"Israel is pushing the United States to attack Iraq as a way out of the Palestinian uprising or intifada, Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan said yesterday. He further said that the Zionist entity, which carries out the worst sort of terrorism in the occupied territories in Palestine, has every interest to see an attack against Iraq," reported the AFP news service.
"Israel insisted yesterday that there would be no new pullbacks from the West Bank or Gaza Strip until the Palestinian leadership cracked down more effectively on militant groups. This marked a sharp toughening of Israel’s position from just two days earlier when Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer expressed satisfaction with Palestinian efforts to rein in attacks by militants," reported the AFP news service.
"In a recent informal poll of USA Today readers, half of the 350 respondents expressed a weariness with the subject, while nearly all of them said they hoped the television networks would refrain from bombarding them with images of Sept 11 carnage. But 12 months after the devastating attacks, some Americans would rather use the occasion for reflection than introspection. Tyler, for one, said she was concerned about the direction of President George W. Bush’s war on terrorism, and the widening gap between the Bush administration and its European allies over its counter-terror offensive, observing that she is embarrassed to see how US policy has unfolded in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Saudi Arabia and ashamed that, in many instances, human rights have been so clearly ignored and even trampled on," reported the AFP news service.
"Civil rights activists claim US authorities have violated the civil rights of Arabs by ar- resting hundreds of mostly young Arab men, often on minor immigration violations, subjecting them to secret hearings, and profiling individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern origin at US airports and borders in the months since last September," reported the AFP news service.
"Administrators at the Cross House Hospital in Kilmarnock, in southwestern Scotland, gave Dr Sidharth Sahni compassionate leave from his job as a surgical senior house officer after he told colleagues his sister was on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Centre 9/11," reported the AP news agency.
"Rafaela is a 32-year-old anaconda that weighs 45kg and recently bore three daughters even though she has not had contact with a male for 26 years. Biologists where Rafaela has been on display in a vivarium are puzzled as to the paternity of the snakes. The scientist who is collecting data for publication in an academic review said the anaconda has performed an act of preservation of the species, a sort of self-cloning," reportd the AFP news service.
"US civil liberties advocates on Friday criticised the treatment of two Palestinian professors, 44-year-old Mazen al-Najjar and his brother-in-law Sami al-Arian, who taugh at the University of South Florida in Tampa, investigated for alleged links to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which the US administration considers a terrorist organisation," reportd the AFP news service.
"The US Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics said on Friday that one out of every 32 adults in the United States is either in jail, on parole or on probation," reportd the AFP news service.
"A group of about 250 Chechen rebels is readying itself on the Georgian border to enter the separatist Russian republic. Georgia has accused Russia of violating its airspace on five occasions in recent weeks," reportd the AFP news service.
"A key political ally of George W. Bush warned yesterday against unilateral action to bring about regime change in Iraq, the latest sceptical voice to join the debate within the president’s Republican party over what to do about Saddam Hussein," reportd the AFP news service.
"The FBI has stepped up a probe of a Sept 11-related classified intelligence leak, asking 17 senators to turn over phone records and schedules that might reveal contact with reporters," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The spectre of Osama bin Laden rose again yesterday, urging Afghans to launch a new jihad, or holy war, and predicting the fall of the United States, in a handwritten letter posted on an Islamic website. There was no hard proof that the scruffy missive was genuine, but IslamOnline.net said it had been received by their correspondent in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, from an Afghan source who asked to remain anonymous," reportd the AFP news service.
"Israeli public radio yesterday quoted fresh reports by reservists of Israeli troops looting Palestinian homes during a major army incursion into the West Bank last spring. According to the reports, soldiers stole cash, including forged money, and jewellery in the towns of Jenin and Ramallah during Operation Defensive Wall. Soldiers were also found guilty of acts of vandalism for which they have not been punished, while others were reported to have ignored orders to hand in weapons confiscated from Palestinians," reportd the AFP news service.
"After launching its first domestically manufactured submarine on Saturday, Pakistan is seeking China’s co-operation in the building of four new surface warships, local media reported. Pakistan now joins the elite club of a few countries around the world who can make submarines," reportd the AFP news service.
"Speaking to Bangladeshi journalists on the second day of a two-day visit to the country, Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha gave the assurance that New Delhi did not subscribe to the notion of it having a big brotherly attitude towards its smaller neighbours," reportd the AFP news service.
"Campaigning for October polls gained momentum yesterday with weekend pledges by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto that she would return to contest the election from prison if neccessary," reportd the AFP news service.
"A government advisory panel says Japan, pilloried for its inaction during the Gulf War, should be similarly cautious in deciding whether to back a US attack on Iraq, a leading newspaper said yesterday. Analysts say that Japan is likely to wait and see what other nations decide, noting that it would be difficult for Tokyo to provide any practical backing for any attack without proof of Iraq’s links to terrorism," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Lawyers working for US President George W. Bush have concluded he does not need additional congressional approval to order military action against Iraq," reported the AFP news service.
"A federal appeals court yesterday upheld a lower court ruling that a deportation hearing must be open to the public for a Lebanese man accused of running a charity that funneled money to terrorists. Rabih Haddad has been detained since his Dec 14 arrest on a visa violation," reported the AP news agency.
"History was made in New Zealand’s parliament yesterday with the seating of the South Pacific country’s first Muslim lawmaker, who brought his own Quran on which he took the oath. Pakistan-born scientist Ashraf Choudhary, 53, placed his hand on the holy book and pledged allegiance to New Zealand’s sovereign leader," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Argentina brags on its beef, but hungry Argentines butchered a horse killed in a traffic accident leaving not even a bone," reported the AFP news service.
"Saudi Arabia, Washington’s troubled chief ally in the Gulf, adamantly opposes a planned US war on Iraq for fear of a major Middle East shake-up and unprecedented chaos, analysts said yesterday. The kingdom, the launch pad for US forces in the 1991 Gulf War to evict Iraqi troops from Kuwait, today does not see enough justification for a war of far-reaching consequences on the regional political map, they added," reported the AFP news service.
"Israel sent tanks and helicopters into this city and refugee camp in the northern West Bank yesterday morning. Israeli military sources confirmed an operation was under way but did not reveal any details. Israeli media had reported a major split between the defence minister and the military on the issue, prompting a rare public denial from the army," reported the AFP news service.
"President George W. Bush confronted Saudi Arabia's top diplomat over Iraq and other issues chilling relations between the uneasy allies, calling Saddam Hussein a menace to the world," reported the AP news agency.
"Activists at the Earth Summit criticised organisers yesterday for restricting their access to talks on the fate of the planet and said ordinary people were being sidelined in favour of big business," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Israeli army said yesterday it would relax restrictions on some Palestinians entering Israel from Bethlehem after “relative quiet” took hold in the West Bank city under a new security plan. Britain’s chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, was quoted yesterday as saying that Israel had adopted a stance incompatible with the deepest ideals of Judaism," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Norwegian humanitarian groups have denounced the McDonald’s fast-food chain for launching a McAfrika sandwich as millions of Africans face famine," reported the AFP news service.
"US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Monday Washington has put an Islamic group seeking independence for part of China on its list of foreign terrorist organisations. Armitage told reporters the United States had added the East Turkmen Islamic Movement to its list, which China had noted with satisfaction, and cooperation between the United States and China in the war on terror was forging ahead," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Four Palestinians, including a mother and two of her sons, were killed early Thursday when Israeli tank shells landed in a Beduin encampment near an Israeli settlement. Arriving at the hospital, a relative, Fares Hajien, 30, saw the bodies and broke into tears, saying it's a brutal crime, ... this is the Israeli step to implement the so-called Gaza plan," reported the AP news agency.
"Two men listed for months as missing in the Sept 11 attack on the World Trade Centre have been discovered alive in area hospitals. Borakove said investigators have found at least five other people on the city’s missing list who are alive, but she would not provide any information about them," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli forces fired cannons at large metal tubes floating in the Mediterranean yesterday, trying to intercept a suspected weapons shipments headed for the Gaza Strip," reported the AP news agency.
"German authorities have charged a Moroccan man they suspect of being linked to the Sept 11 attacks on the United States, federal prosecutor Kay Nehm said yesterday. A suspected member of the al-Qaeda network blamed for the Sept 11 attacks, Mounir shared an apartment in Hamburg with Marwan and the Egyptian Mohammad Atta, who is believed to have been the mastermind behind them," reported the AFP news service.
"In the latest blow to the Catholic Church’s image in Australia, an order of nuns said yesterday it had paid tens of thousands of dollars to women who claimed they were sexually and physically abused in an orphanage. All of Australia’s major churches have admitted that their clergy have sexually abused children. But the allegations that Catholic nuns abused girls was the first time the spotlight had also shone on nuns in Australia," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Bush administration acted unlawfully in holding hundreds of deportation hearings in secret, solely on the grounds that those involved were terror suspects, a federal appeal court in Cincinnati ruled on Tuesday. It is the most significant legal ruling on the government’s conduct since Sept 11. Judge Damon Keith wrote in his ruling, stating that democracies die behind closed doors. While the ruling criticises the Sept 11 attacks as egregious, deplorable and despicable, it describes the secrecy surrounding the government’s response profoundly undemocratic. The government is still deciding whether to appeal," reported the Guardian news service.
"Pakistan is on alert for a possible terrorist attack on the first anniversary of Sept 11 strikes against the United States, a top security officer said yesterday. Enraged Islamic militants have executed a series of deadly attacks on Christian and Western targets since Pakistan split with Afghanistan’s Taliban militia after the Sept 11 attacks and joined the US-led global war on terrorism," reported the AFP news service.
"China and India, the world’s two most populous countries, stressed their opposition to the use of force against Iraq yesterday without mentioning the United States by name. The reaction from the two Asian powerhouses, which together account for more a third of the world’s population, was the strongest in Asia which has broadly backed the US-led war on terror," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A university in northern Thailand said yesterday it has pulled art works – some of which showed couples having sex, while one depicted a penis wearing an Uncle Sam hat sodomising a brown man – from a campus exhibition because they were considered lewd and offensive," reported the AP news agency.
"With the approach of the first anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks in New York, Americans in Malaysia have been advised to be careful “in general terms.” Asked about Bush’s recent plan to attack Iraq, US ambassador to Malaysia Marie T. Huhtala said despite rumours to the contrary, the US does not yet have a battle plan to meet the Iraqi threat," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"When at age 12 Severn Cullis-Suzuki passionately pleaded with global leaders at the Rio Earth Summit to save the world for future generations, she received a standing ovation and reduced some delegates to tears. But like many young people here in Johannesburg, she believes the voice of future generations has been drowned out by the more immediate political and economic concerns of world leaders," reported the AP news agency.
"The political temperature is rising at the Earth Summit here as the United States and Europe take opposite approaches on empowering the Third World and the health of planet Earth. Pressure on Washington to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to combat global warming, with the United States – the world’s greatest greenhouse gas polluter – coming under friendly fire from allies. The decision of US President George W. Bush to send Secretary of State Colin Powell to Johannesburg in his place to sit below 104 heads of state and governments from other nations while he himself takes a holiday has infuriated many delegates, who take the decision as an indication of the disdain of what they see as a bullying nation for the opinion of the rest of the world," reported the AFP news service.
"Greenpeace activists staged a peaceful protest outside a chemical plant yesterday, accusing the company of polluting the environment and manufacturing dangerous pesticides," reported the AP news agency.
"No sooner had Donald Rumsfeld declared that the international community would back an eventual US attack on Iraq than the world begged to differ. No way, chorused politicians from Beijing to Berlin," reported the Reuters news agency
"Four Palestinians were killed and four were wounded early yesterday when Israeli tank shells slammed into a Bedouin encampment in Gaza," reported the AP news agency.
"The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had announced the plan earlier in the day, citing security concerns as the nation marks one year since terrorists slammed hijacked airliners into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. But US officials later backed away from the initiative," reported the AFP news service.
"Two recent scientific studies which explore the possible link between repeated exposure to graphic television images of last year’s attacks on the United States and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) warn that watching television on Sept 11 could seriously damage the health. They also suggest that families – especially those directly affected by the attacks – should exercise caution concerning the blanket television coverage planned for the first anniversary of the Sept 11 strikes," reported the AFP news service.
"Iraq yesterday welcomed France’s warning against unilateral US military action to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime, saying it harked back to the French politics of Charles de Gaulle. Ath-Thawra said Europe in general was “heading for a new phase in its relations with the United States, marked by more fairness, having undergone a long period of US blackmail. Having realised it was tricked by America in attacks in different parts of the world, (Europe) is starting to distance itself from US visions and goals," reported the AFP news service.
"An Australian state announced yesterday it will bar damages claims by criminals engaged in unlawful activities after a teenager was awarded damages for injuries received when he broke into a hotel," reported the AFP news service.
"The Palestinian security chief called for an end to suicide bombings against Israel, denouncing “murders for no reason,” in an interview published yesterday in an Israeli newspaper. Israel’s chief of police, however, warned that despite relative calm for the past three weeks, Palestinian militants are still trying to carry out attacks against Israelis. Also, the militant Hamas pledged revenge for Israel’s killing of four civilians in Gaza on Thursday," reported the AP news agency.
