Palestinian leader Abu Nidal dies in Baghdad

By: Ahmad Hammadi

RAMALLAH, West Bank: Abu Nidal, Palestinian guerrilla commander, has been found dead from gunshot wounds in his Baghdad residence, senior Palestinian sources said Monday.

65-year-old Sabri al-Bana was widely known by his nom de guerre Abu Nidal as the head of the Fatah Revolutionary Council group that broke with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1974, saying it was too moderate.

According to a senior Palestinian official Abu Nidal had died under mysterious conditions and it was unclear whether he was killed or committed suicide.

The sources said they could confirm the Palestinian Al-Ayyam newspaper Monday report according to which Abu Nidal's body had been found with gunshot wounds and that he died three days ago. The reports could not be verified independently.

END

Arabs urged to support Iraq against US crusade

By: Ismail Zabeeh

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Iraqi media urged Arab states to unite and support Iraq against the crusade that the US is planning.

Ath-Thawra Monday editions said: “The Arabs and Muslims should not behave like ostriches when they face danger ... they must be united and shoulder their responsibilities against this crusade.”

“In solidarity, the Arabs could repel these new crusaders and ward off their villainy, without even having recourse to war and weapons,” the ruling Ba’ath party newspaper said. “In the vocabulary of Bush junior's administration, battling terrorism means battling Arabs and Muslims, humiliating them, changing their beliefs and controlling their wealth and oil revenues.”

The daily said America was exploiting Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction as an excuse to interfere in the affairs of Iraq and to carry out a new wide scale attack against it without taking into account the consequences for the region and the whole world.

END

CNN airs al-Qaeda chemical test videos

By: Special Reporter

WASHINGTON: CNN has broadcast excerpts of videotapes that appear to show members of Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network testing chemical weapons on dogs.

According to the TV channel it had obtained in Afghanistan a total of sixty-four videotapes made over a decade, nearly all of them shot before the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington last year.

A top Bush administration official involved in weapons issues was cited by the channel as saying he was very troubled by the video, particularly as it related to chemical weapons.

END

Khatami urges officials to pay more attention to youth

By: Sheikh Muhammad Khurasani

TEHRAN, Iran: Iranian President Muhammad Khatami stressed the need for better service-oriented bureaucracy and urged the provincial governors general to pay greater attention to the problems of youth.

In the cabinet meet Sunday held in the presence of governors general from several provinces, Khatami also alluded to the need for more bureaucratic decentralization and ceding greater state-owned organizations prerogatives to provinces as important goals of the government that should be pursued more seriously.

The president ordered the provincial governors general to show unwavering commitment in enforcing of the bureaucratic laws and prevent any infringements on the regulations.

END

Mass grave discovered near Srebrenica

By: Special Reporter

SREBRENICA: A new mass grave believed to be hiding more than one hundred corpses has been discovered near Srebrenica, a forensic scientist working for the missing persons commission in Bosnia-Hercegovina said.

Talking to a foreign news agency, the expert Murat Hurtic told identification documents showed the victims died during the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.

It is the second mass grave to be unearthed in the town of Kamenica and experts believe many of the bodies were moved there from graves closer to Srebrenica in an attempt to hide the extent of the killings.

Bosnian Serb forces, who attacked the town despite the presence of UN troops assigned to protect it, killed more than 7,000 Muslims.

END

Pak to raise issue of innocent Guantanamo detainees

By: Salman Alvi

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan foreign office said Monday Islamabad will raise with Washington the issue of innocent Pakistanis detained at the US naval base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Speaking at a weekly briefing, FO spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said a Pakistani delegation that visited Cuba last week had reported 58 Pakistanis were languishing in a prison there for suspected members of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

“Depending on the report of the delegation, coming back soon... we will take up the cases of individuals with the American government,” Khan said adding, “They are there because of some misperceptions.”

END