Guardian

"Marcos has said the rebels will embark on a cross-country, pre-election tour aimed at uniting workers, students and activists around a leftwing agenda. The new phase of Zapatista action 'is not to draw lines, is not to promote the armed fight in another state', Marcos said. He added: 'It is to go and ask the people what they think and how their problems are being resolved.'" [more]

Mr Fabius has taken a calculated risk that, if it pays off, would utterly reverse the French Socialist party's current hierarchy. Unfortunately, for many Europeans both inside and outside France, his strategy amounts to little more than playing with the future functioning of the EU for his own personal political advantage. [more]

"While the gains of the orange-bedecked 'chestnut revolution' are Ukraine's, the campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes." [more]

The officer, identified by the army only as Captain R, was charged this week with illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming an officer and other relatively minor infractions after emptying all 10 bullets from his gun's magazine into Iman al-Hams when she walked into a "security area" on the edge of Rafah refugee camp last month. [more]

Countries such as France which opposed the invasion argue that the presence of US and other international forces contributes towards the violence, and a timetable should be set for them to leave. [more]

Washington, in other words, is relying on a soft landing for the dollar. History shows, however, that there is a better than even chance of this process ending in a full-scale crisis, as it did in the mid 1980s, when the weakness of the dollar culminated in the stock market crash of 1987. [more]

"There's a repulsive asymmetry of war here: not the much remarked upon asymmetry of the few thousand insurgents holed up in Falluja vastly outnumbered by the US, but the asymmetry of information. In an age of instant communication, we will have to wait months, if not years, to hear of what happens inside Falluja in the next few days." [more]

Mr Baker's Carlyle Group is in a consortium secretly proposing to try to collect $27bn (£15bn) on behalf of Kuwait, one of Iraq's biggest creditors, by using high-level political influence. It claims Mr Baker will not benefit personally, but the consortium could make millions in fees, retainers and commission as a result. [more]

For all the talk of the rapid reconstruction of Iraq, this is the central dilemma facing Hajim al-Hassani, the man now in charge of Iraq's industry. Most of the industries he oversees are hugely inefficient and over-staffed, but sacking thousands of workers would only worsen the already dangerous security crisis. [more]

The most complete attempt yet to identify some of the estimated 15,000 Iraqi civilians killed since the US-led invasion in March last year was unveiled in Chicago today. [more]

Mr Annan said that the invasion was not sanctioned by the UN security council or in accordance with the UN's founding charter. [more]

Meanwhile, the US homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge, denied claims that the Bush administration was choreographing security warnings for reasons of political expediency, as some Democrats have claimed. [more]

A spokesperson "despaired that military campaigns were employing 'hearts and minds' strategies more and more often, making it difficult for aid workers to maintain their aura of all-important impartiality. If armies are handing out food assistance and medical equipment, it becomes harder for locals to tell the aid workers from the occupiers." [more]

A fundamental question was whether the human rights convention "applies to the forces of a European state outside the territory of the council of Europe". A second such question was whether the Human Rights Act, which incorporated the convention into UK domestic law, could only be enforced in the territory of the UK, and not in Iraq. [more]

"The Bremer who waved from the steps of his departing C-130 did not only leave sovereignty, in the form of a terse two-paragraph letter, with the Iraqis. He left 160,000 foreign troops, a broken economy and a land beset by ruthless, reckless armed bands." [more]

Last week, my own further enquiries about the book revealed something even more alarming. Not only is it the bible of neocon headbangers, but it is also the bible on Arab behaviour for the US military. [more]

Despite widespread ill-feeling about the abuse of prisoners by American forces and allegations of mistreatment by British troops, coalition forces will be protected from any legal action. [more]

"The pictures of American soldiers humiliating Iraqi detainees are reminiscent of sadomasochistic porn — and we should not be surprised." [more]

"Passions boiled over on Monday as the protesters, many of them highland Aymara Indians, seized the town officials. Mayor Robles was dragged, tied to a post, beaten and left for dead beneath a bridge, according to local news reports. He later bled to death." [more]

"United Nations police in Kosovo are investigating a weekend shootout between Jordanian and US police units in the province which left two US woman officers and a Jordanian dead. There are fears that it was motivated by anti-Americanism." [more]

"The eruption of violence was fuelled by tit-for-tat incidents in recent days and showed how tense Kosovo remains, despite almost five years of UN peacekeeping. With Albanian hardliners in the ascendant in Kosovo and a new nationalist government in power in Serbia, the portents are dismal." [more]

"Mr Kay, who was formerly a UN weapons inspector, called for the president to go further. 'It's about confronting and coming clean with the American people. He should say we were mistaken and I am determined to find out why,' he said." [more]

"Tens of thousands are on the move now as the Pentagon carries out the largest rotation of forces in its history, relieving battle-weary soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait with fresh forces. By late March, 130,000 troops will be leaving Iraq and 105,000, including some of the 319th, will arrive. As many as 50% of these will be reservists or National Guard." [more]

"Mr Begg is believed by his family to have cracked after repeated questioning and confessed to a plot to attack the Houses of Parliament with planes laden with anthrax. His supporters say this is a sign that he will say anything in the hope of getting out. There have been at least 28 suicide attempts among the 680 detainees." [more]

"Over the past year harrowing first-hand testimonies from North Korean defectors have detailed execution and torture, and now chilling evidence has emerged that the walls of Camp 22 hide an even more evil secret: gas chambers where horrific chemical experiments are conducted on human beings." [more]

"Despite the sensitive climate surrounding the publication of Lord Hutton's report, the BBC's marketing department has decided to focus on the BBC website's in-depth coverage of the inquiry as part of a drive to attract new users." [more]

"Information dominance, by contrast, sees little distinction between command and control systems, propaganda and journalism. They are all types of 'weaponized information' to be deployed." [more]

We used to take it for granted that milk was good for us. But now the industry faces a crisis, with the public questioning such assumptions. So just how healthy is milk? Anne Karpf investigates, in two parts. [more]

Part II of Ann Karpf's investigation of the dairy industry. (See Part I, click here). [more]

"Six children and two adults were killed during a US attack on a weapons compound in south-eastern Afghanistan, the second bungled operation in the country to leave child victims in as many days." [more]

"While the official coalition figures list the British as the second largest contingent with around 9,900 troops, they are narrowly outnumbered by the 10,000 private military contractors now on the ground." [more]

"Of the more than 600 detainees at the US prison camp at Guantanamo, none has been charged with any crime. But the US has repeatedly promised that at least some of the prisoners will be charged and tried by military commissions, an arcane form of tribunal based on long-disused models from the 1940s." [more]

"Another terrible terrorist atrocity, another steely vow to crush the terrorists. How long can this go on? George Bush and Tony Blair were united yesterday in their determination 'to defeat this evil'. The prime minister was adamant that 'there must be no holding back, no compromise, no hesitation in confronting this menace, in attacking it wherever and whenever we can and in defeating it utterly'. The president claimed, again, that the struggle against al-Qaida and its allies is being won. But the evidence suggests otherwise. The blood and rubble in the streets of Istanbul, for the second time in a week, tells a different story." [more]

"In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: 'I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.' " [more]

"Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraq has been shaken by 84 major attacks, and countless smaller incidents and acts of sabotage, that have transformed America's promise of rapid reconstruction into an increasingly bloody guerrilla war." [more]

" 'The little American said: "We can be just as ruthless as Saddam Hussein" — he was trying very hard to scare me. They were threatening me with rape and assault.' " [more]

"Until now, the assumption in Washington was that Saudi Arabia was content to remain under the US nuclear umbrella. But the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the US has steadily worsened since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington." [more]

"Just as there is a terrorist threat in Iraq where none previously existed, so the clash of civilisations predicted two years ago is more nearly a reality than it was then. Just as Mr Bush's cynical exaggeration of Iraq's WMD threat and 9/11 links has eroded trust in him at home, so has it shattered European and Arab confidence that the US can be a dependable friend, not a reckless juggernaut." [more]

"This appears to be the true message of Bush's war franchise: why negotiate with your political opponents when you can annihilate them? In the era of [the war on terrorism], concerns such as war crimes and human rights just don't register." [more]

"The withdrawal came as the US death toll from the postwar occupation rose above the number killed in the invasion itself." [more]

"Such weapons would allow military commanders to increase firepower without being forced to push the nuclear button. Experts have warned that if the US scientists succeed in building a gamma ray bomb, it could force other countries to start nuclear programmes, or worse, encourage those who already possess nuclear weapons to use them." [more]

"Entire districts of the Liberian capital were clogged with people who carried, dragged, pushed and wheeled what they could, as rebels fired in the air and waved knives in a vain effort to stop the chaos." [more]

"A cabinet committee [will] assess how to toughen the law passed in the wake of last year's Bali bombing which allows detention for up to six months without charge based on intelligence reports." [more]

"One of the psychologists behind the study, Jack Glaser, said the aversion to shades of grey and the need for 'closure' could explain the fact that the Bush administration ignored intelligence that contradicted its beliefs about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." [more]

"While insisting that it has no plans to resume testing, the administration has asked Congress for funds for a project that would cut down the amount of time it would take for the cold war-era test site in Nevada to start functioning again." [more]

"When the Taliban fell, the US would not agree to the deployment of the International Security Assistance Force outside Kabul. Why? Because the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was already planning the invasion of Iraq and did not want men tied down in peacekeeping." [more]

"The Prime Minister, who this weekend becomes the longest continually serving Labour Prime Minister in history, has set up a ministerial working group in the Home Office charged with injecting religious ideas 'across Whitehall'. One expert on the relationship between politics and religion described the move as a 'blow to secularism.' " [more]

"In 1991, after the first Gulf war, although electricity generating stations, water purification plants and telecommunications were almost totally destroyed, the Iraqis — despite sanctions — rebuilt them." [more]

"The disclosure by the Foreign Office makes it plain the CIA's objections went far beyond the well-aired dispute over whether Iraq was seeking uranium from the west African state of Niger." [more]

"Hawks in the Pentagon and the energy department are pushing for the development of tactical nuclear weapons with yields of less than 5 kilotons and hardened 'bunker buster' nuclear bombs, designed to penetrate deeply buried targets, where enemy leaders or weaponsmay be hidden." [more]

"American soldiers are no longer merely terrestrial combatants; they have become missionaries. They are no longer simply killing enemies; they are casting out demons. The people who reconstructed the faces of Uday and Qusay Hussein carelessly forgot to restore the pair of little horns on each brow, but the understanding that these were opponents from a different realm was transmitted nonetheless. Like all those who send missionaries abroad, the high priests of America cannot conceive that the infidels might resist through their own free will." [more]

"Sadly, the vision for a transitional government and democratic elections put forward by Wolfowitz seems to have been forgotten in the everyday pressures of postwar Iraq." [more]

"[Andrew] Gilligan never actually uttered the phrase he has become famous for — in fact, the first mention came from John Humphrys." [more]

"Under fire for the CIA's handling of intelligence on Iraq, the agency's chief passes the buck back to the White House." [more]

"Selling 'Brand America' abroad was an abject failure; but at home, it worked. Manufacturers of 4x4s, oil prospectors, the nuclear power industry, politicians keen to roll back civil liberties — all seized the moment to capitalise on the war." [more]

"Donald Rumsfeld, told the Senate the US had not gone to war against Iraq because of fresh evidence of weapons of mass destruction but because Washington saw what evidence there was prior to 2001 'in a dramatic new light' after September 11." [more]

"The two men face a trial where US military officers will serve as judge, jury and prosecution. The men can nominate their defence lawyer, but the lawyers have to get special US clearance." [more]

"Operating under the auspices of the American anti-war coalition, United for Peace and Justice, the group intends to publish details of contracts obtained by corporations such as Halliburton and Bechtel and act as a clearing-house for information on allegations of civil rights abuses." [more]

"The ultimate goal would be a 'reusable hypersonic cruise vehicle ... capable of taking off from a conventional military runway and striking targets 9,000 nautical miles distant in less than two hours.' " [more]

" 'We are going to fight them and impose our will on them and we will capture or ... kill them until we have imposed law and order on this country,' [Bremer] declared at the weekend. 'We dominate the scene and we will continue to impose our will on this country.' " [more]

"A British scientist and biological weapons expert [said]: 'They are not mobile germ warfare laboratories. You could not use them for making biological weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly what the Iraqis said they were — facilities for the production of hydrogen gas to fill balloons.' " [more]

"[A] senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Abu Shanab, had outlined three conditions for a ceasefire: that Israel stops operations against Palestinians, frees Palestinian prisoners, and withdraws from the West Bank and Gaza." [more]

"US troops will be given orders to arrest any Iraqis who carry or sell guns, it was announced today. Forces were also 'aggressively targeting' looters, but they denied reports that they had been issued with a shoot to kill policy." [more]

"Children younger than 16 are being held as 'enemy combatants' in the American detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, the US military admitted yesterday, a practice human rights groups condemned as repugnant and illegal." [more]

"Thousands of non-Americans joined the US military hoping it would speed up their citizenship applications." [more]

"An unprecedented explosion of state-sponsored violence broke out amid charges of massive vote-rigging before voting begins today in two crucial parliamentary byelections." [more]

"Perhaps the least surprising thing about the second Gulf war is that it began with a volley of Tomahawk missiles. Since they were first used in the 1991 conflict, they have become the ultimate symbol of US military power. A hi-tech weapon that promised blood-free combat has changed the way America thinks about war." [more]

"Russia made it clear to the US and Britain yesterday that it is prepared to use its security council veto against a second UN resolution authorising war against Iraq." [more]

"The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq." [more]

"Tony Blair's Iraqi war strategy was shaken to the core last night when 121 Labour backbenchers defied a three-line whip to join a cross-party revolt and tell the prime minister that the the case for military action against Saddam Hussein is not yet made." [more]

"The Bush administration is planning a secret meeting in August to discuss the construction of a new generation of nuclear weapons, including 'mini-nukes', 'bunker-busters' and neutron bombs designed to destroy chemical or biological agents, according to a leaked Pentagon document." [more]

"Tony Blair's options for going to war on Iraq were shrinking last night after Jacques Chirac publicly pledged that France would veto an early second United Nations resolution explicitly authorising military action." [more]

"The rift between Tony Blair and the British public over war against Iraq is today confirmed by an opinion poll which shows for the first time that a clear majority of British voters now oppose a military attack." [more]

"The unprecedented turnout had shocked the organisers, shocked the marchers. And there at the end before them, high on top of the Wellington Arch, the four obsidian stallions and their vicious conquering chariot, the very Spirit of War, were stilled, rearing back — caught, and held, in the bare branches and bright chill of Piccadilly, London, on Saturday 15 February 2003." [more]

"Afghan officials said yesterday that at least 17 civilians were killed in a US-led bombing raid in southern Afghanistan." [more]

"In the event of war, how many Iraqi civilians will die? And how many will starve, or be displaced? In secret, the UN has been doing the sums." [more]

"President George Bush is determined to go to war with Saddam Hussein in the next few weeks, without UN backing if necessary, according to authoritative sources in Washington and London." [more]

"Tony Blair today refused to rule out using nuclear weapons in a conflict against Iraq. The prime minister said Britain and the US would deal with the threat from Iraq by 'any way necessary.' " [more]

"The withdrawal of the inspectors working for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna sets the stage for a new showdown between North Korea and the United Nations Security Council, which is expected to meet soon to discuss Pyongyang's defiance of its obligations under existing resolutions." [more]

"As many as 700 Middle Eastern immigrants, mainly Iranians, have been detained by US officials in southern California after they turned up to register in accordance with the requirements of new residency laws." [more]

"George Bush will only have succeeded in postponing the hard choice between peace and war that only presidents can make. Having begun the year in the embrace of the administration hawks, setting in motion preparations aimed at taking Baghdad within 12 months, he was convinced by the secretary of state, Colin Powell, to give diplomacy and inspections a final chance. The informed speculation in Washington is that Bush is genuinely undecided over what to do, in the face of forceful arguments on either side." [more]

"Opposition to the war on Iraq was far greater, he said, than the opposition to the war in Vietnam at a similar stage. But he did not feel that this was reflected by the media. 'The anti-war movement does not have a voice in the national debate equal to our numbers,' he told the gathering. [more]

"In March, Afghanistan's new education ministry rehired thousands of teachers who had been sacked by the Taliban, including many women who were banned from teaching. But attitudes towards girls' education remain mixed. In the south, much of the conservative Pashtun community remains hostile towards the idea of girls going to school, especially after the age of 10." [more]

"The outgoing prime minister, whose protracted illness led to the collapse of his governing coalition and early elec tions, fears that Turkey's 12 million Kurds, mainly in the south-east, would break away and fragment the country." [more]

"President Bush's case against Saddam Hussein relied on a slanted and sometimes entirely false reading of the available US intelligence, government officials and analysts claimed yesterday. Officials in the CIA, FBI and energy department are being put under intense pressure to produce reports which back the administration's line, the Guardian has learned." [more]

"It was very exciting, but the Israelis soon became aware of the importance of these exhibitions and started hitting the League of Palestinian Artists. They made us get permits to show our work, censoring art and invading artists' studios. Several of us were imprisoned, usually on charges that they were painting in the colours of the Palestinian flag. They would say, 'You can paint, but don't use red, white or black,' and they would imprison you if you used those colours. You couldn't paint a poppy, for example, or a watermelon: they were the wrong colours. Often it was up to the artistic judgment of the particular officer in charge." [more]

"Nobody knows exactly how many Taliban prisoners were secretly interred in this mass grave, a short distance from the main road. But there is now substantial evidence that the worst atrocity of last year's war in Afghanistan took place here; most controversially, during an operation masterminded by US special forces." [more]

"The US president, George Bush, tried to win over sceptical UN heavyweights today when he telephoned the presidents of China, Russia and France in a bid to temper their opposition to bombing Baghdad." [more]

"European Union governments are secretly drawing up a treaty with the US on issues ranging from extradition to undercover police operations in a move which has huge implications for individual rights and liberties." [more]

"George Bush has moved to distance himself from his vice-president after it was revealed that a sabre-rattling speech on Iraq by Dick Cheney was made without clearing key points with the White House." [more]

"The prime minister, Tony Blair, today prepared the country for pre-emptive action against Iraq by promising to publish within the next few weeks a dossier on Iraqi attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction. " [more]

"Leaked papers say militants will end attacks in Israel." [more]

"Ý'You cannot ignore a command that is repeated 36 times in the Mosaic books: "You were exiled in order to know what it feels like to be an exile." I regard that as one of the core projects of a state that is true to Judaic principle. And therefore I regard the current situation as nothing less than tragic, because it is forcing Israel into postures that are incompatible in the long-run with our deepest ideals.'Ý" [more]

"Given the way the five men handily disabled embassy security systems and rewired a gate to enter the grounds, Shamil Mohammed said they could not have been ordinary Iraqi dissidents as they claimed." [more]

"With backbench Labour critics becoming more restless, veteran ex-minister Gerald Kaufman today warns of 'substantial resistance' at Westminster if Mr Blair follows 'the most intellectually backward American president of my lifetime' into the looming conflict." [more]

"The retired general, who also advised Presidents Nixon and Ford, predicted that an attack on Iraq could lead to catastrophe. "Israel would have to expect to be the first casualty, as in 1991 when Saddam sought to bring Israel into the Gulf conflict. This time, using weapons of mass destruction, he might succeed, provoking Israel to respond, perhaps with nuclear weapons, unleashing an Armageddon in the Middle East," Mr Scowcroft wrote in the Wall Street Journal." [more]

"The stories selected by Memri for translation follow a familiar pattern: either they reflect badly on the character of Arabs or they in some way further the political agenda of Israel." [more]

"Ethics are not black and white - they are all white. Ethics have to be free of vengefulness and rashness. Every act must be carefully weighed before a decision is made to see whether it meets strict ethical criteria. Our ethics are hanging by a thread, at the mercy of every soldier and politician." [more]

"Baghdad is pinning its hopes on persuading the British government to withhold support from any US military action. The calculation among senior figures in the Iraqi regime is that President George Bush is prepared to risk international criticism in a war to overthrow Saddam Hussein - but only if he has Tony Blair at his side." [more]

"Mr Schr–der said Germany was a self-confident country. 'We didn't shy away from offering international solidarity in the fight against international terrorism. We did it because we were, and are, convinced that it is necessary; because we knew that the security of our partners is also our security. But we say this with equal self-confidence: we're not available for adventures, and the time of cheque book diplomacy is over once and for all.'" [more]

"The question now appears to be not whether there will be a war, but when. The answer is that in war, as other matters, timing is all. For President George W. Bush that timing will be dictated by the demands of a domestic political agenda. With the economy in the middle of what now looks like a double-dip recession - and his room for manoeuvre on the economic front hobbled by his tax-cut commitments - Bush has been left with only two policies he can sell as a success: the war against terrorism and the war against Saddam." [more]

"Last week the Pentagon, for the first time, secured funds from Congress to develop "mini-nukes", low-yield nuclear weapons designed in particular to destroy underground bunkers. The plan to build a new generation of nuclear weapons, military analysts say, is behind the growing pressure on the White House to withdraw from the comprehensive test-ban treaty. American nuclear scientists last week also secured an agreement whereby tests on new warheads could start within a year of any request, rather than the existing mandatory delay of three years. They have been instructed to drill new boreholes in the test grounds of the Nevada desert." [more]

"The US is now a threat to the rest of the world. The sensible response is non-cooperation." [more]

"A former chief of defence staff, Field Marshal Lord Bramall, warned in a letter to the Times that an invasion of Iraq would pour 'petrol rather than water' on the flames and provide al-Qaida with more recruits. He quoted a predecessor who said during the 1956 Suez crisis: 'Of course we can get to Cairo but what I want to know is what the bloody hell do we do when we get there?'Ý" [more]

"Saudi Arabia is teetering on the brink of collapse, fuelling Foreign Office fears of an extremist takeover of one of the West's key allies in the war on terror. Anti-government demonstrations have swept the desert kingdom in the past months in protest at the pro-American stance of the de facto ruler, Prince Abdullah." [more]

"Amid renewed evidence that pro-nuclear hawks are increasingly holding sway, the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration is increasing funding for nuclear weapons research and testing programmes. The funding would allow the US to be ready to return to underground tests within 12 months - a requirement of the US Nuclear Posture Review, which was unveiled by the Bush administration this year." [more]

"Even if he was guilty of the crime for which he was convicted, Kazmi was nothing to do with al-Qaeda. He was a Shia acitivist and thus, to bin Laden and his people, a heretic. The strong antipathy between al-Qaeda (which has ideological roots in hardline Sunni muslim thought and financial and political roots in hardlien Sunni muslim countries and circles) and the Shias persists notwithstanding clumsy attempts by the Israelis or the Americans to manufacture links to Hizbolllah or the Iranians." [more]

"A new third option now being considered is for a sudden strike, involving no more than 50,000 troops who would bypass the Iraqi army and make straight for Baghdad. With thousands of US troops already deployed in Kuwait and Qatar, such a plan could be executed quickly, officials say." [more]

"Key Afghan commanders are being bribed with British and US money to ensure their loyalty to the new government." [more]

"The western press has made so much of the idea that, as the Taliban left Kabul, the liberated women threw off their blue shrouds. But in Kabul, almost all the young women are still wearing the burka. This is not through force of tradition. There was a custom of wearing the burka among some ethnic groups in Afghanistan, but not among educated women in the cities. I asked 20 or 30 women why they were still wearing it, and all gave the same answer. Fear." [more]

"The Palestinians are fighting with human suicide bombers, that's all they have. The Israelis ... they've got one of the most powerful military machines in the world. The Palestinians have nothing. So who are the terrorists? I would make a case that both sides are involved in terrorism." [more]

"Such acts are painful, even though the target is institutional, actions often mean a breach with longstanding colleagues. It is thus important that the boycott is coupled with positive support for those Israeli refuseniks who continue to oppose the actions of their elected government." [more]

"The letter appeared to have been written in 1998 or thereabouts ó exactly the time that extremist Islamic groups started emerging in northern Iraq. Last week a hitherto virtually unheard of group ó Ansar al Islam (the supporters of Islam, a reference to the original group of followers of the Propher Mohammed in the Arabian town of Medina) declared a jihad against the avowedly secular KDP and PUK parties that between them run the Kurdish enclave in Northern Iraq. There was fierce fighting around the town of Halabja in which 17 Islamist fighters and 8 PUK men died." [more]

" 'The whole atmosphere is different now from in 1990,' Mr Abu-Odeh said yesterday. 'In 1990 blood was on the ground. The Iraqi army was in Kuwait, and the whole world wanted to do something. Now only one country wants to try to do something about Iraq. Iraq has been under siege for 12 years, and Arabs are also much more disaffected with America than they were in 1990 because of the Palestinian issue.' " [more]

"Shall we count the ways in which this is completely absurd? George Bush is demanding that Palestine become Sweden before it can become Palestine: it must be stable, prosperous and boast constitutional arrangements which still elude Britain — our judiciary and legislature are not separate — let alone the Arab world before it can become even a state-in-waiting." [more]

"A thumbnail sketch of politics and the environment in the United States today depicts oil as the lifeblood running through every vein of an administration forging ahead with its energy policy." [more]

"Leaders of Afghanistan's ethnic groups are meeting in Kabul to decide who will form the country's government for the next 18 months. How the 'grand council' will work." [more]

"The information retained about emails will include who sent the message, where the email went, its contents and the time and date it was sent." [more]

"No war has been declared, and yet the latest conflict between India and Pakistan is now raging all across their 1,800-mile border: from the icy Siachen glacier, through Kashmir and Jammu, down to Rajasthan and Punjab — and past Mr Singh's bungalow." [more]

"But there is no peace industry commensurate with the world's war industry. There are no vested interests to appease, no campaign contributions to be gained from preventing rather than encouraging the use of weapons. As a result the hundreds of thousands of peacekeepers whose deployment is required in Kashmir do not exist. While wars are plotted in loving detail, there is no global peace plan for the territory, despite 55 years of conflict." [more]

"'They have been struck physically, strip-searched, deliberately stopped from praying; they've been cuffed behind their backs, picked up by their thumbs and dragged from one place to another,' said Sandra Nicholls, representing two current detainees. 'They feel they are suffering reprisals because they talked to the inspector general.' One inmate said he was told: 'Now you're suffering like the people in the towers suffered.'" [more]

" 'The latest Israeli military incursions have dealt a hard blow to an already vulnerable economy, pushing many Palestinians into destitution,' Mr Adly said. He highlighted 'prolonged Israeli closures and cumbersome security procedures' which have hampered Palestinian farmers." [more]

"George Bush received specific warnings in the weeks before 11 September that an attack inside the United States was being planned by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, US government sources said yesterday." [more]

"Open societies are safer places to be." [more]

"Afghanistan's remote terrain, a tight-lipped military and the deployment of spin prevent a real assessment of British operations: Charting the progress of British forces in pursuit of al-Qaeda in southern Afghanistan." [more]

" 'The president said "axis of evil" and it was amazing what happened after that in terms of the criticism that came our way,' Mr Powell argued. 'The president came up with a clever way of capturing them all and guess what ó the North Koreans now want to talk to us. The Iraqis are trying to pretend that they're behaving better.' " [more]

"There is now not the slightest pretence that the scope of the US's regime-change wishlist is in any way tethered to the attacks of Sept. 11." [more]

"In a speech called Beyond the Axis of Evil, the undersecretary of state John Bolton presented no evidence for his claims, pointing only to Cuba's advanced biomedical industry and Mr Castro's visits last year to three 'rogue states' accused by the the US state department of sponsoring terrorism: Iraq, Syria and Libya." [more]

"[Labour MP] Galloway added: 'The anti-war movement in Britain and opposition to sanctions is closely reflected in Parliament, where 157 MPs, including two former Cabinet Ministers, Chris Smith and Gavin Strang, have signed a motion.' " [more]

"American forces are ready to take whatever military action is needed against Saddam Hussein while continuing operations in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks, chief of the Pentagon's central command, indicated in London yesterday." [more]

"MPs are demanding an explanation after Israel upgraded British Jaguar bombers made by India under licence and potentially capable of carrying nuclear weapons." [more]

"Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, suddenly raised military tensions with India with a stark warning yesterday that he is prepared to use nuclear weapons in the event of war. "In an interview to be published tomorrow in Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Gen Musharraf warns that if the pressure on Pakistan becomes too great then 'as a last resort, the atom bomb is also possible.' " [more]

"Hidden in an ambulance beneath a stretcher carrying the bodies of those who had died in the West Bank town of Bethlehem during the current Israeli invasion, they were told by the paramedics to play dead when troops checked them." [more]

"Someone had taken off his boots, revealing his blue socks. The wounds that he had obviously been clutching when he died were also to his upper body. But what must have killed him, like his colleague, was a shot fired at close range to his temple that had demolished the back of his head." [more]

"There is now a concerted effort among senior government figures to move away from the bellicose language employed by Bush against Iraq. A number of senior figures in the Cabinet are urging Blair to seek a solution in Palestine before turning Britain's attention to Saddam. 'The two things are inextricably linked,' one said. 'It is clear that one cannot progress without the other.'" [more]

An attack base will be moved into Qatar to bypass Saudi objections. [more]

"A Pentagon official told The Observer there was no intelligence to support claims from London that al-Qaeda was developing biological weapons in the Shah-e-Kot area. 'I don't know what they're saying in London but we have received no specific intelligence on that kind of development or capability in the Shah-e-Kot valley region - I mean a chemical or biological weapons facility,' said an official in the Army department in Washington. [more]

"US forces are active in the biggest array of countries since the second world war. Troops, sailors and airmen are now established in countries where they have never before had a presence. The aim is to provide platforms from which to launch attacks on any group perceived by George Bush to be a danger to the US." [more]

"Afghanistan always surprises, old hands say. But historically the pattern of victories followed by hard campaigning has actually been the norm. Just as in Vietnam, the Americans should have looked at history but on the whole did not, so they — and other countries — should consult the same lesson book in Afghanistan. [more]

At least $1 million was promised; $50 million is thought to be needed, but nothing has been delivered. "Afghanistan's new women's minister, whose job is to restore women's rights after years of Taliban oppression in which girls could not go to school and women could not go out alone, has yet to receive any funding to start her work." [more]

"After the first three weeks the men were given four days' intensive weapons training. Each man was offered lessons in one weapon: Kalashnikov assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades or machine guns. Following the weapons training they began a four-day exercise to prepare for the attack on Shah-e-Kot. On the fifth day, Saturday, the attack began." [more]

Some people "understand, better than some of their neighbours, that America itself has been largely responsible for creating an ever more integrated world. They therefore recognise that we cannot escape back to some Norman Rockwell-like age of innocence and isolationism, and fear we are alienating too much of a world to which we are now tightly and inexorably bound." [more]

"Torture camps where suspected opponents are being murdered and mutilated have been set up in Zimbabwe as Robert Mugabe unleashes a reign of terror ahead of elections this week. Faced with defeat for the first time since his party came to power in 1980 after overthrowing white minority rule, the 78-year-old President is turning on his own people in an orchestrated campaign of violence and intimidation." [more]

"The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, publicly embarrassed Tony Blair today with an appeal from the doorstep of No 10 for the US not to attack Iraq." [more]

"The mother of a 22-year-old British man detained in Guantanamo Bay today called on the US government to release her son, as lawyers for Britons held in Cuba said they would sue the UK government in the high court for aiding and abetting their 'unlawful detention.' " [more]

"The brutal death of Afghanistan's new aviation minister - apparently lynched by a crowd of angry pilgrims at Kabul airport — took a bizarre twist yesterday after it was revealed he may have been the victim of an elaborate assasination plot." [more]

"Britain revealed its increasing irritation with America over the war against terrorism yesterday when senior Government sources said that hawkish elements in the White House were using 'unnecessarily belligerent' language." [more]

"Last Monday, to back that explicit threat, [Bush] announced an increase in US military spending of 15 per cent, the biggest in 20 years, more than double the military spending in all of the European Union. The rise will be $36 billion this year, $48 billion next year and $120 billion over the next five years, rising to a staggering two trillion over the next five years." [more]

"Chris Patten, the EU commissioner in charge of Europe's international relations, has launched a scathing attack on American foreign policy — accusing the Bush administration of a dangerously 'absolutist and simplistic' stance towards the rest of the world." [more]

"The old woman rose up out of the dust, her black chador unwinding behind her, like an apparition in slow motion, and moved towards the road. 'Food,' she wailed. 'We need food. Give us food.'Ý" [more]

"Saudi Arabia's rulers are poised to throw US strategy in the Middle East into disarray by asking Washington to pull its forces out of the kingdom because they have become a 'political liability.' Senior Saudi officials have privately complained that the US has 'outstayed its welcome' and that the kingdom may soon request that the American presence ó a product of the Gulf War ó is brought to an end." [more]

"Gangs of Northern Alliance soldiers have unleashed a crimewave of looting and killing in Kabul which is awakening nostalgia for the Taliban. Lawlessness is creeping into daily life, after six years of Taliban order, in the form of robberies, extortion and murder aimed at the few Kabul residents with visible wealth." [more]

"The latest Osama bin Laden tape is widely hailed as proof that he organised the September 11 attacks, though many papers report doubts in the Islamic world about its authenticity." [more]

"The toppling of the Taliban may eventually prove to be the best thing to have happened in Afghanistan for a decade. But it was not an initial aim of the US-led war. In the wake of their departure from Kandahar, that point cannot be stressed enough, before the drumbeat of triumpalism deafens us all. Victory over the wrong opponent is not much of a victory. It sounds more like 'collateral benefit' ó provided we are sure the benefit outweighs the costs." [more]

"As the net tightened around the Taliban leadership yesterday, questions were being asked about whether the bloody end to this week's prison siege at the 19th-century Qala-i-Jhangi fort outside the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif will be the defining moment of the Afghan war. Pictures of aid workers picking their way through the corpses of Taliban prisoners killed by a combination of Northern Alliance fighters and American bombings, have caused revulsion around the world. At least 175 prisoners were killed; that is the number of bodies recovered so far by the Red Cross." [more]

"Taliban forces are digging in for a fierce defence of Kandahar, their spiritual headquarters, and are prepared to fight to the death, a former commander who escaped the city said last night." [more]

In the same region where four journalists were killed Monday, safety and order has all but dissolved. "Armed warlords operating in the hills of eastern Afghanistan have begun ambushing and looting cars and buses as large areas of the country slide back into anarchy." [more]

"The Qatar-based satellite television channel, al-Jazeera, claimed yesterday that its Kabul office had been targeted by United States bombers. Ibrahim Hilal, the chief editor of the Arabic language network, said it had given the location of its office in Kabul to the authorities in Washington ó yet on Monday night, its office was destroyed by a bomb that almost wrecked the nearby BBC bureau." [more]

"Terror suspect Osama bin Laden has probably fled Afghanistan and travelled across the border into Pakistan, Iran radio claimed today." [more]