The nursery where they killed him, one year on, is oddly peaceful. Lush mango, palm and pomegranate trees are in bloom, their thick, green leaves whispering in a gentle breeze. The cinder-block storehouse where he was executed is empty, save for some flower pots, a cot and crumpled packs of cigarettes strewn across the floor.…

The United States says Pakistan is serving as a “platform for terrorism” and that this must stop. The US ambassador to Islamabad, Nancy Powell, also urged Pakistan to ensure that militant groups are no longer able to cross into Indian-administered Kashmir. Correspondents say Ms Powell’s comments are unusually strong for a serving US ambassador in…

When Ali Gufron set out from Tenggulun to look for work in Malaysia in the early 1980s, he left behind a village that seems to define backwater: dusty streets, wooden shacks, and residents who spend their days coaxing rice and corn from the parched soil. Now, this tiny town of 2,000 has been thrust into…

One person was killed and 12 were injured in Caracas on Thursday when a suspected bomb exploded near a huge pro-government demonstration attended by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, firefighters and hospital officials said. “This appeared to be an explosive device. … Unfortunately there is one person dead up to now,” Caracas Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno…

Leftist guerrillas are holding an American and a British journalist on assignment for the Los Angeles Times in eastern Colombia, a region the rebels said in a statement today had been “declared a war zone by the North American government and the Colombian state.” The two freelance journalists with years of experience working in Colombia’s…

For some white South Africans, mingling with blacks in urban malls is a welcome change from the racial isolation of the past. Some are simply resigned to this post-apartheid reality, and they merely tolerate the presence of black people in these places. But for others, the appearance of black faces in spaces that were previously…

An agreement has been signed in Paris that could mean an end to the bitter civil war that has gripped Ivory Coast. Sources close to the negotiations say the rival factions have agreed to end their four-month-old war, although no details of the plan have been released. There were three rebel groups lined up against…

Ivorian President Laurent Gbago has still not publicly reacted to a peace plan to resolve the four-month civil war in Ivory Coast. The draft agreement hammered out by the main political parties and the rebels would involve Mr Gbagbo handing over some of his power and agreeing to constitutional changes. He left key hour-long talks…

Liberian Government troops have been accused of fighting alongside rebels in the Ivory Coast by the army. For a third day running government-held positions have come under attack in the western town of Toulepleu close to the border with Liberia. But Liberia has denied the Ivorian army’s allegations. The latest round of hostilities has serious…

Forthcoming Pentagon instructions will shed light on how Defense Department organizations are expected to ensure information is stored on DOD systems adequately. The Pentagon initially issued a directive last October that gave a basic framework for providing information assurance (IA). DOD Directive 8500.1, which became effective Oct. 24, 2002, calls for information assurance requirements to…

The European Commission’s controversial new biometrics-based system for combating illegal immigration and processing asylum requests, Eurodac, was launched on 14 January amid security and data protection concerns. Eurodac is based on a central database in Brussels containing fingerprints of asylum seekers, a central processing unit to enable immigration authorities in 16 countries including the UK…

Hacker Downloads Information On 1,450 International Students. University of Kansas officials discovered Wednesday that a computer hacker downloaded personal information gathered on 1,450 of its international students. The information was collected as part of new homeland security measures. The university alerted Immigration and Naturalization Service and FBI officials and said it was told the INS…

A state judge Wednesday barred a Niagra Falls company from sending commercial e-mails to Internet subscribers without their permission. State Supreme Court Justice Lottie E. Wilkins permanently enjoined MonsterHut Inc., which state officials accused of sending some 500 million unsolicited commercial e-mails and then telling complaining recipients that they had requested it. State Attorney General…

In what legal experts describe as a first, a federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that America Online and other Internet service providers are not liable for “hostile code” sent between subscribers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said last week that AOL could not be held accountable for a subscriber’s…

Sprint DSL customers are at risk of having their e-mail addresses and passwords stolen — even when their computers are powered off — due to weak security controls on their DSL modems. Experts warned this week that the security problem could enable Internet vandals to wreak havoc from afar with the ZyXel Communications DSL modems…

McAfee Security today released research designed to persuade mobile operators to invest more in security – or risk huge loses through malicious attacks by 2005. Mercer Management Consulting, commissioned by McAfee to look into the issue, reckons that from 2005, European operators stand to lose $10.5bn annually, unless they install protection. (Actually, Mercer comes up…

FBI agents spent a second day searching an unoccupied Palm Beach County home today as part of an investigation that law enforcement sources said is related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Investigators decided to search the home because some of the Saudi nationals who lived there entered the United States at the same…

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced yesterday that the headquarters for the new Cabinet department will be at a military-controlled base in Northwest Washington for the foreseeable future. The move, timed to meet a deadline tomorrow, when the 177,000-employee department legally comes into being, caps a contentious and frenetic search in which homeland security officials…

Two men have appeared in court to face charges of being members of the al-Qaeda network, more than a year after they were remanded in custody. Baghdad Meziane, 37, and Brahim Benmerzouga, 30, made their appearance in Leicester Crown Court on Wednesday, but the case was immediately adjourned for legal arguments. Mr Meziane and Mr…

U.S. special forces soldiers shot and killed an Afghan man who opened fire on their base, the U.S. military said Thursday. The incident happened at a U.S. firebase at Deh Rawud in central Afghanistan Wednesday morning, said a statement from the U.S. military headquarters at Bagram Air Base to the north of Kabul. It said…

A 25-year-old Kuwaiti man who supported al Qaeda confessed Thursday to an ambush that killed an American working for the U.S. military in Kuwait and wounded another, the official news agency KUNA said. It quoted the interior ministry as saying Sami Mohammed al-Mutairi confessed to Tuesday’s attack. Police had found the gun used in the…

The United States on Friday launches a new federal department charged with protecting the nation, 16 months after suicide hijackers attacked America and sparked a war on terrorism and the biggest government revamp in 50 years. Although it has yet to have a permanent home, the newly created Department of Homeland Security officially comes into…

It is a prime nightmare of the digital age: all of your personal information — credit card numbers, home address, Social Security number — stolen and passed around, or perhaps even posted on the Internet for anyone to see. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of customers of Mobile Telesystems, a Russian mobile phone company, have…

Commissioners from financially strained counties criticized Congress today for delays in approving $3.5 billion that Washington had promised to help local governments brace for potential terrorist attacks. “It’s like sending soldiers into battle without weapons or training,” said Kenneth A. Mayfield, a commissioner in Dallas County, Tex., and the president of the National Association of…

Admitted terrorist Richard Reid’s demand for classified documents and journalists’ requests to see his prison mail have caused a flurry of court action this week. Reid, 29, is to be sentenced next week for trying to blow up an airliner by igniting explosives in his sneakers. The ”shoe bomber,” as he is known, pleaded guilty…

They are the first line of defense against terrorists. But more often than not, private security guards who protect millions of lives and billions of dollars in real estate offer a false sense of security. Most of the nation’s 1 million-plus guards are unlicensed, untrained and not subject to background checks. Their burgeoning, $12 billion-a-year…

Officials are investigating whether Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden are behind yesterday’s brazen terror killing of an American computer expert working for the U.S. military in Kuwait. The brutal assassination and wounding of another worker in the same attack outside Camp Doha, the main U.S. Army base in Kuwait, was the third shooting of…

Israeli security forces have arrested the wife of Ahmed Sa’adat, leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the militant group and human rights activists said Thursday. They said Abla Sa’adat was detained Tuesday at the Allenby Bridge border crossing with Jordan, from where she was traveling to Brazil for a…

Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said on Thursday his Islamic militant group would not accept a cease-fire to end nearly 28 months of conflict until Israel stops “killings and assaults” of Palestinian civilians. “Asking someone to cease fire while he is being attacked and assaulted is like asking for the impossible,” Yassin, 63, told Reuters…

Two men have admitted plotting to cause explosions in London and Birmingham as part of a Real IRA bombing campaign, while three others deny similar charges. James McCormack, 34, and John Hannan, 19, took part in a conspiracy to plant three car bombs in the UK in 2001, a jury at the Old Bailey was…

French police have re-captured a suspected Basque separatist guerilla, six months after he escaped from jail by swapping places with his brother. Ismael Berasategui Escudero was arrested during a dawn raid on a house near the Spanish border. Mr Berasategui is regarded by the Spanish authorities as one of the leading members of the paramilitary…

Ten more Tibetans are reported to have been arrested in connection with a bombing campaign in south-west China, which saw two other Tibetans sentenced to death last month. The case caused an international outcry when it was reported in December. It was not clear when the group of 10 were arrested. The two who were…

Sri Lanka’s next round of peace talks will be moved from Thailand to Europe amid concern for the poor health of the Tamil Tigers’ chief negotiator. London-based Anton Balasingham, 64, has diabetes and underwent a kidney transplant in 2000. The talks could also be shortened from four days to two. A senior Sri Lankan Government…

More than 300 child soldiers were recruited in Sri Lanka last year by Tamil Tiger rebels, international ceasefire monitors say. But a spokesman for the Scandinavian monitoring team said recent months had shown a clear downward trend in child recruitment and other ceasefire violations by both sides. The rebels are currently involved in peace talks…

Despite assurances to the contrary, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is said to have inducted 333 child soldiers during the eleven month old ceasefire, with international truce monitors alleging the real figure could be four times higher. “This is about 25 per cent of the real number,” claimed Hagrup Halkland, deputy chief of…

A rocket attack on a gas pipeline in south-western Pakistan has caused massive disruption in supplies nationwide. Over half of all gas supplies to two of the country’s four provinces were halted. The attack, blamed on local tribes, set two pipelines ablaze on Tuesday night in Balochistan province. Millions of Pakistanis were unable to heat…

Police in northern Pakistan say unidentified attackers have shot dead a writer whose work was viewed as critical of fundamentalist Islam. The 40-year-old writer, Fazal Wahab, was shot at a local shop. Fatwas, or religious edicts, declaring his work un-Islamic had been issued by senior clerical figures after the publication of two books challenging the…

Two of the most sensitive issues in Malaysia – racial policies and press freedom – have combined to turn Monday’s police raid on an independent Internet newspaper into a full-blown political controversy. In the past few days, activists, citizens, all the opposition parties and regional and international press groups have spoken out against the raid…

FBI agents Thursday joined an Indonesian investigation into the killing last August of two American schoolteachers in the restive province of Papua. The move follows Jakarta’s failure to charge anyone over the attack. A U.S. official said last week a proper resolution of the case would help ties between the United States and Indonesia, the…

Police said Tuesday that they were recommending that radical Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir be charged with attempting to overthrow the Indonesian government and instigating a series of church bombings. If prosecutors follow the police recommendation, Bashir could face life in prison for the bombing charges, which stem from attacks on churches and priests allegedly…

An American preacher stabbed last week by right-wing Hindus in Kerala in southern India has fled the state. Bishop Joseph Cooper reportedly flew to Bombay, also known as Mumbai, as a court in Kerala was considering a petition barring him from leaving India. Right-wing Hindus want Mr Cooper, 68, charged with denigrating Hindus in his…

One of China’s richest businessmen has been shot dead. Li Haicang was gunned down in his office by an assailant, who then killed himself with his weapon, police said. Mr Li, who was 47, was the chairman of the privately-run Haixin Iron and Steel company. Police said they had not yet established a motive for…

Residents of southern Afghanistan said Thursday an Afghan military vehicle had been destroyed in a rocket attack near the border with Pakistan. They were speaking after people in the Pakistan border town of Chaman reported hearing and feeling loud explosions on Wednesday evening. Local Afghan officials confirmed the blasts but declined to say what had…

A ruling party office in western Harare was firebombed, killing one person, and injuring seven others, two of them seriously, police said Tuesday. The 50 people who attacked the ruling party’s Kuwadzana office with gasoline bombs Monday were believed to be opposition supporters waging a violent campaign ahead of a by-election there, police spokesman Wayne…

Mediators have urged both sides to compromise as peace talks between the government and rebels began in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The talks seeking to end the 20-year civil war are due to tackle the the division of oil wealth and political power between the south and the Muslim north. The two sides have agreed…

A French soldier has been seriously injured in skirmishes with rebels in the west of Ivory Coast. Another French soldier was slightly injured in the rocket attack, the first clash since peace talks between the various sides in Ivory Coast opened in Paris a week ago. The BBC’s Paul Welsh in Paris says the talks…

From a hilltop in Congo’s dense northeastern forests, Amzati Njogi watched rebels eat his mother, brother, sister and her two small children. When the rebels came, Njogi, a pygmy from the virtually impenetrable forests of the Ituri region, was out hunting for food with a bow and arrows. “I am going to tell you exactly…

The Defense Department has been in contact with the FBI, the Justice Department and components of the Homeland Security Department about a controversial research project that critics say could violate individual privacy and civil rights. In response to questions from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Defense Inspector General Joe Schmitz reported that the Defense Advanced Research…

A US court has ordered an internet service provider to reveal the identity of a user accused of illegally downloading hundreds of copyrighted songs. The ruling is a landmark for the music industry. The ISP involved, Verizon, has said it will appeal. But if that is unsuccessful, the ruling will clear the way for copyright…

Complaints about identity theft nearly doubled in 2002 as the fast-growing crime topped the government’s list of consumer frauds for a third consecutive year. The Federal Trade Commission reports that 43% of roughly 380,000 complaints involved the hijacking of someone’s identity information, such as credit card or Social Security number, to steal money or commit…

A Scandinavian data security organisation has admitted unwittingly sending the FunLove virus to subscribers. Norway’s Data Inspectorate says the virus was sent under the guise of an advisory on computer security. According to the government agency, the virus infected its external email server and immediately started sending itself to all 1700 people on its mailing…

When students returned to the University of Colorado at Boulder campus this month, some discovered that their e-mail software no longer worked properly. But that should not have come as a surprise because university officials had been reminding them for months that Boulder would make a major change in its e-mail systems to tighten security.…

The author of the travel book “The World’s Most Dangerous Places” was kidnapped with two other Americans near the Colombia-Panama border, police said Tuesday. Author Robert Young Pelton, 47, of Redondo Beach, Megan A. Smaker, 22, of Oakland and Mark Wedeven, whose hometown wasn’t released, were traveling Saturday through a lawless area used by Colombian…

Hoping to ensure that the “shoe bomber” ends his days in prison, federal prosecutors released new details Tuesday that show Richard Reid tried six times to light a bomb in his sneakers aboard a trans-Atlantic flight a year ago, and was so determined that he melted the end of the bomb fuse. Prosecutors also provided…

An independent commission charged with investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is about to meet for the first time, and already there is an effort in Congress to increase its funding. Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and some of the victims’ relatives say they doubt the commission can do a thorough job with only the $3…

The Canadian government, sensitive to charges that Canadian ports are so riddled with crime that nuclear weapons could slip in, announced new measures Wednesday to strengthen maritime security. The $112.7 million five-year package, would test equipment to screen containers for radiation and increase tracking of ships, as well as introducing other steps aimed at preventing…

Two Republican state lawmakers from Northern Virginia received thousands of dollars in the summer and fall from the leaders of several Muslim groups whose Herndon headquarters were raided in March by federal agents investigating possible terrorist financing. The network of individuals, foundations and businesses gave $8,000 to the reelection campaign of Del. Richard H. Black…

Former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart wants the United States to take a broader approach in the campaign against terrorism by addressing the problems at the root of terror such as widespread poverty and resentment of this country. Hart said Tuesday that the campaign against terrorism should include “economic and political tools focusing on trade with…

The Alabama chief justice famous for his Ten Commandments fight warned an audience Tuesday night of “great consequences” when America turns away from God and suggested the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks might be an example. Roy Moore, in Washington to accept an honorary doctorate in divinity from the National Clergy Council and Methodist Episcopal Church…

Kuwait’s leader sent President Bush condolences Wednesday for the “terrorist act” that killed one U.S. civilian and wounded another, and officials hinted a break in the search for their attacker could come soon. A Kuwaiti Interior Ministry official said an arrest announcement could come soon. “We have important leads,” said the official, who spoke on…