Relief officials in Afghanistan are warning that a humanitarian crisis is looming in the southern part of the country because of persistent drought and inadequate relief efforts. Nearly one-half million displaced people are said to be at risk. 

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Relief officials in Afghanistan are warning that a humanitarian crisis is looming in the southern part of the country because of persistent drought and inadequate relief efforts. Nearly one-half million displaced people are said to be at risk. 

The regional head of the Ministry for Repatriation, Sayed Abdul Hamid Ashemi, says a human disaster is looming in camps for displaced people (IDPs) in Spin Boldak, near the Pakistani border, and in the no-man's land bordering the Pakistani town, Chaman. "The people who are living in the IDP camps in Spin Boldak are living in terrible conditions," he said. 

The director of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in the region, Mohammed Adar, says that although the rains returned last month to northern parts of Afghanistan, the southern region is enduring its fifth straight year of drought. 

"The drought is as bad as it was before September 11," he said. "Unfortunately, it has been largely forgotten. Other events that are taking place in Afghanistan seem to have overshadowed the severity of the drought." 

Many of the drought victims are nomads. Afghan officials say they have lost as much as 90 percent of their herds. Moreover, they say the next harvest is not due until next May and, as a result, farmers will also depend on international aid to survive the next year. 

In addition, about 40,000 Afghans have moved into a stretch of no-man's land along the Pakistani border near Chaman. Many of these people are ethnic Pashtuns, originally from the south, who migrated to northern Afghanistan, generations ago. They fled to the south, following the fall of the Taleban Government last year, after experiencing violent reprisals by northern militias. Mr. Adar says these internal refugees are experiencing the worst conditions. "These people have no access to water, to proper sanitation, to health facilities, to food. Temperatures are rising. Children are suffering from dehydration, diarrhea and there are reported cases of death," he said. 

However, the Pakistani Government, which is already hosting several million Afghan refugees, has refused to let these people enter Pakistan. And, in the hopes of pressuring them to leave the no-man's land, it has restricted humanitarian access to them. 

Moreover, relief efforts are hindered by a shortfall in funding. There were only a few distributions of food this year and, this week, they were suspended completely by the World Food Program in many areas. Moreover, the United Nations is having trouble recruiting relief organizations to work in the south. Officials say security problems and harassment under the ousted Taleban Government have made it difficult to find groups to manage the camps and transport returnees back to their homes. As a result, relief officials predict a growing crisis in the coming months, if the international community does not rally to aid the region. 

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Pope John Paul II will leave Wednesday on the 96th foreign trip of his long papacy. The pope will visit Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, despite continuing concerns about his health.

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Pope John Paul II will leave Wednesday on the 96th foreign trip of his long papacy. The pope will visit Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, despite continuing concerns about his health. 

The pope's five-day trip will take him first to Azerbaijan, an oil-rich Muslim country with a population of seven-million but only 120 Catholics. The pope will be in the Azeri capital, Baku, for just 24 hours. 

Azerbaijan has been locked in a conflict over the mainly ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is inside Azerbaijan's borders. When the pope visited Armenia last September, Azeris were outraged. 

So, Pope John Paul's visit is aimed at mending relations with Baku. Azeri President Geidar Aliyev invited the pope to visit his country in the hope that the Vatican will assist in resolving the conflict, in which 30,000 people have been killed. 

Azerbaijan has only one Catholic parish and two priests. There is no Vatican embassy and the pope will be staying for the first time in a hotel. 

Pope John Paul has visited a number of Muslim countries in the past, and he has recently intensified efforts for harmony with other religions. 

The second leg of the pope's trip will take him to the mostly Orthodox Christian Bulgaria. Catholics there represent just one percent of the population, and the pope will seek to strengthen relations with Orthodox Christians. 

Bulgaria's authorities hope the visit will put an end to suspicions that the country's secret services were involved in a 1981 assassination attempt on the pope. Three Bulgarians suspected of complicity with Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca were acquitted for lack of evidence. 

Pope John Paul has appeared tired and increasingly weak in recent weeks, and this trip will be a further test of his stamina. But the pope, who turned 82 last week, has made clear he has no intention of retiring. 

Last week, two cardinals said the pope could decide to step down if his health deteriorated to the point he felt he could no longer continue to lead the world's Roman Catholics. But last Sunday, the pope asked the faithful for prayers to help him continue in his mission. 

Despite his frail health, the pope shows no signs of wanting to give up his foreign travels. The most traveled pope in history has a number of other trips planned for this year. He is scheduled to visit Canada, Mexico, and Guatemala in July, and his native Poland in August. He may also travel to Croatia in September. 

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There are new warnings about the possibility of more terrorist attacks against the United States. A day after Vice-president Dick Cheney told Americans to be prepared for another major attack, comes another warning from the FBI. 

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There are new warnings about the possibility of more terrorist attacks against the United States. A day after Vice-president Dick Cheney told Americans to be prepared for another major attack, comes another warning from the FBI. 

The agency says it is inevitable that the kind of suicide bombings that have rocked Israel for months will eventually strike the United States. That warning came from FBI Director Robert Mueller, who said at a gathering of prosecuting attorneys Monday, "I wish I could be more optimistic." 

A further warning came from Senate intelligence committee chairman Bob Graham, who told NBC, groups that have claimed responsibility for those attacks in the Middle East could be planning to strike American targets. 

"They are the familiar names, mainly in the Middle East. Groups like Hezbollah, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad would be two of the principle groups in addition to al-Qaida who have capabilities and the desire to strike America," he said. "It probably won't be in the form of hijacked airplanes and hopefully not at the scale of September 11th, but another terrorist attack inside the United States is almost a certainty." 

Why these new warnings? Senior U.S. officials have pointed in recent days to what they say is a sharp increase in intelligence, including intercepted al-Qaida messages, or "chatter" as they call it, suggesting the U.S. war on terrorism is far from being won. 

"Chatter refers to intercepts," according to counter-terrorism consultant Neal Livingstone, "that have been done generally by the National Security Administration where they basically monitor communications around the world and what they're seeing apparently is an increase in communications among various known al-Qaida fronts or sources or individuals in various countries. And secondly, it may be also predicated upon the interrogation of various al-Qaida and Taleban prisoners." 

U.S. officials say the increase in intelligence is similar to what they saw in the months before September 11, but, like then as well, too vague to predict when or where a new attack might take place. 

Still, Congress is preparing to investigate whether the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies may have misread warning signs or failed to act on information, however imprecise, that could have foreshadowed the worst terrorist attacks on the United States ever. 

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U.S. lawmakers, mostly Democrats, are criticizing President Bush's determination to maintain the U.S. embargo on communist-led Cuba and are vowing to change Washington's policy toward Havana. 

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Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, noted growing support in Congress for easing the four-decades-old embargo against Havana.

 He said his panel would open hearings next month on changing U-S policy toward Cuba.

 Mr. Dodd welcomed former president Jimmy Carter's call, made during a visit to Cuba last week, to lift the U.S. embargo and allow Americans to travel freely to the island.

 Senator Dodd spoke as President Bush reiterated he would continue the embargo on Cuba until Cuban leader Fidel Castro implements tough political and economic reforms.

 Mr. Dodd said Mr. Bush's determination to continue the embargo shows the president is out of step with the Congress and the people they represent. 

"The U.S. Congress and the American people are not frozen in the past as would appear that President Bush and Fidel Castro are," he said. "We are working for change, change in our policies. We believe the time has come to try something different."

 Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California agreed, saying the embargo has not accomplished what it was meant to do. "First of all, it has not rid Cuba of Fidel Castro. It has not improved the lives of the Cuban people," she said. "It has not influenced any change in policy that would move Cuba toward democracy. Instead, it has only served to strengthen Castro's power and shut the Cuban people out from the rest of the world."

 Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota also argued that engagement, not isolation, leads to change, and he noted the United States trades with the communist countries of China and Vietnam.

 "I want to bring democracy to Cuba. I guarantee you the quickest way to do that is to open up travel and economic exchanges between the United States and Cuba, and that would be the quickest and most certain way to undermine the Castro regime in Cuba," he said.

 Some Republicans agree. Congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona, the chairman of the House Working Group on Cuba, echoed Mr. Dorgan's call for lifting the travel embargo.

 In an interview with CNN, Mr. Flake said he does not believe Fidel Castro will heed Mr. Bush's call for free and fair elections or implement the reforms the U.S. president is demanding.

 But Republican Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, called Mr. Bush's speech "a roadmap for a transition to democracy in Cuba". He said the president made a compelling argument that Cuba's lack of economic and political freedom gives the United States no incentive to lift trade sanctions because only Fidel Castro's government will benefit from doing so.

 Meanwhile, Senator Dorgan said Mr. Bush's position on Cuba is driven by politics, not policy, a reference to the influence wielded by of the Cuban-American community in Florida.

 Cuban-Americans helped hand Mr. Bush a narrow victory in Florida, a state that determined the outcome of the 2000 election. 

The president's brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, will need the support of Cuban-Americans for his re-election bid this year, as will President Bush for his re-election effort in 2004.

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Senior Kashmiri separatist leader Abdul Ghani Lone has been assassinated in Indian Kashmir as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee arrives there to assess India's military tensions with Pakistan

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Senior Kashmiri separatist leader Abdul Ghani Lone has been assassinated in Indian Kashmir as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee arrives there to assess India's military tensions with Pakistan. 

Witnesses say the leader of the umbrella All Party Hurriyat Conference was shot by masked gunmen in Srinagar as he attended a memorial rally for another separatist leader. Several people sharing the stage with Mr. Lone were also reportedly killed. No further details are available. 

Mr. Lone was seen as a moderate leader who wanted to initiate steps toward dialogue with the Indian government to find a political solution to the Kashmir dispute. 

The assassination came as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee began a three-day visit to the region. He condemned the killings, calling them unfortunate. 

Mr. Vajpayee is due to inspect army front lines and meet survivors of a deadly militant raid on an army camp that left 34 people dead. India has blamed Pakistan-based Islamic militants for the attack. 

Both India and Pakistan have been reporting civilian casualties, amid almost daily exchanges of fire across the military line-of-control that divides Kashmir. Tuesday, India redeployed to Kashmir more than 1,000 troops that had been assigned to keep order in riot-torn Gujarat state. 

The two countries have massed nearly a million troops along their border since December, when Islamic militants attacked the Indian parliament. The United States has urged Indian and Pakistani authorities to exercise restraint. Washington says Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will visit both countries "in the near future" in an effort to defuse the crisis and move both sides toward a dialogue. 

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Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have held surprise talks with a senior government official inside rebel-held territory. These are the first face-to-face discussions between the two sides in seven years. 

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Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have held surprise talks with a senior government official inside rebel-held territory. These are the first face-to-face discussions between the two sides in seven years. 

The talks come just weeks before the rebels and the government are to enter into formal negotiations in Thailand. 

No details were immediately available about Tuesday's surprise meeting, which took place in the northern rebel stronghold of Wanni. 

The government delegation was led by special peace envoy Bernard Gunatilleke. The rebels were represented by their political wing leader, S.P. Thamilselvan. 

The AFP news agency reports the latest talks were held in the presence of a diplomat from peace broker Norway and a member of the Scandinavian team which is monitoring a truce between the two sides. 

Both sides agreed in February to undertake a series of confidence-building measures. More than 60,000 people have been killed since Tamil rebels launched their armed campaign for a separate homeland in 1983. 

Some information for this report provided by Reuters and AFP.

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The U.S. State Department has again listed Iran, Sudan, Libya, Iraq, North Korea, Cuba and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism.

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The U.S. State Department has again listed Iran, Sudan, Libya, Iraq, North Korea, Cuba and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism. 

In issuing its annual report on global terrorism Tuesday, the State Department says terrorist attacks worldwide last year claimed a record more than 3,500 lives, with most of them occurring in the United States on September 11. 

At the same time, it says the number of terror attacks around the world actually declined about 20 percent from the 426 registered in 2000 to 346 last year. Nearly half of the attacks were in Colombia, where left-wing FARC insurgents repeatedly bombed a strategic oil pipeline. 

There was no change in the list of seven countries named as state sponsors of terrorism, with the State Department accusing Iran of being the most active. 

The report says Tehran has intensified its support for violent Palestinian groups, but noted that it has reduced its role in other forms of terrorist activity. It added that there is no evidence that Iran sponsored or had advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks. 

Some information for this report provided by AP.

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Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov says Washington will promise to limit the development of its planned missile defense system when U.S. President George W. Bush signs a document defining the new strategic relationship between Russia and the United States later this week.

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Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov says Washington will promise to limit the development of its planned missile defense system when U.S. President George W. Bush signs a document defining the new strategic relationship between Russia and the United States later this week. 

Mr. Ivanov told members of Russia's parliament Tuesday that the declaration will clearly state that the U.S. missile defense system will be limited and will not affect Russia's national interests. However, he did not say what type of limits have been set. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department. 

President Bush arrives in Russia Thursday for a four-day summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. During the summit the two presidents will also sign a new nuclear arms reduction treaty. 

Mr. Ivanov also told the legislators that the new disarmament treaty allows Russia to load multiple nuclear warheads on its long-range missiles. The Russian foreign minister says the use of multiple warheads lowers Moscow's concerns about nuclear parity between Russia and the United States, especially since Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. 

Under the proposed nuclear arms reduction treaty, Russia and the United States agree to reduce their strategic nuclear arsenals to 1,700-2,200 warheads each over the next 10 years. Each side currently has some 6,000 warheads. 

Some information for this report provided by AFP.

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A leading separatist has been shot dead in Indian-administered Kashmir, just as Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee landed in the disputed region

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Mr Lone was a moderate among the separatists

A leading separatist has been shot dead in Indian-administered Kashmir, just as Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee landed in the disputed region.

Abdul Ghani Lone, a leader of Indian-administered Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Party Hurriyat Conference, was shot while speaking at a rally in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's summer capital. 

The killing came as Vajpayee landed in Kashmir

The details are still not entirely clear, but Mr Lone and a bodyguard were shot dead while attending a ceremony commemorating the assassination of a Kashmiri leader, witnesses said.

Three masked men are said to have approached him and opened fire.

The gunmen have not yet been identified and no one has admitted carrying out the attack.

Mr Lone was taken to a hospital in Srinagar, but was found to be dead on arrival, reports say.

Mr Vajpayee has described the killing as unfortunate and said the incident would not derail the peace process.

Moderate face

Abdul Ghani Lone was a senior figure in the Kashmiri movement which advocates the disputed region's separation from India. 

A war could escalate out of control

He was seen as a moderate, who wanted to open the way for talks with the Indian Government to find a political solution to the Kashmir dispute.

A BBC correspondent says his murder will be seen as an attack on the moderate side of Kashmiri separatist politics. 

The Pakistani Government was among the first to condemn the attack.

It said it was saddened by the death of Mr Lone and that his murder could be a setback for the peace process. 

An alliance of Kashmiri militant groups - United Jehad Council - described Mr Lone's murder as a great loss to the "liberation movement of Kashmir".

Tensions high

The shooting happened shortly before Mr Vajpayee arrived at a military airport near Jammu.

Tensions between India and Pakistan have soared since more than 30 people were killed in an attack on an army camp near Jammu last week, which India blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Heavy shelling between the two sides over their border in Kashmir continued for a fifth straight day on Tuesday.

At least three civilians were killed and seven injured in the latest exchanges, an Indian army spokesman said. 

Pakistani police said a 10-year-old had died in the firing.

Shares on the stock exchange in Bombay have fallen sharply, in expectation of hostilities breaking out. 

Karachi had its biggest daily fall in nearly four years on Monday.

War of words

Pakistan has urged the international community to "convince India to see reason", and appealed for talks with Delhi to defuse the situation.

General Musharraf faces difficult demands

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said his government was keeping foreign governments, the United Nations and other organisations fully informed and was ready to accept foreign intervention.

India said it would try bring pressure to bear on Pakistan by "sensitising the world community" about what it claimed were Pakistan-backed attacks.

Delhi says it will not negotiate with Pakistan until President Pervez Musharraf acts on a pledge he made in January to crack down on militants opposed to Indian rule in Kashmir.

The international community, especially the United States, is worried about the conflict escalating out of control, and has urged both sides to exercise restraint.

The US has said it will send Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to visit India and Pakistan, although no date has been set.

The US State Department says Iran remains the most active sponsor of state terrorism in the world.

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Iran has reportedly increased support for militant groups

The US State Department says Iran remains the most active sponsor of state terrorism in the world.

In its annual report to Congress, the state department lists Iran, Sudan, Libya, Iraq, North Korea, Cuba and Syria as supporters of terrorism for the eighth year running.

On 11 September, the United States suffered its bloodiest day on American soil since the Civil War

Patterns of Global Terrorism report

But, it says, Sudan and Libya have reduced their level of involvement in international terrorism.

The study found that 2001 was the worst year on record for acts of terror, claiming more than three and a half thousand lives, mainly from the attacks on the World Trade Center.

The Patterns of Global Terrorism report called the 11 September suicide-hijackings "the worst international terrorist attack ever", killing nationals from more than 78 countries.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that while the report showed intelligence co-operation between states had improved, terrorists were still trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction, "whether radiological, chemical, biological or nuclear".

Limited praise

The annual report was the first issued since President Bush declared war on global terrorism and demanded states take action against extremist groups.

Blacklisted states

Iran  Sudan  Libya  Iraq  North Korea  Cuba  Syria

The state department said that "while some of these countries appear to be reconsidering their present course, none has yet taken all necessary actions to divest itself fully of ties to terrorism".

It did, however, give limited praise to Sudan and Libya for taking steps in the right direction to "get out of the terrorism business".

While the report does not credit countries for their co-operation in the fight against international terrorism after 11 September, it says North Korea's response was "disappointing".

The US also expanded its accusations against Cuba as compared with last year.

Havana is alleged to have links with Irish and Chilean terrorist groups and sheltering fugitives from US justice.

Iranian role

The report found that while Iran had reduced its involvement in some areas of terrorist activity, its support for militant groups opposed to Israel had intensified.

Iran, Iraq and Syria were accused of supporting attacks against Israel

Iran continued to fund, supply and train radical Palestinian groups and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the study said.

The state department noted that "some within Iran would like to end this support [for international terrorism], hardliners who hold the reins of power continue to thwart any efforts to moderate these policies".

President Bush's recent speech in which he included Iran in his "axis of evil" deepened divisions between conservatives and reformists in Iran, some of whom support dialogue rather than confrontation with Washington.

Middle East terror

State sponsored terrorism was active across the West Bank and Gaza in 2001, the state department said.

Iran, Iraq and Syria were also accused of actively supporting terrorist groups fighting Israel.

The report said counter-terrorism by the Palestinian Authority "remained sporadic", noting that security co-operation between Israel and the Palestinians had broken down following the Palestinian uprising.

It said Israel had destroyed the Palestinians' security apparatus.

The release of the study followed a warning by the FBI that suicide bombings would inevitably hit the United States.

The prediction came a day after US Vice-President Dick Cheney said he expected further attacks on the US by Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, blamed by Washington for the 11 September attacks.

The following listing provides BBC URLs to world wide news divided into 6 geographic categories.

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US accuses Iran over terror 
Iran remains the most active supporter of international terrorism, the US State Department says in its annual report. 

Also:

Americans shaken by warnings
Iran's reformists lose ground
Q&A: US terror intelligence

In Depth: War on al-Qaeda

Leading Kashmiri separatist killed
Leading separatist Abdul Ghani Lone is shot dead in Indian-administered Kashmir, just as the Indian prime minister lands in the troubled region.

Also:

Straw plans Kashmir peace mission
Delhi voices for and against war
Analysis: Separatists at crossroads
Q&A: Kashmir dispute

World Cup >>

Dyer makes England squad
Kieron Dyer is named in Sven-Goran Eriksson's 23-man World Cup squad, while Trevor Sinclair returns home.

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South Korea hold England
Eriksson awaits bigger tests
South Korea v England in pictures

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