The world at a glance...

[Admin]

A very few of us keep up with what is going around in the world so I'll take snips from "The Week" (November 21th issue) magazine.


Washington, D.C.
Ex-POWS wait for cash: The Bush administration is trying to stop 17 Gulf War veterans from collecting on a billion-dollar lawsuit they won against the former government of Saddam Hussein.

Sacramento
Arnold takes over: Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived in Sacramento this week to replace Gray Davis as governor of California, promising quick action on the state's budget deficit.

Washington, D.C.
Partisan feud: The Senate Intelligence Committe this week canceled all meetings scheduled for the rest of the year after a partisan feud erupted over an investigation of prewar intelligence reports on Iraq.

Guatemala City
Ex-dictator trouned: Former military ruler Efrain Rios Montt failed miserably this week in his bid to be elected preisdent of Guatemala.

New York
Abortion law blocked: Judges in New York, California, and Nebraska last week blocked the government from enforcing a ban on partial-birth abortions, just days after President Bush signed it into law.

Chesapeake, Virginia
Second sniper trial opens: Lee Boyd Malvo, the younger of the two men accused of last year's sniper kilings around Washington, D.C., pleaded innocent this week to one of the 10 murders.

Millau, France
World's tallest bridge: France has begun construction on what promises to be the world's tallest bridge.

Madrid
Bush ally to retire: Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said this week that he wouldn't seek another term when his premiership ran out next March.

Sarajevo
Massacre lawsuit: Relatives of the 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys who were massacred by the Serbs in Sarajevo in 1995 said this week that they planned to sue the U.N. and the Netherlands.

Ankara
No troops to Iraq: Turkey reversed course this week and decided not to send peacekeeping tropps to Iraq.

Paris
Mata Hari was innocent: The dutch striptease artist known as Mata Hari never spied for the Germans in World War I, said the great grandson of the French judge who sent her to the firing squad.

Vilnius, Lithuanis
Russian Mafia thread: The Russian Mafia has been trying to gain control over the Lithuanisn president, the Lithuanian secret service said in a reprot to Parliament this week.

Tbillsi, Georgia
Street erupts: Thousands of Georgians poured into the streets of Tbilisi this week, demanding that President Eduard Shevardnadze step down.

Lagos, Nigeria
U.S. bounty on Taylor: Nigeria is furious that the U.S. has offered $2 million to anyone who can turn over ousted Liberian president Charles Taylor to a war-crimes tribunal.

Riyadh
Suicide bombing: A car-bomb attack this week in the Saudi capital killed 18 people and wounded more than 120, almost all of the Arabs.

Nangahar, Afghanistan
Opium den: Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has soared back to pre-Taliban levels, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime last week.

Pyongyang
Nukes need no test: North Korea can be confident that its nuclear bombs will work even if it doesn't conduct a test explosion, the CIA told Congress.

Tehran
Secret nukes: Iran has been conducting a secret program to enrich uranium and plutonian- and lying about it, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a harshly worded report released this week.

[ak]

Interesting. The world is one big unhappy place for many...

[JPWRana]

i wonder what approach US will take towards iran.

[Admin]

Toronto, Canada
Torture Lawsuit: A Syrian-born Canadian citizen who was deported from the United States to Syria last year is filing a lawsuit accusing the governments of Jordan and Syria of torturing him, his attorney said this week.

Alhambra, California
Spector changed: Police have charged Phil Spector, a groundbreaking record producer, with the February murder of a B-movie actress in his California mansion.

Cincinnati
Archdiocese fined in coverup: Leaders of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati have pleaded no contest to charges of covering up five cases of child molestation between 1978 and 1982, marking the first time a U.S. diocese has been convicted of a crime connected to the church's sexual-abuse scandal.

East Rutherford, New Jersey
Basketball star retires: NBA New Jersey Nets center Alonzo Mourning said this week that he was quitting basketball because he needs a kidney transplant.

Lima, South America
President says sorry: President Alejandro Toledo apologized to the Peruvian people this week for the political violence that terrorized the nation until a few years ago.

New York
Life at ground zero: A train station for commuters reopened this week in part of the pit where the World Trade Center once stood.

London
E.U. militia: France and Britain agreed this week to create a European rapid reaction force that could respond quickly to crises in the region.

Paris
Students revolt: Students and professors at more than a dozen French universities went on strike this week to protest the imposition of a Europewide degree-granting program.

Brussels
Anti-Semitism is mostly Muslim: An E.U. group refused to release a report it commissioned on the recent resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe, because the report concluded that Muslims were to blame for most incidents, the Financial Times reported this week.

Kiev
Famine remembered: The U.N. has recognized for the first time that Ukraine's devastating famine of the 1930s was engineered by Stalin.

Zagreb, Croatia
Nationalists back in power: Croatins voted out their pro-Western prime minister this week and returned a nationalist party to power.

Istanbul
Protest against bombers: Thousands of Turks marched solemnly through the streets of Istanbul to protest last week's near-simultaneous suicide truck bombings of the British Consulate and a British-owned bank.

Tbilisi, Georgia
Shevardnadze toppled: Georgians forced their president to resign this week, in a bloodless revolution led by a U.S.-trained lawyer.

Vietiane, Laos
Remains of Dean's brother: The government of Laos has sent back to the U.S. what are believed to be the remains of the brother of presidential candidate Howard Dean.

Hong Kong
Blow to Beijing: Hong Kong voters turned out to record numbers this week and trounced the pro-Beijing party in local elections.

Jerusalem
Is Sharon softening?
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon caused a ruckus in his conservative Likud Party this week when he said Israel would have to give up some of the Jewish settlments in the West Bank.

Pretoria
Facing AIDS: South Africa has announced a bold new program to treat its mounting AIDS epidemic. Over the next five years, the government will spend several billion dollars building clinics and training thousands of doctors, nurses, and counselors.

Baghdad
Iraq's American diplomat: Iraq's new ambassador to the U.S. is a woman and an American citizen.

[JPWRana]

OR u could just go to www.cnn.com or www.foxnews.com

[Admin]

But do you actually visit those sites to get the summary of world news?
http://news.google.com/ is a good place to start your daily news coverage.

[Admin]

Washington, D.C.
Free condoms: The government of Washington, D.C., is planning to put dispensers loaded with free condoms in some of its offices to help prevent AIDS, The Washington Post reported this week.

Cincinnati
Beating caught on tape: Racial tensions surged in Cincinnati this week after a 350-pound black man, Nathaniel Jones, died following a videotaped beating by two white policemen.

Fort Benning, Georgia
Chaplain faces new charge: A Muslim Army chaplain once suspected of espionage has been released from a military jail, only to be charged with adultery and storing pornography on his government computer.

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Homeward bound: The Pentagon plans to release 140 suspected Taliban and al Qaida fighters being held at Guantanamo Bay, home as early as this month without charges, while others will be transferred to jails in their home countries.

New York
9/11 and a dirty secret: A dozen New York City firefighters have left their wives for the widows of comrades who died on Sept. 11, the New York Post reported this week.

Cap-Haitien
Payback time: Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide demanded this week that France return $21.7 billion, the equivalent of the sum that his country paid nearly two centuries ago for formal recognition of its independence.

Berlin
Adenauer the greatest: Germans have picked Konrad Adenauer, the chancellor who led West Germany out of the post-Nazi gloom, as the "best German" of all time.

Milan
Kyoto pact on the ropes: Russia may have dealt the Kyoto treaty on global warming a deathblow this week when it said it would not ratify the pact.

Belfast, U.K.
Hard-liners triumph: Protestant voters in the British province of Norther Ireland have elected a hard-line party opposed to the Good Friday peace accord.

Paris
Diplomat strike: Thousands of French diplomats staged a one-day strike this week to protest budget cuts at the Foreign Ministry.

Rome
Baby bonus: Italian mothers who give birth between now and the end of next year will win a cash prize of more than $1,000. Italy has one of the lowest birth rate in the world, at 1.2 children per woman.

Chisinau, Moldova
No to Russia: Nearly 10,000 people demonstrated in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau this week, protesting a Russian-backed plan to give a separatist region more autonomy.

Tbillisi, Georgia
Those meddling Russians: Georgian officials are furious that Russian officials hosted three Georgian rebel leaders in Moscow this week.

Adidjan, Ivory Coast
Peacekeppers unpopular: A machetewaving mob mob laid siege to France's main military base in Ivory Coast this week, demanding that French peacekeepers leave so that government forces can crush the rebels.

Baghdad
Dishonorable love? A U.S. soldier in Iraq is being kicked out of the Army for sneaking away from patrol duty to marry an Iraqi woman, his lawyer siad this week.

Taipei
Step toward sovereignty? Taiwanese legilsators last week passed a bill allowing a referendum on whether the island should declare itself officially sovereign and separate from mainland China.

Bangkok
No philandering: The ruling party in Thailand has sparked an internal revolt over its plans to require members running for office to give up their mistresses.

Beijing
AIDS awareness breakthrough: The prime minister of China appeared on national television this week holding hands with AIDS patients, making him the first Chinese leader to publicly address the epidemic.

[Admin]

Boston
Church mansion for sale: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is selling the archbishop's mansion and mortgaging Holy Cross cathedral to help raise $85 million to settle lawsuits brought by Catholics sexually abused by priests.

Denver
Vaccine stocks run out: Colorado, Texas, and several other states began rationing the flu vaccine this week after their supplies ran perilously low and the manufacturers of the shots announced that they had run out.

Sacramento
Arnold vs. the Democrats: California lawmakers this week rejected Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan for balancing the budget, handling him his first major political defeat.

Falndreau, S.D.
Congressman convicted: Representative William Janklow (R-S.D.) announced this week that he was resigning from Congress an hour after he was convicted of manslaughter.

Washington, D.C.
To the moon: President Bush wants to send astronauts back to the moon after a 30-year absence, several publications reported last week.

Bocaiuva do Sul, Brazil
No gays allowed: The major of Bocaiuva do Sul, Brazil, has signed a decree barring homosexuals from moving to his town.

Kassel, Germany
Cannibal on trial: A German man on trial for murder says he is innocent because his victim volunteered to be killed and eaten.

Stockholm
In bed with Big Liquor: The Swedish prime minister married the head of the state-owned liquor monopoly this week, forging a connection many Swedes see as a conflict of interest

Dublin
Catholic apology: The Catholic Church in Ireland has formally apologized for covering up child sex-abuse scandals for years.

Paris
Urban flight: Parisians disgusted by traffic and crime are fleeing the City of Light.

Brussels
Fraud in the E.U.: Embezzling cost the European Union more than $1 billion last year, the Lond Times reported this week.

Athens
Save the brothels: The Movement Greek Prostitutes marched on Parliament this week to protest the government's refusal to allow easy access to brothels during next summer's Olympics.

Moscow
Suicide bombings: A suicide bombing killed six people this week outside a prominent hotel near the Kremlin.

Harare, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe quits Commonwealth: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has announced he is pulling his country out of British Commonwealth.

Shanghai, China
Bikes cause traffic: Shanghai, China's largest city, will ban bicycles from major roads starting next year, the Shanghai Daily reported this week.

Hutala, Afghanistan
U.S. apologizes: A U.S. military raid went horribly wrong this week and killed nine Afghan children.

Pyongyang, North Korea
No nukes? The Bush administration has little basis for its claim that North Korea already has one or two nuclear bombs, the Los Angeles Times reported this week.

Tokyo
Off to Iraq: Japan's Cabinet this week agreed to send 1,000 troops to Iraq in the country's largest overseas miliatry deployment since World War II.

[Admin]

Ottawa
New premier sworn in: Paul Martin took over as Canada's new prime minister this week, promising to send frayed relations with the U.S. The traditionally close allies drifted apart this year after outgoing prime minister Jean Chretien opposed the war in Iraq.

Somerville, New Jersey
Nuurse confesses: A nurse charged with murdering a critically ill New Jersey priest told prosecutors this week that he had killed more than 30 “very sick” people since 1987 to end their misery.

Columbia, South Carolina
Thurmond's secret daughter: The family of Strom Thurmond, the late South Carolina senator who was once the nation's leading segregationist, confirmed this week that a retired California teacher was Thurmond's illegitimate, half-black daughter.

West Palm Beach, Florida
The price of leniency: A man convicted of drunken driving got three years shaved off his prison term last week after he paid the victim's family $100,000.

Lima
Premier ousted: Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo this week fired his prime minister, Beatriz Merino, after she accused rivals of spreading rumors that she was a lesbian.

South Windsor, Connecticut
Governor under fire: Connecticut Governor John Rowland admitted that a major state contractor paid for improvements at his lakeside summer cottage, prompting Democrats to call for his resignation.

Brussels
E.U. Bitterly divided: The first E.U. Summit to include the 10 prospective new members collapsed in disarray last weekend after the countries couldn't agree on a constitution.

Paris
No head scarved, yarmulkes: An independent commission has recommended that French schools forbid “conspicuous” religious symbols, such as head scarves on Muslim girls, yarmulkes on Jewish boys, and large crosses worn by Christians.

The Hague, Netherlands
Clark takes the stand: Retired general Wesley Clark testified against Slobodan Milosevic this week at the former Serbian president's war-crimes trial in The Hague.

Halsa, Norway
Willy free at last: Keiko, the killer whale that starred in the hit film Free Willy, died last week of acute pneumonia.

Hamburg, Germany
9/11 suspect losse: A German judge ordered that a Moroccan man suspected of involvement in the 9/11 attacks he freed, saying the U.S. Government's refusal to allow the testimony of a jailed al Qaida operative left him no choice.

Nicosia, Cyprus
Deadlock on unification: Voters in northern Cyprus couldn't agree this week on whether to reunify their Turkish-dominated republic their Turkis-dominated republic with the Greek-dominated rest of the island.

Addis Abada
Dictator's endless trial: Nine years into the genocide trial of former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, the defense this week spoke for the first time.

Baku, Azerbaijan
Old leader dies: Heidar Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan from 1991 until he stepped down this year due to ill health, died this week at age 80.

Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Assassination attempt: A massive, remote-controlled bomb blew up a bridge less than a minute after Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, had crossed it in his presidential motorcade.

Lagos, Nigeria
Illegal ivory trade: Elepyhants are being slaughtered across Africa because Nigeria, Senegal, and Ivory Coast have ignored the global ban on the ivory trade, environmental groups said this week.

Nairobi
The fleecing of Kenya: Government officials stole at least $1 billion and possibly as much as $4 billion in taxpayer money during the 1990s, Kenyan investigators said this week.

Kabul
New constitution: A loya jirga, or grand council, of 502 delegates met in Kabul this week to finalize Afghanistan's first post-Tabliban constitution.

[Admin]

Snoqualmie Pass, Washington
Skier found alive: A 25-year old skier was rescued this week after spending four subfreezing nights in the Cascade Mountains with no food.

Sacramento, California
Arnold slashes budget: California's largest teacher's union this week endorsed a proposal by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to cut $2 billion in education spending in his first budget.

Grove City, Ohio
Jittery students return: Children returned to schools in Grove City, Ohio, this week for the first time since police linked bullet marks found on two school buses to a string of recent highway shootings.

Miami, Florida
Teen to be freed: Lionel Tate, the youngest American ever sentenced to life in prison, has struck a deal to win his release this month, after just three years behind bars.

Camden, New Jersey
Senator Clinton threatened: A convicted bank robber admitted in court last week that he threatened to kill Senator Hillary Clinton to "spice up" his life.

Quito
Rebel leader captured: A powerful leader of Colombia's largest rebel leader of Colombia's largest rebel group was captured this week in neighboring Ecuador.

Brussels
Wave of letter bombings: European Union officials all over the Continent received letter bombs last week- a few of which went off, though nobody was hurt.

London
Inquest into Diana's death: The official inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and her lover, Dodi Fayed, began this week, more than six years after the two were killed in a car crash in Paris.

Belgrade
Nationalists take over Serbia: Serbia's first election since Slobodan Milosevic's party was thrown out of power, three years ago, has ended in victory for the extreme nationalists.

Brussels
New face at NATO: Former Dutch foreign minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer took over this week as secretary-general of NATO with a pledge to "build bridges" between the U.S. and Europe.

Rome
Joke falls flat: Three passengers on a KLM flight were arrested this week after they claimed to be hijacking the plane.

Jerusalem
Hard-liners jeer Sharon: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was jeered and booed this week when he told a convention of his Likud Party that Israel was closing down some Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
Mysterious plan crash: A charter jet crashed into the Red Sea last week shortly after takeoff, killing all 148 people on board.

Tbillsi
'Rose revolutionary' wins: Georgians elected the young, U.S.-educated lawyer Mikhail Saakashvili as their new president in a landslide this week.

Guangdong, China
SARS sparks animal slaughter: Officials in Guangdong province said this week that they would kill thousands of civet cats to prevent the spread of SARS.

Tehran
Will the capital relocate? In the wake of the devastating earthquake that leveled the ancient city of Bam last month, Iran is considering moving its capital from Tehran to another city.

Kabul
The fleecing of Kenya: Government officials stole at least $1 billion and possibly as much as $4 billion in taxpayer money during the 1990s, Kenyan investigators said this week.

Kabul
Constitution adopted: After weeks of debate, Afghanistan's loya jirga has approved a new constitution that provides for a moderate Islamic republic with most power concentrated in the president.

[Admin]

Washington, D.C.
Plot details emerge: The recent Code Orange terrorism alert was triggered by the most specific warnings of imminent attacks ever uncovered, federal officials said this week.

Orange County, California
Mountain lion strikes: A mountain lion killed one cyclist and wounded another in the foothills of California's Santa Ana Mountains last week.

Hartfold
Governor under fire: A growing number of Connecticut lawmakers this week demanded the resignation of Governor John Rowland, who is facing a federal corruption investigation.

Washington D.C.
Implant ban upheld: The Food and Drug Administration this week rejected a bid to put silicone-gel breast implants back on the market.

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Shark victim returns: Bethany Hamilton, 13, finished fifth in her age group at a national surfing contest this week, less than three months after a shark bit off her left arm.

Rio de Janeiro
Fighting over fingerprinting: A Brazilian judge this week ordered immigration officers to stop fingerprinting American travelers arriving in Rio de Janeiro.

London
Dr. Death is dead: Britain's worst mass murderer, a family doctor who killed hundreds of his patients, was found hanging dead in his cell this week.

Minsk
Paper squelched: The Belarusian national postal service said this week it would no longer deliver the country's most prominent opposition newspaper, Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta.

Paris
Family terror cell: French police have arrested a family of Islamic extremists for allegedly planning a chemical or biological attack in Paris.

Madrid
Future queen's hidden past: Spanish officials have purchased a 1,3000 pound safe to lock up the divorce papers of Crown Prince Felipe's bridge, Madrid's El Mundo reported this week.

Rome
Berlusconi not immune: Italy's highest court has thrown out a law granting the prime minister immunity from prosecution as long as he stays in office.

Stockholm
Lindh killer confesses: The man charged with stabbing Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh to death last fall said this week that Jesus made him do it.

Baghdad
Shiites want elections: A prominent Shiite cleric this week complained that Iraqi parliamentary elections being organized by the U.S. were not democratic enough.

Nouakchott, Mauritania
New front in war on terror: The U.S. is sending Army experts and defense contractors to Mauritania to help train local officials to combat terrorism.

Tehran
Hard-liners strike back: Iran's hard-line Guardian Council ruled this week that thousands of prodemocracy candidates were not eligible to run in parliamentary elections next month.

Moscow
Conspiracy theory lingers: Russia sentenced two men to life in prison this week for the 1999 apartment bombings that killed more than 200 people, mostly in Moscow.

Alofi, Niue
Everybody moves away: Niue, a Pacific island that is the world's smallest self-governing country, may give up its independence after a tornado flattened the capital this week.

Yongbyon, North Korea
Nuclear backtrack: Contradicting previous claims, North Korea said this week that it did not possess nuclear weapons.

[Admin]

Washington, D.C.
The Bible and the Grand Canyon: A battle over religion has broken out in the Grand Canyon.

Plano, Texas
A new kind of Episcopalian: Conservative Episcopalians meeting in Texas this week said they would not sever ties with the national church over last year's consecration of an openly gay bishop.

Jackson, Mississippi
Pickering joins bench: President Bush installed Mississippi Judge Charles Pickering Sr. on a federal appeals court last week, bypassing Democratic opposition by acting while Congress was in recess.

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
New 9/11 suspect: FBI agents believe that a prisoner at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay was meant to be the "20th hijacker" in the September 11 terrorist attacks, Newsweek reported this week.

Minneapolis
Northwest fesses up: Northwest Airlines last week admitted that it provided information on millions of passengers to the government for secret research on air security.

Port-au-Prince
Protests intensify: Thousands marched through Haiti's capital this week, shouting for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to resign.

London
Mellowing out on pot: Possession of small amounts of marijuana is no longer punishable in Britain as of this week, at least for first-time offenders.

Stockholm
Art critic: Israel's ambassador to Sweden was thrown out of a national museum this week for vandalizing an artwork that he said glorified Palestinian suicide bombers.

Nantes, France
Attack on top Muslim: A bomb destroyed the car of France's first Muslim governor this week, just foru days after he was appointed to his post.

Madrid
Childhood never ends: A disabled father must pay a quarter of his pension to support his 25-year-old son, a Spanish court ruled this week.

Paris
Here comes Starbucks: The Seattle coffee giant Starbucks opened its first shop in Paris this week, offering huge papers cups of lattes-to-go to a people used to sipping express from China.

Amsterdam
Paying for the pill: The Netherlands has ended its decades-long policy of providing women with free birth control.

Jerusalem
Rabin killer to wed: Israelis erupted in protest this week over a report that the man who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin planned to get married in prison.

Islamabad
Nuclear secrets sold: Eight scientists and officials in Pakistan's nuclear program were arrested this week for allegedly supplying nuclear technology to Iran and Libya.

Ho Chi Minh City
Bird flu strikes: A type of avian flu sweeping bird populations in Asia has leaped to humans, killing five people in Vietname.

Tripoli
Arms inspectors return: The U.S. and U.N. reached an agreement this week on how to dismantle Libya's illegal weapons programs.

Baghdad
Biggest blast in months: A suicide bomber blew u a truck outside the U.S. military headquarters in Baghdad this week, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 100, mostly Iraqis.

Sagatho, Afghanistan
Did U.S. kil civilians? Afghans kill civilians? Afghans and U.S. officials were at odds this week over an air raid in southern Afghanistan.

[Admin]

Chicago
No reparations: A federal judge this week dismissed a lawsuit demanding reparations from 19 companies that allegedly profited from slavery.

New York
Martha Stewart trial opens: Prosecutors this week opened their case against Martha Stewart, the style guru accused of lying to cover up her panicked sale of a plunging stock.

Los Angeles
Patriot Act under fire: A federal judge in California this week struck down part of the USA Patriot Act, making the first time a section of the law had been ruled unconstitutional.

Elwood, Indiana
Lottery tragedy: Carl Atwood, 73, couldn't believe his luck when he won $57,000 last week in an Indiana lottery game being taped for television.

Mexico City
Literature vs. crime: Mexico City subway workers have begun distributing free books in an effort to fight crime.

Washington, D.C.
Hunt under scrutiny: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia denied this week that he'd compromised his impartiality by going on a duck-hunting trip with Vice President Dick Cheney.

Brussels
Don't arm China: European Union foreign ministers this week rejected France's request to lift an E.U. ban on selling weapons on China.

London
Chirac as Blair's enemy: French President Jacques Chirac opposed the war in Iraq simply to undermine Prime Minister Tony Blair, a new book asserts.

The Hague
Crotian Serb admits guilt: The wartime leader of Croatia's Serbs pleaded guilty this week to the "persecution" of Croats during the Balka wars.

Paris
Doggy bags for wine: French restaurants have begun allowing their customers to take home open bottles of wine.

Parma, Italy
Company scandal grows: The bankrupt food company Parmalat owes a whopping $18 billion to its creditors, auditors said this week.

Rome
Cheney praises allies: Vice President Dick Cheney toured Switzerland and Italy this week, urging Europe to stand tough in the war on terror.

Moscow
Harsh words from Powell: Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote a scathing front-page commentary in the Russian newspaper Izvestia this week, criticizing Russia for failing to live up to democratic norms.

Beijing
Great Wall crumbles: The Great Wall of China is disintegrating, China's official news agency said this week.

Seoul
Truckloads of cash: More than a dozen people have been arrested so far in an investigation into bribery and corruption in South Korea's 2002 elections.

Jerusalem
Lopsided exchange: Israel and the Lebanese-based militant group Hezbollah agreed this week to a swap of prisoners and bodies.

Lusaka, Zambia
Why does Iraq get a break? Zambia's vice president called this week for International institutions to forgive his country's debt.

Islamabad
Nuclear smuggling: The general who used to head Pakistan's nuclear program denied this week that he sold nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya, or other countries.

[Admin]

Washington, D.C.
Threat grounds flight: A Continental Airlines flight from Washington to Houston was cancled this wek because of a threat that it might be targeted by terrorirsts.

Washington, D.C.
Ricin scare in the Senate: Three Senate office buildings were shut down this week after white powder found in a mairlroom test positive for ricin, a deadly poison.

Baltimore
Hope for the Hubble: NASA last week promised to reconsider plans to abandon the Hubble Space Telescopre to an early death.

Buckeye, Arizona
Immates surrender: Two Arizona prison inmates this week released a hostage they had held in a guard tower for 15 days, ending one of the longest prison hostage standoffs in the U.S. history.

Havana
Castro lashes out: Cuban President Fidel Castrol this week accused President BUsh of plotting to assassinate him. "But rest assured, if they invade us, I'll die in combat," said Castro.

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Teenagers freed: The U.S. has released the three youngest prisoners at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and sent them home to their families in Afghanistan.

London
WMD inquiry: The British government said this week that it would open an investigation into the faulty intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Berlin
Cannibal gets off easy: Self-confessed cannibal Armin Meiwes was cleared of murder last week and sentenced instead to 8 1/2 years of manslaughter.

Paris
Ban on anti-Semitic TV: France will block broadcasts from virulently antiSemitic Arab satellite stations, the government said this week.

Stockholm
Animal abuse: Several hundred pets are injured each year in Sweden because of sexual assault by humans, the Swedish veterinary organization ZSvenska Veterinarforbunder said this week.

Paris
Scandal sullies the president: The judges who sentenced a former prime minister to prison for corruption last week said they were threatened and pressured during the trial.

Urbino, Italy
Mussolini returns: Italian officials are planning to restore a Mount Rushmore-style rock sculpture of Benito Mussolini.

Tehran
Lawmakers quit en masse: More than one-third of Iran's parliament resigned thsi week to protest the ruling clerics' attempt to control the upcoming election.

Moscow
Is Russia a Muslim country? Russia has begun a lobbying campaign to join the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the international grouping or Muslim countries.

Islamabad
Pakistan armed rogues: Abdul Qadir Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, admitted this week that he provided nuclear designs and technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Bird flu in humans: The avian flu that has been spreading rapidly in Asian bird populations may now be transmissible from human to human, the World Health Organization said this week.

Mecca, Sauci Arabia
Haji turns deadly: At least 244 people were killed this week in a stampede during the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which every Muslim must make at least one.

Mogadishu, Somalia
Peace accord: Somali warlords and tribal chiefs signed a peace agreement this week in an attempt to end 13 years of anarchy and sporadic warfare.

[Admin]

Washington D.C.
A showdown looms: The independent commission investigating the September 11 attacks this week
threatened to subpoena documents the Bush administration has refused to hand over.

Dover, Deleware
Poultry scare: Authorities rushed to test chickens in Delaware this week after an outbreak of avian influenza
was reported on two poultry farms.

Columbus, Ohio
Clue in highway shootings: Police this week got what could be their first clear description of the sniper
who has been stalking highways outside Columbus, Ohio.

Sarasota, Florida
Girl (Carlie brucia, 11) found dead: A Florida whos abduction was caught on videotape by a security camera was found dead last week
in a church parking lot.

Gonaives, Haiti
Uprising spreads quickly: Rebels seized 11 Haitian cities this week, torching police stations and demanding
the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Washington, D.C.
Rapes reported in Iraq: Dozens of women returning from military duty in the Persian Gulf have reported
being sexually assaulted by their fellow servicemen.

Berlin
Chancellor teetering: German Chanellor Gerhard Schroder quit this week as head of the Social Democrats, saying
that he needed to concentrate on running the country and not on party politics.

Bratislava, Slovakia
Identity crisis: The prime ministers of Slovakia and Slovenia complained this week that the reat of the world
got their two countries confused.

London
Britain's own FBI: Britain has created a new government agency, modeled on the U.S. FBI, that will fight organized
crime.

[b]Paris/b]
Head-scarf ban: France's lower house of parliament this week overwhelmingly approved a law banning the
wearing of religious accessories in public schools.

Munich
Grumpy allies: The U.S. and Europe sniped at each other over the Iraq war once again this week, this time at the annual
Munich security conference of defense and foreign ministers.

Ljubljana, Slovenia
Mosque not wanted: Centrist and right-wing parties succeeded this week in temporarily blocking the building of
the first mosque in the Slovenian capital.

Moscow
Subway blast: Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was certain that Chechen terrorists were to blame
for last week's deadly bomb explosion in the Moscow Metro.

Baghdad
Al Qaida can't recruit: An Islamic militant with ties to al Qaida has complained that the Iraqi people are not
turning against the Americans, despite his best efforts to destablize the country.

Jerusalem
Wall route changed: Israel said this week that it would move parts of its controversial.

Moscow
Lost and found: Ivan Rybkin, a presidential candidate and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin,
disappeared for five days this week, only to resurface in Ukraine.

Pyongyang
Are prisoners gassed? Human-rights activitists said this week that they had evidence to support longstanding
allegations that North Korea has tested chemical weapons on humans.

Manila
Philippine Schwarzenegger: The Phillippine's biggest action hero, known as "Da King," announced this week
that he would run for President.