World
Amid scathing reactions by Arabs to President Bush's remarks on Iraq at the UN Tuesday, terrorists struck two more targets in that country, killing at least three people and injuring 40 others. The larger attack apparently was aimed at a US military convoy in Baghdad. It failed to harm any American vehicles but wrecked a civilian bus and damaged another. Meanwhile, in the key northern city of Mosul, someone set off a hand grenade in a movie theater. Witnesses said a pornographic film was being shown and speculated that the attack may have been carried out on grounds of morality.
Leading Palestinian militant Marwan Barghouti, on trial in Israel for his alleged role in terrorist attacks on Jews, will not be included in any trade of prisoners with Hizbullah guerrillas in Lebanon, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said. Under such a swap, which Sharon acknowledged is being negotiated, Israel would free hundreds of militants and receive kidnaped Israelis or their remains in return. Palestinian sources have insisted that Barghouti would be included in the deal.
Intercepted phone calls have traced orders for terrorist operations by reorganized Taliban units in Afghanistan to havens across the border in Pakistan, a senior intelligence official said. The accusation was strongly denied by intelligence chiefs in Pakistan's Interior Ministry. The Pakistani government, once a supporter of the Taliban regime, switched sides under pressure from the US, but Bush - meeting with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai at the UN Tuesday - said he'd raise the concerns with President Pervez Musharraf. Almost 300 civilians, aid workers, and others in Afghanistan have died since Aug. 1 in violence blamed on the Taliban.
A suspected Al Qaeda terrorist near the top of the US's most-wanted list was among those killed in a gun battle Tuesday with security police in Saudi Arabia, reports said. US officials identified him as Zubayr al-Rimi, also known as Sultan Jubran Sultan, who was believed to have had a role in the May 12 terrorist bombings of a civilian housing complex in Riyadh that killed 35 people, among them nine Americans.
A cut in crude oil production of 900,000 barrels a day was agreed to by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), a move that surprised analysts. The cartel had been expected to leave quotas unchanged at its meetings in Vienna, and analysts said the decision almost certainly would cause higher heating costs this winter and act as a drag on economic growth. Word of the decision immediately sent prices 89 cents a barrel higher on futures markets in the US. The vote also came despite Iraq's plan to hike its output of crude by 1 million barrels a day and double its exports over the next six months.
