arabia will not allow US forces to use its territory to attack Iraq, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Sunday," reported the AFP news service.
"Non-Christian officers and traffic wardens who object to wearing the British force’s traditional insignia which boasts a crown with a Christian cross will be offered a crown-free alternative. The move is understood to be in response to a Muslim traffic warden who last year quit the force after only one month in the job over the issue of wearing a Christian cross," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US authorities are monitoring hundreds of Muslim and Arab small businesses across the United States looking for possible links between criminal scams and funding for militant groups overseas," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The newly-blacklisted Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) came under further pressure yesterday when Washington sought a freeze on their international assets and Manila demanded the group’s exiled leaders be deported back for prosecution. While the funds are beyond US jurisdiction, the global coalition against terrorism created after the Sept 11 attacks made for a conducive environment for Washington to seek the help of its European allies," reported the AFP news service.
"The Nether-lands yesterday started to freeze financial assets belonging to Philippine Communist Party members living there in exile, at the request of the United States which has blacklisted the group as terrorist," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Deadly floods were creating havoc across Europe yesterday, with 50,000 Prague residents, in Czech Republic, ordered to evacuate their homes and the Austrian city of Salzburg declared a disaster area as the extreme weather claimed more than a dozen lives," reported the AFP news service.
"Philippine Education Secretary Raul Roco, a popular Cabinet member and a powerful rival of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, resigned yesterday, citing a rift with Arroyo and triggering a crisis in her administration," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The United States has closed the American Centre in Islamabad because of security concerns. The US had earlier issued a renewed travel warning for its nationals to avoid going to or staying in Pakistan," reported the AFP news service.
"President Bush said that times are kind
of tough as workers, investors and business leaders poured out their anxieties Tuesday at an economic forum about lost jobs, falling stock prices and the spread of corporate corruption. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle argued Bush's economic policies were misguided, stating that a made-for-TV economic forum isn't going to solve our problems or
ease families' concerns," reported the AP news agency.
"Three relatives of Palestinian militants wanted by Israel face expulsion from the West Bank to Gaza pending a last-ditch petition to Israel’s Supreme Court against an edict condemned by human rights groups," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel’s Supreme Court yesterday temporarily blocked the expulsion of relatives of Palestinian terror suspects from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, as troops demolished the homes of two Palestinian militiamen," reported the AP news agency.
"Iranian President Mohammad Khatami argued the administration of US President George W. Bush, especially since Sept 11, has taken up
a very angry approach towards foreign policy," reported the AFP news service.
"United Airlines' struggling parent company said Wednesday it may file for bankruptcy this fall unless it can somehow cut costs. Three airlines have already filed for bankruptcy protection this year, citing the sluggish economy, competition from low-cost carriers and a downturn in travel following the Sept. 11 attacks," reported the AP news agency.
"Opponents of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein shot and wounded his younger son in an assassination attempt in Baghdad two weeks ago," reported the AP news agency.
"The United States labelled Cuban President Fidel Castro a dinosaur as he turned 76 on Tuesday and issued him a birthday challenge to renounce communism and embrace reform for the benefit of the Cuban people," reported the AFP news service.
"The US official charged with cleaning up Enron-like corporate scandals stands himself accused of corporate fraud in a lawsuit that was to be filed yesterday by an anti-corruption watchdog group," reported the AFP news service.
"Radical Islamic leaders in Britain have issued what a British newspaper yesterday described as a thinly-veiled threat that the US and Britain may face terrorist attacks similar to those of Sept 11 if they go to war against Iraq, stating that Sept 11 was a direct response to the evil American policy in the Muslim world," reported the AFP news service.
"Firefighters and volunteers fought back river waters swamping the National Theater and other landmarks Wednesday as unprecedented flooding that has killed at least 98 people across Europe threatened this medieval city's historic Old Town," reported the AP news agency.
"President Pervez Musharraf yesterday tore into Islamic extremists blamed for bloody attacks on Christians and Westerners in Pakistan, pledging to root out the scourge
of terrorism gripping his country on its 55th independence day," reported the news agencies.
"India stepped up security in the capital yesterday following intelligence reports that militant groups planned attacks during Independence Day celebrations today," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Israel launched the most high-profile trial of the Palestinian intifada yesterday, formally charging Marwan Barghuti, the West Bank leader of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, with murder and terrorism," reported the AFP news service.
"At least 30 al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay US naval base in Cuba have been seen to attempt committing suicide. The Americans see the naval base main detention centre as the most effective way of keeping dangerous men out of circulation. But human rights groups are increasingly questioning the legal basis on which these detentions continue," reported the BBC news agency.
"The United States has no choice but to take action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said yesterday. Rice also turned her fire on Iran – which along with North Korea completes Bush’s axis of evil-
saying its leaders were on the side of
the terrorist. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Bush on Wednesday of using the same language as Adolf Hitler to bully the world," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The International Association of Fire Fighters voted unanimously on Wednesday to boycott a national tribute to firefighters who died on Sept 11, in an angry response to US President George Bush’s rejection of a bill that included US$340mil to fund fire departments," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A wrongfully-convicted Massachusetts man who spent 30 years in jail because of behind-the-scenes machinations by the FBI is asking the US government for US$300mil in damages, his lawyer said on Wednesday. More damning were revelations that the FBI knew they were lying but chose instead to protect the informants, even if it meant sending innocents to jail," reported the AFP news service.
"Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee yesterday accused Pakistan of double-standards on terrorism and assured the people of troubled Kashmir that past mistakes would be corrected, as India celebrated its 55th Independence Day amid unprecedented security," reported the AFP news service.
"Vowing to avenge the murder of their loved ones, some 600 relatives of about 900 people killed in the Sept 11 attacks filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking more than US$100 trillion against three Saudi princes, several foreign banks and the Sudan government for allegedly funding Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network," reported the Reuters news agency.
"One of the Republican Party’s most respected foreign policy gurus on Thursday appealed for US President Bush to halt his plans to invade Iraq, warning of “an Armageddon in the
Middle East.”
The outspoken remarks from Brent Scowcroft, who advised a string of Republican presidents, represented an embarrassment for the administration on a day it was attempting to rally British public support for an eventual war," reported the Guardian News Service.
"Israeli soldiers strapped a bullet-proof vest on Palestinian teenager Nidal Daraghmeh and ordered him to approach a house where a wheelchair-bound Hamas militant was hiding, with instructions to bring out everyone who might be inside. But as he neared the house in the West Bank village of Tubas, Daraghmeh, 19, a likeable amateur weightlifter who had nine sisters, was shot in the back of the head and killed; though it’s not clear who pulled the trigger," reported the AP news agency.
"Soft drinks giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi are battling charges in India that they have painted advertisements on ecologically sensitive rock faces along a stretch of highway running through beautiful Himalayan ranges. India’s Supreme Court has issued notices to the two cola majors after being alerted by a report in the Indian Express newspaper which said the advertisements had put at risk the ecosystem of the mossy rocks teeming with micro-organisms. B.S. Malhans, a member of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, said it is no exaggeration to describe the Rohtang Pass as the second most polluted spot in the Himalayas after South Kol (the base camp in Nepal for Mount Everest)," reported the AFP news service.
