"Iraq was continuing its last-ditch efforts to avert a US-led war with the destruction of more banned missiles yesterday as Pope John Paul II prepared a personal peace plea to the United Nations. The pontiff made it known he would ask to address the UN Security Council in person if his message to US President George W. Bush failed to stop Washington's war plans," reported the AFP news serivice.
"Gulf monarchies which have rallied behind an Emirati proposal for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to go into exile and save his people from the horrors of war said yesterday the initiative needed further study," reported the AFP news serivice.
"Libya will recall its ambassador to Riyadh for consultations following Saturday's Arab summit clash between Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Abdul Aziz. the Saudi royal asked the Libyan leader the question who exactly brought you to power, alluding to suggestions that his 1969 overthrow of the British-backed monarchy had US support," reported the AFP news serivice.
"The United Arab Emirates won support from two other Gulf nations in its call for Saddam Hussein to quit power to avert a war, but couldn't persuade a ministerial gathering of Gulf nations yesterday to endorse the initiative. Iraq has poured scorn on the Emirates, calling it a tool of Israel," reported the AP news agency.
"Thieves stole a diamond necklace and other jewels worth US$2 million in two separate heists on the opening day of a jewellery fair in Hong Kong," reported the AP news agency.
"Muslim separatists and communist rebels have strengthened their tactical alliance against the government with an agreement to join forces in the southern Philippines," reported the AP news agency.
"Fifty U.S. workers hope to be airlifted from Antarctica on Friday by a special air force flight before the frozen continent makes its annual descent into darkness and extreme cold. The Americans have been working on fuel deliveries to the U.S. and New Zealand bases on the Ross Sea coast of Antarctica," reported the AP news agency.
"UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Iraq's destruction of missiles apositive development and said war should only be considered when all possibilities of peace have been exhausted. But asked whether Baghdad's destruction of 19 missiles so far could avoid war, he said it's up to the Security Council to make a decision," reported the AP news agency.
"The United States plans to push for a vote next week on its resolution authorising war in Iraq, even as some UN Security Council members are seeking a compromise that could delay any military action," reported the AP news agency.
"Despite intensive lobbying at the United Nations and in capitals around the world, the United States still hasn't found the nine council votes it needs to get its resolution adopted," reported the AP news agency.
"Several thousand allied special forces, including more than 300 SAS personnel, are already operating inside Iraq. This suggests that, despite efforts to secure a United Nations resolution backing force, the war has begun," reported the Daily Telegraph.
"President Saddam Hussein vowed again yesterday that the Iraqis would come out on top from an eventual military showdown with the United States. Saddam said in a reference to the United States that the tyrant of the era thinks he is God. He imagines he can enslave people and confiscate their decision-making, freedom and legitimate choices," reported the AFP news service.
"Britons woke up yesterday to the stark prospect of war. Four national dailies – The Times, Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and Financial Times – featured front-page pictures of B52 bombers landing in Gloucestershire, leaving readers in no doubt that the country was closer to war against Iraq," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"An angry Washington hit out at North Korea for intercepting a US spy plane at the weekend, a close call over the Sea of Japan that underscores the danger that a nuclear crisis could spiral out of control," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Australia's government was forced yesterday to admit that many anti-terrorism kits it mailed to households last month as part of a controversial information campaign had been returned to the post office in protest, some containing an unidentified white power. Opposition Labor Party officials accused Prime Minister John Howard's government of destroying the returned kits to avoid having to tally up how many of the controversial information packets had been sent back," reported the AFP news service.
"Postal workers in New South Wales threatened to go on strike yesterday when they learnt that the government had ordered all returned kits destroyed because of security concerns – but failed to inform post office staff of any possible danger," reported the AFP news service.
"At least 19 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in a bomb attack at a key airport in the rebellion-torn southern Philippines yesterday," reported the AFP news service.
"A desperate college graduate in China is sending out topless pictures of herself with her curriculum vitae in an attempt to land an office job," reported the dpa news agency.
"Quick reflexes saved a Danish judge on Monday when she managed to duck out of the way when an irate man she had just sentenced to a six-month jail term threw a chair at her. The judge sought psychological help - for herself - while police said they would keep the man under tighter control in future," reported the AFP news service.
"A German artist has applied for a licence to open a brothel in Berlin for sexually frustrated dogs and says it will be the first of its kind anywhere," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A Sikh man is accusing the New York Police Department (NYPD) of discriminating against him by not allowing him to wear a beard or his turban, both signs of his religious faith," reported the AP news agency.
"The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) yesterday rejected any military action against Iraq, according to a communiqué released at the end of its one-day emergency summit in Doha," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"Two Yemeni citizens, including a prominent Islamic cleric who allegedly had ties to Osama bin Laden before the Sept 11 attacks, were charged in New York on Tuesday with supporting al-Qaeda and Hamas, groups targeted by the United States in its war on terrorism," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A UN task force has drawn up a plan for a post-war Iraq in which the United Nations would help steer the country of 26 million toward democracy via a UN assistance mission," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A lawyer was arrested late Monday and charged with trespassing at a public mall in the state of New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating peace that he had just purchased at the mall. Downs said police tried to convince him he was wrong in his actions by refusing to remove the T-shirt because the mall was like a private house and that he was acting poorly," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, is now fighting for people who want to drink forbidden wine," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Thousands of security troops marched through the streets of the Iraqi capital yesterday in a defiant show of strength as Washington threatens to unleash war to oust the regime. The troops were chosen from internal security forces, such as the police and civil defence, who have been singled out among Iraq's lines of defence to resist any attempt at US occupation," reported the AFP news service.
"Iraq yesterday destroyed nine more banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles, the largest number in a single day since the process began over the weekend," reported the AFP news service.
"With tension rising sharply over North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions, the United States is sending 24 B-1 and B-52 bombers to the island of Guam in the Pacific to deter any aggression by Pyongyang in case of a war in Iraq," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A suicide bomber blew himself up aboard a crowded bus in this northern city on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people, injuring dozens and ending a two-month lull in suicide bombings in Israel," reported the AP news agency.
"Five people died and 67 others were injured when a 21-storey residential hotel caught fire in the Johannesburg inner city yesterday morning," reported the AFP news service.
"Israeli troops arrested 20 Palestinians and demolished a house in the West Bank overnight. Troops carried out house-to-house searches in the densely populated neighbourhood," reported the AFP news service.
"France and Russia will not allow a draft resolution authorising the use of force in Iraq to be adopted by the UN Security Council, the two countries said yesterday, clearly hinting that either or both could use their Council vetoes if necessary," reported the AFP news service.
"Australia could decide to go to war against Iraq as early as next week, Prime Minister John Howard warned as thousands of students took to the streets yesterday in a nationwide anti-war protest. Howard, one of the strongest supporters of the tough US campaign to disarm Iraq, said it should be clear by next week if efforts to obtain a new UN resolution authorising the use of force against Iraq would succeed," reported the AFP news service.
"A war in Iraq could cost the capital £1bil in lost tourism alone, according to research by the Greater London Authority. Mayor Ken Livingston, who has joined his counterparts in five major European cities to oppose military action said no one has produced any evidence to justify a war, which will severely affect London’s economy," reported the AP news agency.
"A New Zealand woman said yesterday she was willing to be crucified by US President George W. Bush if he pledges not to attack Iraq. Mary Grierson said she e-mailed the challenge to the White House and as an open letter to leading US dailies," reported the Reuters news agency.
"World water reserves are drying up fast and booming populations, pollution and global warming will combine to cut the average person's water supply by a third in the next 20 years," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Philippines will not allow US troops to go into combat against Muslim rebels, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said yesterday, a day after a bomb at a southern airport killed 21 people, including an American," reported the Reuters news agency.
"After thumbing charts and calculating planetary positions, Thailand's top mystics have settled on April 8 as the last possible date for the launch of a US-led war on Iraq," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Nations with a direct stake in North Korea's nuclear arms capacity need to unite in facing down its threat, U.S. President George W. Bush said Thursday, because direct talks have failed. Bush was answering critics who say his refusal to negotiate directly with Pyongyang is the wrong approach to the burgeoning crisis," reported the AP news agency.
"Pakistani and American forces have intensified the search for Osama bin Laden along a southwestern stretch of the border with Afghanistan and carried out raids this week based on information from a newly captured al-Qaida deputy," reported the AP news agency.
"China filled front pages of its state-controlled newspapers Friday with photos of President Jiang Zemin, trumpeting the retiring leader and reforms proposed during the annual session of the national legislature that is to name his successor," reported the AP news agency.
"President George W. Bush, preparing the nation for the possibility of war, said the United States will drive Saddam Hussein from power if it comes to war in Iraq with or without support from France, Germany and other skeptical allies. Bush said he had not decided whether to invade Iraq but that it was only a matter of days before a U.N. Security Council vote on a U.S.-backed resolution authorizing force. He said the United States wants the Security Council to vote even if the resolution appears likely to fail," reported the AP news agency.
"Share prices fell on the London Stock Exchange Thursday. Discouraging news on jobless claims battered Wall Street Thursday, sending stocks lower for the third day in four," reported the AP news agency.
"The German and Italian leaders remained on opposite sides of the European gulf over whether to wage war on Iraq after a summit Thursday, even as Britain sought to find a compromise on a new resolution at the United Nations," reported the AP news agency.
"Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government has lined up with France and Russia to insist that U.N. weapons inspectors get more time to disarm Iraq peacefully, and continues to reject a second U.S.-British resolution that would authorize a war. But Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, along with Britain and Spain, has supported Washington's push toward military action," reported the AP news agency.
"President Fidel Castro, the world's longest ruling head of government, was elected Thursday by parliament to a sixth term as Cuba's leader," reported the AP news agency.
"Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld indicated Thursday that he wants U.S. troops who are stationed near the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea to be moved farther from the heavily defended zone, shifted to other countries in the region or brought home," reported the AP news agency.
"Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told aides Thursday that he will appoint his deputy, Mahmoud Abbas, as prime minister, and not a Palestinian billionaire as he had originally planned," reported the AP news agency.
"China closed ranks with France, Germany and Russia yesterday and promised to block a new UN resolution authorising war on Iraq, saying conflict would bring a humanitarian disaster and economic turmoil," reported the AFP news service.
"In an upbeat preview of his report on Iraq, the chief UN inspector said Baghdad is now co-operating a great deal more in providing evidence about its weapons programmes and he would welcome more time for inspections. His assessment was in sharp contrast to US Secretary of State Colin Powell's. He said if war breaks out, ... it is a serious failure for the approach through inspection to disarmament," reported the AP news agency.
"The United States expelled on Wednesday two members of Iraq's UN mission for activities considered harmful to US security and asked several other countries to take similar action," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Britain has proposed a compromise that would allow Iraq more time to comply with UN disarmament demands in an effort to get enough votes for a Security Council resolution that lays the groundwork for war," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A chemical plant identified by the United States as a key component in Iraq’s chemical warfare arsenal was secretly built by Britain in 1985 behind the backs of the Americans," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"Australia has agreed to join an Asean police task force set up to battle terrorism in the region," reported the AFP news service.
"An Air Algerie jet crashed shortly after takeoff in southern Algeria yesterday, killing 102 people on board," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians, including some torn apart by a tank shell, in a major raid in the Gaza Strip yesterday after a suicide bomber killed 15 people in Israel," reported the Reuters news agency.
"US bombers arrived in the western Pacific overnight to deter North Korea in the event of a US-led war with Iraq amid signs of unofficial contacts with Pyongyang about its suspected nuclear weapons ambitions," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Fire swept through a Cambodian market on the Thai border early yesterday after a cut-off of bilateral trade brought a new crisis in relations between the two kingdoms," reported the dpa news agency.
"The biggest Muslim separatist rebel group in the Philippines dismissed a government charge yesterday that one of their men staged the deadly bombing of Davao airport in the southern Philippines. Eid Kabalu, spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said the government claim was a total lie and part of a campaign to discredit the group," reported the AFP news service.
"Indonesia's parliament passed yesterday an anti-terror law that civil rights groups said could lead to widespread detention of innocent people," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Osama bin Laden is alive, in good health and living in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the suspected No. 3 al-Qaeda leader told his interrogators after being captured last weekend," reported the AP news agency.
"The United States clashed bitterly with France, Germany, China and Russia at the UN Security Council yesterday, as all four nations stood firm against US plans to launch a war against Iraq soon. A mixed report from UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix yesterday left the major powers more divided than ever on the looming war," reported the news Agencies.
"US President George W. Bush said on Thursday he will within days force a vote seeking UN authorisation to invade Iraq, a decision that ratchets up pressure on major powers opposing his push for Security Council backing. Dismissing Iraq's destruction of banned missiles in recent days as a charade, Bush reiterated he could launch a war without UN approval because US security was paramount," reported the Rueters news agency.
"The Australian government revealed yesterday that it had granted refugee status to 100 Iraqi boat people who Prime Minister John Howard had once vowed never to let into the country. The Iraqis were among 219 asylum-seekers on a boat intercepted by the Australian navy in 2001 in a controversial incident now known as the children overboard affair," reported the AFP news service.
"The United Nations disputed Iraq's claim to have destroyed 21,000 litres of biological warfare agents, including anthrax, 12 years ago, according to a weapons report which was to be released yesterday. But the 167-page report is bound to encourage France, Russia and Germany, who oppose war against Iraq, by setting out a programme of work that Baghdad is expected to follow in accounting for its weapons of mass destruction," reported the Rueters news agency.
"British Muslim leaders have rejected government overtures to support the impending war on Iraq at a meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday. Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, who was at the 10 Downing Street meeting, said this invasion is not in British interest, neither is it going to serve the interest of the United States. The diplomatic and political course (to resolve the crisis) has not run out. There can be no doubt about Saddam Hussein’s notoriously despotic regime or his yet-to-be-found weapons of mass destruction. However, these can be dealt with entirely peacefully," reported the Malaysian Star newspaper.
"An eminent group of teachers of international law in Britain and France said yesterday an attack on Iraq would be illegal under international law if it went ahead without a new United Nations Security Council resolution. The academics signed their names to a letter to the Guardian newspaper as the United States and Britain edged towards a possible war with Iraq, with or without a new UN resolution," reported the Rueters news agency.
"United Nations aid workers are racing against time to protect the weakest and most vulnerable of Iraq's 25 million people from the devastating impact of potential war," reported the Rueters news agency.
"Unidentified people have cut down part of a fence marking a demilitarised Iraq-Kuwait border zone, UN observers said yesterday, in a move analysts described as a preparation for possible hostilities with Iraq," reported the Rueters news agency.
"The Minneapolis FBI agent who exposed Sept 11-related intelligence failures has told her boss she doesn't think the agency can handle the terrorism that could follow a war with Iraq. Agent Coleen Rowley outlined her concerns in a seven-page letter sent to FBI director Robert Mueller last month. Rowley said her letter wasn't meant to criticise the FBI. Instead, she wanted to point out that it is impossible to thwart terrorist attacks when your terrorist threat level goes up so high," reported the AP news agency.
"Two sons of Osama bin Laden were wounded and possibly arrested in an operation by US and Afghan troops in Afghanistan which killed at least nine suspected al-Qaeda members. It was not immediately clear whether the operation was linked in any way with a hunt for al-Qaeda members which military sources said was being carried out by Pakistani and some US forces in a remote area bordering Afghanistan and Iran yesterday," reported the Rueters news agency.
"Australia unveiled measures yesterday to tighten security co-operation in the Asia-Pacific region after last year's deadly bombings in Bali, including setting up a new post for a counter-terrorism ambassador. Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Australia would hold an Asean Regional Forum workshop in the middle of this year on managing the consequences of a terror attack," reported the Rueters news agency.
"An attaché case regarded as suspicious caused the brief evacuation of some floors of the hotel in NewYork where US Secretary of State Colin Powell was staying on Thursday night but no bomb was found," reported the Rueters news agency.
"A bomb threat forced the closure yesterday of 45 kindergartens in a city in Russia's Far East while specialists swept the schools for explosives. No explosives had been found by late yesterday," reported the AP news agency.
"A judge ruled the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz must pay US$216mil to settle a lingering legal dispute over the decades-old split of a colourful, high-living Saudi sheikh and his estranged wife," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli forces seized a band of territory in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday in what a senior officer said was an open-ended stay to thwart Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel. The creation of what Israeli Army Radio called a security zone came on the heels of a raid on a Gaza refugee camp on Thursday in which 11 Palestinians were killed, bloodshed that followed a suicide bombing that killed 15 people in Israel," reported the Rueters news agency.
"In Florida, a man upset that his son was being bullied fired several shots into a crowd of teenagers, killing a 14-year-old bystander," reported the AP news agency.
"Tourists who have taken home chunks of rock from Uluru, Australia's most sacred Aboriginal site, are sending them back because they believe the souvenirs have brought them bad luck. It is illegal to take away a piece of Uluru," reported the Rueters news agency.
"North Korea said yesterday the nuclear crisis could be easily solved in direct talks with the United States, but US President George W. Bush insisted only a multi-national effort could defuse the stand-off and expressed strong distrust of direct negotiations with Pyongyang.. In a commentary hours after Bush called on China and North Korea's Asian neighbours to play a greater role, North Korea accused the United States of seeking a military solution," reported the AFP news service.
