A Civilian Killed in Rafah, a House Demolished in Hebron by IOF
International Press Center, April 15, 2003
RAFAH, Palestine, April 15, 2003 (IPC+ Agencies) -- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) shot dead early on Tuesday a Palestinain civilian in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Israeli Troops Invade Nablus, Kill a Civilian and Assault Journalists
International Press Center, April 15, 2003
NABLUS, Palestine, April 15, 2003 (IPC+WAFA) -- Mazen Fraitekh, 25, from the West Bank city of Nablus was killed by Israeli troops, local Palestinian sources said. Dozens of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles stormed Tuesday Nablus city and began shooting indiscriminately on Palestinian civilian houses.

Breaking News: Palestinian Shot Dead In Gaza
International Press Center, April 15, 2003 
13:00— Israeli troops shoot to death a Palestinian resident near Al-muntar crossing point, to the east of Gaza city, AFP reported.

Israeli Supreme Court Okays Internationally-Prohibited Flechette Shells
Palestine Media Center, April 15, 2003
The judges sarcastically ruled that “if we bowed to your demand today, we would be asked tomorrow to ban the army from using tear gas and sound bombs.” -- April 15, 2003 - Israel’s Supreme Court has given the occupation army the green light to use internationally- outlawed flechette rounds, which disperse thousands of tiny razor sharp darts that explode from a projectile over a range of hundreds of meters to rip flesh apart.

UN Human Rights Commission condemns Israel for "mass killing"
Jerusalem Post, April 15, 2003
The United Nations Human Rights Commission on Tuesday overwhelmingly condemned Israel for "mass killing" of Palestinians, and for its settlement policy in the Palestinian territories. The United States was alone in voting against all four resolutions, saying that the criticism of Israel was one-sided and unfair.

Israel says U.S. will take its views on 'roadmap' into account
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
WASHINGTON - In formulating a roadmap to peace in the Middle East, the United States has agreed to take into account Israel's security concerns and a need to end terror, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's envoy said after talks with high-level U.S. officials.

'Human Shields' Face Dangers in Israel
New York Times, April 15, 2003
JENIN, West Bank (AP) -- On a narrow dirt road separating this West Bank town from a Jewish settlement, a Swede named Tobias Karlsson and four comrades wedge themselves between a moving Israeli tank and a family of Palestinians seeking passage on the road.

Parents of wounded ISM man visit Gaza
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
The parents of British peace activist Tom Hurndall, wounded last week by Israeli troops, yesterday visited the Gaza site where Hurndall was shot and talked with the children he reportedly saved.

Power struggle may derail peace move
Sydney Morning Herald, April 16, 2003
Palestinian politicians are locked in a fierce struggle that could thwart an expected United States move to restart Middle East peace talks, Palestinian and Israeli officials and observers say. On the surface the struggle is over the proposed cabinet of the prime minister-designate, Mahmoud Abbas.

Arafat, Abbas in bid to patch up differences over new cabinet
Jerusalem Post, April 14, 2003 
Efforts were underway in Ramallah Monday to arrange a sulha (reconciliation) between Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and his prime minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas after the two clashed over the makeup of a new Palestinian cabinet.

IDF holding Palestinian minors in administrative detention
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
Over the past few months, the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service have been placing Palestinian under the age of 18 in administrative detention. In some cases, even minors under 16 have been detained. (The IDF considers minors in the territories to be those under the age of 16).

EU Leads U.N. Condemnation of Israeli Settlements
New York Times, April 15, 2003
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations' top human rights body urged Israel on Tuesday to start dismantling Jewish settlements in the occupied territories because they violated international law and were a major obstacle to peace. In a separate vote, the 53-state Commission on Human Rights also ``strongly condemned'' Israel's military occupation as ``an aggression and an offence against humanity and a flagrant violation of human rights.''

Palestinians accept CIA overseer of roadmap
Jerusalem Post, April 15, 2003 
Albeit with caution, Palestinians yesterday welcomed reports that the United States wants to assign a CIA official to supervise the implementation of the roadmap for peace. While Palestinian officials had officially demanded that the international Quartet set up a joint monitoring mechanism, a senior Palestinian source said yesterday they would settle for US monitoring, provided the roadmap will be implemented without changes.

Israeli Judges Reject Refusenik’s Appeal to Be Tried in Civil Court
Palestine Media Center, April 15, 2003
The Israeli High Court of Justice rejected this morning the petition by Jonathan Ben-Artzi, who refuses to serve in the Israeli occupation army on grounds of conscienceness, that he be tried in a civil court rather than a military one.

Israeli Tanks and Bulldozers Invade the Alshijaya neighborhood in Gaza
International Press Center, April 15, 2003
GAZA, Palestine, April 15, 2003, IPC-- Israeli occupation forces supported by several tanks and two bulldozers invaded today afternoon the eastern part of Alshijaya neighborhood, in Gaza city, IPC reported. The Israeli tanks fired random hails of bullets targeting the residents’ houses, causing panic among the people.

Six killed in Mid-East clashes
BBC, April 15, 2003
The Israeli army says one of its officers, two Israeli civilians and three Palestinians have been killed in clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In Nablus on the West Bank, an Israeli officer and a Palestinian militant were killed in a shoot-out.

Six killed in fresh clashes between occupation army and resistance fighters 
Islamic Association of Palestine, April 15, 2003
Three Palestinians and three Israelis, including a high-ranking officer, were killed Tuesday in fresh clashes between Israeli occupation forces and Palestinian resistance fighters. In Gaza, an Islamic fighter affiliated with the Hamas movement attacked the Karni border terminal, killing two Israelis and injuring six others.

IOF Kill 3 Palestinians in Nablus and Gaza Strip
Palestine Media Center, April 15, 2003
Dozens of Palestinian Minors Under Administrative Detention  -- April 15, 2003 - Israeli occupation Forces (IOF) killed two Palestinians in Nablus and in Rafah in the past twenty-four hours, as settlers rampaged in Hebron. In the West Bank, IOF surrounded and opened fire at a house in the center of Nablus city, killing one of the inhabitants and wounding scores others, Palestinian security and medical sources said.

Occupation Chronicle Events in Palestine April 15, 2003
Palestine Media Center, April 15, 2003
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed three Palestinians over the past twenty-four hours; one in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and the other two in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers torched at least three Palestinian vehicles in Beit Einun village, north of Hebron city.

Interview: Eyewitness Joe Smith & Rachel Corrie's parents
Information Clearing House

Tom Hurndall Update
International Solidarity Movement, April 15, 2003
I am too strong and normal here in Be’er Sheva Soroka Medical Center, which is far away from Rafah and where visiting hours are scattered and fleeting and we only see Tom for a few minutes, only have to deal with reality for a few minutes every day.

Villagers of Beit Eska Face Harsh Conditions
International Press Center, April 15, 2003
RAMALLAH, Palestine,  April 15, 2003, (IPC) _Beit Eksa village, northwest of Jerusalem as same as  all the villages located southwest of Ramallah and Al Bira district,  face a chronic health and malnutrition crisis due to the unleashing blockade of the main entrances, the non-stop-chase as well as keeping in place mobile checkpoints along the sandy bypass roads.

Palestinians Struggle To Meet U.S. Conditions For ‘Roadmap’
Islam Online, April 15, 2003
RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas has run into trouble forming a new cabinet after three Ministers loyal to Yasser Arafat refused to sign up, as Israel stepped up its war of words with Syria Monday, April 14, warning Damascus that its belligerent attitude toward the Jewish state was "playing with fire".

Weisglass takes road map doubts to White House
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
WASHINGTON - The prime minister's bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, yesterday presented Israel's reservations regarding the U.S. road map for Middle East peace to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in Washington.

Powell: 'Entire region should be free of WMD'
Jerusalem Post, April 15, 2003
At a press conference Tuesday, US Secretary of State was asked about the US policy on Israel's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction.

Turkey asks Shalom for help in Washington in wake of Iraq war 
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom was in Turkey yesterday, hearing pledges of friendship and requests that Jerusalem use its influence in Washington to buttress Ankara's position in the strained relations between Turkey and the U.S.

Sharon wants heavy US pressure on Syria
Al-Bawaba, April 15, 2003 
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants heavy U.S. pressure on Syria to oust Palestinian groups from Damascus and Hizbullah fighters from southern Lebanon. In remarks published on Tuesday, Sharon described the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, as "dangerous" and prone to miscalculation.

Israeli, U.S. Officials Discuss Roadmap
The Guardian, April 15, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) - In formulating a roadmap to peace in the Middle East, the Bush administration has agreed to take into account Israel's security concerns and a need to end terror, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's envoy said after talks with high-level U.S. officials.

Hamas men get a life sentence for each death in the Park Hotel suicide bombing
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
The four Palestinian Hamas activists who planned the Park Hotel Passover massacre in Netanya a year ago were sentenced yesterday to 29 life terms and another 20 years in prison. The sentence was handed down in the military court at Salem roadblock in the West Bank.

Palestinian majority favors a mutual cease-fire, says poll
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
Some 71 percent of the Palestinians favor a mutual Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire but 27 percent oppose it, a slight change from November, when 76 percent supported a mutual cease-fire and 22 percent opposed it.

Court ruling on IDF's authority to judge refusenik is due today
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
The High Court of Justice will rule this morning on whether to bar the Israel Defense Forces from trying the case of conscientious objector Yonatan Ben-Artzi and to transfer his case to a civil court.

Iraqi Agents in PA Areas Run Out of Money
Middle East Newsline, April 15, 2003
GAZA CITY [MENL] -- Palestinian agents for deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have run out of money. Palestinian sources said thousands of Palestinians working for the Saddam regime have not been paid salaries for March. The sources said they include Palestinians who helped organize pro-Saddam demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Supreme Court refuses to halt Channel One's screening of Jenin documentary
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
Bakri, the director of "Jenin, Jenin," a controversial documentary on the IDF's operation in the West Bank refugee camp, had asked the court to prevent Channel One from airing its documentary until a ruling on his appeal against a censorship ban on his own documentary. -- Supreme Court Justice Ayala Procaccia yesterday rejected a petition filed by move director Mohammed Bakri, against the screening of "The Road to Jenin" on the Israel Broadcasting Authority's Channel One.

New Battle Over Jenin, on Television
New York Times, April 15, 2003
The latest work, by a French-Israeli filmmaker, Pierre Rehov, is a strongly pro-Israeli account that portrays Israeli soldiers as humane warriors who track down terrorists and try to spare civilians, while Palestinians possess a single-minded commitment to war. -- JERUSALEM, April 14 — Scene one: Israeli soldiers fighting their way through the congested alleys of the Jenin refugee camp face frequent fire, but stop to open a tin of food for a distraught, elderly Palestinian woman, who thanks God for their kindness.

Ministry revokes Israel Prize from painter  
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
Gershoni has indicated that he would accept the prize, but preferred not to attend any ceremony because "it's not the time for celebrations." "I'm very happy to receive the prize, but very sad to receive it under the current political and cultural conditions in Israel," Gershoni declared when first informed of his selection. -- Education Minister Limor Livnat on Tuesday announced her decision to not to award the Israel prize to painter Moshe Gershoni because of his refusal to attend the award ceremony.

Netanyahu accuses Histadrut of duplicity
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
Some 1,000 workers at the Histadrut labor federation and its associate bodies were on strike yesterday in continued protest at not having received their wages for March. The federation's accountant, Yisrael Efrat, told the workers yesterday that their wages would be paid today.

February unemployment 10.3%
Globes, April 15, 2003
Central Bureau of Statistics: 263,000 unemployed is the highest level in six months. The number of available jobs fell sharply. -- The Central Bureau of Statistics reported today that unemployment was still rising steeply, due to the security situation and the recession. Unemployment rose to 10.3% in February 2003, the highest rate in the past six months.

Four days in hell
The Guardian, April 15, 2003
Checkpoint shootings and tanks outside the hotel ... Jeremy Hardy on what happened when he went filming in the West Bank -- I had arrived on Good Friday to make a documentary about the International Solidarity Movement. I was on the plane when Ariel Sharon announced his intention to reoccupy the entire West Bank. -- Last April, I had occasion to be evacuated from Bethlehem by the British Consulate. It wasn't the first evacuation I had experienced that week - an Israeli tank muzzle outside your hotel bedroom window is an excellent purgative.

Iraq War News

10 killed in Mosul as US troops open fire
Al-Jazeera, April 15, 2003 
At least 10 people were shot dead and scores of others wounded when US forces opened fire on a crowd that had gathered to listen to a US-appointed local governor in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul on Tuesday. According to eye-witnesses, US marines fired when the crowd noisily interrupted the governor’s speech, which they thought was pro-US. US military sources however said that its troops had come under fire and they had only fired back in response.

US troops accused of carnage
Sydney Morning Herald, April 16, 2003
United States troops opened fire on a crowd hostile to the new pro-American governor in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul yesterday, killing at least 10 people and injuring as many as 100, witnesses and doctors said.

"US Forces Encourage Looting"
Information Clearing House/Dagens Nyheter, April 11, 2003
"I was just 300 meters away when the guards where murdered. Then they shot the building entrance to pieces, and their Arabic translators in the tanks told people to run for grabs inside the building." -- Malmoe. Khaled Bayomi looks a bit surprised when he looks at the American officer on TV regret that they don't have any resources to stop the looting in Baghdad.  - I happened to be there just as the US forces told people to commence looting.

The Invasion in Numbers: Iraqi Civilians Paid for the "Clean War" in Full
International Press Center, April 15, 2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 15, 2003, IPC + Agencies-- Nearly a month has passed since the invasion of Iraq by the US lead coalition, as the size of this human tragedy has not yet been completely comprehended. The invasion, which was justified by the US administration and the British government to topple Saddam Hussein's regime and disarm him of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), has brought, until now, only plight and anarchy, paid in full by the Iraqi civilians.

US fire kills at least 10 people in Mosul
Al-Bawaba, April 15, 2003
At least 10 people have been killed and scores wounded in shooting in Mosul in northern Iraq, a hospital doctor said, as other witnesses alleged United States troops had opened fire.

Tikrit falls, Baghdad residents want water and electricity
Al-Jazeera, April 15, 2003 
Umm Qasr, Basra, Baghdad, northern Iraq, and now Tikrit. All major strategic points that have fallen to US-led troops as the US administration moves closer to proclaiming an end to the war. An AFP correspondent said the streets were calm and that armoured vehicles were in the city centre, which appeared to have been deserted by Iraqi regular forces and much of the population.

Iraq talks end with pledge to meet in 10 days 
Al-Jazeera, April 15, 2003 
The first talks on the future of Iraq attended by Iraqi political and religious leaders, as well as US and British officials, ended on Tuesday with an agreement to meet again in 10 days. Jay Garner, the former US general leading the effort to rebuild Iraq, opened the conference saying: "A free and democratic Iraq will begin today."

Iraq aid effort makes progress
BBC, April 15, 2003
Health workers are worried about the risks from dirty water -- Aid agencies are reporting that law and order seems to be improving in Iraq, allowing their workers to increase the humanitarian effort. But in Baghdad, there is virtually no electricity, and most shops remain closed amid fears of more looting.

Humanitarian situation in Iraq 'extremely worrying,' says Short
Islamic Republic News Agency, April 15, 2003
 London, Apr. 15, IRNA - International Development Secretary Clare Short Tuesday accused British and US forces of not doing enough to address the chaos and disorder in Iraq following the sudden collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. "The situation is extremely worrying," said Short, who previously reversed her decision to resign from the British cabinet over the failure to secure a UN mandate for the war against Iraq.

Aid Agencies Ask U.S. Forces Protect Iraqi Hospitals
Islam Online, April 15, 2003
GENEVA, April 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As Iraq hospitals are critically running low on medical supplies to cope with the myriad of wounded Iraqis, international aid agencies urged the U.S. forces in Iraq Tuesday, April 15, to provide better protection for hospitals in Iraq amid insecurity on the ground.

Shiites Stage Show of Force
Arab News, April 15, 2003
BAGHDAD, 15 April 2003 — Baghdad’s Shiites, part of the majority religious group in Iraq, have broken a long silence to claim a status commensurate with the size of their community in any post-Saddam Hussein political arrangement.

Iraqi Protesters Block Marines in Kut
The Guardian, April 15, 2003
KUT, Iraq (AP) - Hundreds of protesters blocked U.S. Marines from entering Kut's city hall Tuesday to meet a radical anti-American Shiite cleric who has declared himself in control here, military officials said.

US rejects Iraq DU clean-up
BBC, April 15, 2003
The US says it has no plans to remove the debris left over from depleted uranium (DU) weapons it is using in Iraq. It says no clean-up is needed, because research shows DU has no long-term effects. It says a 1990 study suggesting health risks to local people and veterans is out of date.

Unexploded Munitions Continue to Maim
Arab News, April 15, 2003
BAGHDAD, 15 April 2003 — Eighteen Iraqi civilians were injured, many seriously, in the mostly Shiite district of Al-Ha’ab in the northwest of Baghdad yesterday morning when one of them stepped on an unexploded grenade or shell.

Talks on new regime exclude UN and are boycotted by Shia group
The Guardian, April 15, 2003
American officials said yesterday they believed a new Iraqi government could be formed within weeks but warned that the UN would not play a significant role.

Spotlight on Garner is the critical glare of Arab eyes
Sydney Morning Herald, April 16, 2003
When he arrives in Nasiriyah today to oversee his first meeting inside Iraq on the country's future, Jay Garner will finally step into the spotlight as the new American administrator of Iraq.

Hope and mistrust in Nasiriya
BBC, April 15, 2003
The first meeting in Iraq to discuss a new administration did not start without a hitch. The flight bringing exiled Iraqi representatives to an airbase near Nasiriya was delayed by a huge dust storm.

Opposition talks begin in Nasiriyah amid protests, boycott
Al-Bawaba, April 15, 2003
Some 20,000 demonstrators converged on the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah to protest US-brokered talks aimed at sketching out a post-Saddam Hussein administration.

US begins shaping Iraq's future
BBC, April 15, 2003
There is deep mistrust between Iraqi Shia groups and the US -- A US-brokered meeting to start shaping a future government of Iraq has taken place near Ur, one of the most ancient cities in the world. Returned Iraqi exiles and representatives of Iraq's main ethnic groups agreed to meet again in 10 days, while the White House envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said the US has "absolutely no interest in ruling Iraq".

Marines raid journalist's Baghdad hotel
Sydney Morning Herald, April 16, 2003
US Marines searched rooms in the central Baghdad hotel where many international journalists are staying, apparently taking some people into custody. Sergeant Jose Guillen, a public affairs officer for the US Marines, confirmed that American troops went into rooms at the Palestine Hotel, but he declined to provide further details.

Analysis: Poverty and despair behind Iraq's ethnic violence
The Independent, April 14, 2003
With so many Iraqis living on the edge of starvation, it is hardly surprising they took the chance to loot anything they could -- A machine-gun chattered just outside the gate of the biggest hospital in Mosul just as Dr Ayad Ramadani, the hospital director, was saying he blamed the Kurds for the orgy of looting and violence which had engulfed Iraq's northern capital. "The Kurdish militias were looting the city," he explained. "Today the main protection is from civilians organised by the mosques."

Iraqi Muslims prevent looting of Baghdad Jewish center
Jerusalem Post, April 15, 2003 
Some Iraqi Muslims have spared a small Jewish community center in Baghdad from looting, the Agence France Press reports. Elsewhere in the Iraqi capital, an armed group has reportedly been organized to protect a synagogue.

With battles over, a perilous phase begins
The Guardian, April 15, 2003
Coalition fears that with the fall of Tikrit, guerrillas and suicide bombers could now wage a low-intensity conflict -- Tikrit was the final target of the air and ground operation mounted by American and British forces in Iraq, the last major town to be overrun after three and a half weeks of heavy bombing and shelling.

On the plains, Kurds and Arabs clash in the most dangerous flashpoint of all
The Independent, April 15, 2003
Ezedin al Mohammed, a thick-set cheerful man, was spending yesterday looking for people killed in gun battles and bombing south of Kirkuk. When he finds the bodies, which bloat fast under the fierce Iraqi sun, he buries them and takes their identity cards so their relatives will know they are dead.

Ministers discuss peace keeping role in Iraq
EU Observer, April 15, 2003
EUOBSERVER / LUXEMBOURG - EU leaders were keen to play down any talk of conclusive discussions on the EU and UN’s role in Iraq, discussed during a meeting of Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg, on Monday, although the possibility of a peace keeping role has been mooted.

Warplanes Strike Iranian Opposition Group In Iraq
Islam Online, April 15, 2003
TEHRAN, April 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - U.S. and British jets struck bases in Iraq housing fighters of the People's Mujahedeen (MKO), the main Iranian armed opposition group, a spokesman for the British embassy in Tehran told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Tuesday, April 15.

Weapons of mass destruction — going nuclear in Iraq
XS4ALL/Jordan Times, December 27, 2001
BAGHDAD — Dr Alim Abdul-Hamid's office at Al Mustanseriya Medical College in Baghdad is decorated in bright, cheerful colours, but what he has to say is anything but cheerful. Formerly Dean of Basra Medical College, Abdul-Hamid has had plenty of first-hand experience with Iraq's unprecedented plague of cancers and birth defects.

Anti-US protests again in Baghdad
Al-Jazeera, April 15, 2003 
For the second successive day, hundreds of agitated Baghdad residents gathered around the Palestinian Hotel to register their noisy protest against the reigning anarchy and lack of essential services in the Iraqi capital. “This is no freedom,” chanted the protestors as heavily armed US marines, armed to the teeth, stood by edgily on the other side of barbed wires that separated them from the angry residents.

The lesson from Lebanon
Al-Jazeera, April 15, 2003
Viewed from Beirut, the war in Iraq is painfully familiar. War is a bloody, destructive business everywhere outside of Hollywood -- Eighteen different religious communities and several different ethnicities existing in sometimes uneasy equilibrium, squeezed into a mountainous country 200 km long and less than 50 km wide. On paper, Lebanon doesn’t look like it ought to work. In reality, it sometimes doesn’t.

US troops move 114 Iranian refugees to Jordanian border no-man's land: UNHCR
Space War, April 15, 2003
US troops have ecorted 114 Iranian refugees from Al-Tash camp west of Baghdad to a no-man's land on the Jordan-Iraq border, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said here Tuesday. "Late yesterday, to our surprise, US forces in Iraq brought a frightened group of 114 Iranian refugees who had fled Al-Tash refugee camp, due to looting and insecurity, up to the (Jordanian) border," Peter Kessler said.

Straw holds Iraq talks in Saudi Arabia
Space War, April 15, 2003
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw held talks here Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and counterpart Prince Saud al-Faisal on the situation in Iraq, the official SPA agency reported. Straw and Prince Abdullah discussed the "current situation in Iraq and developments in the region," SPA said.

Duma rejects to forgive Iraq's debts
Information Clearing House, April 13, 2003
MOSCOW - Russian lawmakers on Friday rejected a senior U.S. official's suggestion that Russia, France and Germany forgive debts to postwar Iraq to help the country restore its battered economy. U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday that he hoped the countries would consider writing off some or all of their debts to Iraq's new government.

US accused of plans to loot Iraqi antiques
Sunday Herald, April 13, 2003
FEARS that Iraq's heritage will face widespread looting at the end of the Gulf war have been heightened after a group of wealthy art dealers secured a high-level meeting with the US administration. It has emerged that a coalition of antiquities collectors and arts lawyers, calling itself the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), met with US defence and state department officials prior to the start of military action to offer its assistance in preserving the country's invaluable archaeological collections.

Priceless manuscripts, books go up in smoke
Sydney Morning Herald, April 16, 2003
As the flames engulfed Baghdad's National Library, destroying manuscripts many centuries old, the Pentagon admitted that it had been caught unprepared by the widespread looting of antiquities, despite months of warnings from American archaeologists.

Pentagon Was Told Of Risk to Museums
Washington Post, April 14, 2003
U.S. Urged to Save Iraq's Historic Artifacts -- In the months leading up to the Iraq war, U.S. scholars repeatedly urged the Defense Department to protect Iraq's priceless archaeological heritage from looters, and warned specifically that the National Museum of Antiquities was the single most important site in the country.

'Our Heritage Is Finished'
Washington Post, April 13, 2003
Looters Destroyed What War Did Not --BAGHDAD, April 12 -- At the National Museum of Antiquities, where priceless artifacts had been wrapped in foam and secured in windowless storage rooms to protect them against U.S. bombs, an army of looters perpetrated what war did not: They smashed hundreds of irreplaceable treasures, including Sumerian clay pots, Assyrian marble carvings, Babylonian statues and a massive stone tablet with intricate cuneiform writing.

UN sends antiquities experts to Iraq
BBC, April 15, 2003
The damage by looters has been catastrophic -- The United Nations' cultural agency is sending experts to Iraq to help in the recovery and restoration of looted antiquities. Iraq is known as the "cradle of civilisation" and the destruction and loss of its cultural heritage has been described as a catastrophe by archaeologists.

Prized Iraqi annals 'lost in blaze'
BBC, April 15, 2003
Many of Baghdad's museums have also been looted -- Almost all of the contents of Iraq's national library and archives are reported to have been destroyed by fire, meaning the loss of priceless records of the country's history. The library, in central Baghdad, housed several rare volumes, including entire royal court records and files from the period when Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire.

Annan deplores catastrophic loss of Iraqi cultural heritage
Space War, April 15, 2003
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday deplored the looting and destruction of Iraq's cultural heritage and urged its people and neighbours to act to stop it. In a statement, Annan endorsed a call by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation for other countries to "join forces with UNESCO in the work to prevent trade in stolen Iraqi objects."

British Museum Demands Action On Iraqi Treasures
Islam Online, April 15, 2003
LONDON, April 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As Iraqis accused U.S. forces of standing witness to the ransacking of their country’s national museum, the British Museum Tuesday, April 15, urged a swift action to rescue the Arab country's ancient treasures and expressed readiness to send a team of conservation experts to Iraq.

Israel Is Inciting Washington To Take On Syria
Information Clearing House/Le Figaro, April 14, 2003
After Iraq, Syria?  Israel is not concealing her desire to see the United States take on her neighbor to the north, the only country on her border, in addition to her Lebanese "protectorate," with which it has not signed a peace treaty.  Israel wants Damascus to stop hosting the foreign headquarters of the Palestinian Islamic parties Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Bush vetoes Syria war plan
The Guardian, April 15, 2003
The White House has privately ruled out suggestions that the US should go to war against Syria following its military success in Iraq, and has blocked preliminary planning for such a campaign in the Pentagon, the Guardian learned yesterday.

Bush can't afford another Arab conflict just now
Sydney Morning Herald, April 16, 2003
The accusations coming from all corners of the Bush Administration sound familiar - developing weapons of mass destruction while consorting with terrorists. It appears as if the case against Syria is being made in the same way as the prosecution of Iraq was put together in the months before the war on Saddam Hussein. However, there is no sign that the United States has any intention of starting another conflict at a time when it is preparing a presidential re-election campaign against a backdrop of growing military, diplomatic and political fatigue.

Syria dominates Middle East agenda
Al-Jazeera, April 15, 2003
Syria continued to dominate the world’s agenda on Tuesday amid a flurry of statements and diplomatic manoeuvrings. Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon weighed into the war of words demanding that greater pressure be brought upon the recalcitrant” country by the US to rid it of Palestinian "terrorists" while Iran threatened that any US-military action against Syria would be construed as an attack against Iran.

Syria denounces US 'lies'
BBC, April 15, 2003
Syria has refuted US allegations that it is developing chemical weapons, saying such claims are designed to further the interests of Israel. It follows condemnation of the US by fellow Arab countries, Russia and the European Union for making threats against Syria over the war in Iraq.

Turkey: Syria Shouldn't Be Next U.S. War
Yahoo! News, April 14, 2003
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey said Monday that Syria should not become a target of U.S.-led forces, amid charges by U.S. officials that Syria has weapons of mass destruction and is sheltering Iraqi leaders.

SOS from Syrian defectors
Al-Jazeera, April 15, 2003
Khalid Amin Al Hafidh, son of the former Syrian president Amin Al Hafedh, appealed to international and humanitarian organizations, in addition to the Syrian leadership, to save the lives of hundreds of Syrian defectors stuck on the Syrian-Iraqi boarders for three days, stressing that no Arab volunteer fighters are among them.

Turkish Kurd leader drops separatism and seeks Washington talks
Salaam.UK, April 15, 2003
Turkey's formerly separatist Kurdish Workers' party (PKK), regarded by the US as a terrorist organisation, wants to establish a dialogue with Washington on joining its campaign of democratisation in the Middle East, according to a member of the movement's collective leadership. However, Turkey's popularly elected government, further empowered by its refusal to bow to US bribing, is well placed to handle this challenge.

Hizbullah dismisses US threats against Syria
Al-Bawaba, April 15, 2003 
Hizbullah believes US pressure on Syria and Iran will not be translated into military action and is only a tool for pressuring those opposed to US designs in the region.

Powell Tones Down Rhetoric Toward Syria
The Guardian, April 15, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell, seeking to tone down hawkish rhetoric toward Syria, said Tuesday the Bush administration has expressed concerns about Syrian actions, but has no plan for a military move against the Damascus government.

Powell: U.S. has concerns over Syria, but no 'war plans'
Haaretz, April 15, 2003
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday the United States has concerns about the policies of Iran and Syria but it has no "war plan" to attack them or other nations.

We’re Not a Rogue Nation, Says Syria
Arab News, April 15, 2003
DAMASCUS, 15 April 2003 — The United States ratcheted up pressure on Syria yesterday by threatening sanctions over charges that Damascus is harboring Iraqi leaders, developing chemical weapons and supporting terrorism. “Syria is indeed a rogue nation,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

U.S. Seeks to Shut Down Pipeline to Syria
Washington Post, April 15, 2003
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that U.S. forces have shut down a pipeline used for illegal oil shipments from Iraq to Syria, but he could not assure that oil is not still flowing between those two countries.

US warned over Syria accusations
EU Observer, April 15, 2003
Diplomatic relations between the EU and the US look increasingly unsteady as a new row appears once again to be on the horizon over Washington accusing Syria of carrying out chemical weapons testing and helping fugitive Iraqi officials. These statements have also raised Russia's concerns, leading both Moscow and Brussels to appeal to the US to cool down its rhetoric.

Kingdom Calls Emergency Regional Meeting on Iraq
Arab News, April 15, 2003
RIYADH, 15 April 2003 — The foreign ministers of countries neighboring Iraq will meet in Riyadh on Friday to review the fallout of the war, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said yesterday.

Iraqi general backs Syria charges
BBC, April 14, 2003
A top Iraqi general who switched sides during the war has backed Washington's claims that Syria has been giving refuge to members of Saddam Hussein's regime. General Ali al-Jajjawi - former Republican Guard commander in the northern city of Mosul - said Saddam's Baath Party deputy Izzat Ibrahim and other top figures had fled to Syria shortly before the city fell last Friday.

Brotherly hatred: The Baath parties of Syria and Iraq
Jordan Times, April 15, 2003   
DAMASCUS (AFP) — The Baath movement preaches the unity of the Arab world, but the only two countries in which it has ever held power — Syria and neighbouring Iraq — have never even managed to unite themselves. The party, whose Arabic name means "resurrection," was founded in Damascus in April 1947 by two schoolteachers educated in France. Michel Aflaq was an Orthodox Christian and Selaheddin Bitar a Sunni Muslim.

Annan warns of US, Syria flashpoint
Sydney Morning Herald, April 16, 2003
The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has warned that growing friction between the United States and Syria could further destabilise the Middle East.

Guards Chief Says Iran Will Back Syria
The Guardian, April 15, 2003
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran will not remain neutral if the United States attacks its ally Syria, but military strikes against U.S. forces are not an option, Iran's former Revolutionary Guards chief said Tuesday.

US soldiers' wives fight bitter battle of their own
Sydney Morning Herald, April 14, 2003
As US troops battle remnants of Iraq's fallen regime, their wives are locked in a bitter struggle against money woes that have forced some to resort to charity handouts to survive. Low military salaries and the high cost of living in parts of the United States means that families of many of the lower ranking US troops fighting in Iraq live a hand to mouth existence.

Bush team's favoured few share the spoils of lucrative contracts
Sydney Morning Herald, April 16, 2003
Contracts worth billions of dollars for the reconstruction of Iraq are already being handed out by the United States, offering huge profits to a few favoured firms, many with high-level contacts in the Bush Administration and a history of donations to the Republican party.

U.S. Troops Intensify Search for Weapons
The Guardian, April 15, 2003
U.S. troops intensified the search for weapons of mass destruction and foreign fighters across Iraq on Tuesday, while the first post-Saddam Hussein meeting of the nation's fractious religious and political groups looked toward the future.

In Broken Baghdad, Photo Negatives
Washington Post, April 15, 2003
Hold two pictures in the balance: a 12-year-old boy whose arms have been blown off, and a museum official walking through the looted National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad. Both are images of foreseeable but unintended destruction. Both capture scenes that might have been worse: Broken pottery isn't so bad as dead people, and the boy with no arms is (for the time being) still alive. Yet these two images have flown around the world, stirring some of the strongest anger about the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Family Struggles to Tell Father That Three Daughters Are Dead 
Common Dreams/New York Times, April 14, 2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 13 — "I don't know how I'll tell him," Sindous Abbas, 30, said today. At her back was a window, which looked out to the sidewalk where her husband, Saad, 34, sat in pain and ignorance. He had been out of the hospital for just two days. She spoke inside so he would not hear.

FBI questioning captures attention of Arab-Americans, civil liberty groups
The Western Front, April 15, 2003
FBI interviews with Arabs and Arab-Americans are essential in helping the U.S. war efforts, according to an FBI statement made Feb. 13, 2002, but civil liberty groups are uneasy with the FBI's means of obtaining the information.

Activists go on 40-day fast to protest Iraq war
The Western Front, April 15, 2003
Bellingham residents Eric Robison and Eugenia Moss said they refuse to eat in protest of the war in Iraq. Robison has fasted for 26 consecutive days and said he hopes to continue fasting for a total of 40 consecutive days.

Pentagon Muslims Angered by Rev. Graham Invitation
Reuters, April 15, 2003
Muslims at the Pentagon are incensed by what they say is an insensitive invitation to evangelist Rev. Franklin Graham, who has called Islam an "evil religion," to preach on Good Friday at the Defense Department. In letters to the Pentagon chaplain's office this week, Muslim office workers complained strongly about Graham's plans to lead prayers on Friday, one of the most religious days in the Christian calendar.

'Hitler' Exec Producer Fired Over Remarks
Information Clearing House, April 10, 2003
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - The executive producer of a CBS miniseries about Adolf Hitler's rise to power has been fired after giving an interview in which he compared the current mood of Americans to that of the Germans who helped Hitler rise to power. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gernon was fired Sunday (April 6) from Alliance Atlantis, the production company making "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" for CBS. He had worked there 11 years and was head of the firm's long-form programming division.