Originally, the Doha round of the World Trade Organization trade talks was supposed to be the "development round," helping to alleviate global poverty by boosting trade to the developing world. But that vision is now gone--the negotiations, begun just after 9/11, have pretty much collapsed, and not many believe that they can be revived in the near future.
A British company reported Wednesday it had achieved the best results ever seen on an experimental human vaccine for bird flu and said mass production might be possible by 2007. A global health official called GlaxoSmithKline's early results "an exciting piece of science." If future tests are as promising, it would be a major step in the frustrating campaign to protect people from a possible deadly flu pandemic.
BEIRUT--The refugees come in hundreds of cars along the twisted mountain roads in the Chouf Mountains. The ride from Tyre to Beirut is normally 45 miles along a major highway that takes, even with traffic, maybe an hour or so to drive. But the highways now are almost completely cut at each overpass or bridge south of Beirut. From Tyre to Sidon, you can use the highway with long detours and impromptu dirt paths around the destruction, but once you hit Sidon, just 30 minutes south of Beirut, the cars have to wend their way through the mountains, through Druze and Christian villages that have not been targeted, for more than three hours.
AP - Hezbollah launched a new kind of rocket Friday that made the deepest strike into Israel yet, rattling Israelis as their warplanes and artillery targeted guerrillas in attacks on apartment buildings and roads.
AP - Hezbollah politicians, while expressing reservations, have joined their critics in the government in agreeing to a peace package that includes strengthening an international force in south Lebanon and disarming the guerrillas, the government said.
AP - A prominent Shiite politician called Friday for Iraqi forces rather than Americans to play a greater security role and for an end to "interference in their work" an apparent reference to U.S. efforts to curb abuses by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry. Also Friday, the U.S. command announced that three more Americans had been killed in action, bringing to 40 the number of U.S. troops who have died in Iraq this month.
Israeli police: Hezbollah's most destructive rockets yet land near Afula, south of HaifaHezbollah TV says rocket also has longer rangeIsraeli military: Southern Lebanon booby trappedU.N. wants 72-hour cease-fire to deliver aid
Bush, Blair want U.N. resolution for Mideast truce Iran, Syria told to back peace or risk confrontationCondoleezza Rice to return to Israel, LebanonIsrael-Hezbollah attacks rage on conflict's 17th dayDeath tolls nears 450 in Lebanon and Israel
One person was killed and five others were wounded, three critically, in a shooting at the Jewish Federation in downtown Seattle, Washington, police said.