Pakistan's Blasphemy Law: Words Fail Me (washingtonpost.com) "Most of these cases," concludes Amnesty International in its latest report on Pakistan, "are motivated not by the blasphemous actions of the accused, but by hostility toward members of minority communities, compounded by personal enmity, professional jealousy or economic rivalry."

Saved From Ruin: the Reincarnation of East Timor (washingtonpost.com) When the first wave of U.N. peacekeepers descended on this smoldering seaside city in September 1999, they encountered what one commander called "unimaginable apocalyptic ruin."

George W. Bush Should Learn the Lessons of History The worrisome thing now is that Incurious George apparently doesn’t want to know much about his own government. He doesn’t see how tough questions might help prevent another attack or serve a patriotic end. He doesn’t grasp that public accountability would serve his ends by forcing the bureaucracy to change faster. We’ve learned that the best way to permanently alienate the president is to criticize any facet of the war on terrorism.

Al-Qaida said to plan new actions Two published reports and Bush administration officials said Saturday that the al-Qaida terrorist network believed responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is planning new operations against the United States. And NBC News has learned from sources at the FBI that any new domestic strike by al-Qaida may well include attacks on U.S. apartment buildings.

To the Drums of War, India Expels Pakistan's Ambassador Indian and Pakistani troops bombarded each other today with heavy mortar and artillery fire, and India announced that it was expelling Pakistan's ambassador to protest an attack four days ago that killed the wives and children of Indian Army soldiers, among others.

U.S. Intercepting Messages Hinting at a New Attack American intelligence agencies have intercepted a vague yet troubling series of communications among Al Qaeda operatives over the last few months indicating that the terrorist organization is trying to carry out an operation as big as the Sept. 11 attacks or bigger, according to intelligence and law enforcement officials.

Yahoo! News - Two Men Charged in Alleged Florida Bomb Plot Two men who allegedly plotted to carry out bomb attacks on electrical power substations and a National Guard Armory in South Florida a year ago were charged on Friday with conspiracy to damage and destroy property with explosives, justice officials said.

Yahoo! News - Report for CIA Foresaw an Al Qaeda Plane Attack Despite White House avowals that it would have been impossible to conceive before Sept. 11 of a hijacked plane being used to attack U.S. targets, a 1999 report for the CIA envisioned a very similar threat.

BBC News | NEWSNIGHT | Is truth a victim? One of America's foremost newscasters, Dan Rather of CBS, says the US media has stopped asking tough questions of the Bush administration since 11 September.

Report: India, Pakistan Were Near Nuclear War in '99 (washingtonpost.com) Pakistan was preparing to possibly fire nuclear weapons during a 1999 border conflict with India, moving the countries closer to nuclear war than was commonly known at the time, according to a new article by President Bill Clinton's chief White House adviser on South Asia.

Global Village Idiocy What's frightening him, he added, is that there is an insidious digital divide in Jogjakarta: "Internet users are only 5 percent of the population — but these 5 percent spread rumors to everyone else. They say, `He got it from the Internet.' They think it's the Bible."

Israeli Ruling Party Says No to Palestinian State (washingtonpost.com) Israel's ruling Likud Party passed a resolution on Sunday saying it would never agree to an independent Palestinian state, a victory for former Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Terrorism Case Puts Judge in Quandary (washingtonpost.com) The federal judge who must decide whetherZacarias Moussaoui can fire his attorneys and represent himself in his terrorism conspiracy trial could face a stark choice, legal analysts say: allow an alleged terrorist to use his defense as a political platform or find him mentally incompetent and cancel the trial.