Yahoo! News - Bin Laden Appears in New, Undated Video Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden was shown in an undated videotape excerpt aired on Monday, sitting silently alongside a top aide who praised the September 11 attacks on America as a "great victory."

The San Francisco Examiner - Imagining the unimaginable For the time being, the Bush administration's recently leaked Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) has vanished from the nation's front pages, replaced by the news of the moment. But Americans should be clear what the consequences will be if it ever becomes official policy, and what developing a new generation of nuclear weapons will mean for the fragile web of treaties that presently keep the unimaginable at bay.

DigitalIsrael.com - Treasury DG: economy on brink of crisis The State of Israel is on the verge of an economic crisis, Finance Ministry Director General Ohad Marani said today. He said that more than a NIS 10 billion cut in government spending was needed to offset the growing deficit inflated by surging defense costs.

A New Disconnect With Europe (washingtonpost.com) Europeans are accustomed to the insecurity of their geography and history. A decade after the Cold War ended, they feel more secure from the direct threat of war and annihilation than they have in centuries. At the same moment, Americans have had the security blanket of oceans and distance yanked away in particularly brutal fashion.

Yahoo! News - Powell Seeks to Put Out Fires in Lebanon, Syria After scant progress on the Israeli and Palestinian stops on his peace trip, Secretary of State Colin Powell heads to Lebanon Monday, where attacks on Israel by Hizbollah guerrillas have sparked fears of wider conflict.

Yahoo! News - Court: Israel Must Hand Over Bodies Israel's Supreme Court told the army Sunday that it must give the Palestinians the bodies of those killed in Jenin's refugee camp, a move that could help clear up the escalating dispute over how many Palestinians died in the fierce fighting.

Yahoo! News - Arafat: Israel Must Withdraw First Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rebuffed Secretary of State Colin Powell's demand Sunday for a halt to violence, saying Israel first must withdraw its troops from the West Bank.

CNN.com - Arafat, Palestinian statement transcript - April 13, 2002 A partial translation of the statement issued Saturday by Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian leadership:

FOXNews.com - Saudi Telethon Raises Over $100 Million for Palestinians More than $100 million has been collected in a telethon that ended Saturday to raise money for the Palestinians and also allowed Saudis to vent their anger against Israel and the United States on state-owned television.

West Bank Atrocities | csmonitor.com The trip to Israel and the West Bank by Secretary of State Colin Powell should not be only for peace. It must also hold both sides to account for atrocities.

Yahoo! News - Israelis Storm Into More Villages Israeli troops charged into several more West Bank villages and arrested about 40 suspected militants Saturday, while Palestinian civilians picked through the rubble in towns hard-hit by Israel's ongoing incursion.

Yahoo! News - Powell, Arafat Talks on Again After U.S. Demand Met Secretary of State Colin Powell rescheduled a meeting with Yasser Arafat for Sunday in which he is expected to push for cease-fire as a first step toward reviving talks on a final peace settlement.

DallasNews.com | Dallas-Fort Worth | Killer of gas clerk gets death penalty A Dallas County jury handed the death penalty Thursday to a Dallas man who claimed that a series of shootings last fall that killed two immigrants and maimed another were retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

FOXNews.com Senior U.S. officials confirmed Thursday night that the Bush administration is monitoring negotiations intended to secure the release of two American missionaries who have been held hostage by Abu Sayyaf rebels in the Philippines for nearly a year.

BBC News | BUSINESS | Terror funds war 'only just beginning' The war against terrorist finance is only just hotting up, according to US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.

Reuters | Breaking News from Around the Globe Most Americans believe the United States should halt or reduce economic and military aid to Israel if Prime Minister Ariel Sharon does not immediately withdraw troops from Palestinian areas, according to a Time Magazine/CNN poll released on Friday.

CNN.com - Army to conduct mock aerial chem-bio attack - April 12, 2002 The U.S. Army will drop hundreds of pounds of clay dust and egg whites off the Florida coast next week, part of a four-day mock aerial terrorist attack.

Democrat Implies Sept. 11 Administration Plot (washingtonpost.com) Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) is calling for an investigation into whether President Bush and other government officials had advance notice of terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 but did nothing to prevent them.

Ha'aretz - Peres calls IDF operation in Jenin a 'massacre' Foreign Minister Shimon Peres Peres is very worried about the expected international reaction as soon as the world learns the details of the tough battle in the Jenin refugee camps, where more than 100 Palestinians have already been killed in fighting with IDF forces. In private, Peres is referring to the battle as a "massacre."

Trails of Destruction, Tales of Loss (washingtonpost.com) Many refugees who had fled to town to escape the camp's dusty streets and cinder-block hovels where the bloodiest fighting unfolded said their homes had been pulverized. They described bodies lying in the streets.

Yahoo! News - Powell Calls Off Arafat Meeting Secretary of State Colin Powell called off his Saturday meeting with Yasser Arafat late Friday night after a new suicide bombing spread out before Powell's eyes the carnage he had come to Israel in hopes of ending.

Yahoo! News - Suicide Blast Kills 6 in Jerusalem A Palestinian woman blew herself up Friday in a crowded outdoor market in Jerusalem, killing six shoppers, wounding dozens and further complicating Secretary of State Colin Powell's difficult peace mission.

War criminals face new court | csmonitor.com The UN's vision for a standing international criminal court comes true today, despite US criticism.

Don't bother bombing Afghanistan | csmonitor.com On Sept.12, Tamim Ansary, an Afghan American who lives in the Bay Area, listened with dismay as men and women phoned in to a talk radio show, calling for the US to bomb his homeland "back to the Stone Age."

Child soldiers a growing concern on foreign battlefields From half a globe away, Peter Dak can see familiarity in the hollow eyes of the 14-year-old boy who used an AK-47 assault rifle to kill Fort Lewis Green Beret Sgt. Nathan Chapman, the first American soldier killed in combat in Afghanistan.

INS tightening rules for visitors The Immigration and Naturalization Service yesterday announced far-reaching changes to rules that govern foreign visitors and students, including one proposal that could limit millions of foreign visitors to 30-day stays in the United States.

Defiant Sharon Losing Support in White House (washingtonpost.com) Israel's continued defiance of President Bush's demand for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian cities and towns is eroding support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon inside the White House, administration sources said yesterday.

Israel Rejects Demands to Withdraw Troops (washingtonpost.com) On the eve of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's arrival in Jerusalem, a suicide bombing that killed eight Israelis and wounded 14 stiffened the Israeli government's resolve to continue its bloody military offensive in the West Bank in the face of mounting U.S. and other international criticism.

Wayne Madsen: Anthrax and the Agency Now that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has officially put the anthrax investigation on a back burner, it is time for Americans to think the unthinkable: that the FBI has never been keen to identify the perpetrator because that perpetrator may, in fact, be the U.S. Government itself.

Yahoo! News - Palestinian Suicide Bomber Kills 8 on Israeli Bus A Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least eight people when he blew himself up on a bus near the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Wednesday, Israeli police said.

TIME.com: Why Suicide Bombing Is Now All The Rage Among Palestinians, dying to kill has become a noble calling. Here's how the practice went from extreme to mainstream.

Wired 10.04: Peace Is War It's not that terror bombs make good weapons. It's that space-based communication and surveillance make other modes of attack obsolete.

Among the Bourgeoisophobes Why the Europeans and Arabs, each in their own way, hate America and Israel.

The Scotsman - Opinion - George Kerevan: Democracy is the key THE route to a possible solution in the Middle East may lie with the lessons of a rather stern and egotistical son of Scotland, in Asia a few years before Israel was founded in 1948: US General Douglas C McArthur.

Yahoo! News - Israeli Diplomat Grilled at U.N. Frustrated U.N. Security Council members grilled the Israeli ambassador Monday on why Israel had defied repeated demands for an end to increasingly deadly attacks on Palestinian cities.

Plugging a Very Porous Northern Border (washingtonpost.com) Since Sept. 11, More Agents, Technology Patrol Stretches of Long-Neglected 4,000-Mile Line.

Bomb explodes near Afghan minister A bomb exploded Monday near a convoy carrying Afghanistan’s defense minister, killing four bystanders and injuring 16 others.

How Two Lives Met In Death Special report: Suicide bombings have driven the conflict in the Mideast to new and dangerous levels. This is the story of two teens whose paths tragically intersected: an innocent Israeli and the Palestinian girl who became a walking weapon of terror.

Forbes.com: Saddam's Oil Fit It's not the first time that the Iraqi strongman has sought to use his huge oil reserves--the world's second-largest proven reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)--for political leverage. But his gambit is a misguided attempt that will certainly backfire.

Yahoo! News - Iraq Suspends Oil Exports to Support Palestinians President Saddam Hussein of Iraq Monday announced an immediate month-long suspension of all Iraqi oil exports to protest Israel's incursion into Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Calls Limited Israeli Pullout 'A Start' Hours after President Bush (news - web sites) issued a stern new call on Monday for Israel to withdraw swiftly from Palestinian areas, troops prepared to pull out of two West Bank towns in what the White House called "a start."

The New Republic Online: After Peace The Arab-Israeli conflict is over half a century old, and the struggle over the precious, punishing land between the river and the sea is over a century old, but what we are now witnessing, with perfectly appropriate horror, is the first Palestinian-Israeli war.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | New US paper aims at Afghan war truth A newspaper aimed at providing news of the war in Afghanistan is to be launched this month. Its editors argue that the mainstream media in the US are not providing a full picture of the war and its effects.

Yahoo! News - Bush Derides Clinton's Mideast Work President Bush says the Mideast summit sponsored by former President Clinton resulted in a "significant intefadeh," or uprising, repeating an accusation his press secretary got in trouble for uttering.

Bush Mideast role dangerously naive Could the same president who has wisely and resolutely led this nation in its own war on terrorism possibly be so naive as to believe that the answer to the wave of suicide bombings in Israel is for Israel to stop its military actions in the West Bank?

Mercury News | 04/05/2002 | Bush finally steps up Mideast involvement IN a dramatic and encouraging shift, President Bush has decided to throw the full weight of his administration into the increasingly bloody Middle East conflict.

Rules in Mideast's Wild West This is the world that U.S. investigators have been trying to better understand since the bombing nearly 18 months ago of the U.S. destroyer Cole in the port of Aden.

Yahoo! News - Israel Should Withdraw 'Without Delay' - Powell Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Israel on Friday to withdraw military forces from Palestinian areas "without delay" and not use the days before his trip to the region this weekend as a reason to continue incursions that have fed an explosion of violence.

Promises but Never Peace (washingtonpost.com) Arafat's response has redundantly proved his harshest critics right. There was never any honest intent on the Palestinian part for peaceful coexistence with Israel, any more than there was ever any honest intent to establish a government in Gaza that would function toward that end and toward the creation of a decent life for the Palestinian people.

Israel launches offensive in Nablus Israel launched a new invasion in its six-day offensive aimed at crushing Palestinian militias in the West Bank by rolling into Nablus late Wednesday, Palestinian witnesses said.

Yahoo! News - Saddam Raises Bomber Pay to $25,000, Rumsfeld Says Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) has raised the amount offered to relatives of suicide bombers from $10,000 per family to $25,000, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday.

Yahoo! News - In Shift, U.S. Stresses Political Issues in Mideast In a policy shift apparently designed to mollify Palestinians, the White House suggested on Wednesday President Bush was open to discussing the political aspects of a Middle East peace deal before there is a cease-fire on the ground.

Bush Clarifies 'Terror Doctrine' (washingtonpost.com) President Bush now admits that the one-size-fits-all "Bush doctrine" on terrorism in fact doesn't fit Yasser Arafat.

The Bulletin > News > Stories > Kissinger: What America can do : For now, the United States should avoid pressure for a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement and help both sides agree on attainable goals, writes Henry A. Kissinger.

IndyMedia Center - An Open Letter to American Jews ...When I understood that the government had lied to me in order to sell me this war, I turned from 'center-rightist' to 'leftist'. Sadly enough, it has taken me almost 20 more years, in a slow and painful process, to understand how deeply the lies and self-delusion are rooted in our collective perception of reality.

Yahoo! News - Israeli Army Expands Clampdown in West Bank The Israeli army advanced into more Palestinian self-rule areas of the West Bank early on Tuesday in a campaign against suicide bombers and a top Palestinian security official said his compound was under siege.

Afghanistan braces for broad changes Afghanistan’s ex-king, Mohammad Zaher Shah, will return from exile April 16 and convene a grand council in June to decide the future of Afghanistan — a future that will usher in a new government including at least 160 women among more than 1,500 members, the organizing commission announced Sunday. Only six seats are guaranteed for Islamic scholars.

Taiwan quake damages buildings An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale rocked Taiwan on Sunday, causing several buildings to collapse and forcing a shutdown of the capital’s subway system, officials and witnesses said.

CNN.com - Gunbattle at Arafat HQ - March 31, 2002 Israeli and Palestinians exchanged gunfire on Sunday at the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Israel and the Bush Doctrine When Daniel Pearl’s throat was slit because he was a Jew, that was applied Arafatism.

Arabs vent rage over Israeli incursion As Israeli forces tightened their grip on Yasser Arafat’s compound in the West Bank, the Arab world reacted Saturday with angry protests and a dire warning from Jordan, one of three Arab countries with diplomatic links to Israel. Huge crowds of protesters took to the streets, chanting “Death to Israel!” and denouncing the siege of Palestinian cities.

Arafat Calls World Leaders for Help Israeli troops backed by tanks swarmed into Yasser Arafat's headquarters Friday, punching holes in walls and fighting room to room as the Palestinian leader huddled in a windowless office and made frantic appeals to world leaders by cellphone.

We won't give Omar to US: Musharraf - The Times of India Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf reportedly told the US ambassador in Islamabad that he would rather hang Sheikh Omar Sayeed, key accused in the Daniel Pearl murder, himself rather than extradite him, one of many instances of backsliding that has called into question Pakistan's credibility as a frontline state in the war against terrorism.

Paper says it got bin Laden e-mail An Arabic newspaper said Wednesday it had received an e-mail claiming to be from Osama bin Laden, attacking a Saudi peace plan for the Middle East and urging the region’s Muslims to revolt against their leaders.

The New Yorker - THE GREAT TERROR In northern Iraq, there is new evidence of Saddam Hussein's genocidal war on the Kurds—and of his possible ties to Al Qaeda.

U.S. maintains the upper hand "Aghast" is the word, for what we are witnessing looks like joint preparations by the Palestinian Authority, Syria, its Lebanese client, Iraq, and Iran, for war on a regional scale, against both Israel and U.S. interests. I fear we may face a major, sudden, external assault on Israel, meant to precede U.S. action against the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, and indeed prevent the U.S. from going there by enmiring it in the defence of Israel.

Suicide Bomber Kills 16 in Israel A suicide bomber burst into a hotel dining room and blew himself up Wednesday just as Israelis dressed in their holiday best were sitting down to a Seder meal celebrating the Jewish Passover. At least 16 Israelis were killed and more than 100 wounded.

CNN.com - Operations shift after bin Laden reports - March 26, 2002 The U.S.-led coalition battling al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan is shifting its focus farther south, military officials said Tuesday, responding to unconfirmed reports that Osama bin Laden had been seen in southeastern Afghanistan.

How Will Israel Survive? Israel still has the strongest military in the Mideast, but the threat now comes from within.

FBI probes ‘martyrdom letter’ A Virginia man was discovered to be carrying a document described as a “martyrdom letter” after he and another man were refused entry into Israel and flown back to the United States, the FBI said in court documents unsealed Tuesday. Agents said Israeli officials may have prevented a suicide attack.

Boston Globe Online / Nation | World / Food drops found to do little good The Bush administration's much publicized food ration airdrop in northern Afghanistan - hailed by the Pentagon as a way to feed starving residents while winning their loyalty - achieved neither goal in many targeted areas, military experts, aid workers, and a report by retired US special forces officers now conclude.

CNN.com - Afghan quake death toll may be unknown for weeks - March 26, 2002 Afghan officials said Tuesday that an accurate death count may be weeks away after a devastating earthquake in the mountains of northeastern Afghanistan, where early reports indicated the town of Nahrin may have been destroyed.

From U.S., the ABC's of Jihad (washingtonpost.com) Violent Soviet-era textbooks complicate Afghan education efforts.

School year opens in Afghanistan Girls in bright red dresses and transparent green headscarves took center stage at a ceremony Saturday marking the first day of the school year in Afghanistan, where thousands of girls returned to the classroom for the first time in years.

Report ties Sept. 11 hijacker to anthrax A Florida doctor who treated one of the alleged Sept. 11 hijackers last June for a dark lesion on his leg said after reviewing his notes weeks after the attack that the lesion was consistent with anthrax, The New York Times reported Saturday.

CNN.com - Half brother says bin Laden is alive and well - March 19, 2002 A half brother of Osama bin Laden says the terrorist's family has its own information that bin Laden is alive and that he does not have kidney disease requiring dialysis.

From Afghanistan 1 [Scott Carrier] Sights, sounds and stories; a photo-audio-essay, with excerpts from Carrier's Harper's article and ambient recordings of the streets, songs and prayers of the Afghan people.

CNN.com - Saudi police face deaths criticism - March 14, 2002 Saudi media, in a rare criticism of the kingdom's powerful religious police, have accused the force of hampering efforts to rescue 15 girls who died inside a blazing school.

Does bin Laden matter anymore? | csmonitor.com In the Pentagon corridors, the 'evil-doer' is no longer the focus - even if most Americans think he's supposed to be.

BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Israeli raids take heavy toll At least five Palestinians were killed on Friday as Israeli troops pressed ahead for a second day with an offensive against a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin.

BBC News | UK | Harmful packages sent to MPs A number of packages containing a caustic substance have been sent through the post to UK government ministers and MPs.

Hundreds dead in India violence Chaos spread through the western Indian city of Ahmadabad on Friday, and the death toll over three days of Hindu-Muslim violence climbed to around 300, despite patrols by hundreds of soldiers and orders for police to shoot rioters and arsonists on sight.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Relents Over Guantanamo Prison Turbans A hunger strike by nearly 200 al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, lost momentum on Friday after U.S. military officials ended a ban against wearing turbans that sparked the protest.

Yahoo! News - Bush Activates Cold War-Era Plan for U.S. Government After the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush set in motion a Cold War-era plan to keep the government running, sending civilian officials to live and work in secret bunkers outside Washington, administration officials said on Friday.

Yahoo! News - 'Suspicious' Air India Passenger Released, FBI Says A case of mistaken identity sparked an international air furor that raised the specter of Sept. 11 on Thursday as Canadian and U.S. jet fighters accompanied an Air India flight into New York believed to be carrying a suspicious passenger.

Daschle says war going off-track Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle criticized the U.S. military campaign Thursday for an “expansion without at least a clear direction,” saying the war on terrorism would be a failure if Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders were not captured. Republicans accused Daschle of trying to divide the country during wartime.

Guantanamo inmates start hunger strike More than 100 of the terror suspects being held by the US at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have launched a hunger strike.

Indian army sent in to quell riots Indian army units have been sent into Gujarat's biggest city to try to stem clashes between Hindus and Muslims which left more than 40 people dead on Thursday.

Yahoo! News - Hindu Riots in India Kill 38 Muslims Angry Hindus set fire to homes in a Muslim neighborhood Thursday and then kept firefighters away for hours, dragging out one former lawmaker and burning him alive. At least 58 people died in revenge attacks triggered by a Muslim assault on a train.

Yahoo! News - Jet Carrying 'Suspicious' Man Lands Canadian fighters shadowed a New York-bound Air India jetliner over the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after authorities determined that a suspicious passenger was aboard, U.S. government officials said.

Yahoo! News - Palestinian Death Toll Passes 1,000 The Israeli military attacked two West Bank refugee camps with helicopter gunships, tanks and paratroopers Thursday in a high-stakes attempt to break strongholds of Palestinian militants. An Israeli soldier and 11 Palestinians were killed — pushing the Palestinian toll past 1,000 in 17 months of fighting.

Yahoo! News - Polls: Islamic Nations Resent U.S. Residents of Islamic countries harbor deep resentment toward the United States and believe the military action in Afghanistan is not morally justified, Gallup polls conducted in nine countries find.

Yahoo! News - Men Charged With Aiding Hijackers Two men have been charged with participating in a fake identification ring that supplied documents to some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, court documents show.

Yahoo! News - Russia Worried About U.S. in Georgia With U.S. military advisers already in Georgia — and with the prospect of hundreds more American troops being sent to Russia's doorstep — Georgian and U.S. officials denied Wednesday that American soldiers would go into combat against terrorism in the small Caucasus nation.

Yahoo! News - US Wants DNA From bin Laden's Family The U.S. government is seeking samples of DNA from Osama bin Laden's family to determine if human remains found in Afghanistan belong to the terrorist leader, government sources said Wednesday.

Doomsday Clock Chicago, February 27, 2002: Today, the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the minute hand of the “Doomsday Clock,” the symbol of nuclear danger, from nine to seven minutes to midnight, the same setting at which the clock debuted 55 years ago. Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, this is the third time the hand has moved forward.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Leader: A US president writes (Not, unfortunately, the current one) This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

Yahoo! News - Rumsfeld: Pentagon Closing Office The Pentagon will close a new office that reportedly has proposed spreading false information abroad, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

Yahoo! News - E.U.: Sharon Willing to Meet Saudis Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told an EU envoy Tuesday he was willing to meet Saudi officials, publicly or behind the scenes, to explore their proposals for an overall Mideast peace, the European diplomat said.

U.S. Analysts Find No Sign bin Laden Had Nuclear Arms — An analysis of suspected radioactive substances seized in Afghanistan has found nothing to prove that Osama bin Laden reached his decade-long goal of acquiring nuclear materials for a bomb, administration officials say.