U.S. drops pledge on nukes -- The Washington Times The Bush administration is no longer standing by a 24-year-old U.S. pledge not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states, a senior administration official said yesterday.

Yahoo! News - Israel Eyes Land-For-Peace Plan Israel said Monday it is exploring with interest a tentative Saudi proposal that calls for an Israeli pullout from virtually all the territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war in return for comprehensive peace.

CNN.com - Karzai in 'silence the guns' call - February 25, 2002 Afghanistan's interim leader has called for Iranian cooperation in creating peace and stability in the region.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Considers Indictments in Pearl Case The Bush administration is strongly considering bringing criminal charges in the kidnapping and murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl, U.S. law enforcement officials said on Monday.

Yahoo! News - FBI Not Close to Identifying Anthrax Probe Suspect Despite a vigorous investigation into the mailing of anthrax-laced letters that killed five people in the United States last year, the FBI was not close to identifying a suspect, the White House said on Monday.

Yahoo! News - Hole Under U.S. Embassy Fuels Terror Probe Italian police have discovered a hole recently carved into an underground passageway next to the U.S. embassy and suspect terrorists were planning to plant a chemical bomb there, a judicial source said on Sunday.

U.S. Debating Wider Assault on Colombia Rebels Alarmed by signs of weapons traffic between Colombian rebels and the Middle East, the Bush administration is weighing a proposal to declare the destruction of leftist guerrillas in the South American country an explicit goal of U.S. policy.

Yahoo! News - Israel to Ease Arafat Siege Israel decided Sunday to draw tanks back from Yasser Arafat's compound but continue restricting him to the West Bank city of Ramallah — a halfway measure that led angry Palestinians to cancel planned cease-fire talks with Israeli security officials.

Yahoo! News - Rockets Fired at U.S. Airbase in Afghanistan Attackers fired rockets toward the U.S. military base at Kandahar airport on Sunday but missed their target and fled in two vehicles as Afghan soldiers gave chase, officials at the base said.

Yahoo! News - US Thinks Bin Laden Alive on Afghan Border-Report Osama bin Laden survived U.S. bombing raids on Tora Bora and other mountainous Afghan regions and probably remains hidden in the remote terrain straddling Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing senior Bush administration officials.

Canada Wary on U.S. Anti-Terror Plan (washingtonpost.com) A U.S. proposal to integrate Canadian troops into a North American command system that would defend the continent against terrorist attacks has some Canadians questioning how the system would affect their country's sovereignty.

Anti-Iraq Rhetoric Outpaces Reality (washingtonpost.com) Bush administration rhetoric has fueled speculation that a military move against Iraq could be imminent. But the military reality is that it could take up to a year before the United States is ready to launch a coordinated assault...

BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Saddam scorns Bush 'baby talk' Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has dismissed US accusations that Baghdad had or was seeking weapons of mass destruction as "baby talk".

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Pay day finally comes for Afghans Even though it is one of Islam's most important holidays, the bank in Kabul has opened its doors to enable thousands of state employees to receive their salaries for the first time in months.

Oil Drips With Money for Alaska For pure self-interest, Alaska beats even Enron in trying to shape government policy. In the last year, the state spent $3.85 million in its Arctic refuge drilling campaign and appropriated another $1 million last week.

Yahoo! News - Bush Renews Campaign For Arctic Oil President Bush on Saturday renewed his campaign to open an Arctic refuge to oil exploration, contending that drilling is essential to national security and job creation.

Yahoo! News - Afghans May Seek Help in Warlord Feuds If rival warlords threaten Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s attempts at a stable future, interim leader Hamid Karzai said Saturday he won't hesitate to ask U.S. and other foreign troops to settle the feud.

Yahoo! News - CDC Tests: No Anthrax at Army Base An Army spokesman said Saturday that a suspicious package found at the U.S. Army Reserve Command headquarters building at Fort McPherson did not contain anthrax.

Israelis From Left and Right Criticize Sharon (washingtonpost.com) At the end of one of the bloodiest weeks in the 17-month-old Palestinian uprising, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came under scathing attack today from hard-liners and doves alike.

Afghanistan's 'Last Chance to Choose' (washingtonpost.com) "Please send someone to gather all the guns from our village," the official, Nur Karkin, read at random from the pile of petitions. "Please select leaders who understand our suffering and have at least a ninth-grade education. . . . Please do not allow those whose hands are polluted with blood to participate."

Student says FBI tried to coerce him A federal judge has begun weighing claims that FBI agents threatened and abused a Jordanian student charged with lying to a grand jury about his association with two Sept. 11 hijackers.

Kandahar leader: U.S. may free ex-Taliban official Kandahar’s U.S.-allied governor told his people Friday he was working to obtain the release of the ex-Taliban foreign minister — the highest-ranking Taliban now in U.S. custody.

Joyous celebrations in Afghanistan In the rubble and mud of Kandahar, in the weary heart of a battered land, a laughing 10-year-old held up her hands Friday to show what the Eid al-Adha holiday means in the new Afghanistan: “Nail polish!”

CNN.com - Investigators vow relentless search for Pearl's killers - February 22, 2002 Pakistan's interior minister said Friday investigators "know the names" of the militants who abducted and killed American journalist Daniel Pearl and are taking "the strongest possible actions ... (to) bring them to swift justice."

CNN.com - Suspicious package sent to Army base - February 22, 2002A building on a U.S. Army base in Atlanta has been evacuated after the discovery of a suspicious package containing white powder, the Pentagon said Friday.

Thousands of Women Killed for Family "Honor" Hundreds, if not thousands, of women are murdered by their families each year in the name of family "honor." It's difficult to get precise numbers on the phenomenon of honor killing; the murders frequently go unreported, the perpetrators unpunished, and the concept of family honor justifies the act in the eyes of some societies.

BBC News | AMERICAS | Colombian troops move in Colombian special forces have flown into the main town in the rebel safe haven in the south of the country.

BBC News | AFRICA | State of emergency in Madagascar Madagascar's President Didier Ratsiraka has imposed a state of emergency after opposition leader Marc Ravalomanana declared himself president.

Yahoo! News - Musharraf Vows War on Terror After Pearl Killing President Pervez Musharraf vowed to leave no stone unturned in hunting the killers of kidnapped American reporter Daniel Pearl, and declared war on all terrorists in Pakistan.

New Scientist | Bioterrorism | The insider After months of bungled investigation, it now looks certain that America's anthrax attacks came from within. The implications are terrifying

Man Arrested in Terror Probe Indicted for Fraud (washingtonpost.com) An Alexandria man whose contacts with the Sept. 11 hijackers have been described by prosecutors as "extensive, suspicious and troubling" was indicted today on unrelated charges of identification document fraud.

Afghan Villagers Mistakenly Killed in Raid (washingtonpost.com) The 14 or more Afghans killed by U.S. Army forces in a Jan. 23 commando raid were neither al Qaeda terrorists nor their Taliban supporters as first believed, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday.

The Village Voice: Nation: Press Clips: War Riddles by Cynthia Cotts Weary of the search for objectivity, Press Clips kicks around 10 questions to which journalists either cannot or will not deliver straight answers.

ABCNEWS.com : Italy Rows Back on Bio-Terrorism Threat Italian officials squashed fears on Wednesday that Rome had been threatened by a bio-terrorist attack, saying a cyanide compound found in the possession of four Moroccans could not have poisoned the city's water supply.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | India's gender 'holocaust' warning Girls are viewed as a burden in this community of farmers, where in the past some families would ask village midwives to kill a newborn baby if it turned out to be a female.

BBC News | EUROPE | 'Cyanide attack' foiled in Italy Italian police say they have arrested four Moroccans who were planning a chemical attack in Rome, targeting buildings which included the United States embassy.

BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Palestinian militants 'change tactics' There appears to have been a significant shift in the tactics employed by Palestinian militants against Israel.

Yahoo! News - Colombian Gov't Launches Airstrikes The government launched airstrikes and ordered 13,000 troops to advance on a main rebel stronghold Thursday as Colombia's 38-year-old civil war entered a potentially new and bloodier phase with the collapse of peace talks.

Yahoo! News - Arafat Repeats Call to End Violence Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat repeated a call to halt violence Thursday, and his security forces arrested three suspects in the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister, one of Israel's conditions for releasing Arafat from a two-month siege.

Yahoo! News - Officials: WSJ Reporter Is Dead Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was taken hostage a month ago by Islamic extremists in Pakistan, is dead, the State Deparmtent said Thursday.

Excite News The FBI issued an extraordinary terrorist alert Monday night, asking law enforcement and the American public to be on the lookout for a Yemeni man and several associates who might be plotting a terrorist attack as early as Tuesday.

Excite News Angered by the United States' labeling of Iran as part of an "axis of evil," hundreds of thousands of Iranians chanted "Death to America" on Monday during demonstrations to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

The Smoking Gun: Archive Investigators today (February 6) released this two-page suicide note left by the Florida teenager who crashed a small plane into a Tampa office building on January 5.

Yahoo! News - Official: Bush Speech Shocks Iran A high-ranking Iranian official in New York for the World Economic Forum said Saturday that Iran was "shocked and disappointed" by President Bush's comments earlier this week that it is part of an evil axis of terrorist nations.

Yahoo! News - Official: Detainee Treatment Lawful Detainees from the war in Afghanistan are being interrogated in compliance with U.S. laws and are not being drugged or tortured, the general in charge of detention said Saturday.

WorldNetDaily: The veil: Female form of jihad Jihad for men is spreading the word of Allah through war. A Western person seeing a woman in Islamic clothes might consider her doing this against her will. It is the Muslim women's form of jihad – without the violence – but it could be aggressive. Remember some of these women raise their sons to become terrorists and give up their lives to jihad. We should never underestimate the power of women in any culture.

Guantanamo's Unhappy Campers "They know they're being watched," he explains, "so they'll stare at you, and while they stare at you, they'll, uh, masturbate." According to these Marines, they don't just pleasure themselves to freak out the snipers, but also to embarrass the female Army guards in the camp's interior.

China Sees Interests Tied to U.S. (washingtonpost.com) A well-known Chinese scholar made a simple but controversial point recently: The United States is not China's enemy now, and probably never will be. A central reason, the scholar said in a closed address to government officials, is the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon.

We Will Do The Fighting (washingtonpost.com) President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines has allowed U.S. forces to reenter her country for six months to help train the Philippine military in its fight against the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf...

Yahoo! News - Afghan Leader Faces New Bloodshed at Home Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai was back home on Saturday after trips to Washington and London to face an increasingly perilous security situation which has seen simmering tribal rivalry explode in bloodshed.

Yahoo! News - Wall St. Journal Believes Missing Journalist Alive The Wall Street Journal said Saturday it believed its reporter Daniel Pearl, thought to have been kidnapped by Muslim militants in Pakistan, was still alive and had not been executed by his captors.

CNN.com - Bin Laden's sole post-September 11 TV interview aired - February 1, 2002 Accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden said "the battle has moved to inside America" in the only television interview he's granted since the September 11 attacks -- now airing for the first time.

Possible Al Qaeda Plot to Attack Nuclear Plants The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has warned that the nation's 103 nuclear power plants could be a target of an airline attack, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

Powell: U.S. Trying to Rescue Kidnapped Reporter Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Thursday the United States was doing ``everything we can'' to rescue an American reporter kidnapped in Pakistan but there would be no negotiations over his captors' demands.

FOXNews.com The recent cries of human rights groups against the conditions of a U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were cast into a new light as many jailed Taliban fighters in Afghanistan raised their voices in the plea: "We want to go to an American prison."

ABCNEWS.com : Documents Suggest New Terror Targets Documents found in Afghanistan spotlight the U.S. Capitol, Seattle's Space Needle and a portion of Los Angeles, suggesting these areas were perhaps being singled out for a terrorist attack, ABCNEWS has learned.

Pakistani Group Threatens to Kill Reporter The group that claims it has kidnapped a Wall Street Journal reporter in Pakistan sent an e-mail to news organizations on Wednesday threatening to kill him within 24 hours unless the U.S. government released Pakistani prisoners held in the Afghan war.

Time to rewrite the DMCA - Tech News - CNET.com The American public has traditionally enjoyed the ability to make convenient and incidental copies of copyrighted works without obtaining the prior consent of copyright owners. These traditional "fair use" rights are at the foundation of the receipt and use of information by the American people.

Shoe Scare Evacuates San Francisco Terminal Thousands of people were evacuated from a San Francisco International Airport terminal on Wednesday after security guards detected possible explosive residue on the shoes of one passenger, but let him vanish into the crowd before he could be questioned.

Militant preacher a focus for Asian terror hunt | csmonitor.com Indonesia, once known for its moderate brand of Islam, is facing new scrutiny as an Al Qaeda hub.

Bush: 'Our War Against Terror Is Only Beginning' (washingtonpost.com) When President Bush formally opens the second year of his presidency with his State of the Union address tonight, he will seek to increase Americans' personal stake in the war on terrorism by encouraging more neighborhood and international volunteerism.

Prince Reaffirms Saudi-U.S. Alliance (washingtonpost.com) Crown Prince Abdullah said today that the alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia has emerged undamaged from the attacks of Sept. 11. But he warned that the war on terrorism is being undermined by what he called the indefensible position of the United States in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Your honor, Osama made me do it As the first suspects in the terrorist war on America prepare to stand trial, their defenders and apologists are invoking a word from the Cold War: “brainwashed.”

CNN.com - A bloody ending to Kandahar hospital standoff - January 29, 2002 Afghan troops and U.S. Special Forces soldiers launched an assault Monday on a hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan, killing six heavily armed al Qaeda fighters who had been holed up there for six weeks.

Fourteen U.S. Soldiers Hurt in Afghan Copter Crash Fourteen U.S. soldiers were injured and their transport helicopter suffered extensive damage when it crashed while landing in rough terrain in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, U.S. military officials said.

Attack U.S. and Win Aid - Middle East Forum ...this reflects the "mouse that roared" syndrome, named after the 1959 movie starring Peter Sellers in no less than three roles. It told the story of a tiny Europe duchy, Grand Fenwick, which finds itself on the verge of bankruptcy and decides to declare war on America in order to lose, then profit from the resulting aid.

Yahoo! News - Saudis Want Their Detainees Sent Home Saudi Arabia said Monday that more than 100 of its citizens are in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, making Saudis by far the largest group of terrorist suspects detained on this remote U.S. naval base.

Rebuilding From Within (washingtonpost.com) The key to making Afghanistan a respected and respectable country is steady improvement in the capacity of Afghan institutions -- private and public -- to meet the pressing needs of Afghanistan's people. The country needs outside help, but it must be rebuilt from within.

Bush Says U.S. Will Help Set Up Afghan Military President Bush said on Monday the United States will help train a new Afghan military but made clear to Afghan leader Hamid Karzai he would not commit U.S. troops to peacekeeping in the remote Central Asian country.

ABCNEWS.com : Rumsfeld Tours Camp X-Ray Amid reports the Bush administration will debate the legal status and rights of detainees, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld vowed that, no matter what, they "will not be determined to be POWs."

Suicide bomber strikes in downtown Jerusalem; at least 30 injured A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in downtown Jerusalem just after midday Sunday, injuring at least 30 people on a busy street that's been the scene of several previous attacks, officials said.

America's Chaotic Road to War (First in a series) -(washingtonpost.com) This series is based on interviews with President Bush, Vice President Cheney and many other key officials inside the administration and out. The interviews were supplemented by notes of National Security Council meetings made available to The Washington Post, along with notes taken by several participants.

CNN.com - Supreme Court justice to launch morals program - January 27, 2002 "In seeking rational explanations for irrational acts, an explanation becomes the excuse," Kennedy said.

NYPOST.COM Post Opinion: Oped Columnists: THE MISSING GUN By JOHN R. LOTT, JR. ...in this age of "gun-free school zones," one fact was missing from virtually all the news coverage: The attack was stopped by two students who had guns in their cars.

Pakistan Police Quiz Five Over Missing US Reporter Pakistani police searching for missing U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl said on Sunday they had interrogated five men in connection with the case, but had no idea where the journalist was.

U.S. lawmakers said pleased with detainee treatment A group of U.S. congressmen toured the Guantanamo Bay detention center Friday, and said captured al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are being treated humanely.

U.S. military tests anti-missile rocket An interceptor rocket launched from a U.S. Navy ship smashed into a dummy missile high over the Pacific Friday night, in the latest test in the Pentagon’s plans to shield America from long-range missiles.

Unrest a Chief Product of Arab Economies (washingtonpost.com) The economic misfortunes that fuel resentment among young Arab men emerge through the cigarette smoke at a street-side cafe, where a table full of Egyptians in their twenties and thirties erupts in bitterness over their dreary prospects.

Missile Test by India Raises Nuclear Ante (washingtonpost.com) India today successfully test-fired the newest version of a surface-to-surface missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, drawing condemnation from neighboring Pakistan in the midst of a tense military standoff between the two countries.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Mystery of missing US journalist Police in Pakistan say they have no clues as to the whereabouts of an American journalist missing since Wednesday.

BBC News | AMERICAS | Shoe bomb suspect 'did not act alone' The FBI has discovered forensic evidence that indicates alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid had help making the explosives found in his shoes on board an American-bound flight.

ABCNEWS.com : Bush Seeks $11 Billion to Secure Borders President Bush said today he will ask Congress to spend roughly $11 billion next year on securing the nation's borders to keep out terrorists who would try to attack the United States by air, land or sea.

U.S. Warplane Destroys Huge Store of Taliban Arms A U.S. AC-130 flying gunship has destroyed a huge store of Taliban arms in Afghanistan's chill southern mountains, a sign the U.S. military still has much to do in the shattered country, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Israeli Jets Strike After Suicide Bomb Attack Israeli warplanes launched a missile strike on Palestinian security targets in the West Bank and Gaza on Friday in retaliation for a Palestinian suicide bombing that wounded at least 25 people.

Elite Troops Kill, Capture Dozens of Taliban Elite U.S. troops attacked two guerrilla compounds in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing up to 15 Taliban fighters and capturing 27 others, Pentagon officials said. One U.S. soldier was wounded.

A Turkish path for Pakistan? | csmonitor.com In curbing militancy, Musharraf hopes to create a modern-minded Muslim state.

Lindh Back in U.S. to Face Charges John Walker Lindh, the young Muslim convert accused of joining al-Qaida soldiers in Afghanistan, returned to the United States Wednesday under FBI custody to face criminal charges that he conspired to kill fellow Americans.

Palestinian Militants Threaten War Islamic militants threatened ``all-out war'' Wednesday to avenge the killing of a Hamas commander in the West Bank, and Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority said it can no longer be expected to enforce a truce with Israel.

FBI: Prisoner Info Thwarted Attacks U.S. special forces and their Afghan allies confiscated thousands of weapons from a local warlord Wednesday, officials said, as troops pressed the search for Taliban and al-Qaida renegades in southern Afghanistan.

Mazar-e-Sharif rebounds — slowly After weeks of intense work to restore facilities destroyed by the Taliban, the local television station in northern Afghanistan’s largest city is ready to go back on the air — if only there was enough electricity.

FTC proposes hotline to thwart telemarketers The Federal Trade Commission is proposing the creation of a national ‘do not call’ registry that would allow consumers to ward off unwanted telemarketers with a single phone call.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | UN calls for bigger Afghan force The United Nations Secretary General's deputy special representative for Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, has said he believes the international community should deploy more foreign troops in Afghanistan.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Pakistan rejects India attack claims Pakistan has denied Indian accusations that its intelligence service was involved in an attack on an American cultural centre in Calcutta in which five policemen were killed and 20 people wounded.

'Activated' Asian terror web busted | csmonitor.com The arrest of dozens of Al Qaeda suspects shows the organization's depth in Asia.

Palestinian Wounds 16 After Deadly Israeli Raid A Palestinian gunman wounded 16 Israelis in a rush hour shooting spree in Jerusalem's main shopping street Tuesday after Israeli troops killed four Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

Rumsfeld Lashes at Critics of Prisoner Treatment Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday lashed out at critics of U.S. military treatment of Afghan war captives at an American Navy base in Cuba, saying their makeshift prison was fair and humane.

Gunmen Attack U.S. Office in India, Kill Four Four policemen were killed and at least 14 people injured in a dawn attack by unidentified gunmen outside the U.S. information office in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta Tuesday, police said.

washingtonpost.com: Not Exactly What We Intended, Justice O'Connor It is difficult to say, based solely on the letter of the law as we wrote it, that O'Connor is wrong. But as the congressman who shepherded the legislation through the House of Representatives, I believe that the "intent of Congress" was clearly more expansive than Justice O'Connor's ruling would suggest.

Wonders Never Cease - Destruction was the luckiest thing to happen to the Buddhas of Bamiyan. By Charles Paul Freund So how did the carved Buddhas of Bamiyan go from reviled grotesquerie to "things which are valuable to humanity and its heritage," indeed so valuable they must be rebuilt? There's nothing like a staged spectacle of barbaric destruction to transform otherwise obscure artifacts. Such an act provides relevant and apparent meaning to a work even as it destroys that work.

Afghan Leader Karzai Makes Moving Appeal for Aid Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, appealed to the world Sunday for help in getting his devastated country back on its feet after two decades of strife and disaster that created a breeding ground for terrorism.