World News
Militants Vow to Kill Iraq PM as U.S. Handover Looms
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamist militants vowed Wednesday to assassinate Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, threatening to step up a bloody campaign of beheadings and other killings a week before a U.S. handover to Iraqi rule. - More
South Korean Held in Iraq Pleads for Life
June 20, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape Sunday purportedly from al-Qaida linked militants showing a South Korean hostage begging for his life and pleading with his government to withdraw troops from Iraq. - More
S Korean hostage beheaded in Iraq
June 22, 2004
A South Korean hostage threatened with execution in Iraq has been killed, officials in Seoul have confirmed.
The beheaded body of translator Kim Sun-il, 33, was found on the road between Baghdad and Falluja. - More
U.S.-N.Korea Meeting Offers Chance to Discuss Offers
June 24, 2004
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. and North Korean diplomats held a rare bilateral meeting Thursday with a U.S. offer of conditional aid and security guarantees aimed at breaking a deadlock in the nuclear crisis topping the agenda. - More
Iran Returns Detained British Sailors
June 24, 2004
TEHRAN, Iran - Eight British servicemen who were detained after their boats strayed into Iranian territorial waters have been turned over to British diplomats and were taken to the embassy in Tehran under tight security, officials said Thursday. - More
Israeli Forces Search Homes in Nablus
June 24, 2004
NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli soldiers blew open doors with grenades, rummaged through closets and rounded up residents while searching for fugitives and bomb labs in Nablus' old city — the largest army operation in the militant stronghold in more than a year.
Soldiers sealed the old city with cement blocks and barbed wire to lock in militants and imposed a strict curfew. The military said "Operation Full Court Press" would last several days. - More
'Breaking the Silence' on West Bank Abuse:
Israeli Soldiers' Exhibit Depicts Mistreatment of Palestinians by Troops, Settlers in Hebron
June 24, 2004
TEL AVIV, June 23 -- Military police on Wednesday interrogated three Israeli reserve soldiers who organized an exhibit of photographs and videotapes chronicling mistreatment of Palestinians by troops and Jewish settlers.
A statement issued by the military said the three men were ordered to provide testimony as part of an investigation into the "allegedly violent crimes against Palestinians and damage to Palestinian property" depicted in the show.
"The army wants to keep us quiet and scare us away," Micha Kurz, 22, said after what he described as seven hours of questioning by investigators. "They're not going to shut us up, because we have a lot to say, and they're not going to scare us off." - More
Bush to Challenge NATO to Help Iraq
June 24, 2004
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush will challenge NATO leaders at a summit in Turkey next week to help train Iraqi security forces by arguing that the alliance's mission is to spread freedom, his national security adviser said on Thursday. - More
Bombs Explode in Turkey Before Bush, NATO Summit
June 24, 2004
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Bombs exploded in Turkey's two main cities on Thursday before a visit by President Bush to Ankara and a NATO summit in Istanbul, killing four people and injuring at least 18 others. - More
Iraq Attacks Kill Over 100, Wound 320
June 24, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents set off car bombs and seized police stations Thursday in a six-city offensive aimed at creating chaos ahead of next week's handover of power to a new Iraqi government. U.S. and Iraqi forces took back control in heavy fighting that killed more than 100 people and wounded about 320. - More
The positive and negative aspects of Israeli High Court's fence ruling
U.S. Formally Hands Iraq Self-Rule Two Days Early
June 28, 2004
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States handed sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government two days earlier than expected on Monday, aiming to forestall guerrilla attacks with a secretive ceremony formally ending 14 months of occupation. - More
July 1, 2004
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will hold consultations with security and legal officials today to discuss the implications of yesterday's High Court ruling, which disallowed much of the planned route of the security fence in the Jerusalem area. Defense officials said the completion of the fence could be delayed by up to six months. Some officials said the court's ruling could help Israel's case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. - More
Father of Captive U.S. Marine in Iraq Urges Mercy
June 28, 2004
TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - The Lebanese father of a U.S. Marine kidnapped in Iraq and threatened with beheading urged his son's captors Monday to have mercy on him as a Muslim and Arab. - More
Militants Say They Executed U.S. Soldier in Iraq
June 28, 2004
CAIRO (Reuters) - Al Jazeera television broadcast a video tape on Monday showing what militants said was the execution of a U.S. soldier captured in Iraq in April. - More
A defiant Saddam Hussein appears in Iraqi court, rejects charges
July 1, 2004
Saddam Hussein scoffed at charges of war crimes and mass killings Thursday, making a defiant first public appearance since being hunted down seven months ago. The deposed dictator fixed the judge with a penetrating stare and declared: "This is all a theater by Bush, the criminal." - More
Suicide Bomber Kills Six at Iraqi Funeral
July 6, 2004
KHALIS, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber exploded a car in the middle of a funeral gathering in an Iraqi town north of Baghdad Tuesday, killing six people and wounding 35. - More
ElBaradei Will Not Pressure Israel on Nuclear Issue
July 6, 2004
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Tuesday he did not intend to pressure Israel but would try to encourage it to begin a dialogue to rid the Middle East of its nuclear weapons. - More
Milosevic Fit Enough for Trial, May Get Defense Help
July 6, 2004
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Judges declared Slobodan Milosevic fit enough on Tuesday for his much-delayed war crimes trial to proceed but warned they might have to impose a defense lawyer on the ailing former Yugoslav president. - More
Missing Marine Arrives at U.S. Beirut Embassy
July 8, 2004
TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Lebanese-born U.S. Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun, reported at one stage to have been beheaded by militants after disappearing in Iraq, was safe at the U.S. embassy in Beirut Thursday, U.S. officials said. - More
Africa's silence on Mugabe hit
July 8, 2004
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has become an "absolute dictator" who will not leave power as long as other African leaders--including South Africa's Thabo Mbeki--fail to denounce him, Zimbabwe's top human-rights campaigner said Wednesday. - More
World Court to Rule Israel's Barrier Illegal -Paper
July 8, 2004
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The World Court will rule on Friday that Israel's West Bank barrier contravenes international law and must be dismantled, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported. - More
World's varied religions gather for conference
July 8, 2004
Learned Muslim clerics, Buddhist monks and Roman Catholic cardinals rarely find themselves in the same place at the same time with gurus, cult followers and mystics. But the Parliament of World's Religions, convening a weeklong conference here Wednesday, is out to change all that. - More
Baghdad Blast Kills 11, Governor Assassinated
July 14, 2004
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suspected suicide car bombing killed 11 people and wounded 30 Wednesday in the first big guerrilla attack in Baghdad since an interim Iraqi government took over from U.S.-led occupiers on June 28. - More
Marine Hassoun Set to Return to U.S. from Germany
July 14, 2004
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Lebanese-born U.S. Marine who resurfaced last week in Beirut after disappearing under mysterious circumstances in Iraq said on Wednesday he was in "good health and spirits" as he left a U.S. hospital in Germany before a scheduled return to the United States. - More
Militant Not Seen As Senior al-Qaida Aide
July 14, 2004
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A disabled militant who was billed as a close confidant to Osama bin Laden surrendered under a Saudi amnesty offer, the most important figure to turn himself in so far. Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harby could provide clues about the fugitive al-Qaida leader, though a U.S. counterterrorism official said he is not considered an operational planner for the terror network. Another U.S. official, who declined to be identified, said al-Harby was not a senior member of al-Qaida and called him "an aging mujahideen." - More
UK Probe Raps Blair's Pre-Iraq War Intelligence
July 14, 2004
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair was cleared Wednesday of tricking Britain into invading Iraq but was criticized in a report for relying on deeply flawed pre-war intelligence. - More
Scientists Find Something Fishy in U.S. Diets
July 14, 2004
LONDON (Reuters) - All is not what it seems in a popular fish supper in the United States. Scientists from the University of North Carolina have found that three-quarters of the fish sold there labeled as Red Snapper is nothing of the sort. - More
Ex-President of Mexico Indicted
Arafat Says He Welcomes Any Qurie Reform Proposals