If we had paid attention to the 1994 attack on a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, Sept. 11 might not have been such a surprise. July 18, 1994, began like any other day for Aida Plaksin. Her husband, Abraham, made her a cup of tea, dressed for work and kissed her goodbye as he went out the door, reminding her to see about plane tickets for their coming anniversary trip to the United States and Israel. ... more

Tehran, 3 March: Iran's President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami said Saturday night [2 March] at a gathering of the country's defence minister and managers of military industries of the defence forces that Iran condemns war and does not favour it with any country, even with the enemies. "Yet, we need to be ready to defend our political and territorial integrity at all times and under all possible conditions," added the president. ... more

Mashhad, March 3, IRNA -- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday warned of threats posed from inside Iran and outside, which were intended to prevent the Islamic Republic from turning into an example for world Muslims. ... more

Tehran, March 3, IRNA -- A group of Majlis deputies in a statement here Sunday stressed the need to reinforce national solidarity and increase public confidence to thwart the US threats against the Islamic Republic. ... more

CALGARY -- A little-known Canadian oil firm expects to seal a deal by mid-March to kick-start production at a historic oil field in Iran, and one of its executives says he is confident the agreement will not run afoul of U.S. sanctions on the country. Sheer Energy Inc. won Iranian approvals this month to develop the Masjed-I-Suleyman field, which in 1908 was the first oil deposit discovered in the Middle East. ... more

WASHINGTON - A former CIA case officer who is black contends in a lawsuit against the agency that his supervisors discriminated against him for much of his career. Jeffrey Sterling, the first black case officer to file such a suit, claims his managers prevented him from succeeding. Trained to recruit Iranians as spies, Sterling said he was fired in October after refusing an assignment to return to the Iran Task Force. ... more

TAIF, Saudi Arabia - The road cuts across southwest Saudi Arabia, its tribal culture, desert wilderness, and bleak patches of development that missed out on the oil-rich kingdom's largesse. Engineered in the late 1960s by Mohammed bin Laden, patriarch of the family's construction empire, this two-lane highway was his pride in a life of service to a monarchy trying to build a nation out of the Arabian sands. ... more

The foreign policy rift between Europe and the United States widened sharply yesterday as France urged Washington to consult properly with its partners and use its power "more responsibly". The outspoken French foreign minister, Hubert Védrine, who last month denounced US foreign policy ... ... more

GARDEZ, Afghanistan -- In the biggest U.S.-led ground operation this year, U.S. and Afghan troops backed by U.S. jets Saturday attacked Taliban and al-Qaida forces regrouping in eastern Afghanistan. One American was killed and a number were injured, the Pentagon said. Three Afghan fighters were also killed, the Pentagon said. ... more

A deadly bunker-busting bomb denounced by human rights groups in the past was used by US forces for the first time in Afghanistan yesterday, a military official acknowledged. The bomb releases flammable aerosols which a second explosion ignites, penetrating deep underground. ... more

Afghanistan's bloodthirsty chieftains united to beat the Taliban - but they are now turning on each other. Rival factions within the Northern Alliance are sliding towards a major conflict across a large swath of northern Afghanistan, as the feuding commanders fight over territory. ... more

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) Seven people were killed in eastern Afghanistan after they met with the commission that is selecting participants for an upcoming tribal assembly an indication of the instability many fear will accompany the traditional loya jirga. The seven, all prominent residents of the Pashat area of eastern Kunar province ... ... more

Ten people, most of them soldiers, were shot dead early on Sunday when a Palestinian gunman opened fire at an Israeli army checkpoint near the Jewish settlement of Ofra. Hours earlier in Jerusalem, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed nine people in the Jewish neighbourhood of Beit Israel. There has also been a shooting incident at another checkpoint in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip, in which one Israeli soldier died and several others were injured. ... more

Alarmed by growing hints of al Qaeda's progress towards obtaining a nuclear or radiological weapon, the Bush administration has installed hundreds of sophisticated sensors at United States borders, overseas facilities and key transport routes around Washington. It has placed the Delta Force, the nation's elite commando unit, on a new standby alert to seize control of nuclear materials that the sensors may detect. ... more

(CBS) Key congressional leaders say they didn't know President Bush had established a "shadow government," moving dozens of senior civilian managers to secret underground locations outside Washington to ensure that the federal government could survive a devastating terrorist attack on the nation's capital, The Washington Post says in its Saturday editions. ... more

NEW YORK—According to official Russian sources, US intervention in the former Soviet republic of Georgia is not so much to fight terrorists but to establish a "firm foothold" in the Caucasus region in order to protect its access to the vast oil reserves of the Caucasus and Central Asia. The action "may lead to unpredictable consequences" and "may involve costs both material and political," Moscow said, characterising reports of the US military presence in Georgia as "shocking news." Kharrazi added that the European Union does not accept the US stances and does not consider them in the interests of the global security and peace. ... more

(March 3) - The murder of reporter Daniel Pearl by Islamic terrorists in Pakistan has shocked the world. The meaning of his life - and death - is examined by Bret Stephens, who was until recently an editor and writer for The Wall Street Journal, and who next month becomes editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. In Karachi, where she awaits recovery of her husband's butchered remains, Mariane Pearl has urged against using her personal tragedy to score political points. In this, the world has not obliged the widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. ... more