World

The first UN weapons inspectors arrived in Baghdad and immediately confronted questions from Iraqi and other Arab journalists about whether they planned to operate on the basis of intelligence data fed to them by the US. Chief inspector Hans Blix said he expected "80 to 100" UN investigators to be available "by Christmas" and insisted that "nothing" would be off-limits, including Saddam Hussein's palaces. Meanwhile, The Independent newspaper in London reported a threat by Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz that Iraq would strike militarily at US "friends in the region" - a reference to Israel - if attacked by American-led forces.

Sky marshals overpowered an Arab-Israeli passenger who tried to hijack a commercial jet bound from Tel Aviv to Istanbul, Turkey. No one was injured in the incident, and the suspect was in police custody. Israeli authorities denied initial reports that the passenger, who's in his early 20s, was armed with a small knife. Turkish TV reports that he had told interrogators he wanted to divert the El Al flight back to Israel and crash it into a building could not be verified. Above, a plainclothes Turkish policeman leads the handcuffed suspect off the plane.

Despite an announced decision to halt their week-long protests, thousands of students staged a new demonstration on their campus in Iran's capital, demanding greater freedom of speech. News reports said the protesters, for the first time, were attacked by "hard-line vigilantes," who punched and kicked them, causing numerous light injuries. Students attempting to move their protest off campus were blocked by police, the reports said.

An official radio station in North Korea hastily sought to clarify a weekend broadcast that appeared to admit the communist nation already has nuclear weapons in its arsenal. The broadcast, which caused international alarm as well as doubts by analysts that it had been interpreted correctly, was revised Monday to say that "we are entitled to have powerful military countermeasures, including nuclear weapons." Analysts in South Korea noted that the original broadcast had run only once and not in prime time.

Abba Eban, who died Sunday in Tel Aviv, was internationally respected for his efforts to help forge the modern Israel. He is best remembered for his service as foreign minister from 1966 to 1974, representing Israel before the world as it fought two wars with its Arab neighbors. But while still in his early 30s, he was appointed ambassador to the UN, where he lobbied successfully for creation of the Jewish state.