Associated Press - December 3, 2002

'The Bush administration said the killing of an American in this fashion was legal.'

"I can assure you that no constitutional questions are raised here. There are authorities that the president can give to officials,'' said Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser, after the attack. ''He's well within the balance of accepted practice and the letter of his constitutional authority.'' In killing him, the administration defined Derwish as an enemy combatant, the equivalent of a U.S. citizen who fights with the enemy on a battlefield, officials said. Under this legal definition, experts say, his constitutional rights are nullified and he can be killed outright.'

The United States Declaration of Independence

'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, ... That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.'

"If I were to earn your confidence, my job will be to prepare the military to fight and win war." - George W. Bush - Presidential Debate 2000

The UN has confirmed that North Korea has carried out its threat to remove UN seals and dismantle monitoring cameras at a laboratory used to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said: "There is not any legitimate purpose for the facility other than separating plutonium from spent fuel."

Senator Joseph Biden, the outgoing chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, warned that North Korea's plan to restart a programme for plutonium extraction could allow it to produce bombs "within months".

Mr Biden said the crisis was "a greater danger immediately to US interests _ than Saddam Hussein".

While the rhetoric sharpened, Mr Rumsfeld insisted that Washington would pursue a diplomatic strategy against North Korea for the moment, as that crisis was still at a relatively early stage.

Pyongyang has issued a series of threats, including one to "destroy the earth" if the US resorted to nuclear war against it. South Korea's president, Kim Dae-jung, and the president-elect, Roh Moo-hyun, sought to calm the mood by saying they wanted a peaceful resolution.

While Russia expressed concern at the North's weekend announcement, the deputy foreign minister warned the US not to aggravate the crisis.

But the US state department yesterday rejected Pyongyang's insistence that the crisis can be solved if the US signs a treaty of non-aggression. "We will not bargain or offer inducements for North Korea to live up to the treaties and agreements it has signed," a spokesman said.

US intelligence sources were quoted by the BBC as saying they believe "North Korea may already have a small number of nuclear bombs and the material to make a few more".

The North Korean media has given Bush administration hardliners all the material they may want.

The communist party's newspaper, the Workers' Daily, declared that "the army and people of the DPRK are fully ready to mercilessly strike the bulwark of US imperialist aggressors" - implying that they could hit targets in the US.

"Today we have received from the Iraqi national monitoring directorate a list of names of those associated with chemical, biological and nuclear and ballistic weapons," the spokesman said at a press briefing in Baghdad. "The list contains over 500 names."

On Friday, inspectors interviewed a scientist -- who later said on Iraqi television that Iraq had no nuclear program -- about a "possible prelude to a clandestine nuclear program," a spokesman for the inspectors said.

Search continues

A team of missile experts went to Al-Qa'qa Saturday, a site listed by British intelligence officials as a chemical complex that may be producing phosgene, which can be used as a chemical agent.

The facility -- located in al-Latifiya near Baghdad -- was severely damaged in the 1991 Persian Gulf War but has been repaired and is operational, according to a British white paper released on Iraq in September.

Other inspection teams fanned out across Baghdad, visiting a variety of sites as part of the United Nations' search for evidence that Iraq is developing a nuclear or biological weapons program.

Biological weapons inspectors headed to the Al-Kindi facility in Abu Greb and the Yafa Juice Company in Za'faraniya.

Another UNMOVIC team searched a private import-export business, Al-Najah.

After arms monitors interviewed the Iraqi scientist, Qadhem Mijbil, on Friday, he appeared in a news conference Saturday on Iraqi television, distancing himself from the country's past nuclear program.

"We don't have a nuclear program by the way, now, it's a past program, but really I don't know what kind of materials could be used in the nuclear program," he said.

Qadhem is a metallurgist from al-Raya, a well-known state company that is part of Iraq's Military Industrialization Commission, according to the Iraqi foreign ministry.

The scientist specializes in the use of aluminum pipes used to make missiles with a range of 10 kilometers (6 miles), according to the ministry, however Britain has accused Iraq of using the pipes in the process of producing depleted uranium.

Qadhem said he did not know the nuclear uses for the aluminum pipes.

"I'm a scientist and I don't respond to questions about intelligence, I can only talk about scientific issues," he said.

Iraq has admitted to previous efforts to obtain nuclear weapons, but insists it has no weapons of mass destruction programs now.

"Dr. Qadhem, with all due respect, has absolutely no relation with proscribed past programs," Gen. Hossam Amin, the head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, told state television Friday.

Qadhem said a representative of the National Monitoring Directorate was present for the interview -- something he insisted his colleagues also request, as he did, if they are interviewed by the inspectors.

The inspectors are under U.S. pressure to take scientists and their families out of Iraq for the interviews. U.S. officials have said they believe the scientists would speak more freely if they were assured that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could not retaliate.

The IAEA began interviewing scientists this week. The U.N. Monitoring and Verification and Inspection Commission, which is searching Iraq for evidence of chemical or biological weapons or high-powered missiles, has not yet conducted such interviews.

A U.N. official said several issues need to be worked out before that can be done, including arrangements for secure interview facilities.

U.S. readies carriers for Gulf duty

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy has been told to prepare two aircraft carriers for deployment to the Persian Gulf after New Year's Day, naval officials told CNN on Friday.

A "prepare to deploy" order has been issued for a carrier to move from both the East Coast and the West Coast. (Full story)

President Bush has threatened possible U.S.-led military action against Iraq if it refuses to abide by United Nations resolutions calling for it to disarm itself of alleged weapons of mass destruction.

On December 7 Iraq delivered to U.N. weapons inspectors 11,000-pages of what Baghdad said were details of its weapons of mass destruction programs and possible facilities that might be used to develop them.

U.N. Resolution 1441 -- passed unanimously by the U.N. Security Council on November 8 -- demanded the Iraqi documents be handed over by December 8.

The resolution also called on Iraq to abide by all the U.N. resolutions that Iraq promised to follow in a ceasefire agreement reached after it lost the Gulf War.

When they reported, they were jailed and required to post $5,000 bonds for enrolling in less than 12 hours of college credit.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service says the students are being detained because under-enrollment is a violation of their student visas. The students are not suspected of any other offense.

"We're concerned about the heavy-handed nature of the enforcement and their lack of understanding of their own regulations," said Chris Johnson, director of international education at the University of Colorado at Denver. "Students are being detained unfairly and callously."

One University of Colorado at Denver student was jailed last week because he was one hour shy of a full load after receiving college permission to drop a course, Johnson said.

"I don't believe this is helping us with the war on terrorism," said Mark Hallett, director of international student services at Colorado State University. "We're alienating people who could be our best friends and ambassadors once they return to their countries."

The Middle Eastern students were jailed for up to 48 hours before posting bond. Three attend UCD, two study at CU-Boulder, and one attends Colorado State University.

College officials expect more to be detained during a second round of January registrations at the INS district office in Denver.

Congress ordered federal registrations by December 16 for males 16 and older carrying temporary visas from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya and Sudan -- countries identified by the State Department as having ties to terrorism.

A January 10 deadline is for men from the United Arab Emirates, North Korea, Morocco, Afghanistan and nine other countries. Two more rounds of registrations will follow with the goal of tracking most foreign nationals by 2005.

"As far as the INS is concerned, this system was put in place in Congress to combat the war on terrorism. We're carrying out their wishes. This is a policy issue," said Nina Pruneda, INS regional public affairs officer.

The INS wants to ensure that international students are diligently pursuing a degree, she said.

The emergency program extended state-funded benefits by 13 weeks in most states and by 26 weeks in three states with the highest unemployment levels -- Oregon, Washington, and Alaska -- and was scheduled to end December 28 no matter how many weeks of paychecks an unemployed worker had received.

Those who lost their benefits Saturday "join another million jobless workers who have already exhausted all of their unemployment benefits," according to the AFL-CIO's Web site.

"In addition, some 95,000 jobless workers will run out of state unemployment benefits each week and be left without jobs or temporary federal unemployment assistance," the Web site said, quoting a nonpartisan research center.

AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney called the cut-off of the benefits extension "an economic catastrophe."

"The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and President Bush should feel ashamed," Sweeney said.

Bush: Extension first order of business

Bush has called on the next Congress "to make the extension of unemployment benefits a first order of business" when the new Congress convenes in January.

"No final bill was sent to me extending unemployment benefits for about 750,000 Americans whose benefits will expire on December 28," Bush said in his weekly radio address last week. " ... They need our assistance in these difficult times, and we cannot let them down."

Bush said those cut off on December 28 should have their benefits extended retroactively to that date.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, blamed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives for the delay.

"We passed a bipartisan bill in the Senate," she said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. " ... But the House Republican leadership refused to pass this bill. They ran out the clock, and went home for the holidays, without even allowing a simple vote."

Clinton said she was pleased with Bush's announced support for an extension, but added that she wished "he could have made that statement several weeks earlier, in time for the holidays."

Military intelligence, he says, recently learned that Abu Al Walid was ordering a series of terrorists attacks on Grozny. The attacks are being financed by several Arab countries, which were not named.

The comments come as Russian officials revised the death toll in the twin bomb attacks on a pro-Moscow government building in the Chechnya capital downwards to 40. The number of injured in Friday's suicide attacks has jumped to 152.

Aslan Maskhadov, a Chechen separatist leader recognised as the republic's president until Russia established a Moscow-based Chechen council in 1999, denied Saturday any connection to a deadly suicide bombing in Grozny and even condemned it.

Maskhadov, a former Russian army officer, said such suicide bombings play into the hands of the Russian leadership, which, he said, was "doing everything possible to kill Chechens at the hands of Chechens."

"I appeal to those who... have decided to go down the path of martyrdom," Maskhadov said in a statement posted on an Islamic Web site. "I understand you, but I cannot support you."

But Dougherty added: "There are a number of groups working in Chechnya... with some linked to al Qaeda, and some splinter groups. So it is difficult in some cases to say who is taking responsibility."

About a tonne of explosives exploded outside the building after a jeep packed with the materials rammed through an armed security gate and continued towards the building.

Thirty seconds later another blast went off. The explosions virtually destroyed the building and left a 10 metre wide and four metre deep crater outside.

A spokesman for the Russian federal forces described the minutes just before the attack, saying guards opened fire when they realised something was wrong but the vehicle kept moving, pulling close to the building and exploding with deadly force.

Dougherty said questions were being asked about how two suicide bombers could get through Grozny and approach one of the most protected buildings and bomb it.

Interfax news agency is saying the men used a jeep bearing military number plates and showed documents at security checkpoints which resembled Chechen government paperwork.

Rescue attempts continue on Saturday with giant cranes being brought in to lift debris. A fifth person was dragged from the rubble, officials say. Two hundred people had been in the building at the time of the attack.

The majority of those killed were Chechens, including at least seven members of law enforcement, a Chechen Interior Ministry spokesman told Russia's Interfax news agency.

None of the top Chechen leadership were injured, Interfax reported.

The Kavkaz Centre, which operates a Chechen Islamic Web site, said Chechen "shaheeds" (martyrs) were responsible for the explosions.

Heightened security

Russian officials said Chechen leaders had recently met and ordered an attack against Chechnya's pro-Russian government.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the attack -- which shattered the government's image of a Chechnya returning to normal after years of conflict between Moscow and separatist Chechens -- "inhuman" and said that Chechen rebels were "waging a war on their own people."

Russian officials are stepping up security in Grozny and the rest of the breakaway republic, as well as Moscow, in the run-up to Russia's biggest holiday, New Year.

"They fear this will be an opportune time for something to happen," Dougherty added.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell offered his country's condolences and urged Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to find a political solution to the problem.

Powell added: "We call on Chechen leaders to firmly renounce terrorist acts and cut ties with terrorist groups."

Russian forces had stepped up their activity in the region after a theatre siege in Moscow two months ago.

Last week, Russian police arrested two Chechens they said were wearing explosive material in their belts and carrying grenades.

Russia first occupied Chechnya in 1994, three years after the breakaway republic declared its independence. The Russians withdrew in 1996 after Chechen rebels fought the Russian military to a draw. But the military returned in October 1999, after Chechen rebels invaded the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan.

-- CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.

The ship left the Port of Miami Monday carrying 2,630 passengers and 870 crew members for a four-day trip to Nassau, Bahamas; Coco Cay, Bahamas; and Key West, Florida, where 35 of the ill passengers chose to leave the ship, a cruise line spokeswoman said. They were driven in a bus back to the Port of Miami.

The others were confined to their quarters to limit the chances they would infect others, said Lynn Martenstein, vice president of corporate communications for Royal Caribbean.

The ship returned Friday as scheduled to the Port of Miami.

Stool samples will be sent to a laboratory designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to determine the cause of the outbreak, Martenstein said. Results will not be determined for about a week, she said.

The 81 people sickened represent 2.3 percent of those aboard, less than the 3 percent figure the CDC uses to define an outbreak.

Depending on how long they were sick, some passengers will be given a credit for a future cruise, Martenstein said.

In recent weeks, Royal Caribbean has beefed up its cleaning regimen, following CDC-recommended procedures, she added.

The 10-year-old ship, one of 25 in Royal Caribbean's fleet, was scheduled to depart the Port of Miami Friday afternoon for its next cruise.

"What we are finding is that the use of the death penalty is becoming more and more concentrated in Texas and a few other states in the South," said Richard Dieter, who heads the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Centre, an anti-death-penalty group that published the study.

"And increasingly, Texas is finding itself standing alone in its increasing application of the death penalty," Dieter said.

Executions in 2002 declined sharply in Oklahoma, from 18 last year to seven this year. Missouri saw a slight decline, from seven in 2001 to six this year, as did North Carolina, which dropped from five to two.

In all, 13 of the 38 states with capital punishment sent inmates to the death chamber in 2002, the lowest number since 1993, according to the study. Two death penalty states had moratoriums on executions - Maryland since May and Illinois since 2000 - and the federal government executed no one.

Although the total number of executions in the United States increased from 66 last year to 71 this year, the number would have declined had Texas not sharply increased its share, Dieter said.

But Dudley Sharp, a spokesman for the Texas crime-victim advocacy group Justice For All, said executions slowed because the US Supreme Court took up two landmark death-penalty cases, not because of waning public support.

The high court considered whether states could execute mentally retarded inmates and whether a judge or a jury should decide on the aggravating circumstances that might elevate murder to capital murder.

"Those two cases, in effect, placed a moratorium on executions for any case that might have fallen into one of those categories," Sharp said in Saturday's editions of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

"There is nothing to suggest that anything less than the overwhelming majority of American citizens support the death penalty."