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-- WASHINGTON (Reuters) American aircraft are continuing raids in
eastern Afghanistan, as President Bush issued a stark warning to followers and
allies of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaida terror group. "They think they can
run, they think they can hide, because they think this country's soft and
impatient," he said. "But they're going to continue to learn the
terrible lesson that says don't mess with America."
-- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on
reasserted US commitment to a nuclear testing moratorium for now as the Pentagon
sent Congress a new top-secret proposal to overhaul the nation's nuclear policy.
Speaking before defense officials briefed congressional staffers on the Nuclear
Policy Review, left open the possibility that future underground tests might be
needed to keep the shrinking U.S. nuclear arsenal "safe and reliable."
A Congressional aide who attended a briefing on the review by Defense
Department officials said the review urged a quicker process of resuming testing
should that become necessary. Under current guidelines this would take two to
three years.
The aide said the report did not specifically state how long the period was,
but The Washington Post interpreted the move to speed up the process as a sign
the Bush administration might resume testing after a decade-long moratorium.
Bush has already said he intends to cut the arsenal of U.S. strategic nuclear
warheads from about 6,000 warheads to a level of 1,700-2,100.
Rumsfeld said Bush would continue for now to observe a self-imposed 1992 U.S.
moratorium on nuclear testing. Any decision to resume testing would be sure to
provoke protests from other countries, including U.S. allies.
Bush's father, former President George Bush, imposed a moratorium on
underground nuclear testing in 1992, which was upheld by former President Bill
Clinton. The U.S. Senate decided in 1999 not to ratify the proposed
international Comprehensive Test Ban treaty, which is aimed at a global ban on
all nuclear tests.
The treaty would go into formal effect only after ratification by 44
countries that either possess nuclear weapons or are capable of building them. A
number of those countries, including the United States, China, Pakistan, India,
North Korea and Israel, have not ratified the treaty.
Rumsfeld refused to discuss details of the classified nuclear review,
including whether or not it recommended designing new and small nuclear arms
intended to penetrate and destroy underground bunkers such as those used by al
Qaida guerrillas in Afghanistan.
-- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration has renewed its call
for US law enforcement agencies to remain vigilant for unspecified threats,
extending the current high alert status for three months and covering the Winter
Olympic Games in Utah. "The FBI issued a general alert to local law
enforcement agencies extending their previous alerts," informs Homeland
Security Office spokesman Gordon Johndroe, saying: "It urges local law
enforcement to continue at high alert and to notify the FBI of anything
suspicious or usual."
-- WASHINGTON (CNN) - The U.S. has added two charities believed to be
raising money for al Qaida to its global terrorist watch list, Treasury
Secretary Paul O'Neill said Wednesday. The groups -- the Afghan Support
Committee and the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society -- operated in Afghanistan
and Pakistan and were not believed to have any assets in the United States.
-- HOUSTON (AP) - Andrea Pia Yates, 37, confessed to police that on
June 20 she drowned her children, ranging in age from 6 months to 7 years, but
she has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. Her attorneys say she suffers
from a severe form of postpartum depression.
Prosecutor Joe Owmby said the state could reconsider its decision to seek the
death penalty if more evidence were revealed. "Even at this stage for
example, the defendant could chose to accept criminal responsibility which would
be an additional mitigating factor and would I believe, very likely, call the
state to recommend a life sentence," the prosecutor said.
The state would not seek the death penalty for Yates if she accepts
responsibility for drowning her five children in the bathtub, a prosecutor
disclosed as the questioning of prospective jurors got under way. The American
media have also put the spotlight on the trial, despite Judge Belinda Hill
forbidding camera crews in the court room and placing a gagging order on those
involved in the case.
Ms Yates' husband nonetheless gave an interview to American television
station CBS, in which he said the blame for his children's death lay with the
doctors who he said failed to treat her.
-- SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The recession is tough for everyone, but for
minorities the economic pain has been even sharper. Experts say that's because
that Blacks and Hispanics are particularly vulnerable to the recession because
many work in manufacturing, air transportation, hotels and temporary employment
services industries that have been among the hardest hit by the downturn.
TEEN SUICIDE
-- TAMPA, FL (AP) - Two days before Bishop flew a stolen plane into a
Tampa high-rise, he e-mailed his friend to tell him to watch for him on the
news. I dont think he supported bin Laden at all, says Emerson Favreau,
a 10th-grader at the East Lake High School. He wrote a journalism paper about
how he felt sorry for all the people who were killed [on Sept. 11] and how he
hated bin Laden. I think he wrote that in the [suicide] note just to get
publicity.
No one interviewed about Bishop could remember him expressing support for the
Sept. 11 attacks before his plane crash. "Charles and his family have
always fully supported our United States' war on terrorism and Osama bin
Laden," his family said in a statement.
The boy's mother, Julia Bishop, said she saw no signs that her son was troubled
and is upset with reports that her son was a loner. "He was a friendly,
social boy," she said. Bishop said she was stunned that her only child
would kill himself, and shocked about the suicide note. Bishop said she went to
pick up her son at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, where he was
taking flying lessons. When she got there, she said she was told of news reports
about her son. "I have not slept since Saturday..." she said. "He
was my shining star. He was the light of my life. There is nothing I would not
do for that child. Everybody loved him."
That description contrasts starkly with the one given by authorities, who have
said the high school freshman was a troubled teen-ager with few friends.
FBI has found no evidence worth pursuing on the computer hard drives taken from
the homes of Bishop and his grandmother.
A prescription for Accutane, used to treat severe acne, was found. The
medication has links to suicide and depression that have been the subject of
federal inquiries, law enforcement officials said The Food and Drug
Administration says 147 people taking Accutane, which affects the body's central
nervous system, either committed suicide or were hospitalized for suicide
attempts from 1982 to May 2000. There has yet to be any conclusive evidence,
however, that the drug causes depression or suicide.
Accutane's link to suicide has been the subject of a congressional
investigation, spearheaded by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich), whose 17-year-old son
committed suicide while taking the drug. More hearings are scheduled for spring.
Depression has been listed as a possible side effect on Accutane's label since
1986, and the FDA in 1998 strengthened the warning to say that suicide, too, is
possible. See: FDA
warnings and facts on Accutane.
The maker of the drug, Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., denies that the drug can cause
people to become depressed or suicidal, noting that the suicide rate among
Accutane users is lower than that among the general population.
Toxicology tests that will determine if any drugs were in Bishop's system will
be completed in about two weeks.
Security is again being reviewed after a teenager allegedly supporting the 9/11
attacks crashed a plane into a Florida skyscraper. January 5th, Fifteen-year-old
Charles Bishop made an unauthorized takeoff in the Cessna 172R from a St.
Petersburg airport, and began a flight that briefly included airspace over
MacDill Air Force Base. Ignoring signals to land from a Coast Guard helicopter,
he crashed into the 28th floor of the 42-story Bank of America building.
The Federal Aviation Administration, in the wake of the suicidal crash issued
new security suggestions for flight schools and airfields.
Bishop was fatality injured when his single-engine Cessna plane hit the
skyscraper early on Saturday evening. No causalities were reported there.
Bishop was revealed to have been obsessed by the devastating suicide hijack
attacks of 9/11 and was carrying a suicide note "expressing sympathy"
for Osama Bin Laden. In a short suicide note, he stated that he is acting alone.
He is portrayed as a loner, with few friends, and no apparent links to Bin
Laden's al-Qaida. The note, a few paragraphs handwritten on plain white paper,
was not addressed to anyone specifically. He had no record of any trouble with
the police in the past.
In Palm Harbor, police began interviewing family at the apartment complex where
Bishop lived with his mother. Julia Bishop, the boy's mother, told a camera crew
to get out when they attempted to film her as she opened her door for
investigators. Later, investigators said that Bishop's grandmother had taken him
to the National Aviation Academy flight school at St. Petersburg-Clearwater
International Airport for a 5 p.m. flying lesson. He had been taking flying
lessons since March and was not seen as a complete novice.
-- NEW YORK (AP) - Jamel Saleks Crawford, 22, and Joshua Wayne Andrews,
19, were each charged with two counts of capital murder, one count of murder and
two counts of attempted murder, among other crimes. The two Virginia men were
charged yesterday with going on a month-long shooting rampage that left three
Prince William County residents dead and four other people wounded from Stafford
County to New York City, police said. The shootings are thought to be drug
business related. They are being held in New York City, where police searched
for them in two boroughs before their arrest yesterday, authorities said.
-- NEW YORK (AP) - New Yorkers living around the site where the World
Trade Center once stood say they have found evidence the area is unfit for human
habitation. They say that independently-commissioned scientific tests have found
high levels of asbestos, lead and other dangerous chemicals near the twin
towers, which collapsed after being hit in suicide airliner attacks on September
11.
Local residents are worried some of the substances released into the air by the
collapse of the twin towers may lead to long-term health problems. According to
the International Herald Tribune, about a quarter of the city's firefighters who
have worked at the devastated twin towers' site - dubbed Ground Zero - have
complained of severe coughing.
Last week four police officers were taken off the site after testing positive
for abnormally-high levels of mercury in their blood.
Dozens of students at Stuyvesant High School nearby have developed rashes,
breathing difficulties, nosebleeds and headaches.
The EPA initially reassured New Yorkers that the air was safe, although tests
carried out by the agency shortly afterwards found elevated levels of dangerous
chemicals such as lead and benzene. More recent tests commissioned by residents
in apartments north of Ground Zero have also found asbestos, which can cause
cancer, at levels 500 times higher than the authorities say is acceptable.
AFGHANISTAN
-- KABUL (CNN) - A US military plane carrying seven Marines has crashed in
south-west Pakistan with loss of life.
The KC-130 refueling plane was nearing a base in southwestern Pakistan when
it crashed. The Pentagon said there was no immediate indication of enemy fire or
hostile action taken against the plane.
The cause of the crash is under investigation. The names of the Marines are
being withheld until relatives have been informed.
Among those killed was radio operator Sgt. Jeannette L. Winters, 25, of Gary,
Indiana, the first woman to be killed in the U.S.-led war on terrorism,
Operation Enduring Freedom.
Marines killed:
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- Command Pilot: Capt. Matthew W. Bancroft, 29,
of Shasta, California
- Co-pilot: Capt. Daniel G. McCollum, 29, of
Richland, South Carolina
- Flight Engineer: Gunnery Sgt. Stephen L. Bryson,
35, of Montgomery, Alabama
- Loadmaster: Staff Sgt. Scott N. Germosen, 37,
of Queens, New York
- Flight mechanic: Sgt. Nathan P. Hays, 21, of
Lincoln, Washington
- Flight navigator: Lance Cpl. Bryan P. Bertrand,
23, of Coos Bay, Oregon
- Radio operator: Sgt. Jeannette L. Winters, 25,
of Gary, Indiana
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America's new envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said the bombing would
continue as long as a threat to the US remained. Thousands of loosely organized
but heavily armed Northern Alliance troops have occupied Kabul since the Taliban
fled the city on November 13.
A team of U.S. congressmen visiting the region said security was the new
government's top priority. Crime is increasing in Kabul according to Frank Wolf,
a Republican congressman from Virginia.
A British-led international security force, mandated by the United Nations,
is gradually moving into Kabul and is expected to eventually number 4,000 to
5,000.
About 35 hard-core Taliban and al Qaida leaders remain at large, and
Afghanistan is committed to bringing them to justice, the country's interim
leader said.
In a surprise for the UN, more refugees are fleeing Afghanistan and more are
reported to be getting ready to flee the city of Kandahar.
BBC Report: Blair
pledges support for Afghan people
The UK prime minister - the first Western leader in Afghanistan since the
collapse of the Taleban - promises long-term help.
Khalid Pashtoon, a spokesman for Kandahar province Gov. Gul Agha that they
have taken custody of five Taliban officials including the defense and
justice ministers of the ousted regime. Meanwhile, a U.S. official told The
Associated Press that intelligence indicates that two senior al-Qaida leaders
have been killed in the military campaign in Afghanistan.
Intelligence: PBS 
General
Myers (30:25)
Press conference with General Myers; discusses the al Qaida captures and other
action in Afghanistan. (1/8/02)
Detainees
Transfers and Action (30:50)
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke and Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem show
slides of a January 3 strike and discuss the transfer of detainees to Guantanamo
Bay. (1/7/02)
ARGENTINA
-- (BBC) - Argentina's new government has announced the long-expected
devaluation of the peso, ending 10 years of parity with the US dollar in a
dramatic bid to save the collapsing economy.
COLUMBIA (AP) - The Colombian Government has broken off peace talks with the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), putting an end to a three year
peace process with the leftist rebel group. The country's civil war pits the
Marxist-inspired rebel group against the US-backed Colombian military and an
outlawed right-wing military group. After three years of talks, the two sides
have never reached a single agreement on a peace treaty.
ISRAEL &
INDIA
BBC Report: Israel
and India 'share same views'
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres tells Indian
leaders during a visit to Delhi that the two countries share similar views on
the world.
India & China (Washington Post)
Asia officially entered the nuclear club in 1964, when China tested its
first atomic weapon. India, in particular, was wary of its militarist neighbor.
Ties between the two countries had worsened since 1959, when Tibet's Dalai Lama
fled to India after the Chinese invasion of the Himalayan territory. India also
had lost a brief border war with the Chinese in 1962 a defeat that led India
to shift more resources toward nuclear weapons research.
In 1971, hostilities erupted again as Pakistan troops began assaults on
India-backed Bengali separatists in East Pakistan. A brutal campaign ensued with
Bengalis subsequently declaring their nation (Bangladesh) independent and India
joining the fight against its western neighbor. By December 1971, some one
million people had died in fighting that ended with Pakistan's surrender.
Pakistan's defeat spurred its leaders to pursue a secret nuclear weapons program
by 1972. China reportedly supplied Pakistan with plans for a nuclear bomb in
1983, as well as enough highly enriched uranium for two thermonuclear weapons.
Pakistan and India worked on acquiring and perfecting nuclear-capable missiles
throughout the 1980s and 1990s. India tested in 1988 its Prithvi missile,
capable of carrying a nuclear warhead into Pakistan. Meanwhile the Pakistanis
launched a program to develop two short-range ballistic missile systems in the
1980s.
In the 1990s, repeated clashes between Indian army troops and Muslim separatists
in the long-disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir further strained relations
between the two countries, as India blamed Pakistan for aiding the Muslims.
A long-simmering tension escalated with India testing nuclear weapons in May
1998. Pakistan, which has received significant nuclear help from China,
immediately followed suit. But Pakistan was already largely a problem of
the past for India with a nuclear strategy centered on China.
In the aftermath of a series of nuclear test explosions set off by the bitter
rivals, there is perhaps no place on Earth with greater potential for triggering
a nuclear war than Kashmir. Kashmir, long considered a potential flash point for
nuclear war in South Asia, became in 1998 the key to any international effort to
maintain stability between two newly nuclear-armed nations with deeply
entrenched religious and political animosities.
As New Delhi informed President Clinton immediately after the tests, India could
not ignore China's growing nuclear missile force and assistance Beijing was
providing to Pakistan as part of an anti-India policy. Soon, the Clinton
administration announced easing of sanctions against both India and Pakistan,
paving the way for US loans and investments in the two nations.
In efforts by the White House, President Bush will end sanctions on India in a
matter of months, according to aides. He wants a strategic relationship with
India. Additionally, the US ties with Pakistan are strengthening. The president
has nominated as his ambassador to India Robert Blackwill, an experienced
diplomat and broad strategic thinker.
Bush's welcome of Indian support for anti-terror plans is but a small part in
the grand scheme.
More: Washington Post Interactive: The
Conflict in Kashmir
INDIA (CNN)
CNN Report: British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday that the only course for
both India and Pakistan to follow was for the two sides to enter into a
"proper, meaningful dialogue."
And Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said he would address the
nation soon on how his country plans to deal with militancy and extremism. More:
CNN Video
PAKISTAN (Washington Post)
Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, said he would soon unveil a broad
new policy for eradicating terrorism in South Asia in hopes of averting war with
India. Pakistani leaders sympathetic to Musharraf said he is in a difficult
position in deciding what to say in his speech. If he announces harsher steps
against religious radicals or alters his stance on Kashmir, they said, he risks
domestic criticism for caving in to India. But if he says nothing new on either
subject, he could further irritate India and increase the prospect of war.
Publicly, the general has been sometimes delivering different messages to
different constituencies. For instance, in a meeting with military commanders in
Rawalpindi on January 8, Musharraf apparently adopted a more stringent tone than
he did with the U.S. senators, emphasizing that Pakistan would not back down in
a military confrontation with India.
From any perspective, Musharraf has delicately worked to reposition Pakistan
as a moderate Muslim state and to shed its reputation as a haven for terrorists
and religious extremists. During the war in Afghanistan, he ended years of
official Pakistani support for the Taliban, giving US forces access to Pakistani
air bases; despite strong internal opposition.
Musharraf faces a greater challenge in controlling militants who have long
stirred up trouble with India. For more than a decade, Muslim separatists backed
by Pakistan fought India's rule in southern Kashmir. That conflict exacerbated
tensions with India on December 13, 2001 when five gunmen staged an attack on
the Indian Parliament in New Delhi. Fourteen people died in the assault,
including the gunmen.
India blamed Pakistan-based groups for the attack and New Delhi threatened to
respond militarily unless Islamabad cracks down on terrorism. The two nations
have deployed tens of thousands of troops along their 1,800-mile border.
Kashmir rebels have had a close relationship with Pakistan's military and
intelligence agencies, the most powerful institutions in the country. The
government up to now failed in attempts to regulate madrassas, the
religious schools that supply the ranks of Islamic extremist groups.
Gohar Ayub Khan, a former Pakistani foreign minister who is close to
Musharraf, said the country has a history of violent retribution when the
government has tried to get tough with militants. He said judges or prosecutors
who press charges against radicals might become assassination targets, as could
Musharraf.
Under pressure to avoid war, Pakistani authorities have rounded up hundreds
of Islamic militants, raided their offices and frozen their bank accounts in
recent weeks. But the measures have not mollified India, which has demanded a
stronger response and refused to negotiate a pullback of its troops.
BBC Report: Bush
keeps pressure on Pakistan
President Bush urges more action from Pakistan to control militant groups to
try to defuse the current tension with India.
US senators met in Pakistan January 8 with Musharraf.
Senator John McCain (R-Ariz) said the success in Afghanistan would not have
been possible without Musharraf's assistance.
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn) said Musharraf hinted to his American
visitors that his moves will be bold. "I think President Musharraf is
preparing a speech to the Pakistani people that will change the history of this
country," Lieberman said. "I hope it will lead to a de-escalation of
tension and perhaps a whole new relationship between Pakistan and India."
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