Jordanian officials were divided Tuesday over U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s decision to order an independent investigation into the killing of a U.S. diplomat in Amman last October. Some officials who spoke to United Press International on condition of anonymity criticized the U.S. American. They said it was “unnecessary and showed mistrust in our…

Hundreds of Qaeda fighters and Taliban supporters — now living with families in the rugged tribal area of South Waziristan in Pakistan — are planning to intensify their attacks on Afghan territory if war breaks out in Iraq, interviews with three visitors from Pakistani tribal area indicate. The statements by the men, who traveled across…

Two teenagers were killed and 11 other people were injured just before midnight on Monday when an explosion tore through a house near Gaza City that belonged to a member of the militant Islamic group Hamas, hospital officials and a Hamas political leader said. The Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, said the explosion had been…

It seemed that the Cairo dialogue between the Palestinian groups which is sponsored by the chairman of the Egyptian general intelligence Lt. Gen. Omar Suleiman has reached a conclusion to postpone the full agreement and to confine to what can be agreed upon through announcing a “joint political statement” relating to the formation of “a…

For 21/2 tense days last week, a paramilitary police force here appeared on the verge of very bloody mutiny. About 500 men dressed in khaki uniforms and bulletproof vests, and brandishing machine guns and rocket launchers, blocked a key road just north of this capital city. Their gripe: government plans to abolish their unit. Fortunately…

NATO peacekeepers have rejected a request from Bosnian authorities to hand over a man detained on suspicion of spying on their troops and links to the al Qaeda network, a spokesman said Tuesday. Bosnia’s tripartite presidency asked the NATO-led force SFOR earlier this month to hand over Sabahudin Fiuljanin to the Muslim-Croat federation, one of…

All that separates northern Malaysia and southern Thailand here is a meandering ribbon of dun-colored water. Men with wiry bodies ply the river in wooden boats dozens of times a day, smuggling bags of Thai rice or Malaysian flour, and ferrying women in head scarves and men in Muslim caps on the five-minute trip across…

A virulent computer worm that hobbled the global Internet took its toll Monday on stock trading in South Korea, the world’s most wired country. South Korea was hit hardest by the “SQL Slammer” worm, which forced firms worldwide to clean up computer systems after the virus spread through network connections, shutting Web servers at the…

Pakistani Christians, many of whom were killed in reprisal attacks after the United States offensive against neighbouring Afghanistan, live in fear of vengeance attacks by Islamists in the event of an attack on Iraq. Warned Christian leader and war veteran in the south Asian nation, Cecil Chaudhary, ” I see terrible things happening if Iraq…

The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal last week put aside its woes to celebrate its first royal wedding since most of the ruling family were wiped out in an “in-house” massacre 18 months ago. In alavish Hindu ceremony, Princess Prerna, 24, daughter of King Gyanendra – who assumed the throne after his brother, King Birendra, and…

SUSPECTED Maoist rebels shot dead the head of Nepal’s anti-guerrilla paramilitary police force yesterday along with his wife and bodyguard as they took an early-morning stroll on the outskirts of Kathmandu. Passers-by stood by horrified as three masked gunmen emerged from thick fog and shot dead Inspector-General Krishna Mohan Shrestha and the other victims at…

The authorities in Nepal are questioning the suspected leader of a Maoist hit squad after the chief of armed police was shot dead. Officials say the man is believed to be a local rebel commander. He was captured in Kathmandu, not far from where police chief Krishna Mohan Shrestha, his wife and a bodyguard were…

Last Friday, 108 prisoners cleared for release from various jails in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir remained incarcerated after the cancellation of the first meeting of a Joint Screening Committee constituted to review such cases. While bad weather was touted as the official reason, preventing a senior official of the Federal ministry of home affairs…

Indonesia’s police chief has formally blamed the regional Muslim militant group Jemaah Islamiah for the bombings in Bali last October. General Da’i Bachtiar told Indonesia’s parliament that Jemaah Islamiah (JI) leaders decided to attack the holiday island as part of a plan to hit US interests in Indonesia and Singapore. The decision to target US…

Indonesia’s police chief on Tuesday for the first time directly tied Jemaah Islamiah, the Southeast Asian militant Muslim network, to last October’s bomb attacks on Bali island that killed at least 193 people. General Da’i Bachtiar told parliament that Jemaah Islamiah chiefs had decided at a meeting in Bangkok in February 2002 to attack U.S.…

Police in Bombay have been searching for more bombs after an explosion in a marketplace on Monday injured about 30 people, eight critically. The search came as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited the city on Tuesday. The homemade explosive went off in a crowded marketplace in the Ville Parle suburb at about 2030 (1500…

A 28-year-old ethnic Tibetan accused of plotting bomb attacks was executed on Sunday, soon after an appeals court in Sichuan Province upheld his December conviction, officials said today. The executed man, Lobsang Dondrub, was arrested near the scene of a bombing in Sichuan’s capital city of Chengdu last spring that had wounded 12 people, officials…

American and coalition forces have been battling Afghan rebels in the south of the country, close to the border with Pakistan. American war planes have bombed rebel fighters in the mountainous region near the town of Spin Boldak, in what US military officials say is the largest-scale fighting for nine months. Some 200 US special…

In the heaviest fighting in nine months, United States and coalition forces are fighting a pitched battle against a large group of rebel fighters in a mountainous region of southeastern Afghanistan. Col. Roger King, a spokesman for the United States military, said today that at least 18 enemy fighters had been killed, while no coalition…

The Red Cross is unable to make contact with rebels who have been holding two journalists since last Tuesday. Last week’s kidnapping of two Western journalists in one of this country’s most dangerous provinces was apparently not an accident of timing. The abduction came just one week after US Green Berets arrived in the northeastern…

Sudanese rebels said Monday the government had captured the southern town of Ler in renewed fighting, which contravenes a cease-fire agreed to by parties holding peace talks in Kenya. “The government has launched a major offensive and this morning took the town of Ler,” George Garang, a spokesman for the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army…

The trial of suspected Al-Qaeda operatives was put off until January 28th by the Casablanca court of appeal. The decision was made following a request fielded by Mahfoudbillah Ahmed, member of the Casablanca bar, on the grounds that some defense attorneys were not available. Mahfoudbillah’s intervention was requested following the stepping down of two defense…

At least six people have been killed in ethnic clashes in Ivory Coast, as thousands of supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo protest for a fourth day against a French-brokered peace deal. The fighting broke out in Agboville, 80km from Abidjan, between armed members of the local Abbey ethnic group and Dioulas, a Muslim group from…

Thousands of angry youths brandishing sticks ran riot in Ivory Coast’s main city Abidjan for a fourth day and sought US backing against a French peace deal, as at least 10 people died in ethnic clashes sparked by the pact. France meanwhile announced tighter security measures for citizens living in its former west African colony,…

Continuing fighting between rebel groups, foreign armies, and local militia groups in the Kivu provinces of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is threatening hopes that a peace agreement, signed last month among internal warring parties, can be effectively implemented, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG). ICG, a research and advocacy group on…

The latest virus-like attack on the Internet exposes more than a software flaw: The very strategy that managers of computer networks typically adopt for security has proven inadequate. As network technicians worked Sunday to complete repairs to damage caused by Saturday’s fast-spreading worm, government and private security experts worried that too many security managers are…

He’s been a virus writer for seven years. He goes by the handle Melhacker and may have been responsible for the recent outbreak of the Bugbear worm, the second most prevalent worm on the Internet last year. Now he claims to be working on a new virus, Scezda, that represents a new type of threat.…

More than 48 hours since it first appeared, the spread of a new worm that targets servers running the Microsoft SQL Server database software had slowed and there had been no repeats of the major disruption caused to the Internet on Saturday. “(Saturday) in our operations centers we were seeing between 200,000 and 300,000 attacks…

Unpatched systems contribute to havoc on servers as worm spreads. A flaw involving Microsoft SQL Server hit banking and airline computer networks and significantly slowed down internet traffic over the weekend. The SQL Slammer worm exploits a flaw for which a patch has been available since July of last year. It contains no damaging payload,…

Richard A. Clarke, a blunt-spoken White House adviser who raised warnings about Islamic terrorism and biological weapons years before they became nightmare headlines, will resign from government soon, people familiar with his plans said. Clarke, the president’s counterterrorism coordinator at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, was disinclined to accept a senior position in…

After battling eviction for more than two years, a massive online community has finally been driven from its virtual home. DALnet, one of the largest Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, networks and long the victim of torment by hackers, has finally succumbed to a series of denial-of-service attacks that began in August. “We have had…

Cybercrime, long a painful side effect of the innovations of Internet technology, is reaching new dimensions, security experts say. Spurred by a tightening economy, the increasing riches flowing through cyberspace and the relative ease of such crimes, technically skilled thieves and rank-and-file employees are stealing millions if not billions of dollars a year from businesses…

As corporate IT departments go about the business of cleaning up their networks, there are strong indications that the SQL Slammer worm that brought down portions of the Internet over the weekend is based on the work of an obscure Chinese cracking group. Signatures within the worm’s source code indicate that a group known as…

Some security experts are pointing to the Far East as the birthplace of the worm that wreaked havoc over the weekend on Internet servers worldwide. The Slammer worm–also known as Sapphire and SQLExp–exploits vulnerabilities in Microsoft SQL 2000 Web servers and causes increased traffic between servers. The worm started spreading about 9:30 p.m. PST on…

British police said Sunday they were pressing terrorism charges against a 29-year-old North African, one of seven men arrested last Monday in a massive raid on a north London mosque. Samir Asli was seized in Britain’s biggest “anti-terror” operation since September 11 — a night raid on the controversial Finsbury Park Mosque, which security services…

Federal authorities have begun enlisting campus police officers in the domestic war on terror, renewing fears among some faculty and student groups of overzealous FBI spying at colleges and universities that led to scandals in decades past. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the FBI has strengthened or established working relationships with hundreds of…

As the Malaysian Prime Minister sees it, the Third World War has already begun between “the axis of evil and Satan.” In a provocative speech to delegates at the start of the annual World Economic Forum, Mahathir Mohamad painted a picture of the West, particularly the United States, facing an enemy it doesn’t understand and…

This area along the Monongahela River seven miles east of Pittsburgh used to be known as “Victory Valley” for turning out the steel used in American battleships — but it’s hard to believe it would be a target of a terrorist attack now. The mills are gone and many of the people have left. The…

The first meeting of an independent commission on terrorist attacks will not be open to the public. Aides to the commission’s chairman, Republican Thomas H. Kean, and vice chairman, Democrat Lee Hamilton, said the panel will convene privately in Washington on Monday. Its first public meeting will follow within a few weeks, said Hamilton’s aide,…

Israeli security forces on Monday barred Palestinians from entering Israel in advance of national elections, while final opinion polls showed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s hawkish party leading its rivals heading into Tuesday’s ballot. Concerned about possible Palestinian attacks during the elections, security forces stepped up already tight travel restrictions on Palestinians, who will not be…

Computer experts tried Monday to determine if a virus-like attack on the Internet over the weekend originated in Hong Kong as the president of South Korea, the hardest hit nation, ordered officials to safeguard that nation’s computer networks. A U.S. Internet executive said by telephone that disruptions appeared first in Hong Kong before spreading to…

The latest virus-like attack on the Internet exposes more than a software flaw: The very strategy that managers of computer networks typically adopt for security has proven inadequate. As network technicians worked Sunday to complete repairs to damage caused by Saturday’s fast-spreading worm, government and private security experts worried that too many security managers are…

In one of his first battles at the helm of the new Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Tom Ridge will face off with an old ally: Sen. Arlen Specter, a fellow Pennsylvania Republican. But as Specter sees it, the power battle is necessary to help Ridge win a possible Washington turf war. Even before Ridge…

The FBI is questioning as many as 50,000 Iraqis living in the United States in a search for potential terrorist cells, spies or people who might provide information helpful to a U.S. war effort. Agents have fanned out across the country to interview Iraqis in their homes and where they work, study and worship. A…

A resilient 2-day-old computer worm continued to hobble the Internet Monday, infesting computer networks in Europe, Asia and America and stoking fears it will slow data transmissions for a few more days. Despite efforts over the weekend by companies around the world to patch their networks and stop the “SQL Slammer” worm in its tracks,…

Afghan intelligence officers said Sunday they had foiled a plan to launch rocket attacks on the U.S. Embassy, international peacekeepers and Kabul airport at the weekend. Engineer Amin, head of intelligence for Kabul, told Reuters his men had found 30 BM-21 rockets in the Tara Khail area near Bagrami on the eastern outskirts of Kabul…

South Korean systems engineers raced on Sunday to repair Internet networks ahead of the start of the working week, after the country’s system crashed under a global weekend attack by a fast-spreading computer worm. In what experts called the most damaging attack on the Internet in 18 months, the worm known as “SQL” (“sequel”) Slammer…

Companies cleaned up their computer systems on Sunday after a fast-spreading worm shut down Web servers in an attack that slowed the Internet for users around the world. South Korea, the world’s most wired country, was believed to be hit the hardest in the attack, which began early Saturday, spreading through network connections rather than…

A Spanish judge on Sunday remanded in custody 16 suspected extremists allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, judicial sources said. The 16, mostly Algerians, were arrested on Friday in raids in the northeastern Catalonia region, and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said later they were preparing attacks with explosives and chemicals. After…

The FBI, investigating the 2001 deadly anthrax attacks, said on Friday it is conducting more searches for evidence on public land in Frederick, Maryland. Following up on last month’s searches, the FBI said the new searches were related to its investigation into the origin of the anthrax-laced letters mailed in September and October 2001, which…

To secure early warning of a bioterror attack, the government is building a computerized network that will collect and analyze health data of people in eight major cities, administration officials say. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is to lead the multimillion-dollar surveillance effort, which officials expect to become the cornerstone of a national…

In the days following the Sept. 11 attacks, Secretary of State Colin Powell could find “no clear link” between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. One soon appeared. On Sept. 24, 2001, I reported: “The clear link between the terrorist in hiding [Osama] and the terrorist in power [Saddam] can be found in Kurdistan, that…

“Now what do we do?” he asked. “Everyone agrees with us.” It was a politician’s overstatement, but the Indian Point opposition effort, driven by veteran antinuclear activists and a new anxiety over terrorism, has reached critical mass in a way few believed was likely even a month ago. In the two weeks since a state-sponsored…

Attorney General John Ashcroft came here today to explain to the world’s rich, powerful and just plain pushy the Bush administration’s tactics in its campaign against terror. In the process, he faced a barrage of questions, not all of them from the usual suspects. Paul Sagan, an American technology executive from Cambridge, Mass., for instance,…

The OASIS technology standards group said Thursday it has formed a committee to develop a global technical framework for the searching and sharing of suspected criminal and terrorist evidence by law enforcement agencies. The non-profit consortium formed the technical committee to enable law enforcement in different countries to meet legislative mandates, such as the U.S.…

A group of hackers described as “prolific” virus writers by one analyst has published its first e-zine, raising concerns that the portal will fuel a new wave of malicious code and virus variants. According to security intelligence firm iDEFENSE, hackers who call themselves GEDZAC, or Zoneavirus, recently published the ‘zine, titled Mitosis, which contains source…

On the 17th floor of an office building, the flow of words stops suddenly. Kevin Mitnick gets up from the conference room table and gazes out the window. His dark eyes are pensive. It’s a great view. To the north, the Getty Museum rises from a hilltop. On a street close to the office building…

The case of a Chinese businessman charged with illegally shipping missile guidance technology to China’s military has intensified concerns about foreign espionage in Silicon Valley. Qing Chang Jiang, who will be arraigned on Thursday, is at least the fourth Chinese native indicted since October on charges involving the shipment of equipment or trade secrets to…

Nominet UK was forced to suspend its WHOIS service last night after a rogue attempt to copy the entire registry of .uk domains. Spammers are thought to be behind attempts to copy the WHOIS database, attempts which started last week. Last night, though, the attack was so severe that Nominet – the national Registry for…

NTL has sacked one of its employees for “gross misconduct” after he hacked into the independent customer forum ntlhell.co.uk. The hack – which included sending the members of ntlhell.co.uk a derogatory email – took place on New Year’s Eve. The incident was traced back to someone working at NTL using one of the company’s computers.…