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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3079654.stm Saudi authorities say they have seized a lorry-load of surface-to-air missiles destined for an unnamed terrorist group. The consignment was intercepted last month on a desert road near the port city of Jeddah. Police say the weapons - capable of being used to bring down aircraft - had been smuggled from Yemen. Last month, air travellers from the United States and Britain were alerted to the possibility of attack if they went to Saudi Arabia. The alerts came after intelligence reports were relayed to Washington and London by the Saudis of a specific threat to British airlines flying in...

By HANS GREIMEL Associated Press Writer NIIGATA, Japan (AP)--Japan barred a North Korean ferry suspected of smuggling missile parts and illicit funds from leaving port Monday after the controversial ship failed beefed up safety inspections. The white-hulled Mangyongbong-92, with North Korea's red star emblazoned on its funnel, has long been a focus of suspicion during its regular visits to the northern Japanese port of Niigata. But tensions have peaked amid new allegations the boat is a conduit for communist espionage. The visit, the first in seven months, tested already icy relations between Japan and North Korea just days before top...

PETER O'CONNOR Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia - Joint Australian-U.S. naval exercises scheduled for next month may be used to practice boarding vessels suspected of exporting weapons of mass destruction from rogue states, the Australian government said Monday. Officials from the United States, Australia, Japan and eight European countries - agreed in principle last month to begin training for high seas "interdictions" of ships believed to be carrying weapons of mass destruction. While officials here have not named any nations that would be targeted by such raids, North Korea is thought to be high on the list. No date has been...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — The Bush administration, while preparing for talks soon with North Korea, is also stepping up military pressure with plans for a joint naval exercise next month to train for interdicting at sea arms and other materials being transported to and from the North. Administration officials and Asian diplomats said that the exercise would be carried out in the Coral Sea off northeastern Australia in September and that it was officially described as directed at no one country. A principal intention, however, was to send a sharp signal to North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program,...

A ship quietly intercepted in the Egyptian port of Alexandria was carrying aluminium tubes destined for North Korea, authorities say, increasing fears that Pyongyang is stepping up efforts to buy nuclear weapons materials. French and German authorities were said to have tracked the ship, Ville de Virgo, to the eastern Mediterranean and to have seized the tubes on April 12. German police arrested the owner of a small export company and said they had uncovered a scheme to acquire up to 2000 such pipes. Investigators said they had concluded that that amount of aluminium in North Korean hands could have...

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Taiwan boards N Korean ship Taiwan boards N Korean ship Taiwanese customs officers have boarded a North Korean freighter at the request of US intelligence authorities, reports say. The Taiwanese Central News Agency reports the US as saying the ship could be transporting illegal chemicals that could be used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Officials from Taiwan's Ministry of Finance and Customs Bureau (MFKCB) subsequently boarded the ship, which arrived in Kaohsiung Harbour on Thursday from Bangkok, Thailand. The Taiwanese newspaper Lien Ho Pao reported the US had urged Taiwan's National Security Council...