Saudi Expert: Al-Qaida Plans 'Catastrophic' Attack
Dr. Saad al-Faqih, who heads the Saudi opposition group Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, was asked in an interview in London if there is any credence to reports of al-Qaida's "demise." His response was chilling: "Nobody knows how al-Qaida really works. Consider, for instance, that the time lapse between the Africa embassy bombings and 9/11 was more than three years. Therefore the fact that no major attack has taken place since 9/11 is not altogether very surprising. "Al-Qaida is an extremely resilient organization and it will most likely surprise everybody by how, when and where it executes its next catastrophic attack." Asked when a weapons of mass destruction attack is likely to take place, Dr. al-Faqih said: "It could happen at any time"...

Will this be the first country to die from Aids?
An Aids epidemic on a scale unknown anywhere else in the world is devastating Swaziland. Figures released last week show that 42.6 per cent of the adult population is infected with either HIV or Aids. For Swazis aged between 25 and 29, the figure is 56 per cent. No other country has infection rates as high as this and, with a population of just one million, the very survival of the nation is at stake. "If the situation persists, we will be extinct as a Swazi people," said Faith Dlamini, the co-ordinator for Aids prevention at the National Emergency Response Council...

This Is Getting Worse Than Darfur
As President Bush met five African leaders this week, one topic should have been at the forefront of the discussion -- Zimbabwe...[under] the despotic regime of Robert Mugabe [which]...has overseen widespread death and destruction...Surely the time has come for stronger words and action -- with a third of the population dead or fleeing the country. ..A few days ago the Zimbabwe government barred humanitarian groups from assisting thousands of families whose shanty homes and informal businesses were destroyed under a controversial government drive to 'clean up' cities and towns. President Robert Mugabe has been exacting retribution against those who voted for the opposition at the last election. And it appears that to control his population entirely he wants to drive them from towns into rural areas. Thousands are dying every week in what is fast overtaking the Darfur tragedy as the world's worst humanitarian disaster...This month Zimbabwe belatedly accepted World Food Programme help to feed an estimated four million people -- a third of its population -- facing starvation this year. ..

In Congo, 1,000 die per day: Why isn't it a media story?
It's a maxim that what people aren't talking about is always a favorite topic of conversation. But it will make your head spin when applied to the media and the most deadly conflict in the world today. Western media generally do not cover the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but a media story is currently developing around the Congo - focusing, paradoxically, on how the conflict is not a media story. I've lost count of how many journalists in the recent weeks have asked me, "Why aren't the media covering the Congo?" With an estimated 1,000 people dying there every day as a result of hunger and disease caused by war, it is an appropriate question. But the extent of this coverage of noncoverage is reaching the absurd: print, radio, TV, Internet - they all want to know why they themselves are not writing articles and broadcasting programs about the Congo...What the world media are missing is one of the deadliest conflicts since World War II: 3.8 million people have died in the Congo since 1998, dwarfing not only the biggest of natural catastrophes, such as December's South Asia tsunami, but also other manmade horrors, such as Darfur. Congo's situation is complicated - any war on such a scale would be - but the outlines of the current stage of the conflict are straightforward enough for any journalist to summarize...

Red China: The Noose Around America's Neck
Communist China is beefing up its military machine, including missile power. But China faces a military threat from no one. So why the firepower? Both entrances to the Panama Canal are controlled by a nominal Hong Kong firm that is a front for the Chinese People's Liberation Army. On top of that, China has a good part of the American economy by the throat - controlling over $200 billion of the U.S. debt. Get the picture? Can you say "nuclear blackmail"?...

Who can stop the rise of China? The communists, of course
[China projects] a cunning simulation of external wealth and power that is, in fact, a forbidding false front for a state that remains a squalid hovel...The internal contradictions of Commie-capitalism will, in the end, scupper the present arrangements in Beijing...India, by contrast, with much less ballyhoo, is advancing faster than China toward a fully-developed economy - one that creates its own ideas...


Europe from the roots down
As Europe ponders its future, Italian Minister Rocco Buttiglione sees 'radical secularism' at the heart of a continental divide...


The Global Shift
We are witnessing one of the great transfers of power and influence that have traditionally changed civilization itself, as money, influence, and military power are gradually inching away from Europe. And this time the shake-up is not regional but global. While scholars and economists concentrate on its economic and political dimensions, few have noticed how a new China and an increasingly vulnerable Europe will markedly change the image of the United States...