APS Diplomat Recorder articles from May 2003

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from May 2003

ARABS-ISRAEL - April 29 - Suicide Bomber Kills 3 In Tel Aviv.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... A Palestinian suicide bomber kills at least 3 people and injures more than 46 at a cafe in Tel Aviv late at night. Police commander Yossi Sedbon told Israel Army Radio that the explosion was apparently set off when a security guard at the cafe...

ARABS-ISRAEL - April 30 - Sharon & Abbas Receive 'Road Map'.
May 3, 2003... US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer presents PM Ariel Sharon with the long-awaited "road map" for peace, and international mediators also present the plan, drawn up by a quartet of the US, the EU, the UN and Russia, to Palestinian PM Mahmoud...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 1 - Israeli Raid Leaves 13 Palestinians Dead.
May 3, 2003... Israeli tanks and troops charge into a densely packed Gaza City neighbourhood before dawn and kill 13 Palestinians, from wanted militants to a 2-year-old boy. The Israeli ground forces, backed by helicopters, surrounded the 4-story cinder-block...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 2 - Hamas Defiant At Funeral March.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... In a show of defiance to Israel and the new Palestinian government, hundreds of masked and armed Hamas fighters march through the streets of Gaza City in a funeral procession for 12 people killed in the May 1 Israeli raid. The funeral draws...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - April 28 - Bush Vows To Respect The Rights Of Iraqis.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... Delivering a half-hour speech at a performing-arts centre in Dearborn, Michigan, US Pres. Bush tells a gathering of Arab-Americans that Washington has "no intention of imposing our form of government or our culture" on Iraq and will ensure that...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - April 29 - Al Qaida Mastermind Held In Pakistan.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... In Karachi, Pakistani police captures Waleed Mohammad Bin Attash, also known as Tawfiq Bin Attash or Tawfiq Attash Khallad - Al Qaida operative who masterminded the Oct. 12, 2000 attack on the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden, which killed...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - April 2 - Bush Declares End To Military Phase In Iraq.
May 3, 2003... Speaking from the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln before thousands of uniformed sailors and aviators as the ship approaches San Diego Harbour, Pres. Bush says: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended... In the battle of Iraq,...

AFGHANISTAN - April 27 - Rumsfeld To Shift Focus From 'Combat' To 'Stability'.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he hopes to make a formal declaration to the effect that the US-led coalition is shifting its focus from "major combat" to "stability". He says he will discuss the shift with Pres. Hamid Karzai with a...

IRAN - April 28 - Blair Warns Tehran Over Iraq & M.E. Plan.
May 3, 2003... British PM Tony Blair adds his voice to US pressure on traditionalist theologians not to undermine the process of building a new government in Iraq or the "road map" to peace between Israel and the PA. (His warning comes as Tehran announces...

IRAQ - April 27 - Chalabi Says Saddam Alive.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... The head of the Iraqi National Congress Ahmad Chalabi says Saddam Hussein and his sons are alive and being tracked, and will probably be found soon. But he also says that weeks ago Saddam ordered explosives-rigged vests like those used by...

IRAQ - April 28 - Govt. To Be Formed Within 4 Weeks.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... The US-led administration holds a meeting of about 200 delegates in the Baghdad conference centre who agree to meet within 3 to 4 weeks to form an interim government. (Shia groups sent only low-level delegates. Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the...

IRAQ - April 28 - US Troops Kill 16 In Anti-War Demo.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... US soldiers open fire on local citizens in Fallujah, 48 km west of Baghdad, at an anti-war demonstration, killing 16 people and wounding about 75, according to local hospital officials. But a US officer said the troops had opened fire after...

IRAQ - April 29 - Russia Reconsiders Debt.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... At a joint news conference with visiting Moscow British PM Tony Blair, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin says the Kremlin is willing to consider restructuring the debts contracted by Saddam Hussein's regime. (Putin comments come in response to...

IRAQ - April 30 - Rumsfeld Arrives In Basra.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrives in Basra. (His visit is part of a week-long tour to thank leaders in the GCC states for their support in the war. He is due to travel to Baghdad later in the day). Upon his arrival, Rumsfeld told...

IRAQ - May 1 - Grenade Attack Wounds 7 US Soldiers.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... Attackers lob two grenades into a US Army compound in Fallujah at 1 am, wounding 7 soldiers of the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment. None of the injuries is life-threatening, said Capt. Frank Rosenblatt. The troops inside the walled compound - a...

IRAQ - May 2 - Two More Wanted Iraqis In Custody.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... US Central Command says in a statement from its war headquarters in Qatar that 2 high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's government - Abdul Tawab Mullah Hwaish, a deputy prime minister and head of the Ministry of Military Industrialisation,...

ISRAEL - April 30 - Public Sector Workers Strike In Protest At Budget Cuts.
May 3, 2003... Public sector workers begin an open-ended strike in protest against a government austerity package linked to $10 bn of US loan guarantees and defence aid. International flights, ports, the stock exchange and many other services are paralysed as...

PALESTINE - April 29 - Cabinet Approved.
May 3, 2003... The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) approves Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister of a new 25-member cabinet. (The move triggers the April 30 presentation of the international "road map" to peace - see Arabs-Israel). In a speech to the 88-seat...

RUSSIA - April 29 - Blair Visits.
May 3, 2003... British PM Tony Blair arrives in Moscow for talks with Pres. Putin. (The summit between the two leaders - held at the Kremlin's suggestion - is the first face-to-face meeting they have held since last autumn, well ahead of the war, after Blair...

SAUDI ARABIA - April 29 - US To Withdraw Forces.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... In a joint press conference with Defence Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says that nearly all US forces will withdraw from the kingdom at the end of the summer. Rumsfeld says the toppling of Saddam...

SYRIA - May 2 - Powell Visits.
May 3, 2003... Visiting Damascus, US State Secretary Colin Powell says Washington is willing to work with Syria and Israel in an effort to reach a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East. He says he will go over the list of US concerns, including...

TURKEY - May 1 - At Least 100 Die In Quake.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... A powerful earthquake levels buildings in the south-east of the country, killing at least 100 people and injuring hundreds more. The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale, struck at 3:27 am. There were 17 seconds of...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 5 - Burns Meets Abbas.
May 10, 2003... A US envoy to the region, Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, confers with Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Burns said after the meeting: "I was able to convey the very strong commitment of [US] President Bush to seize the...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 7 - Hamas Militant Killed In West Bank Explosion.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... Amin Manzalawi, a prominent Hamas militant, is killed when a bomb goes off inside his apartment in the village of Zawata, outside Nablus. (Israel has long sought to arrest Manzalawi, and the Army has been operating in the village, patrolling it...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 8 - Hamas Leader Killed In Gaza Helicopter Attack.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... Israeli attack helicopters fire three missiles, killing Eyad Al Beik, a 30-year-old Hamas leader, and leaving his white sedan mangled and scorched in the Shaikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza City. (The violence points to the challenges facing US...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 8 - Israel May Open Negotiations With Syria.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... PM Sharon says he is willing to open peace negotiations with Syria. (This comes three years after talks between the two countries broke down over the Golan Heights, a region of Syria occupied by Israel since 1967. The move follows signs that...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 9 - Army Arrests Peace Activists In Office Raid.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... Israeli troops raid the offices of the Bethlehem-based International Solidarity Movement (ISM), an international peace activist group, detaining two foreign volunteers and a local Palestinian secretary. Computers and documents are also seized...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - May 9 - Moroccan Charged With Aiding Sept. 11 Pilots.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... German prosecutors indict Abdelghani Mzoudi, a 30-year-old Moroccan national, on charges of providing logistical support to the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide pilots in the US. He is charged with 3,066 counts of accessory to murder in the New York and...

IRAQ - May 4 - US Makes Emergency Payments To Workers.
May 10, 2003... The US offers public sector workers across-the-board "emergency" payments of $20 for a month's work. More than 400,000 people receive the payments, according to US officials. Some schools re-opened on May 3 and police from non-political...

IRAQ - May 5 - US Forces Capture 'Mrs Anthrax'.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... A US defence official says in Washington that US forces in Baghdad have taken into custody Dr Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a 49-year-old US-educated microbiologist dubbed "Mrs Anthrax" who was active in germ warfare development under Saddam...

IRAQ - May 6 - Bush Appoints Veteran Diplomat To Run Iraq.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... US Pres. Bush formally appoints Paul Bremer, a veteran US diplomat, to be the top civilian administrator in Iraq, saying he will be responsible for cobbling together an "orderly country in Iraq that is free and at peace". Bush makes the...

IRAQ - May 6 - Blair Appoints Special Baghdad Envoy.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... British PM Tony Blair appoints Ambassador in Cairo John Sawers to be a political envoy in Baghdad. Sawers will head to Baghdad on May 8 to bolster the UK involvement on the ground. His initial job will be to work with Jay Garner's Organisation...

IRAQ - May 7 - Top Saddam's Commander In Custody.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... The US Central Command (Centcom) says in a statement that Ghazi Hamud Al Adib, a regional commander of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and number 32 on the US list of most-wanted Iraqis, "is now in coalition custody". The statement gives no...

IRAQ - May 7 - Doctors Report Cholera Outbreak.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... The World Health Organisation (WHO) says in a statement that doctors in Basra have reported 11 cases of cholera and there can be dozens more due to contaminated water supplies and poor sanitation. The statement says: "Sewage is not being...

IRAQ - May 8 - 'Saddam' Tape Urges Underground War.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... A report in The FT says: "An audio tape purportedly of Saddam Hussein urging Iraqis to start an underground war against the 'occupying forces', said to have been recorded this week, has been handed to an Australian newspaper journalist in...

IRAQ - May 8 - Two US Servicemen Killed.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... Two US servicemen are killed and a third injured in separate incidents in Baghdad. A sniper kills one of the US soldiers in the east of the city, according to the Pentagon. The second, a member of the Army's V Corps, is killed while directing...

IRAQ - May 8 - US Seeks End To UN Sanctions.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... US Ambassador to the UN John Negroponte announces in New York that the UN Security Council members will receive a proposed draft resolution lifting the 13-year-old economic sanctions against Baghdad on May 9. He adds that he hopes the Council...

IRAQ - May 9 - US, UK & Spain Ask UN To Lift Sanctions.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... The US, UK and Spain formally ask the UN Security Council to end 13 years of economic sanctions on Iraq and endorse US and British control of the country's political development and financial resources for at least 12 months. The resolution...

IRAQ - May 9 - US Says Biological Weapon Lab Found.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... A US military unit finds what they suspect is a mobile biological weapons laboratory outside a missile research and testing facility in the north of the country. Maj. Paul Handelman, of the 101st Airborne Division, based in Mosul, says infantry...

ISRAEL - May 4 - Mitzna Steps Down.
May 10, 2003... Amram Mitzna, the leader of the Labour Party, resigns in a sign of the disarray hobbling the country's left as the US administration and its diplomatic allies press a new Middle East peace plan. (Analysts say the resignation may open the way...

KUWAIT - May 6 - Fear Of Gulf War Pay-Out Loss Grows.
May 10, 2003... A report in The FT says: "Kuwait has stepped up high-level lobbying efforts to secure compensation payments from Iraq as fears grow that it might never receive the more than $25 bn it is owed from the first Gulf war. Officials and lawyers from...

LEBANON - May 4 - Beirut Arrests 'Bombing Chief'.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... The army says in a statement that it has arrested the head of a network blamed for a series of bomb attacks on fast food restaurants and other western targets. The authorities launched a campaign of arrests and charged more than 30 people with...

RUSSIA - May 7 - Moscow Starts To Curb Border Crossings With China.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... The government begins restricting crossings on its border with China as chief sanitary inspector Gennady Onishchenko admits a 25-year-old man hospitalised since May 1 in a far-eastern border town of Blagoveshchensk is "probably" suffering from...

RUSSIA - May 9 - Policeman Killed In Chechnya.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... A Russian police officer is killed and two others wounded by a bomb that goes off just before the start of Victory Day celebrations in Grozny. The device explodes about 40 metres from Grozny's Dynamo Stadium, where a military parade celebrating...

SAUDI ARABIA - May 7 - Security Forces Seize Arms Linked To Terror.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... The Interior Ministry says in a statement that it has thwarted plans by suspected terrorists to carry out attacks in the kingdom and seized a large cache of weapons and explosives. Security forces seized the weapons in Riyadh on May 6 as they...

TURKEY - May 7 - Ankara Hits Back At Criticism From US.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... Responding to recent criticism by US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who suggested that Ankara made a mistake by not opening its doors to the US military during the Iraq war, PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan says: "Turkey, from the very...

TURKEY - May 7 - Gul Insists Time Is Right To Lift All Sanctions On North Cyprus.(Abdullah Gul)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... In an interview with The FT, FM Abdullah Gul urges the international community to lift remaining sanctions against Turkish Cypriot-controlled northern Cyprus, saying: "It's high time for the European Union and others to lift the embargo". (The...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 11 - Powell Meets Sharon & Abbas.
May 17, 2003... Holding separate meetings with PM Sharon in his residence in Jerusalem and Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas in Jericho, US State Secretary Colin Powell seeks to restart peace negotiations between the two sides. With Sharon at his side, Powell said...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 12 - Hizbollah Rejects Call To Quit S. Lebanon.
May 17, 2003... A report in The IHT quotes Hajji Hussein Khalil, a chief aide to Hizbollah Gen.-Sec. Shaikh Hassan Nasrallah, as rejecting US demands that the group cease military operations and leave the area in southern Lebanon. Responding to recent...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 12 - Israel Shuts Gaza After Brief Respite.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Early in the morning, the Army closes the crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, citing intelligence information warning of a possible Palestinian attack. Israeli soldiers kill three Palestinians in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 12 - Sharon & Abbas To Meet.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... A senior PA official says PM Mahmoud Abbas and PM Ariel Sharon will meet on May 16. Israeli officials say the meeting will take place at the end of the week. (This will be the first high-level talks between the two sides in months. The talks...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 13 - Sharon Stands Firm In Support For Settlers.
May 17, 2003... In the interview, parts of which are published in The Jerusalem Post, PM Sharon sets a hard line on retaining Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, dismissing as not "on the horizon" any talk of changing the settlement policy. He...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 14 - Army Kills 3 Palestinians.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Israeli undercover soldiers who drive up to a Palestinian guard post in a civilian car shoot dead two security men and wound two others in an exchange of fire near the settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. Earlier, an Israeli armoured force...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 17 - Sharon & Abbas Meet, Violence Continues.
May 17, 2003... Israeli PM Ariel Sharon and Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas hold a 3-hour meeting. (The Sharon-Abbas meeting is the first Israeli-Palestinian summit since Sept. 2000 when then-PM Ehud Barak met with Arafat. Several days after that meeting, Sharon,...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - May 12 - Powell Visits Cairo & Amman.
May 17, 2003... Visiting Cairo and Amman, State Secretary Colin Powell opens a drive to line up Arab backing for a crackdown on Hamas and other militant groups by Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas. Powell takes the same message to Egypt and Jordan saying it is time...

ALGERIA - May 14 - Seventeen Tourists Rescued.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Seventeen European tourists held captive in the Sahara are freed unharmed after armed forces raided a camp said to be controlled by an extremist Islamic group. But 15 other European tourists missing since March are still unaccounted for, and a...

IRAQ - May 10 - Oil Exports To Be Resumed Soon.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Thamir Ghadhban, the acting head of the Oil Ministry, says Baghdad should be able to resume its full pre-war oil production before end-2003 and be able to produce 1m b/d - sufficient to resume exports - by late-June. He says the current...

IRAQ - May 12 - 'Dr Germ' In Custody.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... US military officials say Rihab Rashid Taha, a British-trained microbiologist nicknamed "Dr Germ" and described by the US Central Command as the former director of Baghdad's bacterial and biological programme, surrendered at the weekend after...

IRAQ - May 12 - Bremer Takes Charge.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Paul Bremer, the former US diplomat named as the new civil administrator of Iraq, arrives in Baghdad. He is accompanied by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers and by Jay Garner, the former general charged with running Iraq...

IRAQ - May 13 - US-Picked Health Minister Quits After 10 Days.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Ali Shnan Janabi, the acting health minister hand-picked by the US, resigns, just after 10 days into the job, amidst widespread protests over his close ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. Janabi has refused to renounce the party. (The May 3...

IRAQ - May 16 - US Bars Up To 30,000 Baath Party Members From New Govt.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... US officials say 15,000 to 30,000 former Baath Party members will be forbidden to join a future government or hold any other leading civic or public position. The US Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, overseen by Paul Bremer,...

LEBANON - May 12 - Khatami Visits.
May 17, 2003... Iranian Pres. Mohammad Khatami arrives in Beirut for a 3-day official visit. He meets government officials and Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir. (This is the first visit by an Iranian president since the 1979 Islamic revolution, and it is...

MOROCCO - May 16 - Terrorist Blasts Kill 24 In Casablanca.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Terrorists explode four bombs in the coastal city of Casablanca late at night, killing at least 24 people and damaging the Belgian consulate, a Spanish restaurant and a Jewish community centre. Sixty people are wounded. At least three of the...

PALESTINE - May 16 - Erekat Quits After Being Dropped From Talks With Sharon.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat submits his resignation after being cut out of high-level talks between PM Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli PM Ariel Sharon on May 17. Israeli and PA officials say the PA is essentially divided now between Pres. Arafat and...

RUSSIA - May 12 - At Least 41 Killed In Blast In Chechnya.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... A truck loaded with explosives blows up near a government complex in Znamenskoye, in northern Chechnya, killing at least 55 people and wounding more than 200. (The attack is the worst convulsion of violence in Chechnya since a constitutional...

RUSSIA - May 14 - Powell Visits.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Visiting Moscow, US State Secretary Colin Powell meets Pres. Putin. They declare that Moscow and Washington have overcome their differences. But Powell, emerging from the meeting with FM Igor Ivanov, said the two countries still had...

RUSSIA - May 16 - Putin Addresses Lawmakers.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Delivering his third annual address to lawmakers in the Kremlin, Pres. Putin outlines an unusually bleak vision of a country mired in poverty, strangled by bureaucracy and facing ominous threats from inside and out. And he offers, as an answer,...

SAUDI ARABIA - May 12 - Terrorist Attacks Hit Riyadh.
May 17, 2003... A co-ordinated series of explosions hit Riyadh late at night, killing 34 people (including 10 US citizens) and wounding about 160 people. The explosions occur at at least three sites, private compounds for some of the thousands of foreign...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 18 - Suicide Attack Kills 7 On Jerusalem Bus.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... A Palestinian suicide bomber early in the morning attacks a city bus at the northern edge of Jerusalem, in the French Hill neighbourhood, killing at least 7 people and wounding more than 20. (The attack is carried out just hours after Israeli...

Erekat Abandons Hope For 'Road Map'.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... At his Jericho office, Saeb Erekat, the veteran PA negotiator who has resigned from the new Palestinian cabinet (see last week's Recorder) and whose resignation was accepted by PM Abbas, tells The FT: "I came to the conclusion that it would be...

May 19 - Suicide Bomber Hits Afula.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... A suicide bomber attacks a shopping centre in the city of Afula, killing himself and two Israelis, and wounding about 30 people. The bomb follows an incident earlier in the day when another suicide bomber injured three Israeli soldiers in the...

May 20 - Bush Assures Abbas Of Support.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... US Pres. Bush speaks to PM Mahmoud Abbas and expresses his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer indicated that Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, would have to make...

May 21 - New Violence Stalls 'Road Map'.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... The Army enters the village of Qarawat Bani Zeid, north of Jerusalem, killing two Palestinians - Ramez Arar, an 18-year-old high school student, and Rasmiya Arar, a 38-year-old mother of eight. Many people in the village have the same last...

May 22 - Israel Seizes Boat Loaded With Arms.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... Israeli security officials say the naval commandos seized on May 21 the Abu Hassan fishing boat off Haifa loaded with weapons the military believes were being smuggled by Hizbollah guerrillas and arrested two men on board. Israeli officials say...

May 23 - Sharon Says Israel Ready To Accept Peace Plan.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... PM Sharon's office says in a statement: "The prime minister says that the state of Israel is ready to accept the steps which are outlined in the road map and it will be presented to the government for approval". (The statement is issued after...

AFGHANISTAN - May 18 - Karzai May Quit.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... Addressing a religious function, Pres. Hamid Karzai says he will quit whether he fails to bring unruly provinces into line in the next few months. He concedes ordinary Afghans are losing faith in his government - installed after a US-led...

ALGERIA - May 23 - Earthquake Kills More Than 1000.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... A devastating 6.8-magnitude earthquake hits about 7:45 pm, with its epicentre in Rouiba, 22 km east of Algiers. On May 24, the official APS news agency said at least 1,092 were dead and 6,782 were injured. An state-run radio gave a higher toll...

BAHRAIN - May 21 - Free Trade Zone To Be Negotiated With US.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... US officials say Washington will negotiate a free trade agreement with Bahrain. (This will be the first step in a plan to create a US-Middle East free-trade area by 2013. The announcement follows a Washington meeting between Crown Prince Shaikh...

IRAN - May 21 - Khatami Lambastes Theologians.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... Pres. Mohammad Khatami lambastes traditionalist theologians for blocking two key reform bills. (Khatami presented them in Sept. 2002 to guarantee free parliamentary elections by eliminating strict vetting procedures for candidates, and to...

IRAQ - May 19 - Four US Marines Killed In Air Crash.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... Four US marines are killed when a Marine Corps transport helicopter crashes near the city of Karbala. Pentagon officials said there were no signs of survivors. It is feared a fifth person was killed in a rescue attempt on the ground. It was...

May 22 - UN Votes To End Sanctions.
May 24, 2003... The UN Security Council votes overwhelmingly to end nearly 13 years of sanctions on Baghdad, with the resolution offered by the US, UK and Spain, being passed by a 14-to-0 vote. The resolution allows the export of petroleum products to resume...

May 23 - US Forces Formally Abolish Iraqi Army.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... Acting under the UN May 22 resolution, the US civilian administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, abolishes the defence and information ministries, along with the vast network of security services that propped up Saddam Hussein's regime. In a...

MOROCCO - May 17 - More Than 30 Arrested Over Bombings.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... Government officials say more than 30 people have been arrested in raids across the country after identifying the local extremist cell responsible for the May 16 suicide attacks in Casablanca (see last week's Recorder). The officials admit the...

RUSSIA - May 20 - Moscow Rules Out WTO Membership In 2003.(Brief Article)
May 24, 2003... Deputy Trade Minister Maxim Medvedkov rules out joining the World Trade Organisation in 2003. (The move deals a blow to hopes for its tighter integration into the global economy in the run-up to parliamentary elections in December). Medvedkov...