Blog-heap o' links from 2004-April

CURRENT

Google IPO has risks, even if you're feeling lucky (Forbes)

Rep. Jim McDermott, Washington Democrat, yesterday did not say the words "under God" as he led the House in its daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Rep. Pete Sessions, Texas Republican, accused Mr. McDermott of "embarrassing the House" and proving that "he and those like him stand more for the liberal left than they do for our friends and neighbors." (Wash Times)

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Flying saucer fever has gripped Iran after dozens of sightings in the last few days.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - An 18-month-old girl was found alive next to a car wreck that killed her father the day before.

Flashback April 14 — A 5-year-old girl alone for 10 days in a remote ravine

KOREAN TRAIN STATION EXPLOSION

SEOUL (Reuters) - Many North Koreans died a "heroic death" after last week's train explosion by running into burning buildings to rescue portraits of leader Kim Jong-il and his father

Inside North Korea: historic images reveal full horror of a city 'obliterated'... claimed up to 2,000 casualties... a fireball like a nuclear bomb, which sent up a black mushroom-shaped cloud, flattened dozens of buildings, scattered debris for miles around, and left a crater 50ft deep... railway station and immediate surroundings were "obliterated" and hundreds of buildings up to three miles away were destroyed... [rumors:] Kim Jong Il... narrowly avoided an assassination attempt by changing his schedule at the last moment. ...residents of Ryongchon were not informed of his new schedule. Some 700 children were lined up on the platform to wave flags in greeting but were caught in a blast timed to kill him as his train went past... [official explanation:] electricity pole was knocked down when an oil wagon collided with two other wagons loaded with ammonium nitrate fertiliser. The fire caused by the short circuit ignited the oil wagon and the chemicals as the trucks were being shunted.(Independent)
electricity... ammonium nitrate... oil... how odd that the "accident" should be that perfect mix as e.g. used in Oklahoma City....

...serious facial blast wounds left many victims blinded or severely scarred.... "Injured people are suffering from blast wounds with dirt, debris, rubble and glass literally blown into their faces at high velocity, there are a lot of serious facial wounds".... (news24)

...shortage of beds and problems with medical equipment. In Sinuiju Provincial Hospital, at North Korea's border wih China, 360 victims of the blast were being treated yesterday. More than 60 per cent of the victims were children. The most serious injuries were suffered by children in a nearby school who heard the initial blast, glanced towards it and were struck by a wave of glass, rubble and heat. (Independent)

SEOUL -- Ryongchon, a bustling trade town on North Korea's busiest route to China, was virtually unknown to the outside world until a deafening explosion ripped through its train station, flattening buildings and causing thousands of casualties. (Globe& Mail)

Pix (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's rail disaster has blocked a main conduit for aid and could force the reclusive state to deal with the world more openly and transparently than ever before, a veteran medical aid worker said on Saturday.
...area around the station... totally obliterated and damage extends for four kilometres.... appears power cables touched rail wagons loaded with ammonium nitrate fertiliser.... rubble everywhere and very large craters.... Buildings in an area of several hundred metres have been totally flattened... state news agency acknowledged in an uncharacteristically candid report that the damage was "very serious" and expressed its appreciation of offers of international help. (BBC)

...blast destroyed a rail station, gouged a 30-foot-deep crater and ripped the roofs off buildings more than two miles away.... huge hole that dwarfed onlookers.... "Buildings around were totally flattened".... three-story agricultural school near the station "was totally leveled... There was nothing left. It was rubble." At a three-story primary school about 300 yards from the station, the roof was ripped away and the top floor collapsed.... At least 154 people were confirmed dead - 76 of them schoolchildren - and 1,300 injured... (AP)

SEOUL/DANDONG, China (Reuters) - The Red Cross described apocalyptic scenes around the site of a train explosion in North Korea but said on Saturday the death toll stood at 154 -- far lower than first feared.
A UN mission is heading to North Korea to assist in the recovery effort from Thursday's rail disaster, after a rare call for help from the secretive state. (BBC)

A picture is beginning to emerge in North Korea of the scale of Thursday's rail disaster close to China's border. In the first independent account, the Red Cross said the train blast killed at least 54 people and injured 1,200. But diplomatic sources in Pyongyang say the figure is much higher, as reports indicate the blast happened when two wagons of dynamite hit a live wire. ... 1,850 homes have been flattened and 6,350 seriously damaged.... (BBC)

SEOUL, South Korea, April 23 — The toll from a huge train blast at a North Korean railroad station was estimated today at between 54 and 150 dead and 1,249 injured. A total of 1,850 homes were leveled and 6,350 were damaged, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross in Beijing.... (NY Times)

North Korea is one of the most secretive countries in the world, and it is more than possible that the truth about Thursday's explosion will never be totally clear.... the commotion caused by his [North Korean leader Kim Jong-il] travel through Ryongchon may have contributed to the crash. ... the country's poorly maintained rail infrastructure would have come under further strain while Mr Kim was travelling, as signals and timetables changed.... (BBC)

BBC Uses False Photo
[satellite photo]

(Korea Times)

Overseas officials have confirmed a massive blast in North Korea feared to have left thousands dead and wounded. But authorities in the secretive state have not acknowledged any disaster, nearly a day after two fuel trains were reported to have collided. (BBC)

SEOUL - Up to 3,000 people were killed or injured when two fuel-laden trains collided and exploded at a North Korean station just hours after leader Kim Jong-il had passed through, according to South Korean media. (Reuters)

Up to 3,000 people have been killed or injured in a huge explosion after two fuel trains collided in North Korea (BBC)

World's worst rail disasters (BBC)

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - A sixth-grader was suspended after school officials accused him of threatening to expose a highly allergic teacher to peanut butter cookies... a girl ... told the teacher... father said Jules was carrying a snack packet of Nutter Butter cookies and did make a comment about having "something dangerous" but never said he had a weapon. "They mishandled this," (AP)

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Authorities stormed a basement in a poor neighborhood of the Jordanian capital Tuesday, killing four men believed to have ties to an al-Qaida-linked cell that plotted simultaneous bombing and chemical attacks against the U.S. Embassy and other targets.

WASHINGTON - Researchers uncovered a serious flaw in the underlying technology for nearly all Internet traffic, a discovery that led to an urgent and secretive international effort to prevent global disruptions of Web surfing, e-mails and instant messages. (AP)

LOS ANGELES, April 14 — A 5-year-old girl alone for 10 days in a remote ravine alongside her dead mother's body after their car plunged off a highway and came to rest under a tree. (NY Times)

One of the biggest batches yet of software bugs in Microsoft's Windows software was revealed on Tuesday, prompting users to scramble to install patches to secure home and office computers against potential attack. (NewScientist.com)

Grave robbers destroyed a 1,000-year-old mural at an ancient Peruvian ceremonial site... probably used picks or wooden poles in a futile effort to steal the mural - a black, yellow and white dragon in sculpted relief on a painted red background - but only succeeded in destroying it. (AP)

New face found on Turin shroud? Roger Highfield/Telegraph UK

It started out as a joke from a friend and ended with fame. ... 15-year-old from the Moscow region turned the Miss Universe competition upside down for a few weeks as she swept ahead of all the long-legged favorites in an Internet poll designed to select Russia's delegate.

Christian scholar questions Gibson's depiction of Jesus Theology taken from nun's meditations Passion is dangerous, sadistic, expert says (Toronto Star)

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Deborah Mell ... the governor's sister-in-law - a lesbian who has taken it upon herself to fight him on this issue in recent months... (AP)

FLINT, Mich - A group of children hunting for Easter eggs Saturday during a church event found two loaded handguns outside an elementary school.... One of the guns discharged when it was dropped ...but it was unclear who dropped it. (AP)

BOSTON - Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley declined to wash the feet of women (AP)

Michigan: Private gambling operations disrupted by vice tyrants -- millions in private funds seized... Long-time family business wiped out by government enforcement of its gambling monopoly (AP)

An Amtrak passenger train with 84 people on board derailed in rural central Mississippi late Tuesday, killing at least one person and injuring dozens. (AP) And whenever you have something like this now, the first thing you wonder is, was it terrorists or did we just do it to ourselves again?

Colorado Gov & Co.Sprgs Mayor don't welcome atheist convention during Easter week

A church trying to teach about the crucifixion of Jesus performed an Easter show with actors whipping the Easter bunny and breaking eggs, upsetting several parents and young children. (AP)

A woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy after performing a Caesarean on herself with a kitchen knife. It is thought to be the first known case of a self-inflicted Caesarean in which both the mother and baby survived. (BBC)

Singer Alanis Morissette wore a "nude suit" on stage at Canada's equivalent of the Grammys to complain about censorship in the US. bfd

"I am overjoyed to be back in my homeland, the true North ... strong and censor-free."
full frontal picture at Men's News Daily

Pope Who? Presidential candidate John Kerry: "...My oath privately between me and God was defined in the Catholic church by Pius XXIII and Pope Paul VI in the Vatican II...." Mr. Kerry apparently meant John XXIII, as there is no Pius XXIII.

Tokyo Cab Reaches NY from Argentina, Meter Running (Reuters)

WAL-MART: ABOVE THE LAW? ...The proposal would essentially exempt Wal-Mart from all of Inglewood's planning, zoning and environmental regulations, creating a city-within-a-city subject only to its own rules. (NY Times)

STUDENT'S EXPRESSION-RIGHT WINS! 'Barbie Is a Lesbian' Shirt Suit Settled Fri Apr 2, 2004 07:43 AM ET

(Reuters) - A Canadian who waited nearly a year to claim a C$30 million ($23 million) lottery prize because he didn't want to "do anything rash" was being described as the most patient man in the country on Friday.

Privacy advocates are concerned that there's one big flaw with Google Inc.'s free e-mail service: The company plans to read the messages.

CHICAGO (AP) - That tiny bit of print on a condom packet is at the center of a raging debate now that President George W. Bush has asked the Food and Drug Administration to modify the current warning to include information about human papillomavirus, commonly called HPV or genital warts.

"The Gospel of John" has arrived in theaters with none of the uproar associated with "The Passion of the Christ." Nor is it drawing the crowds.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A retired truck driver claimed a $239 million Mega Millions jackpot Thursday, calling the second-largest lottery payout in history "no big thing to me." His wife vowed to "shop till I drop." ...[He] will probably invest in real estate "because they don't make no more dirt, you know."

INFORMATION

TULSA - The world's oil supply will outlast the world's demand, remaining relatively inexpensive and becoming cleaner to burn, the chairman of the nation's third largest oil company predicted Wednesday. Archie Dunham, chairman of ConocoPhillips Inc., said ..."The world can rely on fossil fuels for the bulk of its energy needs for the next 100 years... the oil age will end long before the world will run out of oil." (AP/EE)

Engineers Say Salt Lake's Aging Buildings 'will Just Flat-Out Kill You' in Next Earthquake... The mountain basin that cradles this town is due for a whopping earthquake, the kind that's reliably on time and can topple buildings in a heartbeat. (AP)

new National World War II Memorial (MSNBC)

Herds of robotic traffic cones could soon be swarming onto a highway ... to help reduce the $100 billion per year that the Department of Transportation estimates is lost to the US economy through accidents and delays caused by highway lane closures. The self-propelled markers take the form of robotic three-wheeled bases for the brightly coloured barrels that are set out to demarcate road repair zones. (New Scientist)

Human-like species migrating out of their African homeland had mastered the use of fire up to 790,000 years ago, the journal Science reports. (BBC)

A system that projects light beams directly into the eye could change the way we see the world. (BBC)

Apr 25 1980: Tehran hostage rescue mission fails

Exiled Bikinians Sing of Promises, but Face Exodus Without End ... between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands.... The megatonnage was equal to exploding 1.6 Hiroshima atomic bombs a day for 12 years. Twenty-three tests took place at Bikini, and four of its islets were vaporized. (Charles J. Hanley/AP)

A way to read text messages just by touch has been developed by researchers in Germany. (BBC)

Lawmakers will keep pressing the Bush administration until they get a detailed explanation of its strategy in Iraq (AP)
Oh yeah? Good luck! :)

Poets die young -- younger than novelists, playwrights and other writers, a U.S. researcher said on Wednesday. It could be because poets are tortured and prone to self-destruction, or it could be that poets become famous young, so their early deaths are noticed (Reuters)

Survey:
More than 70% of people would reveal their computer password in exchange for a bar of chocolate
34% of respondents volunteered their password when asked without even needing to be bribed.
79% of people unwittingly gave away information that could be used to steal their identity when questioned (BBC)

Two in five Internet users in the United States now have high-speed access at home (AP)

On April 1, Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian economist who has devoted his life to bringing real property rights to the world’s poor, became the second winner of the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. ... The prize is a rare honor, but then de Soto is an extraordinary individual. It’s not every economist who finds himself the target of terrorist bombings and assassination attempts. Because of his scholarship and activism on behalf of the world’s poor, in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, de Soto was repeatedly targeted by the Marxist terror group, the Shining Path.... (Fox)

Arguments with Teenage Daughters Can Be Good?... new research in Britain which shows arguing may actually be good for their relationships with moody offspring. (Reuters)

Nairobi, Kenya: Stripeless Zebra Puzzles Experts (Local6.com) [pic]

After Decades of Bombings, Hawaiian Island Begins to Heal... On Friday, the Navy hauled off its last barge full of equipment and debris after an unprecedented 10-year, $460 million cleanup. (Matt Sedensky/AP)

You are lost in a foreign city, you don't speak the language and you are late for your meeting. What do you do? Take out your cellphone, photograph the nearest building and press send. For a small fee, photo recognition software on a remote server works out precisely where you are, and sends back directions that will get you to your destination. (New Scientist)

WW2 America: The reports on the forgotten history of the German Americans who were detained in the Crystal City internment camp during World War II. (Nigel Wrench/BBC)

...Jesus is the best-known victim of crucifixion. But thousands of other Jews were put to death on the cross by the Romans, trying to quash Jewish rebellions in the Holy Land in the first century. But the remains of only one victim have ever been found. He was Yehohanan Ben Hagkol, a Jewish man whose heel bone, excavated by archaeologists near Jerusalem in 1968, still had a nail embedded in it.

Scientists seek 'map of science' Scientists need new ways to monitor the progress of science in the digital age, according to reports in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Science is the most interconnected of all human activities, they say, and requires a new series of maps to chart the changing scientific landscape. (Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor)

Frequent ejaculation during masturbation or sex, a new study has found, isn't associated with an increased risk for prostate cancer, laying to rest a popular misconception. In fact, it may even decrease the risks for certain people. (ABC)

Without a genetic fix, the banana may be history

Russian geologists have discovered massive gold deposits in the southern region of Altai with estimated reserves of up to 1,000 tons of the precious metal, a regional official was quoted as saying on Friday. Anatoly Zaitsev, Altai's top geologist, was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying that total discovered reserves of gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead in northern Altai are estimated at 60 million tons. Undiscovered reserves could be five times higher, he said. (Moscow Times)

Shroud of Turin: New Evidence? ...stitching on the shroud which could have been created only during the messiah's lifetime has been uncovered. [AND] ...when scientists controversially carbon-dated [the shroud]... the team unwittingly used cloth that had been added during a 16th-century restoration and it could have been contaminated from handling.

CHICAGO (AP) - Researchers have found that every hour preschoolers watch television each day boosts their chances...of developing attention deficit problems later in life.

"I'm holding on to my babehood. Somebody's got to do it.... [and discussing Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction] I did much worse things. I flashed everyone I could - friends, fans, family. It seemed quite normal. More is made out of it now." --Debbie Harry, 58, whose band BLONDIE is trying to make a comeback, with the Daily News.

A 1,000-ton barge rammed into a pier supporting an aging bridge over Florida's Apalachicola Bay last week, delighting civil engineers, who plan to ram it a dozen more times. (Reuters)

Just in time for the tenth anniversary of his death, the revival of the question, "Who killed Kurt Cobain?" “The forensic pathologist that we spoke to said that there's no way this guy could have injected a triple lethal dose of heroin into his system, then rolled down his sleeve, put away the drug kit, picked up the shotgun and shot himself.... (MSNBC)

Speaking about religious filmmaking, how about Cecil B. DeMille

Microcredit - a Revolution for the Poor That Began With a Basket-Weaver in Bangladesh By Beth Duff-Brown Associated Press Writer Published: Apr 3, 2004

A lost musical score by German composer Johann Sebastian Bach has been found in Japan, scholars have revealed. The 1728 composition, called "Wedding Cantata BWV 216," was found among the papers of Japanese pianist Chieko Hara, who died in Japan in 2001 aged 86. The work, written for the wedding of a daughter of a German customs official, was missing for 80 years.

Facts About Sri Lanka and Friday's parliamentary elections -- The Associated Press Published: Apr 2, 2004

The discovery of a 365-million-year-old forelimb is helping scientists better understand how ancient creatures made the transition from water to land. A report published today in the journal Science describes the fossil, which represents an intermediate stage in the evolution of fish fins into vertebrate limbs.

The chances that asteroid impacts and huge bouts of volcanism coincide randomly to cause mass extinctions may be greater than previously imagined.

Always-on Internet Access and High Bandwidth ...There are snakes in the high-bandwidth paradise... (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility)

Holy horror ... the most graphic, gruesome and sadistic torture scenes in recent memory... ...Aramaic and Latin dialogue (very bad pronunciation, according to scholars... ...shredded flesh and bloody canals...rendered in painstaking detail by makeup effects artist Greg Cannom (Dracula, Hannibal)... ... grotesque, a protracted exercise in sadomasochism... ...every frame bellows, “He did this for you! This is all your fault, you sinners!”... “Why does the resurrected Jesus look like the Terminator, and who is he out to terminate?” (JESSICA ZAFRA/ABS-CBN)

'The Passion': great marketing, lousy movie ...Both the praise and the fury seem terribly exaggerated when you emerge from almost three hours of sadomasochistic, noisy imagery.... ...a very violent cartoon, not a serious film.... ...beyond credibility, not only as it relates to biblical writings, but also to common sense... Jesus spends most of the time on his way to Golgotha falling to the ground, unlike the symbolic three falls in the Gospels.... ..."The Passion" is a sin against quality entertainment and, most sadly, against emotion.... (Intl Herald Tribune Marie-Christine de Montbrial IHT Friday, April 2, 2004)

April 1: The Molvania Tourists Rarely Get to See Thu Apr 1, 2004 08:02 AM ET

The future of banking cards, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) ...the way someone moved their finger over the card... "I could have some gesture and that would be my signature... it would be like a personal handshake." ... "if you are a thief, you just wander around with a RFID detector looking for people with these credit cards."

Muscle Cramps... that occur at night and affect the legs are the most common... most commonly caused by an imbalance of calcium, magnesium, vitamin E, or poor circulation...

Most cramps, whatever the form, can quickly be relieved with calcium and magnesium supplements. Both of these minerals are important for nerve conduction and muscle contraction.

Muscle Cramps search on Google

Various circuitous web surfs led to a couple of ancient-conspiracy pages

BRIAN JONES -- Death of a Rolling Stone by Anthony Bruno

Sirhan Sirhan Is Innocent! by Charles Amsellem Wednesday December 10, 2003 07:53 PM reporting on a recent speech by Sirhan Sirhan Lawyer, Lawrence Teeter, in Los Angeles.

Sirhan and the RFK Assassination by Lisa Pease [two-part article is tease to buying book]

WW3

Sgt. Landis W. Garrison, 23, of Rapids City, Ill., died April 29, in Abu Gharb, Iraq, of non-combat related injuries.
Pfc. Martin W. Kondor, 20, of York, Penn., died April 29, in Baqubah, Iraq when an apparent improvised explosive device exploded near his vehicle.
Sgt. Adam W. Estep, 23, of Campbell, Calif., died April 29, in Baghdad, Iraq, when a rocket-propelled grenade hit his patrol.
(DOD)

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - ...U.S. forces put faith on Saturday in a former general in Saddam Hussein's army to help end a standoff with guerrillas. ...turned to the general on Friday after failing to eliminate an estimated 2,000 guerrillas in Falluja

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A Filipino civilian contractor has been killed in Iraq, becoming the country's first casualty there the president said Friday.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Georgia will triple its troop contribution to Iraq because it believes stabilizing the country is critical to the global war on terrorism, Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called radical Islamic insurgents fighting coalition troops in Iraq a legitimate resistance. (WND)

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police arrested Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on Friday over his suspected links to bombing attacks, including the Bali blasts, after hundreds of his supporters hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at police. The frail Bashir, accused of being head of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network, was released on Friday after being jailed for 18 months for immigration offences. He was served an arrest warrant and detained as he left jail in central Jakarta.

Excerpts From Writings of Accused Soldier Who Helped Run Baghdad Prison (AP)

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Suspected Taliban fighters ambushed six Afghan soldiers on a road in southern Afghanistan, killing all of them, a provincial government spokesman said Friday.

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. Marines negotiated a plan Thursday to pull back forces from Fallujah, a move that could lift a nearly monthlong siege and allow an Iraqi force led by a former Saddam Hussein-era general to handle security. Fresh clashes broke out despite news of the proposal, and U.S. warplanes dropped bombs on insurgent targets.

April 29 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said he had a "wide-ranging'' discussion with the bipartisan commission investigating intelligence failures before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and he answered every question asked during the three- hour closed-door session.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 29 (UPI) -- Even as U.S. officials described a deal to end the vicious fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, U.S. airplanes pounded targets in the restive city amid heavy fighting that erupted just after nightfall. (UPI)

Federal officials have warned the LAPD about an unspecified potential threat to a Los Angeles area mall and said an attack may have been planned for today. "we are asking all Los Angeles residents to go on with their daily lives while remaining vigilant and alert...."(dailynews.com)

BAGHDAD--U.S. military commanders said Sunni insurgents in Iraq have obtained the SA-16 surface-to-air missile. The SA-16 is a modified version of the older SA-7 and represents a greater threat to U.S. and coalition aircraft. (World Tribune)

Hundreds of Italians have taken part in a peace march in Rome calling for three hostages held in Iraq to be released. (BBC)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Ten U.S. soldiers were killed in attacks around Baghdad on Thursday, eight of them in an apparent suicide car bombing just south of the capital...

A Hamas suicide bomber blew up two armed Palestinians who tried to rob him at gun point in the Gaza Strip. (Ireland On-Line)

... some of the more than 100 [Guantanamo] prisoners who have been released have since turned up back in Afghanistan—fighting with Taliban forces against the U.S. military (MSNBC)

Najaf -- ...a shadowy resistance movement within might be about to succeed where the 2,500 US marines outside the city have failed. In a deadly expression of feelings that until now were kept quiet, a group representing local residents is said to have killed at least five militiamen in the last four days.... first sign of organised Iraqi opposition to Sadr’s presence.... leaflets...circulated in the city in the last week, urging Sadr’s al-Mahdi army to leave immediately or face imminent death. ..." has got some of the Mahdi guys quite worried.... banding together more, when normally you would see them happily walking on the streets alone.... many of the militiamen are shedding their trademark black headbands and jumpsuits.... (Scotsman)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- A large bomb went off early Thursday at the house of Gaza police chief Ghazi Jabali shortly after he left the site.... (Fox)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi leaders presented a new national flag Wednesday after protests that a version unveiled earlier this week resembled the flag of Israel. (Fox)

WASHINGTON, April 28 -- A Pentagon intelligence report has concluded that many bombings against Americans and their allies in Iraq, and the more sophisticated of the guerrilla attacks in Falluja, are organized and often carried out by members of Saddam Hussein's secret service, who planned for the insurgency even before the fall of Baghdad. (NY Times)

Officials See No Good Options for Ending Fallujah, Najaf Standoffs (Wash Post)

MADRID, Spain — Spanish officials made a direct link between the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the United States and the March 11 attack on trains in Madrid by indicting a Moroccan fugitive believed to have participated in both terror cases. (Fox)

United Nations, 28 April 2004 (RFE/RL) -- UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has recommended the quick formation of an interim Iraqi government to allow time to handle the sensitive issues involved in the transfer of power from the U.S.-led coalition.

Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Senate Judiciary committee, said the government "asks too much" in arguing for the indefinite military jailing of former Chicago gang member Jose Padilla without access to the court system.

U.S. forces launched intense aerial assaults on three fronts in the embattled city of Fallujah Wednesday (Wash Post)

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - A series of explosions and gunfire rocked Fallujah on Wednesday in new fighting

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Wednesday for a U.S.-drafted resolution that would punish black marketeers who traffic in nuclear, chemical and biological weapons components.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Wednesday he believes most parts of Fallujah are returning to "normal"

...an invisible "forcefield" protecting landmarks and high-security installations from terrorist attack. ...it's a reality... A Sydney firm has invented an invisible "bubble" that can be thrown around buildings, ports, airports and even parts of the sea using thermal imaging technology. (Daily Telegraph)

Sgt. Sherwood R. Baker, 30, of Plymouth, Penn., Sgt. Lawrence A. Roukey, 33, of Westbrook, Maine, died on April 26, in Baghdad, Iraq, by a large explosion while performing site security.

BANGKOK, April 28 (Xinhuanet) -- ...clashes between insurgents and authority troops left 112 dead in the country's unrest south. Starting from 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday, a great number of unidentified armed men launched simultaneous attacks against government places including police booths and military stations in Pattani, Yala and Songkhla, provinces lying some 1,000 kilometers south of Bangkok and close to Malaysia to the south.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - More than 70 people were killed on Wednesday in dawn clashes between black-clad young men and security forces in Thailand's restive Muslim south when armed gangs raided police posts in a sharp escalation of four months of violence.

AMMAN, Jordan, April 27 -- Explosions and gunfire broke out in the diplomatic quarter of Damascus, the Syrian capital, Tuesday night in what officials described as a confrontation between security forces and a group of unidentified attackers.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian security forces found a cache of arms and explosives in a raid in an upscale Damascus district where police earlier clashed with terrorists, Syrian television reported on Wednesday.

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. air strikes and shelling wrecked 10 homes in the besieged Iraqi town of Falluja overnight and damaged many more

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Multiple explosions shook Fallujah after dark Tuesday, and large plumes of smoke billowed into the sky as fighting erupted for the second straight night. An American AC-130 gunship hammered targets in the city.

A Delta Air Lines flight headed from Los Angeles to New York was diverted to Salt Lake City on Tuesday after a man with a butane lighter alarmed the flight crew...had been "acting strangely" (Newsday)

April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Coalition forces in Iraq killed 64 insurgents late yesterday near Najaf, hours before Spanish forces left the Shiite Muslim holy city as part of their planned withdrawal from the country

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces backed by helicopter gunships killed at least six Shi'ite militiamen in overnight clashes near the Iraqi holy city of Najaf

COLUMBUS, Ga. -- The horizon someday may be lined with giant floating orbs guarding people below from the enemy. While it might sound quite sci-fi, a plant near the Army's Fort Benning plans to start producing unmanned spherical airships that resemble giant golf balls. They could be used to protect areas from terrorists and missile attacks, watch weather developments and perhaps even provide wireless telephone service to developing nations. (AP)

Afghanistan has carried out its first execution since the fall of Taleban.... A former military commander convicted of murder... a single shot to the head... Amnesty International... says Abdullah Shah was denied even basic standards of fairness. ...feared the "execution may have been an attempt by powerful political players to eliminate a key witness to human rights abuses".(BBC)

JERUSALEM -- Mahmoud Zahar, a 53-year-old Egyptian-trained physician whose son was killed in an Israeli airstrike, was identified by Israel Monday as the new Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials signaled he won't be targeted for death if the militant group halts suicide attacks. Hamas, however, refused to reveal the name of its leader for fear he will be assassinated like his two predecessors. (Newsday)

New evidence out of Iraq suggests the U.S. effort to track down Saddam Hussein's missing weapons of mass destruction is having better success than is being reported. ...stunning news has received little attention from the major media, and the president's critics continue to insist that "no weapons" have been found. (WND)

A pair of nearly concurrent suicide bombing attacks on oil terminals in the Persian Gulf on Saturday -- the first waterborne assaults since the United States invaded Iraq -- has spurred the American military to significantly tighten security and change engagement tactics. (Wash Post)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) - A group holding three Italians hostage in Iraq has threatened to kill them in five days unless Italians take to the streets to publicly denounce their country's involvement in the U.S.-led occupation.

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - Barely 10 days before they start presenting their case to a jury, attorneys for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols find themselves without much of the evidence they planned to use. District Judge Steven Taylor ruled much of the defense evidence inadmissible last week. (AP)

FALLUJAH, Iraq, April 25 -- U.S. Marines have postponed plans to mount an attack against insurgents holed up here and instead will attempt to regain control of this violence-wracked city without a full-scale offensive (Wash Post)

FALLUJAH, Iraq, April 26 (MASNET & News Agencies) - An explosion at a suspected chemical munitions plant in Baghdad, and fierce fighting in the flashpoint Sunni town of Fallujah, left 11 people dead.... Three U.S. soldiers were killed, including one in the worst fighting in Fallujah since a ceasefire was declared in the town more than two weeks ago....

DUBAI (Reuters) - A statement apparently from top al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility Monday for a suicide boat attack on Iraq's Basra oil terminal at the weekend and vowed more attacks on coalition targets.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN)-- Clashes between Christians and Muslims in the city of Ambon, Indonesia have left at least 10 people dead and up to 100 injured, many with knife wounds, hospital and local officials say.

AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- Jordanian authorities said Monday they have broken up an alleged al Qaeda plot that would have unleashed a deadly cloud of chemicals in the heart of Jordan's capital, Amman. The plot would have been more deadly than anything al Qaeda has done before, including the September 11 attacks, according to the Jordanian government. Among the alleged targets were the U.S. Embassy, the Jordanian prime minister's office and the headquarters of Jordanian intelligence.

It's important to remind people why we went to war in Iraq.... It's important to put the war in context.... John Hawkins/ChronWatch

More than 33 Iraqis killed in day of attacks; rebel rockets kill four U.S. soldiers (AP/SF Chron)

JEDDAH, 24 April 2004 — Residents of Abdulrahman Bin Khurash Street finally left their homes this morning to survey the damage done to their neighborhood in yesterday’s shootout between suspected militants and security forces. (Arab News)

Pfc. Shawn C. Edwards, 20, of Bensenville, Ill., died April 23, in Samarra, Iraq, when his convoy vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.
Sgt. Elmer C. Krause, 40, of Greensboro, N.C., has been unaccounted for since April 9, in Iraq, when his convoy came under attack by individuals using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. On April 23 his remains were recovered.

CAMP FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Marines killed around 30 Iraqi insurgents overnight in a firefight near the flashpoint town of Falluja

The U.S. military will resolve the standoff in the Iraqi city of Fallujah with what it says are foreign terrorists and former members of Saddam Hussein's military elite within "days,'' Dan Senor, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said in Baghdad. (Bloomberg)

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Suicide bombers launched three coordinated boat attacks on Iraq's vital southern Basra oil export terminal on Saturday, killing two members of U.S.-led forces. ...no damage to the terminal... closed after the attacks and workers were evacuated. ...[four or] five other coalition members were wounded in the attacks.... (Reuters)

Spc. Patrick D. Tillman, 27, of Chandler, Ariz., died April 22, in Afghanistan when his patrol vehicle came under attack. Spc. Tillman was assigned to the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Lewis, Wash. (DoD)

BAGHDAD -Volleys of rockets struck the capital's crowded Shiite Muslim neighbourhood of Sadr City today, hitting a busy market, smashing into a home and killing at least seven Iraqis. Outside Baghdad, insurgents rocketed a U.S. military base, killing five soldiers. ... 26 Iraqis were reported killed in a bombing at Tikrit, clashes between Polish troops and Shiite militiamen in Karbala, U.S. raids overnight in Sadr City, and a roadside bombing south of Baghdad. Five American solders were killed around dawn when two rockets fired from a truck hit the U.S. base at Taji, 20 kilometres north of Baghdad.... U.S. helicopter gunships then destroyed the truck... Six soldiers were wounded in the attack, three of them critically.... (AP)

SHAKAI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Five tribesmen accused of sheltering al Qaeda militants surrendered to the Pakistan army at a tribal council on Saturday, after being hunted for a week in mountains on the border with Afghanistan.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Police and intelligence agents have raided suspected terror cells from Amman to Stockholm in a global sweep to thwart al-Qaida and other attacks on major targets - from U.S. embassies in the Middle East and Asia and American forces in Iraq to shopping malls in Manila and possibly a soccer stadium in Manchester. (AP)

TOKYO -- ...three Japanese civilians taken hostage in Iraq ...have been accused of rashly ignoring government warnings to stay away from Iraq and blamed for imperiling the Japanese military's humanitarian mission there.... (Newsday)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Security forces foiled a planned terror attack in the port city of Jiddah by carrying out raids that left five Islamic militants dead, the Interior Ministry said Friday. (AP)

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Friday he was no longer bound by a pledge he gave President Bush not to harm Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (Reuters)

BATON ROUGE, La. - People who wear low-slung pants that expose skin or "intimate clothing" would face a fine of up to $500 and possible jail time under a bill filed by a Jefferson Parish lawmaker. "What about a woman who is wearing a bathing suit under her garment or she has something like a sarong wrapped around her and it's below her waist," he said. "I can think of a lot of workers, plumbers, who are working and expose their buttocks ..." (AP/myway.com)

B.D.'s Helmet is Off
(Blog Heap'o'Links tribute)

U.S. Soldiers Re-Enlist in Strong Numbers (AP)

A Santa Cruz medical marijuana collective shut down by federal agents two years ago can grow and distribute marijuana for its patients while its civil lawsuit against the federal government is decided by the courts, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.... (SF Chron)

Washington -- Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran and influential member of the Foreign Relations Committee, wants the United States to consider reviving the draft ... (SF Chron)

MADRID - Madrid's police dogs and their trainers have been so overworked since the March 11 Madrid train bombings that the dogs are losing their ability to detect bombs.... (Reuters)

JEDDAH, 23 April 2004 — Three suspected militants were killed and one security officer was wounded in a gun siege in Jeddah last night, a day after the terrorist car bomb in Riyadh. (Arab News)

UNITED NATIONS - Arab militia and Sudanese government troops were responsible for the massacre of 136 African men in the Darfur region last month, Human Rights Watch charged on Thursday. (Reuters)

JERUSALEM - Israeli soldiers killed five Palestinians, three armed militants and two small girls, during a chase in the West Bank and clashes in Gaza overnight, Israel Radio reported on Friday morning. (Khaleej Times)

A British peace protester who was kidnapped by rebels in Iraq won over her captors with circus tricks (SMH)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - The son of Christian activist Randall Terry, known for his strident opposition to abortion and homosexuality, says he is gay. In an article in the May issue of Out magazine... [asked] why he had not told the elder Terry about it. "I told him: 'Dad, how was I supposed to tell you? Look who you are,'"

A Daily Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq Thursday, April 22 (AP)

GENEVA - Cuba avoided a showdown with the United States on Thursday by withdrawing a resolution from the top U.N. human rights body that called for an investigation into the treatment of prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The resolution alleged widespread abuses... Cuban Ambassador Jorge Mora Godoy told the 53-nation commission he would not ask for a vote on the resolution because U.S. "threats and blackmail" had ensured its failure. (AP)

The UN should be given a central role in Iraq as soon as possible, to avert a slide into greater anarchy and halt the US-led forces' "sheer disregard" for civilians and holy sites, an emergency meeting of Muslim states in Kuala Lumpur declared yesterday. The Organisation of Islamic Conferences also condemned Washington for supporting Israel's latest Palestinian initiative.

WASHINGTON Thousands of Iraqis who swore allegiance to Saddam Hussein's political party may be getting jobs under the U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad as the Bush administration struggling to put down resistance undertakes a major shift in policy. (AP/Boston.com)

SYDNEY, Australia -Authorities on Thursday charged a Pakistan-born architect with recruiting terrorists and plotting to blow up an Australian target. (AP)

Muslim scholar says clerics distorting 'jihad'... "Jihad, in its true sense as defined in the Quran and as implemented by the prophet [Muhammad] and his noble companions, is a means of defending differences, pluralism, and diversity." (WND)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia's top cleric on Thursday condemned a suicide bombing that gutted a national police building in the capital as "one of the greatest sins."

LONDON - An appeals court ruled Thursday that a suspected Algerian terrorist imprisoned without charge since December 2001 must be released on bail, rejecting government claims that he remains a threat to national security. (AP)

Cyber warfare, a subset of classic information war that goes back as far as ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, has pushed its way into U.S. military curricula as the Internet has become pervasive.

A series of bomb attacks in the Basra area of southern Iraq has killed at least 68 people and injured many more. The first blasts - apparently suicide bombings - occurred outside three police stations in Basra city centre during Wednesday's morning rush hour. Many of the dead and injured were children travelling in passing buses on their way to school. (BBC)

Schoolgirl sees all her friends perish in blast (Guardian)

MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Two pieces of a highly radioactive fuel rod are missing from a Vermont nuclear plant, and engineers planned to search onsite for the nuclear material (AP)

The CIA refuses to release a document claimed by critics as evidence the U.S. had reason as early as eight years ago to question the reliability of a key former witness to Iraq's alleged nuclear weapon's program, known as "Saddam's bombmaker." (WND)

(World Tribune)

A US legal counsel, who interrogated former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, said he still thinks he is the president of Iraq, the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat said yesterday. (SMH)

Never tell a lie; never steal, and never willfully harm others. And as much is humanly possible, I have tried to follow his advice. Today we are witnessing the leader of the most powerful country in the world violate such basics in human ethics. He has lied to his people: Lie after lie about Iraq; about the existence of weapons of mass destruction; about the impending threat from the Iraqis on American soil; lies about his own military service history — the list goes on and on. He has stolen from the Iraqis. Yes, stolen their lands and their sovereignty. Rather than afford them the dignity of taking over their affairs, his imperialist policies have subjugated a people and replaced one dictator with another. (Arab News)

U.S. snipers in Falluja shoot unarmed man in the back, old woman with white flag, children fleeing their homes and the ambulance that we were going in to fetch a woman in premature labour. ... British human rights activist Jo Wilding was in and out of the city (Guerrilla News)

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged Tuesday that Israel would keep killing Palestinian militants after the assassination of two top Hamas leaders in a month drew world condemnation and vows of revenge. (Reuters)

WASHINGTON - A Secret Service document written shortly after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing described security video footage of the attack and witness testimony that suggested Timothy McVeigh may have had accomplices at the scene. (AP)

WASHINGTON — As a California pediatrician and 49-year-old mother of two teenage daughters, Claudia Jensen says pot might prove to be the preferred medical treatment for attention deficit disorder — even in adolescents. "Why would anyone want to give their child an expensive pill … with unacceptable side effects, when he or she could just go into the backyard, pick a few leaves off a plant and make tea for him or her instead?" (Fox)

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 20 — Civilians Return to Falluja as U.S. Starts to Implement Plan .. American officials in Iraq took initial steps today to put into effect an agreement with civic leaders in the flash-point city of Falluja intended to end a standoff between American troops and Sunni insurgents. (NY Times)

MURDEROUS SCUM SHELL PRISON
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Attackers believed to be insurgents fired 12 mortar rounds into Baghdad's main prison Tuesday, killing 22 prisoners and injuring 92, the U.S. military said. (AP)

INDIANS BRAVE DEATH TO VOTE
NEW DELHI - Violence marked the start of elections for the Indian Parliament on Tuesday, with three deaths early in the polls amid clashes with separatist and communist guerrillas. (AP)

British troops might have to stay in Iraq for up to 10 years to help local forces maintain security after the proposed hand-over of power to the Iraqi government on 30 June, the commanding officer of UK forces in Basra has warned. (Independent)

SPORTS MATCH CARNAGE AVERTED

LONDON, April 19 - For the second time in three weeks, hundreds of police officers were deployed in Britain on Monday in a major sweep of suspected terrorists. The police said nine men and one woman had been arrested. (NY Times)

A SUICIDE bomb plot to kill thousands of soccer fans at Saturday’s Manchester United-Liverpool match was dramatically foiled yesterday. (The Sun)

A plot by terrorists to use dirty bombs laced with the deadly chemical osmium tetroxide to attack U.S. targets including the Sears Tower in Chicago was uncovered by British intelligence and law enforcement authorities.... (WND)

AMMAN, Jordan - In a surprise move, King Abdullah II postponed a White House meeting with President Bush this week, citing questions Monday about the U.S. commitment to the Middle East peace process. (AP)

OKLAHOMA CITY - Hundreds of people gathered Monday at the site where the Alfred P. Murrah federal building once stood - staying silent for 168 seconds, marking one second for each person killed in the bombing nine years ago. Children of the victims then recited the names of the dead. ... Also attending were 13 family members of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.... (AP)

Nine Years After Oklahoma City Bombing, Families Still Searching for Coconspirators ... claiming Iraqi officials provided money and training to McVeigh and Nichols.... (Tim Talley/AP)

Oklahoma City National Memorial

AL-YARMOUK CAMP, Syria - Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal on Monday called for an Arab and Muslim alliance to defeat the United States and Israel. (Reuters)

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A fledgling deal was struck to end fighting in Iraq's Sunni guerrilla stronghold of Falluja and U.S. forces gave Iraqi mediators more time to resolve a standoff with a rebel Shi'ite cleric and his militia. ... Monday evening had been "remarkably" quiet in Iraq, with no troops killed and attacks well below the average of some 50 over the last two weeks. (Reuters)

Afghanistan's football federation has decided to disband the national side after nine players absconded last week while on a tour of Italy. (BBC)

SEOUL, South Korea, April 19 -- Will North Korean leader Kim Jong Il bring a breakthrough on the nuclear impasse? Kim's surprise visit to Bejing this week for a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao raised hopes of progress in the long-stalled nuclear issue. (UPI)

Mr. Negroponte's work has won high praise from his diplomatic colleagues... One of his earliest postings was in Vietnam..... He retired in 1997 and went into private industry, but Secretary of State Powell called him back four years later to take over the high-profile U.N. post. He was sworn in on September 18, 2001, just one week after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.... (voanews.com)

JERUSALEM, April 19 — Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear technician imprisoned for 18 years for revealing Israel's nuclear capacity, told security officials in a recent interview that Israel's nuclear reactor should be destroyed, according to remarks published and televised Monday. (NY Times)

BAGHDAD – The United States has been fighting what officials term a silent war with Syria which killed at least five soldiers over the weekend. U.S. officials said U.S. Marines have deployed along the Syrian border to stop the flow of insurgents and equipment to Iraq. (World Tribune)

US President George W Bush has rebuked Spain's new Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, for his decision to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq. (BBC)

Denmark has declassified intelligence reports compiled before the Iraq war which show officials thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. (BBC)

The Shiite imam Moqtada al-Sadr has called on his followers to stop attacks on Spanish troops after Madrid announced it would withdraw its contingent from Iraq as soon as possible (SMH) What an a$$hOle!

The US-led coalition in Iraq has announced measures to end the military stand-off in the battle-scarred city of Falluja, west of the capital, Baghdad. (BBC)

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Secret Service document written shortly after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing described security video footage of the attack and witness testimony that suggested Timothy McVeigh may have had accomplices at the scene. (AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Fallujah's civic leaders joined American officials Monday in calling for insurgents battling Marines here to surrender their heavy weapons in return for a promise not to resume the U.S. offensive against the city, acording to a U.S. spokesman. (AP)

Four Jordanian U.N. Police Officers Stripped of Immunity in Probe of Weekend Shootout (AP)

FIND OUT ABOUT DYNCORP, WHO HIRES AND TRAINS THE US FOLKS WHO WERE SHOT AT

WASHINGTON - President Bush named John Negroponte, the United States' top diplomat at the United Nations, as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq on Monday and asserted that Iraq "will be free and democratic and peaceful." (AP)
Can't help but think about Mr. Negroponte moving from a nice save New York job to being the US envoy to Iraq...!

A small group of 'net commandos' at the University of Toronto are looking to help people get around government controls on the internet (BBC)

Mathew Derryberry, 18, of Bartlesville and other members of a U.S. convoy were ambushed by Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah recently. During the attack he received shrapnel wounds to his chest and arm. Derryberry and almost all of his patrol mates were able to return to duty in and around the besieged Iraqi city... (EE)

Spain's new prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has given orders for Spanish troops in Iraq to be brought home in "as short a time as possible". (BBC)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Five U.S. Marines died in an ambush on the Syrian border, triggering a battle with hundreds of guerrillas and pushing the number Americans killed in combat this month to 99. At least 25 Iraqis were killed in the fighting that followed Saturday's ambush in Husaybah, 240 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. The city's police chief was among the dead, a hospital official said. (Wash Post)

The Italian hostage executed in Iraq tried to tear off his hood seconds before he was shot dead and screamed: "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies." Details of the final moments of Fabrizio Quattrocchi deepened Italy's shock and outrage at the hostage crisis as it awaited further news of the three other men seized with him Monday. (Chicago Sun-Times)

BEIJING - Reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrived in Beijing on Monday to discuss his nuclear programs days after the United States urged China for a fresh push to end the crisis (Reuters)

The angry mob yesterday gouged out eyes of three cadres of the outlawed Purbabangla Communist Party while they were making bombs at a residence on Satter Biswas Road in the city... (Bangladesh New Nation)

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- In Fallujah's darkened, empty streets, U.S. troops blast AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" and other rock music full volume from a huge speaker, hoping to grate on the nerves of this Sunni Muslim city's gunmen and give a laugh to Marines along the front line. (Newsday)

France has expelled an Algerian fundamentalist imam who invited his congregation to "rejoice in the Madrid bombings". (Telegraph)

Three UN police officers have been killed in a shootout near a prison in northern Kosovo, UN officials say. The two Americans and one Jordanian were killed in the shooting. They appear to have died after being shot by colleagues (BBC)

...emotions over Iraq apparently boiled over into a gunbattle.... (Reuters)

...reportedly began when the Jordanian policeman opened fire on a group of U.N. correctional officers – 21 Americans, two Turks and an Austrian – before he was shot to death.... four Jordanian police officers were placed under arrest.... (WND)

AMMAN, Jordan - An al-Qaida-linked terrorist cell recently dismantled in Jordan was plotting to detonate a chemical bomb capable of killing thousands of people and to attack the U.S. Embassy and prime minister's office with poison gas, officials said Saturday. (AP)

MANILA, Philippines - Suspected communist rebels fired a grenade into a building housing the Manila offices of Shell oil early Sunday. No one was hurt. (AP)

KUALA LUMPUR : Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to be released in the "next several days," UN envoy Razali Ismail said on Sunday. (channelnewsasia)

RIYADH, 17 April 2004 — The imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah told Muslims yesterday it was their duty to foil terror attacks as the Kingdom battles Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists. Describing the terrorists as “deviants” and “outcasts”, the imam, Sheikh Saleh Bin-Humaid, told thousands of worshipers who thronged the Grand Mosque to inform authorities about “this misguided lot whose ignorance of their faith made them kill fellow Muslims in the name of Islam”. (Arab News)

Palestinians held demonstrations across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Saturday to mark their annual day of solidarity with prisoners held by Israel. (Haaretz)

SAN FRANCISCO - King Abdullah II of Jordan said that the sight of American troops occupying Iraq has generated more animosity toward the United States in the Arab world than he has ever seen. “At the end of the day, you’re being held responsible, rightly or wrongly,” Abdullah told Americans on Friday in a speech at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club. “I am very, very frightened by that perception.” Even so, it is the enduring Israeli-Palestinian conflict that remains the single biggest barrier to a Middle East free of terrorism and Islamic extremism, the 42-year-old king said. (Kaleej Times)

NAJAF, Iraq - Iraq’s top Shiite cleric warned the US military against entering the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf to capture a radical cleric wanted for murder as US troops and Shiite militiamen fought in the south. Thirteen Iraqis died in clashes in the north and south. (Khaleej Times)

LAHORE - Pakistani police have arrested two suspected militants in separate raids, including a man wanted in connection with the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (Khaleej Times)

Arab Liberal: Most Islamic Ideologues, Organization Leaders Advocate Violence... Islamist Talk of 'Love and Peace in Islam' is Just a Cover for Violence (MEMRI)

On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court hears from lawyers representing some of the more than 600 foreigners held captive and essentially incommunicado at a U.S. military prison camp in Cuba. The justices must decide whether the prisoners may challenge their detention and treatment in U.S. courts. (AP)

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi security forces fighting alongside Marines in Fallujah are angry, saying they're outgunned by Sunni insurgents and resent being sent to fight fellow Iraqis.

U.S. General in Baghdad Nearly Faints During Press Conference (AP)

KABUL - Suspected Taliban guerrillas opened fire on a security checkpoint in Afghanistan's insurgency-gripped south, killing eight soldiers, a provincial official said on Saturday. (Reuters)

A Kuwaiti man is being questioned after he forcibly entered the cockpit of a Qatar Airways jet, causing it to make an unscheduled landing in Egypt. An airline spokesman said the man had tried to hijack the plane, but reports quoting security officials said he had not tried to divert the aircraft. The man had been talking incoherently, harassing passengers and arguing with the cabin crew, Reuters reported. (BBC)

Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists planned a chemical attack on Jordan's spy headquarters that could have killed 20,000 people, officials have said. Earlier this week King Abdullah said a massive attack had been thwarted by a series of arrests, but named no target. (BBC)

The head of the militant Islamic movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Abdul Aziz Rantissi, has been killed in an attack on his vehicle. (BBC)

A Palestinian suicide bomber has blown himself up at a crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has said. An Israeli border policeman was killed and three others were injured in the explosion at a terminal leading to the Erez industrial zone. (BBC)

After narrowly losing a vote critical of Cuba, Havana officials beat a human-rights leader at the United Nations in Geneva. (And they expect to be considered civilized?) (WND)

BAGHDAD, Iraq Three Czech journalists and a Syrian-Canadian aid worker were freed by their captors, but new kidnappings were reported Friday of a man from the United Arab Emirates and a Danish businessman.... (AP)

U.S. military officials have seen video of an American soldier who was taken hostage in Iraq ...one of two GIs who disappeared on April 9, during the same convoy attack in which seven employees of a Halliburton subcontractor went missing.(ABC)

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 16 — Moktada al-Sadr, the spiritual leader of the Mahdi militia, a Shiite insurrection group, said in Kufa this morning that he was not willing to disband his army under any circumstances (NY Times)

Latest US casualties Apr 15 (AP)

A Saudi TV presenter who says she was beaten by her husband has allowed newspapers to show pictures of her swollen face to highlight domestic abuse... beat her so hard earlier this week that he broke her nose and fractured her face in 13 places... became infuriated when Ms Baz answered the telephone... "I want to use what happened to me to draw attention to the plight of women in Saudi Arabia," It is a deeply conservative society, where Islamic Sharia law is strictly enforced and where honour and appearances are hugely important. The presence of problems such as domestic violence, rape, paedophilia or Aids is often simply not acknowledged... "It is considered a husband's rights that his wife should obey him.... This can involve coercion or violence, and we know that the majority of cases of this kind go unreported and unnoticed."... [Women] are still not allowed to vote, drive, own a business or travel without permission from a male guardian. (BBC)

MADRID, Spain- Spanish police have arrested a Saudi citizen, an Egyptian and a Moroccan in connection with the March 11 rail bombings, but six others were released after questioning (AP)

MADRID - Spain will legalize homosexual marriages and grant equal rights to gay couples, incoming Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Thursday. (Reuters)

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A French television journalist, freed after four days in captivity in Iraq, said he was repeatedly interrogated by captors who accused him of being an Israeli spy and made him prove his nationality by drawing a map of France. (AP)

BOGOTA, Colombia - About 100 Roman Catholic priests are planning a pilgrimage through some of Colombia's most dangerous regions to try to heal the scars of the ongoing guerrilla war, organizers announced Thursday. (AP)

GUATEMALA CITY - A gunman opened fire on a pickup truck carrying an American missionary couple and their six children on a Guatemala highway, wounding the parents and a 14-year-old child, police said Thursday. (AP)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - The Missouri House has voted to raise taxes on the state's two largest newspapers after an editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch branded the Republican-led chamber the "House of Hypocrites." (AP)

Duh! Al-Qaeda tries to split west over Iraq By Mark Huband, Security Correspondent Financial Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 15 — A senior Iranian diplomat was shot and killed as he was driving to Tehran's diplomatic mission in Baghdad today... (NY Times)

The Italian hostage killed by kidnappers in Iraq was a defiant "hero" in his final moments... "now I'll show you how an Italian dies!"... "They have destroyed a life, they have not cracked our values and our efforts for peace,"--Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (BBC)

Iran makes bogus claim troops raping civilians Media report says photos of acts by Americans on Web, yet none exist (WND)

...cheap farm fertilizer that's tightly restricted in Europe, but easily available in the United States and elsewhere, despite U.S. warnings after the Madrid train bombings that terrorists might use ammonium nitrate explosives to strike public transportation. On Thursday, Turkey becomes the latest country to join the European Union in regulating sales of ammonium nitrate that, when mixed with diesel fuel, forms an explosive with more than half the force of dynamite. (AP)

A Christian pastor imprisoned by the Chinese government fears if he is not transferred to another detention facility he will die in custody. (WND)

Before he left for Iraq, Sergeant Moreno told his wife, Teresa, and his mother, Sandra Iracheta, that he had a feeling he would not be coming back. "And yet he went with the courage that only the Holy Spirit can give and he went with pride and love for his career and vocation in the Army," said the Rev. Michael Forge. " He died so the Iraqi people could share in the possibility of freedom." (NY Times)

CAIRO, April 15 -- The Dubai-based al-Arabiya television on Thursday aired an audio tape purportedly from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. The voice on the tape offered peace with European nations if they stop aggression towards Muslims, but said there will be no truce with the United States. (Xinhuanet) What an a$$hOle!

JERUSALEM -- An Israeli helicopter gunship early Thursday fired into a crowd in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, wounding 15 people -- four critically -- Palestinian hospital sources said. (CNN)

GAZA - Israeli soldiers raided a refugee camp on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, hours after President Bush pledged support for an Israeli withdrawal, witnesses and military sources said. (Reuters)

April 14, 2004 -- A group of 9/11 families has released an open letter thanking National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice for her testimony to the commission probing the attacks and saying it should end "the incredible notion" that President Bush knew 9/11 was coming and did nothing. The letter signed by 40 relatives also blasts some members of the 9/11 commission for trying to "grandstand for political gain" in hopes of embarrassing Bush and thus politicizing the inquiry. (NY Post)

The national 9/11 commission has been hijacked by political shills -- men and women eager to subordinate truth to partisan advantage; who hold a transitory victory on Election Day more dear than American victory in the war on terror. Tawdry ambition has eclipsed sacred duty; all Americans are diminished, but none more than the families of the 9/11 victims -- who expect better from the commission, and certainly deserve it. Unless it is the thousands of young Americans now under arms in Iraq and elsewhere; their bravery and devotion to duty is inspirational. How shameful that the commission attack dogs hold their sacrifices so cheaply. And John F. Kerry, who presumes to the presidency, acquiesces. What a disgrace.... (NY Post Editorial)

FALLUJAH, Iraq-- U.S. warplanes and helicopters firing heavy machine-guns, rockets and cannons hammered fighters in the besieged city of Fallujah, and the commander of Marines here warned Wednesday that a fragile, often-shaken truce will not last much longer.

Representatives from Iran's foreign ministry were yesterday in Iraq for talks on ways to end the violence there amid suggestions from Kamal Kharrazi, the Iranian foreign minister, that the US had sought Tehran's help. (FT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shia Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr dropped his pre-conditions Wednesday for negotiating with U.S. forces (Newsday)

TOKYO - Two more Japanese civilians have been kidnapped in Iraq in addition to three taken hostage by militants last week (Reuters)

April 13, 2004 PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE PRESIDENT The East Room 8:31 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Before I take your questions, let me speak with the American people about the situation in Iraq. This has been tough weeks in that country.... (WhiteHouse.gov)

Real Audio

A French television journalist has been freed three days after being taken hostage while videotaping an American military convoy under attack, his company reported on Wednesday. (AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A rocket hit the Sheraton Hotel on Wednesday, breaking glass but causing no casualties in the building where many foreign contractors and journalists stay. (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan - International peacekeepers refused to reveal the identity of a suspected senior rebel commander arrested in a raid in the capital earlier this week, but insisted Wednesday that his capture removed an imminent threat to Afghan peace. (AP)

....bodies of at least four men believed to be among the seven civilian contractors missing in Iraq since Friday were found Tuesday in a shallow grave near the site of the explosion of a convoy in which they were traveling. (and other details on kidnappings) (NBC)

Eight Russian and Ukrainian workers were freed Tuesday in Baghdad after being kidnapped about 12 hours earlier by Iraqi insurgents. (Moscow Times)

BAGHDAD - Rebel Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has chosen a go-between to negotiate with the United States and indicated he may disband his militia if told to do so by religious authorities.... (Reuters)

PARIS - France and Russia, which opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, urged their citizens Tuesday to leave the country or postpone traveling there following a spate of kidnappings and a resurgence of violence. The Czech Republic, which has sent troops to Iraq, called on all non-military citizens to leave as officials tried to locate three Czech journalists believed kidnapped in a roadside ambush. (Reuters)

BOISE, Idaho - A University of Idaho graduate student went on trial Tuesday on charges he supported terrorism by running Web sites that recruited militants and raised money for groups promoting violence against the United States. (AP)

LEESBURG, Fla. - A former Navy commando who was killed and mutilated in Iraq last month while working as a civilian security guard was remembered Tuesday as "a warrior who wanted peace." (AP)

Digging in around Fallujah, their three-day-old truce punctured by shelling, gunfire and well-orchestrated ambushes, U.S. Marines gave vent to their frustrations Tuesday, saying they saw no alternative to an all-out battle for the city. (AP)

BAGHDAD - American troops massed outside the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf Tuesday, ready for a possible move against rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his militia. (Reuters)

BAGHDAD, April 13 -- A force of 2,500 troops from three U.S. Army divisions amassed on the northern outskirts of Iraq's most sacred city of Najaf Tuesday and readied for a confrontation with the activist cleric Moqtada Sadr, who defiantly declared that he was prepared for martyrdom.

eight workers for Russian company kidnapped in Iraq (AP)

Insurgents pull back across Iraq (Wash Post)

SEVEN Chinese men kidnapped by gunmen in Iraq have been released in good spirits and some of them want to forge ahead with plans to open a construction business there (news.com.au)

A powerful delegation of Shiite clerics met with Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf on Monday, beginning negotiations that appeared to offer the best hope yet of resolving the standoff between the U.S. military and al-Sadr (AJC/NYT)

Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who sold nuclear technology around the world, has told his interrogators that during a trip to North Korea five years ago he was taken to a secret underground nuclear plant and shown what he described as three nuclear devices (AFP)

BAGHDAD - The US-led coalition and its Iraqi allies accused the Arab world's two biggest television news stations of fanning anti-US sentiment and sectarian violence in Iraq with their reporting. (AFP)

A suspected militant and a policeman have been killed in a shootout in the Saudi capital Riyadh. (BBC)

RIYADH: Saudi security forces are maintaining the pressure on suspected Islamic extremists, sparking yet another armed confrontation in the capital, this time leaving one militant and a security man dead. (AFP/Lebanon Daily Star)

BAGHDAD - Two strong blasts shook central Baghdad on Tuesday and smoke could be seen rising from the U.S. administration's headquarters.... (Reuters)

Iraqis Comb Northern Hills for Unexploded Mines ... minefield was laid by the Iraqi army from 1974 to 1984 (Reuters)

Syrian authorities have arrested more than 1,000 Kurds in a continuing campaign against the Kurdish minority, a Syrian human rights group claimed Monday. (AP)

...some of the 100 members of the Houston Task Force on Terrorism say Mexico is not fully cooperating on preventing the next jihadist attack on the U.S. (WND)

Muslim extremists have burned down 10 Christian churches in Nigeria in an attack thought to have been sparked by a mentally retarded Christian teenager desecrating the Quran. ...trucks piled with corpses... "Islamic terrorists hiding under the cover of religion have invaded the state and are now unleashing terror on Christians over stupid reasons." (WND)

KARACHI, Pakistan - Police Monday arrested six men who allegedly belong to an Islamic militant group suspected of a weekend car bombing that killed one person and injured six others.... (AP)

U.S. commanders in Iraq want rebellious Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr dead or alive (Reuters)

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Three prominent Czech journalists have disappeared in Iraq, and at least two of them are believed to have been kidnapped, their employers said. (AP)

Bomb workshop found in Fallujah: US military Iraq Bombers (SMH)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar... calls for an Afghan uprising in a competitive spirit with Iraq. He welcomed the uprising by supporters of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who have been battling U.S. forces in Iraq.... (AP)

BAGHDAD, April 12 -- Fierce fighting between US troops and Iraqi Sunni Muslims... seventh day Monday, and there were no signs of a quick end to the violence. (Xinhuanet)

Terrorists plotting to use chemical weapons in Europe have more advanced plans than security services previously suspected (Financial Times)

Israeli, Palestinian Girls Participate in Beauty Pageant (AP)

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops exchanged fire with Palestinians near an Israeli settlement in the Northern Gaza Strip early Monday (AP)

How GI bullies are making enemies of their Iraqi friends... The battle for hearts and minds is not going well for the US (Paul McGeough/SMH)

Gunmen shot down a U.S. attack helicopter during fighting in western Baghdad on Sunday, killing its two crew members. Insurgents and Marines called a cease-fire in the besieged city of Fallujah, but the fragile peace was shaken by shootings that wounded two Americans. (AP)

Vatican City, Easter Morning: Pope: "May (humanity) find the strength to face the inhuman, and unfortunately growing, phenomenon of terrorism... Take heed all of you who have at heart mankind's future! Take heed men and women of good will! May the temptation to seek revenge give way to the courage to forgive; may the culture of life and love render vain the logic of death; may trust once more give breath to the lives of peoples," (Reuters)

AMMAN - Jordanian authorities said on Saturday they had found cars carrying explosives that an underground group had planned to use to attack American interests, a senior security source told Reuters. (Reuters)

North Korea said Friday the standoff over its atomic ambitions was on the brink of nuclear war.... (AFP)

DUBAI - Eight foreign men described as truck drivers who were held hostage in Iraq have been released (Reuters)

A British father-of-five kidnapped in Iraq has been released after six days of captivity in Nasiriya. (BBC)

A Dutch medical aid worker taken hostage by gunmen near Chechnya in August 2002 has been released. (BBC)

Japan's hopes for the release of three its citizens taken hostage in Iraq were dashed as their captors issued a new death threat if the Japanese government fails to withdraw troops from the country within 24 hours. One captive will be executed if the deadline isn't met, and the other two will be killed 12 hours later, said Mizhir Dulaimi, claiming to be mediating between the kidnappers and Japan, in an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite television. (Bloomberg)

Fallujah:
U.S. forces have implemented a ``unilateral'' cease-fire (Bloomberg)
U.S. authorities are hoping insurgents hold to a cease-fire (Reuters)

The CIA's Aug. 6, 2001 memo for President Bush should pose serious new credibility problems for the nation's spy agency, not for Bush. Democrats such as 9/11 commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste have sought to paint the memo as a CIA warning that Bush ignored a month before the terror attacks - but it turns out to be nothing of the sort. Far from sounding the alarm about an imminent risk that al Qaeda would hijack airplanes, the CIA pooh-poohed the idea as a "sensational" claim that couldn't be verified. (Orin/NY Post)

Text of Aug, 6, 2001 Memo (AP)

BAGHDAD, April 10 -- A battalion of the new Iraqi army refused to go to Fallujah earlier this week to support U.S. Marines battling for control of the city... "We did not sign up to fight Iraqis." (Wash Post)

President Bush was told a month before Sept. 11, 2001, that al Qaeda members were in the United States and the FBI had detected suspicious activity "consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks," (Reuters)

The Iraqi city of Falluja is waiting to see whether a ceasefire to end fighting between Sunni Muslim fighters and US forces will take effect. A team from the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council has said a 12-hour ceasefire was due to begin at 0600GMT. (BBC)

The Basque separatist group Eta may announce a ceasefire on Sunday, Spanish media reports say. ... The BBC's Jonathan Charles in Spain says Eta now believes it cannot achieve its aims by acts of terror.(BBC)

TOKYO - Neither the whereabouts nor the safety of three Japanese civilians kidnapped in Iraq have been confirmed, a Japanese diplomat says, hours after their families had hoped they would be released. ... "Please help. Please help my son," said Kimiko Koriyama, the mother of freelance reporter Soichiro.(Reuters)

BAGHDAD - Several members of the Iraqi Governing Council are negotiating with rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to end a Shi'ite Muslim uprising in the center and south of the country, a member of the council said on Saturday.... Chaderji said Sadr could achieve part of his goals and preserve his reputation as a scion of a respected religious family if he renounced violence and if the U.S.-led occupation authorities chose not to pursue an arrest warrant against him. (Reuters)

WASHINGTON - President Bush will come under intense pressure this week from both sides in the Arab-Israeli dispute over a plan by Israel's prime minister to withdraw unilaterally from some Arab areas. (AP)

GAZA CITY, Gaza strip -A stray bullet killed an 11-year old Palestinian girl in her kitchen Saturday when Israeli troops fired on her neighborhood in the southern Gaza Strip... The Israeli military said militants had fired a rocket from the area and that troops returned fire.... (AP)

Australian anti-terror police are hunting for 3.5 tons of fertiliser stolen from a warehouse in the southern city of Adelaide. ... Ammonium nitrate-based explosives were used in the Bali and Oklahoma bombings. (BBC)

The Iraqi Governing Council sent two delegates to Falluja on Saturday to meet with tribal leaders and clerics and try to end days of fierce fighting between insurgents and American troops. Americans again suspended offensive military operations there to allow the delegation to try to negotiate. (NYTimes)

Street fighting erupted in Baghdad on Saturday as youths with rifles and grenade launchers battled U.S. troops in a Sunni Muslim area.(Reuters)

Japan has set up an emergency headquarters in Jordan to work on the release of three of its citizens taken hostage in Iraq. (CNN)

Baghdad turns to chaos Gunmen roam streets; Iraqi and U.S. deaths rise (AP)

A Marine from Indiana whose smiling, cigar-smoking image helped symbolize the fall of Baghdad a year ago suffered severe head injuries in fighting this week in the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah... (Ken Guardian)

Afghanistan: The central government seemed to be regaining control of a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan on Friday (NYTimes)

S Korea: to become second-largest military ally in Iraq (World Trib)

FALLUJAH, Iraq U.S. forces on Friday regained control of a southern city seized this week by a rebellious Shiite militia, the military said, while a brief halt in the U.S. assault on Fallujah fell apart (AP)

Iraq: Al-Sadr not supported by Shiite leaders (WND)

Bahgdad: Two U.S. soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Friday, one when insurgents attacked a convoy transporting fuel on the west side of the capital, the military said. An Iraqi driver in the convoy was also killed.... Also, two American soliders and a number of civilian contractors were missing after the convoy attack.... Twelve others were wounded in the assault,

Baghdad: Insurgents attacked a US fuel convoy west of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least nine people, as resistance to American-led forces intensified in central and southern Iraq on the first anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein. (Australian)

Baghdad: Explosion Rattles Central Baghdad, Mortar Shell Suspected in Attack on Hotel Compound

Iowa: A Cherokee man said he wants to return to a "nonhostile work environment," so he's suing the city. A federal lawsuit claims the actions of officials in the northwestern Iowa town forced the fired police officer to join the Army and risk his life in Iraq. (KCCI)

California: California Iraqi-Americans frustrated by renewed fighting in Iraq (AP)

Afghan Government Sends Troops to Control Northwest Factional Violence (Michael Kitchen/VOA)

Spain: Video warning Spain to quit Iraq, Afghanistan found in Islamists' flat (AFP/Yahoo)

USA: Rice and Clarke: Same Facts, Different Conclusions (Emily Fredrix/AP/TBO)

Paris: Bomb Alert Evacuates Paris Train Stations (Newsday/AP)

Iraq: The U.S. military is reporting the deaths of four more American soldiers in Iraq. More than 460 Iraqis are also reported dead (News24Houston)

Sudan: Sudan, rebels sign cease-fire for aid (AP)

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq: Iraqi insurgents said they had seized four Italians and two Americans on the western outskirts of Baghdad on Friday. (Reuters)

Japan/Iraq: Leave Iraq Or We'll Burn Hostages Alive, Kidnappers Tell Japan (Scotsman)

Detroit: Detroit-Area Arabs Denounce Violence in Iraq (AP)
"This is unbelievable, it's just madness.... All these people that are dead, the Americans, the Iraqis, they're all dying for nothing."

USA: A Daily Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq (AP)

Err: White House Gives Saddam Hussein Old Job Back (Spoof)

Iraq: Thousands of Sunni and Shiite Muslims forced their way through US military checkpoints Thursday to ferry food and medical supplies to the besieged Sunni bastion of Fallujah where US marines are trying to crush insurgents. (AFP)

Afghanistan: Forces of a renegade adviser to President Hamid Karzai overran the capital of a northern province on Thursday, creating a fresh security headache for Afghanistan's Western-backed government. (Reuters)

Kashmir: A grenade explosion and gunfire at an election rally in Indian-held Kashmir on Thursday killed nine people and wounded at least 56 (CBS/AP)

USA: Condoleezza Rice testified Thursday "there was no silver bullet that could have prevented" the deadly terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 (AP)

Iraq: Shiite Muslim militants held partial control Thursday over three southern Iraqi cities (AP)

Iraq/Israel: Two Israeli Arabs kidnapped (Reuters)

Iraq/S Korea: Seven South Koreans, seized by armed men in Iraq while doing missionary work, have been freed unharmed (Reuters)

Iraq: U.S.-led troops fought fierce battles with Sunni and Shi'ite rebels on Thursday and a spate of kidnappings hit foreigners (Reuters)

Socialist theater director Khaled Elsawy believes in shock tactics to convey his alarmist message to a steady stream of Cairo audiences. Actors dressed as U.S. Marines armed with wooden assault rifles, storm into the theater cafe before the audience has taken its seats, harassing, searching and intimidating them to set the mood for a performance meant to raise the specter of American occupation. Elsawy's production, "Messing with Minds," is now in its third month at a small stage in the grounds of the Cairo Opera House.

The terrorists who died in last weekend's suicide blast planned another major attack in Madrid, possibly during this week's Easter celebrations, a Spanish court official said. Police also said that Saturday's explosion during a police storming of an apartment may have killed seven suspects. That, and the arrests of other suspects could stir another terror cell to mount a Jihad, or holy war, in Spain, the official said.

The date for a formal end to U.S. occupation should be carved in stone and honored. The occupation label is a magnet for resistance to the foreign presence in Iraq. Growth of anti-foreign uprisings -- not imminent sectarian civil war -- is the gravest threat to Iraq's future. (Jim Hoagland/Wash.Post)

YET ANOTHER MAJOR REASON FOR LEGALIZATION!
The money used to fund the March 11 massacre in Madrid was raised from drug deals carried out in Palma and Ibiza just a week before the attacks. (Majorca Daily Bulletin)

Japan/Iraq: Terrorists trying to force Japanese troops from Iraq may have been behind a series of explosions heard outside a Japanese camp, government officials said Thursday, vowing not to back out of reconstruction efforts there. (AP)

Iraq: Iraqi Shia are divided in their response to the outbreak of violence between coalition forces and the supporters of cleric Moqtada Sadr. What is going on in Iraq is not a Shia uprising, though many people are asking whether it might become one. But it suits Moqtada Sadr to call it an uprising - in Arabic an "intifada" - because that puts his campaign of resistance on the same level as the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation. Sadr's supporters in Basra occupied the governor's house on Monday And in the Iraqi context, the word has another meaning too. (Roger Hardy, BBC Middle East analyst)

Iraq: US marines pressing an offensive on Fallujah have bombed a central mosque and killed up to 40 Sunni Muslim insurgents holed up inside, a marine officer said. The bombing came after hours of small arms and rocket-propelled grenades fire from insurgents, which wounded three marines, said Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne. Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying there were "as many as 40 rebels" inside the mosque. "We want to kill the people inside."

USA: Administration wages war on pornography Obscenity: For the first time in 10 years, the U.S. government is spending millions to file charges across the country. (Balt Sun)

Qatar: Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is being held at a US military base in Qatar, rather than in Iraq (AFP)

Pakistan: The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan says Pakistan misunderstood remarks he made earlier about Islamabad's efforts to clean out terrorist sanctuaries along the border area. The ambassador's remarks ignited a firestorm in Pakistan. (VOA)

Italy: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusoni vowed on Tuesday to keep his troops in Iraq, saying clashes there which left 12 Italian soldiers wounded would not sway his government. (Drudge)

Jordan: A military court in Jordan sentenced eight Islamic militants linked to Al Qaeda to death today, six of them in absentia, for the October 2002 assassination of an American diplomat in the front yard of his Amman home. (NY Times)

World: Why no Christian suicide bombers? And other thoughts on Islamic terror (Dennis Prager/WND)

Iraq: Saddam Hussein had the ability to unleash biological and chemical weapons "at short notice" on foreign nations, according to a potentially explosive new report by inspectors. The leaked document, written by Charles Duelfer, the new director of the Iraq Survey group, concludes that hard evidence does exist that Saddam had the ability to wreak terror with the weaponry.

Moron: Blix: The costs of the war in Iraq have outweighed the benefits of removing Saddam Hussein (Reuters)

United Arab Emirates: A man claiming to be a senior al-Qaida figure that the United States believes is operating in Iraq has released a tape calling for the country's Sunni Muslims to fight Shiites and claiming responsibility for high-profile attacks there.

Iraq: U.S. troops armed with photographs have captured a number of people in the restive city of Falluja in Iraq in a search for those responsible for an ambush that killed four American security guards there last week (Reuters)

Iraq: Clashes between Italian troops and Shia militants in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya have left 15 Iraqis dead (BBC)

Iraq: 8 U.S. Troops, 30 Iraqis Die in Fighting ... violence inspired by supporters of an anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric again spread to at least four cities, with 30 Iraqis killed. (AP)

Britain: British authorities believe terror suspects arrested last week were planning to make a bomb that would include a highly toxic, easily obtained chemical (ABC)

Spain Spain Arrests Another In Train Bombings Islamic Group Threatens More Attacks (Wash Post)

US Military/Guantanamo security: The Secret Pictures of Senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi (Daniel Pipes FrontPageMagazine.com)

Background: The Nazi connection to Islamic terrorism (Blumenfeld/WND)

Iran: ...we are now fighting a regional war. Our local opposition in Iraq is being trained, armed and directed with foreign support – by neighboring Iran.... Al-Sadr works for Iran. He is an Iranian agent.... (Joseph Farah/WND)

Everywhere: ONE of al-Qaeda’s top officials has ordered the killing of Muslim leaders if they co-operate with intelligence services and the police to thwart terrorist attacks. (Scotsman)

Germany: A high-speed train carrying 200 passengers struck six metal slabs attached to tracks in an apparent attempt to derail it, authorities said Sunday. The train was able to slow down in time and stayed on the rails.

New York: How Richard Clarke helped cover up TWA 800 terrorism ... and why (Jack Cashill/WND)

Oklahoma: Tire Track Evidence Introduced at Nichols' State Trial for Oklahoma City Bombing (AP)

Iraq: U.S. Forces Seal off Fallujah Ahead of Major Operation (AP)

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabian police killed a wanted militant and wounded a second in a shootout Monday in a suburb of the capital, Riyadh, security officials said. (AP)

Spain: Spanish authorities are giving credence to a letter received from a self-described Al Qaeda spokesman threatening more attacks like the Madrid train bombings unless Spain withdraws its troops "completely and immediately" from Iraq and Afghanistan.(NY TImes)

Iraq: U.S. Plans to Arrest Shiite Cleric Sadr Marines, Iraqi Forces Seal Off Town of Fallujah (Wash Post)

Iran: Iran on Sunday denied it has hidden any nuclear facilities from the U.N. nuclear watchdog by shifting them to easier-to-conceal sites. (AP)

Israel: 9/11 warnings IMd? ...Odigo, the instant messaging service, says that two of its workers received messages two hours before the Twin Towers attack on September 11 predicting the attack would happen, and the company has been cooperating with Israeli and American law enforcement, including the FBI, in trying to find the original sender of the message predicting the attack. (Haaretz)

Iraq: NAJAF - Supporters of an anti-American cleric rioted in four Iraqi cities Sunday, killing eight U.S. troops and one Salvadoran soldier in the worst unrest since the spasm of looting and arson immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein. (AP)

Iraq: At least 20 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in clashes between Spanish-led troops and Iraqi demonstrators in the city of Najaf. One soldier from El Salvador and one from the US were reportedly killed in the firefight, which broke out when Shia protesters marched on their base.

Spain: Suspected Madrid bombing ringleader killed Five suspects may have died in Saturday's apartment blast (CNN)

Iraq: Two Police Chiefs Killed in 24 Hours

Iraq: Two US marines have been killed in separate attacks west of Baghdad

Spain: AP: Blast Ends Madrid Suspect Hunt; 4 Dead

BBC: A policeman and three men suspected of carrying out the Madrid train bombings have been killed in an explosion in a suburb of the Spanish capital.

Reuters: Three suspects wanted for the Madrid train bombings set off a bomb when cornered in a flat, killing themselves and a policeman, as Spain's search for the perpetrators of the attacks went wrong.

02 April 2004 A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened.