In The News

World Opinion Is Fragmented on Tighter Security for Visitors

Elaine Sciolino January 7, 2004
New security procedures designed to prevent potential terrorists from entering the United States have met with mixed reaction around the globe. Beginning this week, the US is requiring that visitors from all but 27 countries be fingerprinted and photographed upon entry to the US. Washington is also pushing foreign and American carriers to accept armed US marshals on board US-bound airplanes....

New Scrutiny of Visitors Begins Smoothly

Alfonso Chardy January 6, 2004
In a sweeping change to the way visitors to the US are tracked, the recently established Department of Homeland Security has begun fingerprinting and photographing people from all but 27 countries upon entry at US airports and seaports. As the latest step in the US government's war on terror, the move is intended to help weed out visitors with connections to terrorist groups or criminal...

U.S. Won't Lift Sanctions Until Libya Keeps Its Word

Steven Weisman December 21, 2003
The encouraging news that Libya is willing to disarm its nuclear weapons program came as a relief to the international community and a promise for increased regional stability. Despite these hopeful signs, the US is wary of lifting economic sanctions on Libya until some definite progress is made to dismantle the program. Washington's hesitancy is partly due to continued suspicions about...

Libya to Give Up Arms Programs, Bush Announces

David E. Sanger December 20, 2003
After nine months of behind-the-scenes diplomacy, Libya has agreed to quit its nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs. According to US and UK officials, Libya's leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, approached the two countries at the outset of the Iraq War to discuss the issue. Analysts have long suspected Libya of having a nuclear program, despite the country's signing of the...

Anti-Separatist Taiwan Parties Changing Tune

Ching Cheong December 18, 2003
The 'pan-blue' political camp in Taiwan has traditionally been Beijing's best line of defense against those who want full separation from China, as pan-blue members aim for maintaining the status quo separation of Taiwan and China with an eye to eventual unification. The 'pan-green' camp, which is committed to an eventual Taiwanese independence, has traditionally been...

Saddam in Custody Offers New Opportunity

Shada Islam December 17, 2003
When Saddam Hussein was in power and was defying the UN, the US and its European allies wrangled over how to bring him into compliance. Now with the Iraqi leader in American custody there is a new opportunity to repair transatlantic relations. But there is also a fresh new hurdle. Writing from Brussels, veteran EU watcher Shada Islam says that the Pentagon's announcement that only nations...

France and Germany Join U.S. in Effort to Reduce Iraq's Debt

Craig S. Smith December 17, 2003
US President George W. Bush's envoy on Iraqi debt relief, James Baker III, seems to have already proved his credentials. After talks with officials in the French and German governments, Baker received assurances that those two countries would do what they can to lessen Iraq's debt burden, which is estimated at $120 billion. $40 billion of that is owed to nations within the so-called...