APS Diplomat Recorder articles from January 2002

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from January 2002

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 1 - Zinni To Return To The Region.(US special envoy Anthony Zinni)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... US Embassy spokesman Paul Patin says US special envoy to the Middle East Anthony Zinni, who left the region in mid-December during a period of widespread violence, will return on Jan. 3 for four days of talks with representatives of Arafat and...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 3 - Israel Eases Closures As Zinni Arrives.(US envoy Anthony Zinni)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... Israel eases its military blockade on parts of the West Bank, with the Army withdrawing from Jenin and parts of Ramallah. Roadblocks are dismantled in Hebron and the Army is also ending its encirclement of Qalqilya and Tulkarem. Israeli...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 4 - Israel Seizes Ship Carrying Arms.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... Speaking at a news conference in Tel Aviv, Army's Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz says the 4,000-ton ship, Karine A, carrying 50 tons of arms intended for the PA, was seized by the Army in the Red Sea, 480 km from Israel, on Jan. 3. He...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 4 - US Demands Explanation.(seizure of ship Karine A)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher demands an explanation from Arafat over the seizure of the ship, Karine A, carrying weapons. He says: "General Zinni has raised this issue in his meeting with Chairman Arafat today. He expressed our...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 4 - EU Envoy Heading To Mideast.(Javier Solana)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... AFP reports from Brussels that EU foreign policy representative Javier Solana will return to the Middle East on Jan. 6 for talks with Sharon and Arafat. He is also to meet Gen. Zinni and visit Egypt and Jordan during his 4-day mission. Solana's...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 1 - US Marines Search For Taliban Holdouts.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... A US Marine column made up of about 20 armoured personnel carriers, Humvees and trucks ferries about 200 US fighters through Kandahar towards neighbouring Helman Province, a refuge for thousands of Taliban holdouts. (Taliban leader Mullah Omar...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 2 - Interim Govt Presses US To End Bombing Amid Reports Of Civilian Deaths.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... Members of the interim government repeat their calls for the US bombing to stop, with Interim PM Hamid Karzai telling The New York Times that he has summoned tribal elders from affected areas to meet him in Kabul for talks on civilian deaths....

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 2 - US Raid Killed Intelligence Chief.(Taliban intelligence chief Qari Ahmedullah)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... Deputy Intelligence Minister Abdullah Tawheedi says: "Qari Ahmedullah [40-year-old Taliban intelligence chief] has been killed by US bombs in Zadran district of Khost Province" on Dec. 27. (Qari Ahmedullah is believed to be the highest-ranking...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 2 - Karzai To Visit Washington.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... A senior US administration official says Hamid Karzai is to visit Washington in February at the invitation of Pres. Bush. He says the formal invitation was made in December.

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 3 - Zahir Shah Against Foreign Interference.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... Former king Zahir Shah tells the French newspaper Le Figaro he advises foreigners not to interfere in his country's affairs to avoid stoking tensions between ethnic groups that make up the interim government. He says Afghanistan has enjoyed...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 3 - Rumsfeld Opposes Freeing Taliban Holdouts.(Donald Rumsfeld, US Defence Secretary)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says at a Pentagon briefing: "We are not authorising pauses or negotiations which would result in freeing of people who ought not to be freed" (referring to negotiations between Afghan anti-Taliban forces...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 3 - Feeding Refugees Descends Into Violence.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... An effort to feed refugees returning to Afghanistan from Pakistan descends into violence in Jalalabad, with local soldiers beating a hungry crowd that swarm on a Red Crescent Society compound. Relief officials say the violence started because...

IRAN - Jan. 2 - Dissidents Appeal To Khatami.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... A report in The IHT says nine members of the Religious-Nationalist Alliance, a group of liberal Islamist dissidents facing subversion charges in the Revolutionary Court, in an open letter to Pres. Khatami have called for their trial to be open...

RUSSIA - Jan. 1 - Moscow Implements Cut In Oil Exports.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... The government and leading oil companies implement a 150,000 b/d reduction in oil exports, with PM Mikhail Kasyanov signing off on a decree on the reduction, in line with an agreement reached with the country's leading oil producers in...

RUSSIA - Jan. 2 - Rebels Wiped Out Of Tsotsin-Yurt.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... Chechen rebels say government soldiers have killed 10 civilians in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt, 20 km south-east of Grozny, including six women and a year-old child, while the Kremlin says a huge security operation has wiped out dozens of...

RUSSIA - Jan. 3 - New Baltic Terminal Opened.(oil terminal at Primorsk)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... Pres. Putin visits the opening ceremony of the new oil terminal at Primorsk, 160 km north-west of St. Petersburg, which was built to provide an outlet for oil pumped by pipeline from fields in the vast Timan Pechora basin in the far north. The...

SAUDI ARABIA - Jan. 1 - Three Homosexuals Executed.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... The Interior Ministry says Ali Hatan Saad, Mohammad Suleiman Mohammad and Mohammad Khalil Abdullah, all Saudi citizens, are beheaded in the south-western mountain resort city of Abha in Asir province because they "committed acts of sodomy,...

SAUDI ARABIA - Jan. 4 - US Paper Says Riyadh Is At Root Of Much Evil.(Wall Street Journal)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... The following are extracts from an article published by the Opinion Journal of the Wall Street Journal: "...Consider, concretely, what the Saudis have done. While the average American newspaper reader knows that the majority of the Sept. 11...

SOMALIA - Jan. 5 - US Steps Up Military Activities.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... A report in The IHT, quoting US administration officials, says the US "is stepping up military activities in and around Somalia to prevent the lawless African country from becoming a new base" for Al Qaida. In recent days, the US and leading...

TURKEY - Jan. 1 - Nine Killed In Bus Crash.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... The Anatolia news agency reports at least nine people died and 20 were injured when a bus slid off the icy road and crashed in the central province of Kayseri, 770 km south-east of Istanbul late on Dec. 31. The bus was travelling from the...

TURKEY - Jan. 2 - Prisoner Dies Of Hunger Strike.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... Ali Camyar, 32, dies in an Izmir hospital in Istanbul after fasting for more than 7 months. (He becomes the 43rd person to die in a yearlong hunger strike by leftists protesting the government's policy of moving prisoners from large wards to...

TURKEY - Jan. 4 - Reforms Aim To Win $16 Bn IMF Loan.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2002... The parliament adopts a law reducing scope for corruption in public procurement in the latest effort to win a $16.3 bn loan from the IMF. The law, which introduces a more efficient and transparent procurement system in Jan. 2003, is one of a...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 6 - Sharon Attacks Arafat Over Arms Shipment.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Standing in front of the Karine-A ship captured by Israel in the Red Sea on Jan. 3 (see last week's Recorder), PM Sharon accuses Arafat of direct involvement in illegal arms smuggling and the procurement of 50 tonnes of weapons. He brands...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 7 - Karine-A Captain Confesses.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... The Karine-A Palestinian captain Omar Akawi, 44, says in a prison interview the arms shipment was intended for the PA and he got his smuggling instructions from PA official Adel Awadallah. He confesses that he was an adviser for naval affairs...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 9 - Four Israeli Soldiers Killed.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... At 4:20 am, two Palestinian members of a volunteer Bedouin Arab infantry battalion kill four Israeli soldiers and wound two before they are themselves slain in a firefight in Kerem Shalom, near Israel's border with Egypt and the Gaza Strip....

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 9 - Washington Calls Kerem Shalom Attack 'Disturbing'.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... White House spokesman Ari Fleischer assails as "particularly disturbing" the attack on Kerem Shalom, calling it a blatant assault on Arafat's authority. US Pres. Bush is especially concerned about the attack, since it occurred as US officials...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 10 - Israel Demolishes Houses In Rafah.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Israeli bulldozers destroy 54 houses in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, leaving about 500 Palestinians homeless, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan. 8 - US To Pursue Bin Laden In Pakistan.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Associated Press quotes Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of US forces carrying out the anti-terror campaign, as saying Pakistan has agreed that US troops could cross Afghan-Pakistani border to work with its forces attempting to follow Al Qaida...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan. 9 - US Extends Crackdown On Terror Funding.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... The US Treasury Department orders a freeze on accounts belonging to the Pakistan and Afghanistan-based offices of the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, a Kuwaiti-based charitable group connected to the Salafi, an Islamist movement with...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 5 - US Took Custody Of Al Qaida Paramilitary Trainer & Former Taliban Ambassador To Pakistan.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... According to US officials, Bin Laden's top paramilitary trainer Bin Shaikh Libi was captured by Pakistani officials as he tried to flee the country and was turned over to the US military late last week. (He is Libyan and the most senior Al...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 7 - US Ends Reports On Manhunt.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... The Pentagon indicates it will shift its attention away from the search for Bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to focus instead on wiping out areas of resistance fighters and improving intelligence across the country. (Analysts...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 7 - Blair In Bagram.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Amid tight security, British PM Tony Blair and his wife Cherie arrive aboard the RAF Hercules C130 transport aircraft to Bagram airbase near Kabul late at night. (This is the first visit by a Western head of government since Sept. 11 and the...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 9 - Ottawa To Join Anti-Terror Campaign.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... A report in The IHT quotes Canadian Defence Minister Art Eggleton as saying Canada will send 750 troops to Afghanistan to join US forces in their hunt for terrorist groups. They are to reach Afghanistan by mid-Feb, and their mission will go...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 9 - Taliban Defectors Freed In Kandahar.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Jalal Khan, a close associate of Kandahar governor Gul Agha, says former Taliban justice minister Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, the former Taliban security chief of Herat province Abdul Haq and several other high-ranking Taliban figures who...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 10 - ISAF To Assist Interim Govt.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon says the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is "not a peacekeeping operation", but its role will be to "assist the Afghan interim administration". He says 18 countries would send troops to form...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 10 - Taliban Detainees Escorted To Guantanamo.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Under heavy security, the US Air Force C-17 military aircraft takes off in the afternoon from the Kandahar airport carrying a group of 20 Al Qaida and Taliban detainees to the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Marine base at the...

ALGERIA - Jan. 5 - Five Killed.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Suspected Islamic rebels raid a police roadblock, killing one policeman and wounding two others, in Medea, 70 km south of Algiers. They also kill a woman and her daughter in a home near the roadblock, and two young men as they flee.

AZERBAIJAN - Jan. 8 - Traitor Sentenced.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Telman Ismailov is sentenced to 11 years in jail on charges of giving Iran material of a military character.

IRAN - Jan. 8 - Judiciary Ignores Constitution.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Fifteen members of the National Religious Alliance, mostly writers and intellectuals charged with plotting to overthrow the Islamic system, go on trial behind closed doors before traditionalist Revolutionary Court. (The dissidents were...

IRAN - Jan. 8 - Khatami Denounces Loghmanian Jailing.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... In private talks with a group of MPs, Pres. Khatami denounces the jailing of reformist MP Hossein Loghmanian as a "serious threat" to the democratic aspirations. On Jan. 9, Khatami's deputy on parliamentary affairs Mohammad Ali Abtahi quoted...

IRAN - Jan. 10 - Bush Warns.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... US Pres. Bush says at the White House: "Iran must be a contributor in the war against terror. Our nation, in our fight against terrorism, will uphold the doctrine of either you're with us or against us". He warns Tehran must not try to...

IRAQ - Jan. 7 - Opposition Group Attacks US Over Funding.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Sharif Ali Bin Al Hussein, a spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the London-based umbrella organisation for exiled opposition groups, says the US State Department's decision to suspend its funding was aimed at discrediting it and...

IRAQ - Jan. 8 - UN Hits Washington Over Relief Contracts.(US blocks humanitarian relief for Iraqi people)(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... The UN criticises the US for blocking billions of dollars of humanitarian contracts bound for Iraq, expressing "grave concern at the unprecedented surge in volume of holds placed on contracts". The UN announces it will next week send the...

RUSSIA - Jan. 7 - Fighting In Chechnya Continues.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Federal forces shell Argun, Chechnya's third-largest town, with tanks and armoured personnel carriers firing on the town and helicopters roaring overhead, and fighting erupts in other parts of the separatist republic, leaving at least three...

RUSSIA - Jan. 10 - Kremlin Hits Washington.(Russian criticism of US refusal to destroy decommissioned nuclear warheads)(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko issues a strongly worded criticism of the US administration's plans to store decommissioned nuclear warheads in readily accessible facilities rather than destroy them, suggesting this would...

RUSSIA - Jan. 11 - TV-6 Shut Down.(Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky's media platform)(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... The Higher Arbitration Court orders the liquidation of TV-6, the only independent national television station. (The ruling reinstates the liquidation order first made in Nov. 2001, but overturned on appeal on Dec. 29. The ruling is based on a...

TURKEY - Jan. 7 - Three Men Sentenced To Death.(killings of secularists and leftists)(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Three men are sentenced to death in Ankara on charges linked to the killings of prominent supporters of a secular state. Verdicts are handed down in the cases of 24 alleged Islamist rebels in a trial that marks the end efforts to solve a series...

TURKEY - Jan. 9 - Erdogan Political Activities Restricted.(Recep Tayyip Erdogan)(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... In a 6-to-5 ruling, the Constitutional Court places tight restrictions on the political activities of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The court says his 1999 conviction for threatening the secular government disqualifies him from serving as a founding...

TURKEY - Jan. 11 - Cyprus Rival Leaders Meet.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2002... Cypriot Pres. Glafcos Clerides and the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash meet for a second time without advisers for 45 minutes in the abandoned compound of Nicosia airport, now a UN base. They discuss a 1997 agreement, which was never...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Jan. 17 - Two Al Qaida Members Go On Trial; Another 8 Arrested.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... Al Qaida members and Algerian nationals, Baghdad Meziane, 37, and Brahim Benmerzouga, 30, appear in a court in Leicester, the UK, on charges of membership, propaganda and financing related to Al Qaida. Prosecutors say Meziane has been a leader...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 14 - Bulldozers Flatten Palestinian Homes.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... Early in the morning, Israeli bulldozers enter Asawiyah, a Palestinian village east of Jerusalem, and flatten five houses. Four other houses are demolished elsewhere in E. Jerusalem. The five houses in Asawiyah were under construction on land...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 15 - Two Israelis Killed.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... Four Palestinian gunmen kidnap Avi Boaz, a 72-year-old American architect living in Israel, hijacking his car in Beit Jala in the West Bank and forcing him to an isolated road in Beit Sahour, where they shoot him to death. A few hours later, a...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 17 - Israel Tightens Its Grip; Arafat Faces Criticism In PA.(Palestinian Authority)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... The Army reinforces its blockade of several PA cities in the West Bank. In an exchange of fire near Nablus, Israeli soldiers kill a 42-year-old Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades member Khamis Abdullah. Arafat condemned the recent killings of Israelis,...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 18 - Israel Retaliates After Suicide Bomber Kills 6.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... Six Israelis are killed and more than 20 wounded early in the morning in an attack on the David's Palace wedding hall in Hadera, where more than 150 people gathered to celebrate Nina Kardashova's bat mitzvah, a Jewish ceremony marking a...

ARABS-UN - Jan. 16 - UN Agrees New Anti-Terrorist Measures.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 19, 2002... The UN Security Council unanimously approves the resolution revising anti-terrorist measures calling for a travel ban and arms embargo on the terror groups and their supporters. The resolution is described by diplomats as an "ambitious move to...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan. 16 - Briton Indicted As Being Al Qaida Terrorist.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... A federal grand jury in Boston charges Richard Reid, the British citizen found aboard an American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22 with explosives in his shoe, with being an Al Qaida-trained terrorist. The grand jury hands up a...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan. 18 - Treatment of Al Qaida & Taliban Captives Questioned.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... A report in The IHT says: "Criticism is increasing in several allied countries over the US treatment of prisoners airlifted from Afghanistan to the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba". The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 14 - $5 Bn Needed Over 2.5 Years.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 19, 2002... According to a report by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the UN Development Programme quoted by Japan's special envoy Sadako Ogata, Kabul's financial needs over the next two-and-a-half years will be at some $5 bn. The report...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 14 - UN Urges Foreign Govts To Increase Financial Donations.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 19, 2002... UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi urges foreign governments to increase their financial donations, saying Kabul needs $100m within a few days to pay six months of back salaries, as well as the next six months of wages, to its 235,000 employees. At the...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 16 - Kabul Airport Re-Opens.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... The Kabul airport re-opens for military and humanitarian aircraft, with the only working commercial airliner, a Boeing 727 belonging to the national carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines, taking off on the test flight and circling over the airport...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 17 - EU Offers [euro]2.5 Bn For Reconstruction.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... The European Commission unveils an ambitious reconstruction plan for the country costing 10 bn ($8.8 bn) in aid over five years, with the EU contributing a quarter. (The proposals, to be presented to the international conference in Tokyo,...

EGYPT - Jan. 14 - Pound Devalued.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... The Central Bank carries out a limited devaluation of the pound, with the central peg shifting from E[pound]4.50 to the dollar to E[pound]4.51 to the dollar. Officials say the move is designed to try to reassure international donors ahead of a...

IRAQ - Jan. 17 - Moscow Is The Top Importer.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... A report in The IHT, quoting UN officials, says: "Six months after Russia blocked a US effort to overhaul UN sanctions against Iraq, Moscow has emerged as Baghdad's largest export customer. Russian companies have signed more than $4 billion in...

ISRAEL - Jan. 13 - Army Criticised.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... Writing in Haaretz, the respected military affairs correspondent Ze'ev Schiff calls the Jan. 10 demolition of a neighbourhood in the Rafah refugee camp (see last week's Recorder) a "shameful chapter" in Israel's history and "an act of...

JORDAN - Jan. 14 - Govt Quits.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... The government resigns and PM Ali Abu Ragheb forms a new cabinet. Marwan Muasher, the ambassador to the US since 1997, becomes the new foreign minister, replacing Abdul Illah Khatib. Qaftan Majali, the Interior Ministry under-secretary, is...

LEBANON - Jan. 17 - UN Rejects Govt's Request.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... UN Sec-Gen. Kofi Annan rejects the government's request to maintain the UN force in the south of the country at its current strength of 3,700, saying it should be scaled down to 2,000 by end-2002. Annan says Beirut could do more to re-assert...

RUSSIA - Jan. 16 - Putin Visits Poland.(Russian leader Vladimir Putin)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... Pres. Putin begins a 2-day official visit to Poland and meets Polish Pres. Aleksander Kwasniewski. (The visit is the first by a Russian president since 1993). The leaders praise a "new quality" in relations, which chilled after Poland shook off...

RUSSIA - Jan. 17 - Federal Forces Suffer Losses In Chechnya; UN Urges Political Solution.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... News agencies say Chechen rebels have killed six soldiers in attacks on convoys in 24 hours. Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers meets officials in Moscow, after a one-day visit to camps on the Chechen border, and says...

RUSSIA - Jan. 18 - Zyuganov Opposes Apology.(political leader Gennadi Zyuganov)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... Communist leader Gennadi Zyuganov says Moscow should not bow to Poland's wishes for an apology over the World War II massacre of Polish officers by Soviet agents at Katyn. He says: "We don't have to apologise. We lost 600,000 lives to liberate...

SAUDI ARABIA - Jan. 15 - US May Consider Withdrawing Troops.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... US Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, says he has "an uneasy feeling" that the Saudis are not doing enough to crack down on Islamic terrorists and that US forces were "not particularly...

SYRIA - Jan. 16 - US Anti-Terror Plans May Put Damascus Thaw At Risk.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... The FT reports: "Syria faced a crucial test following the attacks on the US. The potential crisis was defused through quiet co-operation with Washington on intelligence issues and the reining-in of Syrian-backed militant groups. Diplomats warn,...

TURKEY - Jan. 14 - Ecevit In US.(Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... PM Bulent Ecevit leaves for a 5-day visit to the US to re-affirm Ankara's support for Washington's anti-terror campaign, but also to seek help paying for a peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. On Jan. 16, he met US Pres. Bush. The US agreed to...

TURKEY - Jan. 14 - Human Rights Situation 'Unsatisfactory'.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... German Deputy FM Guenter Pleuger says: "As before, the human rights situation in Turkey is unsatisfactory overall". He says the country has not fulfilled the related criteria for entering the EU. He highlights concern about the torture of...

Jan. 16 - Rival Cyprus Leaders Meet.(Brief Article)
January 19, 2002... The President of Cyprus Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash meet for 90 minutes at an abandoned airstrip straddling the divided capital, Nicosia. They agree to an intensive schedule for peace talks. (It is the first formal...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan. 25 - Arafat Isolated.(Yasser Arafat)(Brief Article)
January 26, 2002... A report in The IHT says: "Yasser Arafat's virtual house arrest imposed by Israel [see Arabs-Israel] has left him increasingly isolated, garnering few expressions of support from Arab allies". The report quotes PA Ambassador to the Arab League...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 20 - Demos In Support Of Arafat.(demonstrations)(Yasser Arafat)(Brief Article)
January 26, 2002... Thousands of Palestinians march in Ramallah in support of Arafat. Several hundred Palestinian journalists and academics, who support Arafat's Fatah movement, march to the Palestinian broadcasting centre, destroyed by Israel on Jan. 19. A Fatah...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 22 - Twenty Wounded In Jerusalem.(Brief Article)
January 26, 2002... Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades member Sayeed Ramadan opens fire with an assault rifle on Israelis waiting for a bus on a busy corner of Jaffa and King George streets in W. Jerusalem, wounding at least 20 people, one seriously, before he is shot dead...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 22 - Israel 'Damaged EU Projects Worth E20M'.("The Israeli army has inflicted at least E20m ($17.7m) of damages on projects financed by the European Union in the Palestinian-controlled areas")(Brief Article)
January 26, 2002... A report in The FT, quoting the statistics collated by EU member states and the European Commission, says: "The Israeli army has inflicted at least E20m ($17.7m) of damages on projects financed by the European Union in the...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 23 - Burg To Address Legislature In Ramallah.(Knesset MP Avraham Burg)(Brief Article)
January 26, 2002... On a joint visit with PA speaker Ahmad Korei to Paris, Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg says he will accept an invitation to address the PA legislative council in Ramallah. Burg, a Labour Party member, says: "I will go any place where it is...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 23 - Hizbollah Hits Israeli Positions.(Brief Article)
January 26, 2002... Hizbollah guerrillas attack Israeli military positions in the Shebaa Farms along the Israel-Lebanon border. No casualties are reported. Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer says Syria, the main powerbroker in Lebanon, and Iran have given...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 25 - Suicide Bombing In Tel Aviv.(Brief Article)
January 26, 2002... A Palestinian suicide bomber wounds more than two dozen people, two of them seriously, when he blows himself up outside the Maestro Bar in the pedestrian mall of an immigrant workers' neighbourhood in Tel Aviv. (This is the first suicide...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan. 22 - US Faces Pressure Over Detainees At Cuba Base.(Brief Article)
January 26, 2002... A report in The FT says: "A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] has informally advised the US it should improve the treatment of Afghanistan prisoners at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, regardless of whether...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan. 24 - Walker Appears In Court.(John Walker Lindh)(Brief Article)
January 26, 2002... John Walker appears in Federal District Court in Virginia on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, providing support to Al Qaida, and engaging in transactions with the Taliban. (He left Afghanistan on Jan. 22 aboard a military cargo plane...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 20 - US Helicopter Crashes.(Brief Article)
January 26, 2002... A CH-53E Super Stallion US military helicopter on a re-supply mission crashes in high mountain terrain 65 km to the south of Bagram Air Base, killing two of the seven Marines on board and injuring the rest. US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld says...