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Some visitors to the site were diverted to a pornography site, while others found a page with an American flag and the message "Let Freedom Ring". The Arabic and English-language sites of al-Jazeera have suffered internet disruptions since the television station showed pictures of dead and captive American soldiers in Iraq. The TV channel has described the electronic onslaught as a vicious attack on the freedom of the press. Flood of data The al-Jazeera sites are slowly recovering from the hack attacks, but experts say it could take at least until Saturday before service returns to normal.
Al-Jazeera's servers were flooded with junk mail in what was in effect a denial-of-service attack, according to the online editor-in-chief, Abdel Aziz al-Mahmud. Also at one point a group calling itself the "Freedom Cyber Force Militia" hijacked visitors to al-Jazeera's English website and sent them to a different webpage with the message "God bless our troops". Its sister website in Arabic was sending surfers to a porn site. Influential station "It has been hacked," said Jihad Ali Ballout, a spokesman for al-Jazeera. He described the attack as "a frontal, vicious attack on freedom of the press" and urged anyone with information about the hackers to contact authorities. The channel said it hoped to have the Arabic site back up soon, but admitted that its English-language service might now be delayed for several weeks. Al-Jazeera, a Qatar-based network, is widely considered as the Arab world's most influential news organisation. The TV channel has angered US and British officials for broadcasting videotape of dead and captured US troops in Iraq US Secretary of State Colin Powell has gone as far as accusing it of portraying the invasion of Iraq in a negative light and exaggerating Baghdad's military achievements.   . End of article 1.
 Like CNN in the 1991 Gulf War, the Arabic al-Jazeera news network is becoming part of the story of the current war in Iraq.
Al-Jazeera is drawing a growing audience. It is also drawing some angry criticism, for filming and broadcasting pictures that other networks have not got or will not show. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has expressed "horror" at the broadcast of pictures believed to show two dead British soldiers.
Al-Jazeera drew criticism from the US for broadcasting footage of killed and captured American soldiers. The channel's executives have responded by arguing that the coalition leaders are disapproving because it is becoming more difficult for the US and UK to manage the reporting of the war. Graphic pictures For the first time, Arab news networks, including competitors like Abu Dhabi's TV station, have had a big audience and greater access to some areas of Iraq than western stations, Yosri Fouda, the bureau chief for al-Jazeera in London told BBC News Online. "I can see why American and British politicians and military leaders don't like us showing these pictures. They show a side of the war that they don't want projected because it may affect public opinion in their country negatively. "In these things, the western media is highly sanitised. You are not seeing what war, this war, is actually like. "As for the Geneva Convention, there are double standards here. We and other broadcasters were not criticised for showing pictures of Iraqi dead and captured, or those famous pictures from Guantanamo Bay," Yosri Fouda said.
The channels will readily show for far longer and in greater detail scenes of carnage in Baghdad, Gaza or Jerusalem. "For western audiences," al-Jazeera's Yosri Fouda said, "Part of the shock is in seeing American and British dead bodies and POWs." The channel also has correspondents all over Iraq. While it has reporters with coalition troops and at Central Command in Qatar, it also has reporters in towns that the western media cannot reach. When western journalists outside Basra were speculating about an uprising on the basis of coalition briefings, al-Jazeera's correspondent inside the city was reporting first hand that "the streets are very calm and there are no indications of violence or riots". In the current conflict al-Jazeera is referring to US and UK forces in Iraq as "invading forces", not "forces of aggression" - the standard phrase on Arabic TV stations, including Iraq's. 'Bin Laden's channel' Al-Jazeera's reputation in the West was made during and after the war in Afghanistan, when it broadcast exclusive messages from Osama Bin Laden.
Al-Jazeera was launched after the closure of the BBC World Service's Arabic language TV newsroom in 1996. Many of al-Jazeera's editors, journalists, presenters and technical staff cut their teeth as TV journalists with the BBC in London. The channel revolutionised Arabic language news by taking a critical and combative style to officials and religious leaders and tackling issues too sensitive for other Arabic language broadcasters to touch. Alternative view US officials have criticised the channel as anti-American and encouraging Islamic militancy. According to al-Jazeera, the number of subscribers to the channel in Europe has doubled since the start of the war in Iraq. The channel explains this audience increase, and its appeal in general, as a huge demand for an alternative to western reporting of the war. Arab TV viewers go to al-Jazeera because they see it as an independent news channel that sees the world as they do. Western broadcasters are seen by many Arabs and Muslims as pro-western and uncritical of Israel. While allowing interviewees to criticise the United States in terms that would seldom be seen on western TV screens, the channel has also carried long interviews with Tony Blair, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Ariel Sharon. The channel has also got on the wrong side of several Arab regimes. Its reporters have at times been banned or harassed in Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. It has been criticised by Saudi Arabia and was according to al-Jazeera described by Bahrain as being pro-Zionist. In a timely coup, al-Jazeera this week won a "Freedom of Expression" award for its general news coverage from Index on Censorship, an international group which campaigns against censorship. Amid the criticism they have been facing,
defenders of the channel may see this as confirmation that al-Jazeera is doing
a job the western media is not and that the criticisms are an attempt to muzzle
it. . End of article 2.
Health experts say a mysterious virus that is responsible for about 60 deaths worldwide may be more contagious than first thought. Their warnings came Monday as 92 new cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome were reported at a Hong Kong apartment complex. The buildings have been put under strict quarantine, with more than 200 of its residents infected. The pneumonia-like disease that has infected almost 1,700 people in 15 countries and territories claimed two more lives in Hong Kong Monday, bringing the total there to 15. It claimed its fourth life in Singapore, where Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang told reporters the most infectious patients can spread the disease to as many as 40 others. The sharp jump in the number of cases at the Hong Kong residential high-rise has raised fears that the virus may be airborne and not spread by sneezing, coughing or close contact, as health experts have assumed. Hong Kong's health minister said officials also are investigating whether the ailment is moving through sewage systems, after traces of the virus were found in human waste samples from patients at the apartment complex. Meanwhile, nations around Asia are screening airline passengers for signs of the disease, which began in China and is being carried around the world by travelers. Airlines in Asia began to see bookings fall a few weeks ago because of concerns about the Iraq war. They are now seeing a more rapid drop in reservations because of the epidemic. Many countries are advising citizens to avoid traveling to China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam, where cases of the illness are most common. Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.
. End of article 3.
.
UN officials confirmed that an explosion had occurred in the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) compound which is situated near the United States Embassy, but there were no casualties. A second rocket fired at the same time, 2240 (1810 GMT) on Sunday, hit a residential area in the south-east of the city but also caused no injury, Afghan government officials said. The attack comes a day after two US special forces soldiers - operating separately from the Isaf troops - were killed in an ambush in the south-western province of Helmand. Armoured vehicles from Isaf, which has military bases around the city, arrived along with Afghan police vehicles outside the compound after the blast to secure the area. An Isaf spokesman said the blast had damaged an accommodation block and that it was the first time the compound had been hit directly. But two rockets struck one of the force's bases in the city on 10 February. Militants loyal to the former regime, renegade warlords or al-Qaeda have been blamed for frequent attacks on government and UN facilities in Afghanistan. The 4,700-strong Isaf contingent performs
a largely policing role in Kabul while a separate, US-led force of about 11,500
service personnel is hunting down suspected militants across Afghanistan as a
whole. . End of article.
The Iraqi tanks had left the southern city of Basra and were heading towards the al-Faw peninsula on Thursday morning when UK forces engaged them. Thought to be Russian-built T-55s, they were attacked by a similar number of better-equipped Challenger 2 tanks from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. Two Iraqi infantry positions were also overrun, officers said. In other developments:
Wednesday night had also seen an attempt by a handful of Iraqi vehicles to break out of Basra past encircling British forces, officers said. Despite initial reports of up to 120 vehicles leaving Basra, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said only three tanks were involved and these had all been destroyed.
There has been confusion as to why Iraqi forces would venture out from the relative safety of Basra to likely destruction in the open. Air Marshal Burridge said there was evidence of "exemplar executions" being carried out. "They go to their houses and hold a gun to the heads of their families," he told a news conference in Qatar. Aid struggles "These militias - probably the Baath party militias - go through a neighbourhood, round up the existing soldiery, put them in their tanks and say 'go that way'. "You can tell this isn't a fighting formation that really knows its business. It is disorganised, but there is someone trying to organise it."
But British reporters with UK troops reported successful delivery of some aid on Thursday to the southern town of al-Zubayr, which had been the scene of fierce fighting. Troops trying to deliver aid there the previous day had fled after a sniper opened fire. Most of those receiving aid on Thursday professed support for the US and UK - although suspicion on both sides continued, with UK troops saying some of those queuing up for hand-outs had probably been shooting at them just days before. One man made it clear that coalition troops and their aid were welcome only on Iraqi terms. "You are here on the condition that you liberate Iraq," said resident Ali Salman Hussein, 35. "We don't want you to occupy us, we want you to liberate us and leave. If you don't leave then we will hate you." . End of article 5.
Coalition bombing of Baghdad is now almost constant, with correspondents saying the intensity of the raids has also increased. The commander of the US-led war, General Tommy Franks, said progress so far had been "truly remarkable". But Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said from Iraq's point of view the war was also "going very well". Assault troops from the US 101 Airborne Division are reported to have surrounded Najaf, which lies about 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Baghdad.
Reports from Najaf say troops there were nervous of attack from Iraqis after the deaths of four servicemen on Saturday in a suicide attack by an Iraqi soldier posing as a taxi driver on the outskirts of the town. It is not yet known if the coalition forces plan to simply cordon off the city - which contains many shrines important to Shia Muslims - or overrun it to ensure Iraqi fighters are not a danger to supply lines. The BBC's Nicholas Witchell at the US Central Command in Qatar says coalition troops are anxious to demonstrate that they are suppressing Iraqi resistance as they prepare to move on to Baghdad. Counter-attack fears British forces said they have taken an Iraqi stronghold to the south of Basra, Iraq's second city.
The British have described the village as the possible source of counter-attacks by Iraqi tanks around Basra launched over the past few days. The marines say they captured 200 Iraqi soldiers and five officers and that seven servicemen were seriously wounded by artillery fire from their own side. In other developments:
The BBC's Paul Wood - some of whose reports and activities are restricted by Iraqi officials - says central government facilities continue to be targeted though most of the bombs seem to be falling on the southern outskirts.
"You hear the booming sound and the rumbling sound of large amounts of explosives being dropped on the outside of the city and the occasional thump of a more precise weapon being targeted on the centre of Baghdad." Conflicting claims General Franks angrily denied reports that ground forces had to halt their advance on Baghdad because of formidable Iraqi resistance and overstretched supply lines. "We're in fact on plan. And where we stand today is not, in my view, only acceptable but truly remarkable," he said. "[Combat operations] are continuing in the north, they're continuing in the west, they're continuing right around Baghdad," he said. Mr Aziz countered: "The US and British have been surprised that the Iraqi people are resisting so courageously. "They are deceiving themselves, they are
deceiving public opinion. What they are trying to sell is unbelievable. It is
cheap lies."
. End of article 6.
U.S. troops have started what they are calling probing attacks on the approach to Baghdad from the south, while government targets in the Iraqi capital are hit by coalition raids. Presidential palaces and the Information Ministry were among the targets hit during periodic air raids Monday. Units of the Republican Guard have also been hit outside the capital. On the ground, U.S. troops reported killing about 100 paramilitary fighters and about 35 soldiers in fighting near Karbala and Najaf. U.S. troops also seized several dozen Iraqis who identified themselves as members of the Republican Guard. U.S. troops fought their way to Hindiyah, about 80 kilometers south of Baghdad. The fighting at Hindiyah is near a bridge that U.S. forces hope to use to cross the Euphrates river. U.S. military officials say the fighting is not the main thrust of the planned attack on Baghdad, but will help determine the strength of the Republican Guard protecting the approach to the capital. U.S. forces are also stopping people from traveling in Iraq's western desert, to prevent civilians from straying into a combat zone. Meanwhile, British troops are closing in on Iraq's second largest city Basra further south, despite fierce resistance. A military spokesman says a Royal Marine was killed in fighting Monday and that Iraqi soldiers suffered a large number of casualties. Meanwhile, at a news conference in Baghdad, Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri warned U.S. and British forces will be annihilated and that the desert will be their grave. In London, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said no very senior Iraqi politicians or military commanders have defected from President Saddam Hussein's government since the start of the war.
. End of article 7.
Coalition warplanes and missiles again targeted Iraqi government sites in and around Baghdad Monday including presidential palaces and the information ministry. U.S. and British warplanes also went after Republican Guard positions arrayed around the capital. On the
ground, U.S.-led forces engaged Republican Guard troops near the town of
Hindiyah, about 80 kilometers south of Baghdad. The fighting at Hindiyah is
near a bridge that U.S. forces plan to use to cross the Euphrates River as they
press toward Baghdad.
VOA correspondent Alisha Ryu, who is traveling with U.S. forces in central Iraq, described these latest ground operations as "probing attacks" by U.S. troops designed to determine the strength of Republican Guard units blocking the route to Baghdad. "They have been hitting them with air strikes with both warplanes and deep attack helicopters," she said. "This has been ongoing. I think they [Americans] want to see what it is that they [Republican Guard units] are actually capable of doing in terms of fighting power. As soon as they establish that, the push will be on for Baghdad." In southern Iraq, U.S. troops reported killing about 100 paramilitary fighters in and around Najaf and Samawah. U.S. General Vincent Brooks said Iraqi civilians are helping coalition forces identify paramilitary leaders in several urban areas. "We are very selective about where we go and, frankly, the Iraqi people are telling us exactly where to go," he said. "When we go to do something against a Baath headquarters, for example, it is based on intelligence or other information that has been provided that can be turned into action." Iraqi government officials continue to maintain a defiant posture toward the coalition advance. At a news conference in Baghdad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said coalition forces face defeat by a unified Iraq. "The leader, the leadership, the government and the people, they are unified, they are unified in this country," he said. "A unified entity, fighting entity against their colonial war against our country." On the humanitarian front, officials with the United Nations World Food Program say they hope to return to Iraq sometime in April to revive relief operations. World
Food Program Director James Morris told a London news conference that the
fighting will have to subside before a six-month program to deliver food to 27
million Iraqis can begin.
Mr. Morris says the World Food Program faces its biggest challenge ever in feeding civilians once the fighting stops.
. End of article 8.
With the number of flu cases in the territory reported to be at least 622 on Monday, 213 have been linked to the Amoy Gardens housing estate in urban Kowloon where the block is situated. Dozens of health workers in surgical masks, caps and coats and policeman are in the estate where current residents of Block E - said to number 700 - have been ordered to stay at home until midnight (1600 GMT) on 9 April. The virus, known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), has infected more than 1,550 people and killed at least 54 worldwide since first surfacing in southern China in November.
The fact that most of these cases were from the same two apartment units on several floors of the building, raised the possibility that the virus was spreading vertically, he said. Fear Under the quarantine order, effective from 0600 Monday (2200 GMT Sunday), the confined residents will receive health inspections and free meals from the government for the duration.
Estate residents have been speaking of their terror in the face of SARS, which some now believe to be airborne, rather than spread by droplets from sneezing or coughing. "I'm scared. I'm taking my temperature every day," said one woman resident. "I stayed at home for several days. It's terrifying. I think I'll get it sooner or later." Hong Kong officials have now confirmed 13 deaths from the mystery flu bug in the territory alone. In other moves, the authorities have closed schools and ordered more than 1,000 friends and family members of patients to also be quarantined from Monday. Taiwan has quarantined at least 500 people
in connection with SARS and is considering suspending travel links with China
in an effort to stem the spread of the virus. . End of article 9.
The move comes shortly after hundreds of American troops parachuted into northern Iraq in what the Pentagon said was the start a northern front. The Iraqi Government forces left positions west of the Kurdish-held town of Chamchamal, which defend approaches to the strategically important city of Kirkuk, not long after the arrival of US troops. Kurdish guerrillas took over a ridge once manned by the Iraqi troops - but have so far not advanced further. US troop movement BBC correspondent Jim Muir says it is not clear whether the Iraqi troop movement was a collapse of the Iraqi line or a tactical retreat in order to better defend Kirkuk itself.
However the main Kurdish faction controlling the area, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), said more than 80 Iraqi defectors had crossed to their side on Thursday. US troops arrived early on Thursday morning at an airfield at Harir, 75 kilometres (45 miles) from the main Kurdish town of Irbil. Reporters at the scene said the paratroopers were greeted by Kurdish guerrilla fighters, who had been expecting them, and they began digging in as soon as they arrived. US special forces had been operating on the ground in advance of the mission, and Pentagon officials said tanks and other armoured vehicles would follow soon. A key aim of the new northern front is to prevent the Iraqi military from being able to concentrate its defences on US-led forces in the south of the country. However our correspondent says the first major ground action may be directed not against Iraqi troops but against the radical Ansar al-Islam faction, alleged by the US to have links to al-Qaeda, which controls some mountain territory close to the Iranian border. Turkish sensitivities It remains unclear what role the Kurdish guerrillas will play in any northern campaign.
But the prospects of that offer being taken up will depend on the complex negotiations between the US and Turkey. The US had intended to funnel 62,000 troops through Turkey into northern Iraq, but the Turkish Government refused to allow an invasion from its territory. And because of Turkish sensitivities about the Kurds moving forward, it had been agreed that they would concentrate on maintaining control of their own area. Alleged massacre There are also unconfirmed reports that Iraqi Government forces massacred hundreds of tribesmen at the town of Hawi Jah, near Kirkuk, after they refused to fight alongside them in the northern front. PUK guerrillas said government forces first visited the town on Wednesday evening, then returned early on Thursday when the alleged killings took place. However as the killings took place well
inside Iraqi Government territory it is difficult to verify the
report. . End of article 10.
Anti-government rebels have fired several rockets and mortars at U.S. military positions in eastern Afghanistan prompting a precision bombing that left at least two attackers dead. A U.S. army spokesman said none of the mortar rounds hit the compound and no American soldiers were injured. While rocket attacks against U.S. bases are common, mortar attacks have been rare. Separately, assailants fired two rockets at a U.S. post in the eastern town of Gardez. No one was injured. The spokesman said a rocket was also fired at the Kabul military training center late Sunday. At about the same time a rocket hit the international peacekeeping force headquarters in Kabul. No one was injured. Afghan authorities say Taleban remnants, their al-Qaida allies and a renegade warlord are behind the attacks. Two U.S. Special Forces soldiers were killed in an ambush in southern Helmand province Saturday. Last Thursday, unidentified assailants killed a Swiss citizen working for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Oruzgan province. Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.
. End of article 11.
Nigeria's oil producing areas have been particularly volatile in recent weeks, with continuing instability in the rivers and creeks of Delta State, forcing the evacuation of major oil facilities and severely disrupting production there. This latest incident was in neighbouring Rivers State, near one of the key oil industry centres in the south - Port Harcourt. Hundreds of members of the opposition All-Nigeria People's Party had gathered to hear their local leaders speak. Deaths Accounts vary as to how the violence began, but eyewitnesses from the ANPP say that as they arrived at the venue they were set upon by local youths with machetes and other weapons, forcing people to flee and creating total confusion.
Another violent incident, also reported over the weekend, involved members of a group calling for the secession of eastern Nigeria. The group, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob), has been officially banned, but attempted to hold a rally near the eastern town of Owerri on Saturday. Their route to the venue was blocked by armed police, and in the confusion that followed, the police say at least seven people were shot and killed. Members of the group say the number of dead was far higher, with hundreds arrested. Poll fears It is becoming increasingly evident that there are those within Nigeria who are intent, for whatever reason, on disrupting the election process through violence. Tensions are so high in some areas that President Olusegun Obasanjo recently held an all-party emergency conference to address the issue. But this appears to have had little effect, and it is becoming difficult to see how successful elections can be held in areas, particularly in the south and east, where violence and intimidation are increasingly evident. . End of article 12.
Despite the war with Iraq, Mr. Powell says he believes this is a "hopeful moment," when progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace may again be possible. He reaffirmed the administration's plans to launch the long-awaited peace "road map" as soon as the new Palestinian government of incoming Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is approved by legislators. Addressing the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, Mr. Powell strongly reaffirmed the United States' commitment to Israel's security. But he says Israel's security ultimately requires a real and lasting peace with its neighbors and he said that is "the reality behind the road map." Under development since last year by the diplomatic "quartet" on the Middle East - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - the road map calls for a series of confidence measures by both sides, leading to full Palestinian statehood and Arab-wide recognition of Israel within three years. Condemning Sunday's suicide bomb attack in the Israeli coastal town, Netanya, Mr. Powell said peace will require an end to the use of terror as a political tool and a reformed Palestinian government that is transparent, accountable and a "real partner" in negotiating efforts. But he says Israel will have obligations too, starting with steps to ease the suffering of Palestinians and diminish what he termed "the daily humiliation of life under occupation." "Israel must also put economic hope in Palestinian hearts by helping revive the devastated economies of the West Bank and Gaza. Settlement activity is simply inconsistent with President Bush's two-state vision," says Mr. Powell. "As the president has said, quote, as progress is made toward peace, settlement activity in the occupied territories must end, unquote." The secretary says the United States is demanding "more responsible behavior" from other states in the region and he had strong words for Syria and Iran. Mr. Powell says it is time for the entire international community to "step up" and to insist that Iran end support for terrorists, including groups violently opposed to Israel and Middle East peace process. He says Syria faces a "critical choice" and can continue support for terror groups and what he termed the "dying regime" of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, or embark on a different, more hopeful course. Either way, Mr. Powell says, Syria "bears the responsibility for its choices, and for the consequences."
. End of article 13.
The refuge lies beneath one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces in Baghdad and "can only be cracked by ground troops or a tactical nuclear bomb", said Karl Esser. "Ground troops could get in by taking out the doors with bazookas and explosives", he said.
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I can see why American and British
politicians and military leaders don't like us showing these pictures. They
show a side of the war that they don't want projected because it may affect
public opinion in their country negatively 
