Washington

On the eve of the second anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, President George Bush is embarking on two days of events in which he will claim progress in bolstering the United States against future attacks.

A federal programme created to monitor the health of rescuers who worked at the World Trade Centre site after the September 11 attacks in 2001 has found thousands still suffering from asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis and depression.

President George W. Bush has announced he will seek -billion to cover military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan over the next year. He said military and intelligence operations would cost -billion over the next year.

The Bush administration plans to open a huge loophole in the United States’s air pollution laws, allowing an estimated 17 000 outdated power stations and factories to increase their carbon emissions with impunity.

The United States on Tuesday begrudgingly offered the faintest of praise for the conduct of weekend local elections in Zimbabwe, saying there had been ”a degree of improvement” over previous polls.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, the Iraqi commander known as ”Chemical Ali”, has been captured and is in custody in the United States, a US defence official said on Thursday.

The United States on Friday banned the political wing of the Iranian opposition group People’s Mujahedeen, froze its assets and moved to close down its offices in the US. This move against the People’s Mujahadeen follows a similar crackdown on the group in France.

Three people, including a British citizen, have been arrested in the US state of New Jersey on suspicion of trying to smuggle a Russian surface-to-air missile into the United States for sale to terrorists plotting an attack, law enforcement officials said.

The former UN inspector hired by the Bush administration to find evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction will claim in a report next month that Iraqi forces were ordered to fire chemical shells at invading coalition troops.

Beleaguered Liberian leader Charles Taylor went to Libya last week to collect a shipment of arms and ammunition to back his campaign to retain power, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

The United Nations is drawing up an ambitious plan to rebuild Liberia’s infrastructure and government which would see the creation of a 15 000-strong peacekeeping force to disarm all the warring factions, The Washington Post said Friday.

The United States has developed an experimental vaccine believed to be capable of protecting primates from the Ebola virus in what is seen as a major breakthrough in fighting one of the deadliest diseases known to man.

Just six months ago, using the words ”internet” and ”profitable business” in the same sentence tended to elicit little more than cynical reactions.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell does not intend to stay on if President George Bush wins a second term next year but has not yet signalled his intention to step down, informed sources and officials said on Monday.

US President George Bush says Americans should respect homosexuals, but he wants to make sure marriage is defined strictly as a union between a man and a woman.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defended plans to build a controversial barrier around the West Bank, insisting it will encourage peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The United States on Wednesday lifted a nine-year-old embargo on weapons sales to Rwanda but kept in place a ban on such transfers to non-governmental entities in the African nation.

Anticipating a boom in the number of VIP motorcades with the formation of a new government in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United States on Thursday advised drivers there to steer clear.

The Pentagon on Thursday released photographs of two corpses identified as Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay in an effort to convince Iraqis the feared regime functionaries are dead.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell sought US intervention to calm the volatile and violent situation in Liberia as the White House mulled such a move.

US President George Bush on Wednesday hailed the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s two sons as the clearest sign yet that ”the former regime is gone and will not be coming back”.

The United States and Britain, along with many Iraqis, hailed the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s two sons Uday and Qusay on Wednesday, while officials elsewhere mostly limited themselves to expressing hopes that the event would herald an improvement in the country.

Faced with a flare-up in Liberia’s civil war, the United States has ordered 41 additional troops to the capital of the West African nation, but given no word on whether it will send peacekeepers.

A US House committee decided on Wednesday that spending on a global HIV-Aids prevention and treatment measure should be held to -billion for its first year, despite Democratic efforts to add -billion.

If you’re an e-mail user, you probably don’t want to end up like Katherine Brand, who spent years developing a client base only to lose business because of an e-mail address shuffle.

The United States has scuttled a bid by Libya to secure a non-permanent seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council for a two-year term starting next year, a senior administration official said on Friday.