Militant Islam turns to web.

One website urges Muslims to travel to Pakistan to slaughter American soldiers. Another solicits donations to buy dynamite to "blow up Israel Jews." A third shows the videotape of Osama Bin Laden and promises film clips of American causalities in Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda, Hamas and dozens of other militant Muslim groups are increasingly turning to the Internet to carry on their jihad, or holy war against the west, US law enforcement officials and experts say.

This new cyber- battlefield is allowing Al-Qaeda and other groups to stay "several steps ahead of the US led war of terrorism

Most of the information on the websites is written in Arabic and encrypted, or scrambled. The encrypted data hidden in digital photographs, which make it difficult, if not impossible, to find or read.

-Hindustan Times - July 19, 2002

Biowarfare :
Same old diseases, new fears.

A recent revelation about an alleged 1971 Soviet field test of weaponised smallpox that accidentally killed three civilians and nearly caused a massive outbreak is raising alarms. Does the world need new vaccines to protect citizens from terrorists using potent smallpox strains?

According to Russian Microbiologist Gennady Lepyoshkin people like Bin Laden or his accomplices would gladly get the strains, and they more than likely have that to scare the entire world with a biological war using small pox. The recent experiences with anthrax are like kindergarten compared to what small pox can do. People died from small pox in millions. They died from plague in the millions. The world is ready to combat plague, but not it is not ready for small pox.

-Newsweek

Robot air force to fight terrorism

Britain is to get a robot air force to fight terrorists as part of a multi million pound overhaul of its armed services. In one of the biggest shake ups of the military in recent times, the Government is reshaping the forces to fight on distant battlegrounds against small groups of highly mobile enemy.

One outcome will be the setting up of new elite rapid response units equipped with Apache attack helicopters.

-The Times of India - July 8,2002

U K plans to create army of robo-soldiers by 2008

Britain's infantrymen are to be turned into high tech "robo-soldiers" in a 1 billion pounds project to create one of the world's most technologically advanced armies.

The scheme will see the army's traditional helmets, uniforms and rifles scrapped. Instead, soldiers will bristle with gadgets including a gun capable of shooting around corners, a computerised helmet that can download maps, and a whisper sensitive radio implant in the ear.

- The Times of India 2 July 2002

Russia gets tough with anti-terror law.

Russia's Parliament overwhelmingly passed a tough new law against extremism on aiming to curb the recent explosive rise in racist skinheads, fascist and Islamic fundamentalists. A spate of violent attacks on non-white foreigners by skinheads, an anti-Semitic bombing and downtown Moscow rampage by flag-waving soccer fans in the past month have focused public attention on the threat.

At Kremlin's order, the extremism law was rushed through the required three readings in less than three weeks, record time for the normally sluggish Duma - leading some lawmakers to complain about the haste. The Duma voted 275-175 in favour of the legislation.

-Hindustan Times - June 29,2002

FBI warns of fuel truck terror

The FBI warned on Friday that terrorists could use fuel tanker trucks for attacks in the United States or against US interests overseas, with Jewish schools or Synagogues possible targets.

One US official said the information was believed to have come from Al Qaeda detainees who are being held at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba

-The Asian Age - June 23, 200