Posted on 05/23/2003 10:05:39 PM PDT by null and void
About 50 Israeli armoured vehicles raided a Palestinian refugee camp on Saturday, one day after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon raised hopes for an end to 32 months of violence by accepting a US-backed peace "road map".
Political sources said Mr Sharon was likely to win cabinet approval for the plan, perhaps as early as Sunday, despite the opposition of some ministers to its call for Palestinian statehood.
In Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank, witnesses said soldiers searched house-to-house for militants, detaining four Palestinian suspects and two American members of the non-violent, pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
BAGHDAD, IRAQ--Faced with a heavily armed population and a severe crime wave, U.S. forces in Iraq on Friday outlined a new weapons policy that bans automatic and heavy weapons.
Iraqis will be able to register small-caliber arms to keep in their businesses or homes, but will not be able to carry them outside, said the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan.
The UN has been unable to halt clashes in the area. Imagine that!!!
British officials say what is being talked about is a short-term operation to fill the gap until South African and Bangladeshi troops arrive in July or August to reinforce the existing UN contingent.
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell told BBC News the international community had been "distracted by Iraq" but must now turn its attention to the Congo.
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - The Indonesian Red Cross said on Saturday it had found about 80 bodies in western Aceh province, where a military offensive against rebels began earlier in the week.
"Up to today the Red Cross has evacuated about 80 bodies" as a result of clashes or from areas where there has been fighting, Marie Muhammad, head of the PMI (the Indonesian Red Cross), told a group of foreign reporters.
Some 300 delegates were selecting a 30-member council which will choose a provincial governor on Tuesday -- another key step in U.S. efforts to establish local government after setting up a council in Iraq's third largest city Mosul earlier this month. ''This marks the beginning of the process of democratisation,'' Major General Raymond Odierno, commander of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division, told the opening of the convention.
The delegations then split up to choose their respective council representatives.
(Miami-AP) -- Miami Police Chief John Timoney will travel to the ethnically divided Iraqi city of Kirkuk tomorrow to help set up a police academy and assist in controlling deadly violence in the key oil-producing area.
Timoney said yesterday that the Defense Department asked him to go to Kirkuk for about 10 days to advise Iraqi officials on training, managing and organizing local police as Iraq prepares for self-governance. Defense officials would not confirm the appointment
KIRKUK, Iraq - American soldiers detained five members of an Arab delegation participating in voting for a northern Iraqi oil town's new city council Saturday, saying they were suspected members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
U.S. Army forces bound the five with plastic handcuffs as they entered the door of the Kirkuk municipal building where the balloting was being held. They were escorted away for questioning by U.S. military intelligence.
One Dead, 8 Hurt in Shooting During Caracas Rally
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - One person was shot to death and at least eight others, including three National Guard troops, were injured by gunfire as opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rallied on Saturday in a pro-Chavez district of Caracas, police and firefighters said.
Shooting erupted as several hundred supporters of the opposition Accion Democratica Party held an anti-government rally in a narrow street in Catia, a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood that is a bastion of support for Chavez.
RABAT, Morocco - Three people who had been in contact with suicide bombers responsible for a series of deadly attacks in Casablanca have been arrested, authorities said Saturday.
The three were among nine people sought in the investigation of the May 16 bombings, which killed 31 bystanders. Interior Ministry official Yassine Mansouri said the suspects had been in direct contact with the attackers.
N. Korea Wants U.S. Nuclear Talks First
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Saturday it would agree to negotiations with several nations over its suspected nuclear weapons program only after one-on-one talks with the United States.
Washington says talks to defuse the growing tensions about North Korea's nuclear potential should involve several regional powers, including South Korea (news - web sites) and Japan.
Some 200 young Afghans gather outside the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan Saturday, May 24, 2003, protesting against the deadly shootout by U.S. Marines. U.S. Marines killed three Afghan soldiers who were loading or unloading weapons from a vehicle across the street from the embassy when U.S. guards believed they were about to come under attack and opened fire.
Afghans Protest Shootings at U.S. Embassy
KABUL, Afghanistan - Angry Afghan demonstrators hurled stones at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Saturday to protest this week's shooting deaths of three Afghan soldiers by U.S. Marines outside the heavily guarded compound.
Carrying banners saying, "Death to America, Death to (President Hamid) Karzai," about 80 protesters marched through downtown for several hours. On a street near the embassy, they threw rocks at several passing vehicles belonging to the 5,000-strong international peacekeeping force that patrols the city, shattering windows in at least two of them.
A view of the conference on developing curricula held at King Saud University in Riyadh on Wednesday.
Saudi Textbooks Lack Global Dimension
RIYADH, 23 May 2003 — A Saudi scholar says Saudi history textbooks are biased and lack any global perspective.
In a paper presented on Wednesday during a conference on developing curricula held at King Saud University, Professor Reima Sado Al-Jarf recommended reviewing and restructuring Saudi history books and adding global perspectives to them.
The paper looked at global content in history textbooks for grades four to 12, specifically at what level international content is introduced and the percentage of international topics taught.
May 23, 2003 -- 'AN appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last," Winston Churchill once said. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is learning this the hard way. After decades of appeasing Islamic extremism in the heart of the Arab world - and believing such a policy essentially immunized it against terrorism - it's reeling from an unexpected, painful bite.
On May 13, several Saudi-born operatives of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network stunned the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with a suicide bombing that killed 20 and wounded hundreds, including Saudi Muslims. More attacks in the holiest of Muslim lands appear likely. Saudi officials have raised their terrorism alert to its highest level, and yesterday announced that they have arrested several suspects with ties to al Qaeda.
An armed British police officer stands behind concrete blocks outside Britain's Houses of Parliament in London, May 23, 2003. A ring of concrete sprang up around the British parliament late on Thursday as police stepped up security measures after recent suicide bombs in Saudi Arabia and Morocco and warnings of more to come.
US says new terror threats reported in Morocco, urges heightened vigilance
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said that Moroccan police have reported receiving anonymous threats of terrorist attacks on hotels, nightclubs and restaurants throughout the country, and urged US citizens their to redouble their security.
The State Department, through the US embassy in Rabat, said Friday the threatened attacks were similar in nature to last Friday's suicide bombings in Casablanca that killed 41 peopel, but could not speak to their credibility.
Moroccan faithful gather in the El Ouda mosque in Casablanca to make unity prayers. Casablanca was rocked last week by five terrorist attacks, and the United States said Moroccan police have received warnings of similar attacks.
Wonder if the Afgan soldiers were wearing their uniforms.
Also, did the U.S. guards give any warnings? Did the Afgan soldier point the weapons at the U.S. soldiers? Did they fire the weapons at the U.S. soldiers?
Osama & gang hit hard times
By OWEN MORITZ
Terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden, whose personal fortune was once pegged at $300 million, is nearly broke, and his dwindling army of Al Qaeda operatives are strapped for cash, according to U.S. News & World Report. Bin Laden squandered his fortune years before he masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the magazine said, citing an intelligence windfall.
Instead, Al Qaeda's finances have been built on a foundation of charities, mosques, fund-raisers and businesses, most with Saudi connections, according to the magazine.
Bin Laden was heir to a Saudi construction fortune before turning terrorist.
U.S. officials said they are confident they'll nab Bin Laden, thought to be hiding along Pakistan's northwest border.
"Ninety-six percent of what we operationally need is in place," said Cofer Black, head of the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism. "You're just waiting for the dime to drop."
The United States' relentless anti-terrorism campaign has turned up a trove of secret Al Qaeda documents, led to the assassination and capture of Bin Laden's key lieutenants and exposed his operation as less than sophisticated.
The organization's computer files are rarely encrypted, the magazine said, and when they, are U.S. officials have broken the codes easily. Phone calls are rarely encrypted.
"They continue to make basic tradecraft mistakes," said one official. "And one of them is you never talk over the phone."
Bin Laden no longer talks on the phone, but Al Qaeda members were slow to realize their cell phones could be tapped.
CIA officials compare Al Qaeda's organization to the Mafia, the magazine said. It's "finite, disciplined, Mafia-like grouping with its own rules, finances and made members."
The agency has come to rely on Jordanian intelligence, considered as dependable as Israel's vaunted Mossad, and the U.S. has shipped up to 100 Al Qaeda suspects to Jordan's remote al Jafr Prison, according to the magazine.
The prison is used in addition to detention facilities the U.S. maintains at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in Afghanistan and at a joint British-American base on the island of Diego Garcia.
Jordanian intelligence operatives - masters at beating prisoners on the soles of their feet - are considered top-flight interrogators.
Originally published on May 24, 2003
She just sat through an entire report with her nose slowly dripping to her lips, from an allergy she later says.
You can tell Bob Sellers was glaring because of the way he looked at the camera.
I haven't laugh so hard today since the M16 debacle a couple of weeks ago.
Dari is a keeper. My Saturdays/Sunday are complete again. I have Dari back. Whoever her husband is he has bank because that is one large wedding ring. Fox women do not marry cheap men I noticed.
Times slaps 2nd writer in byline flap
By PAUL D. COLFORD
Star correspondent Rick Bragg has been hit with a punitive suspension by The New York Times for using extensive, uncredited material from a young intern in a story, newsroom sources said yesterday. The Columbia Journalism Review Web site said the suspension would last for two weeks. It was not clear whether there would be any restrictions on Bragg when he returns to work, the sources said.
Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis declined to comment.
The Times said in an editor's note published yesterday that a journalist named J. Wes Yoder should have shared a byline with Bragg on the story — a colorful account of Florida oystermen published in June.
Yoder, 23, told the Daily News he spent four days in and around Apalachicola, on Florida's northern gulf coast — longer than Bragg — did much of the reporting and sat with his notes alongside Bragg when the staffer wrote the piece.
But Yoder said he has no hard feelings that he received no co-byline for his efforts.
"I had offered to volunteer for Rick for the summer because I wanted to learn from him," said Yoder, who has since become a staff writer for The Anniston Star, an Alabama paper where Bragg once worked.
Though national and foreign correspondents for The Times and other news organizations often call on locally based freelancers for assistance on the road, Yoder's unusual relationship was what he called an internship — "or volunteership."
Yoder said Bragg paid him directly for his work over three months, calling it an invaluable experience.
However, coming three weeks after the forced resignation of reporter Jayson Blair for plagiarism, revelations about Bragg's use of descriptive material and quotations gathered in large measure by a young admirer threatened to heap further embarrassment on a paper still reeling from Blair's fabrications.
The latest flareup has added significance because Bragg is a friend of Howell Raines, the embattled executive editor, who has championed his work.
The Times said it responded to a reader's letter and "found that while Mr. Bragg indeed visited Apalachicola briefly and wrote the article, the interviewing and reporting on the scene" were done by Yoder.
"I don't know if he actually said, 'Please give this kid a byline,'" Yoder said. "I certainly understood I wouldn't be getting a byline."
Yoder said he was contacted by The Times yesterday.,P. Mathis said, "We know of no grounds for further investigation of Mr. Bragg's work."
Bragg, 43, joined The Times in 1994 and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for feature writing. A son of Alabama, he's a beloved figure in the South, applauded for his two family memoirs, "All Over but the Shoutin'" and "Ava's Man."
He did not return calls made to his office in New Orleans.
Times slaps 2nd writer in byline flap
Originally published on May 24, 2003
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