WEEKLY REVIEW

It was reported that U.S. president George Bush has been given ever-more-detailed plans for the effort to overthrow Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The Bush administration rejected Iraqi offers to negotiate weapons inspections with U.S. congressmen. Summing up the administration's position, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said "I can't think of anything funnier than a handful of congressmen walking around." Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said that his country would not support the U.S. in an attack on Iraq. German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also warned against plans to launch a war against Iraq. In a national telecast, Hussein reassured the Iraqi people that the forces of evil would die in disgraceful failure if they attack Iraq.

15 people died when suspected Al Qaeda fighters attacked an Afghan army base in Kabul. 10 others were killed, and 25 injured, when a blast ripped through an Afghan construction firm's office building in Jalalabad. A U.S. soldier was injured by sniper fire. Construction began on a new section of the prison camp for terrorists in Guantanamo, Cuba. The new wing will bring the camp's capacity to 816. The total cost for the camp so far is about $45 million. A United States Air Force MC-130H airplane on a special operations training mission crashed in Puerto Rico, killing all ten aboard.

Three nurses were killed when a chapel in a Christian hospital in Pakistan was attacked with grenades. The attack was the latest in a string of attacks on Christian institutions in the mostly Muslim South Asian country. 19 people were killed and about 60 were wounded by mortar fire during Columbian President Alvaro Uribe's inauguration. He announced plans to recruit one million citizen informants and equip them with radios to report on rebel groups' activities. Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian said that he favored a referendum on independence from China. After Chinese leaders scolded him, he changed his position to one of support for "equal sovereignty."

The U.S. stock market rose by about nine percent as investors brought their money back to the table after the previous weeks' heavy declines. WorldCom announced that it had uncovered another $3.8 billion in misstated expenses, bringing the total to over $7 billion. The company said that the value of some of its assets would be reduced by as much as $50.6 billion. As the deadline for white farmers to abandon their land in Zimbabwe, hundreds stayed put, waiting to see what happens.

Heavy rains in Russia, Europe, and China caused flooding, killing at least 60. An outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease in Great Britain killed 2 people. Siamese twins from Guatemala, joined at the head, were separated in a marathon session in Los Angeles. Major League Baseball and its players' union agreed to a $100,000 increase in the minimum player's salary, bringing the minimum to $300,000 starting in 2003. Players also dropped their opposition to mandatory illegal steroid testing.