Military

TERRORISM

¨         A top European Union envoy said on Tuesday that he had received an assurance from Iran that it was not sheltering al-Qaeda militants who had fled Afghanistan. Media in the United States reported in recent weeks that U.S. intelligence had detected al-Qaeda training camps in eastern Iran, close to the Afghan border. "Iran has strongly asserted to me that they will not allow any al-Qaeda elements, if they know they are inside their borders, to remain," Francesc Vendrell, the EU's special envoy to Afghanistan told reporters after meetings with senior Iranian officials in Tehran. Vendrell played down the prospect that Iran could be next in line for Washington's "war on terrorism" after a possible U.S. strike to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "I cannot imagine why the United States would wish, even if there is a conflict with Iraq, to go beyond that and wish in any way to threaten the Islamic Republic of Iran...," he added. (Reuters 081828 GMT Oct 02)

¨         Two Kuwaitis opened fire on U.S. troops on a military exercise on a Kuwaiti island in the Gulf, killing a Marine and wounding another in what Kuwait's Interior Ministry called a "terrorist" attack. Marines then killed the two assailants after they had sped away in a pickup truck, in which investigators found three AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition, U.S. officials said. In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said the Marines left the island after the shooting but that the exercises were due to resume on Wednesday. (Reuters 090046 GMT Oct 02)

¨         The Defense Department is giving Carnegie Mellon University US $35.5 million to develop tools and tactics for fighting cyber-terrorism. The inventions to be researched and engineered at the top computer science school would serve equally well in battling hackers and Internet crooks. (AP 081927 Oct 02)

IRAQ

¨         Preparing for entry into Iraq, UN inspectors put down in writing on Tuesday how they expected Baghdad to facilitate "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted" access to suspected weapons sites. A letter to Iraqi Gen. Amir al-Saadi, a presidential adviser, covers a wide range of issues, from the right to use overhead spy planes to free staff accommodations. Iraq is expected to reply. (Reuters 090225 GMT Oct 02)

¨         A top Pentagon official on Tuesday accused Iraq of a massive, high-level effort to hide weapons of mass destruction and said this was why hard evidence of such a program was hard to find. John Yurechko, a senior official at the Defense Intelligence Agency, showed reporters satellite images of alleged chemical and biological weapons sites, some recent and some dating back to the 1991 Gulf War, as he cataloged a host of Iraqi strategies of "denial and deception." (Reuters 082217 GMT Oct 02)

¨         France submitted new proposals for a UN draft resolution to the United States and Britain on Tuesday but diplomats said they had not gone far enough yet to accommodate Washington. A envoy familiar with the document said it  appeared similar to a previous one France submitted. Others said, however, its language was closer to a U.S.-drafted resolution, without giving details. (Reuters 090009 GMT Oct 02)

¨         Britain's military has given politicians no deadline for a decision on whether to wage war in Iraq, but would require a few months notice if asked to deploy heavy armour to the Gulf, military sources said on Tuesday. After a decision were taken to deploy, Britain would need two months to prepare, including making its Challenger heavy tanks ready for desert conditions, the official was quoted as saying. But the sources said the military was prepared for a range of other options. (Reuters 081809 GMT Oct 02)

¨         CIA Director George Tenet has told lawmakers that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, if provoked by fears of an imminent U.S.-led attack, might assist Islamic extremists in launching an attack against the United States with weapons of mass destruction. Saddam might see it as "his last chance to exact vengeance by taking a large number of victims with him," Tenet wrote in a letter Tuesday. It is unlikely that such an attack by Saddam would come unless he felt cornered, Tenet's letter suggested. Still, Tenet wrote, "Iraq's increasing support to extremist Palestinians, coupled with growing indications of a relationship with al-Qaida, suggest that Baghdad's links to terrorists will increase, even absent U.S. military action." (AP 090211 Oct 02)

¨         A decade after his troops stopped short of ousting Saddam Hussein, Desert Storm commander Norman Schwarzkopf on Tuesday called the Iraqi leader a monster who must be removed before he can use nuclear weapons. Speaking rhetorically, Schwarzkopf asked why the United States should worry so much about Saddam when perhaps 11 other countries also have nuclear weapons. "Because he will use them. He will use them. That's what makes him so scary ... this is a very dangerous man," Schwarzkopf said. "So there's definitely something that needs to be done." (Reuters 082217 GMT Oct 02)

BALKANS

¨         Macedonia (sic) formally asked NATO on Tuesday to extend the mandate of its peacekeeping mission until December to maintain stability in the Balkan republic. "I would like to propose an extension of the mission Amber Fox until December 15, 2002 without any changes in the mission's role and responsibility," Macedonian (sic) President Boris Trajkovski said in a letter to NATO Secretary-General George Robertson. (Reuters 081724 GMT Oct 02)

¨         Yugoslavia and Croatia are expected to resolve their longtime dispute over the strategic Prevlaka peninsula by mid-December, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan predicted on Tuesday. "It is my assessment that the closure of another chapter in the tumultuous recent history of the Balkans is within reach," Annan said in a report to the 15-nation UN Security Council. Both countries have agreed their dispute is a security matter rather than a fight over territory, although their shared border is at the heart of the dispute. (Reuters 082120 GMT Oct 02)

¨         The German and Italian military sectors will merge into one command in Kosovo as NATO embarks on a restructuring plan aimed at reducing its presence in the  Balkans, an official said Tuesday. The German-led brigade in charge of the southern part of Kosovo and the Italian brigade in the western part of the province will function under joint headquarters from mid-November, said Lt. Col. Franz-Friedrich Sodenkamp, a spokesman for German peacekeepers with KFOR. The headquarters in Prizren will be under alternate German and Italian command, he added. Under NATO's plan, the French and British-led brigades will also be merged into one. The United States will maintain control of its eastern command. (AP 081448 Oct 02)

¨         A nationalist candidate edged out a moderate promoting ethnic equality for the Muslim position in Bosnia's three-person presidency, according to preliminary final counts published on Tuesday. Sulejman Tihic of the Muslim-only Party for Democratic Action, won 38 percent of the vote, defeating former Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic, who collected 34 percent of the ballots. It was the only top post that had remained undecided after elections last Saturday. (AP 081604 Oct 02)

OTHER NEWS

¨         German soldiers suffering from cancer that they blame on radiation from radar equipment filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in a U.S. court seeking damages from manufacturers including General Electric Co. and Lucent Technologies, their lawyers said. The class-action suit was filed before the state court in El Paso, Texas, on behalf of more than 450 soldiers from the German Bundeswehr and other NATO armies, said Reiner Geulen, a Berlin-based attorney. The German government admitted last summer a link between health problems and lax safety for personnel who worked with the equipment during the Cold War, after an official report said as many as 1,000 had since fallen ill. (AP 082004 Oct 02)

¨         U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat should devolve power to new Palestinian leaders but suggested Washington could acquiesce if he remained in office with diluted powers. A senior State Department official said Powell was deliberately not calling on Arafat to step down. "The issue is not Arafat. We don't care that much about Arafat. The issue is whether we get people who have authority and can take responsibility. We've never stressed that Arafat has to do this or can't do that," he added. (Reuters 081943 GMT Oct 02)