The Israel Defense Forces is reestablishing its psychological warfare unit, after a lengthy period in which the unit was dormant. It operates mostly in the Palestinian arena. Lately, dozens of new job slots have been approved for it, and the unit commander has begun filling officer's positions.

Fitting the nation's 6,800 commercial jets with countermeasures against shoulder-fired missiles would cost an estimated $11 billion, with operating costs going up to $2.1 billion annually, said the RAND Corp. report. The report noted that the federal government now spends about $4.4 billion annually on all transportation security.

President Bush will not ask Congress for enough money to add 2,000 agents to patrol the nation's borders in his 2006 budget, even though he signed a bill last month authorizing the increase.

Russia and Syria pledged to restore Soviet-era ties, striking an accord on Damascus' debts to Moscow and future military cooperation despite Israel's apparent success in torpedoing Russian weapons sales to its arch-enemy -Turkish Press

Four Britons who were freed after being detained for up to three years at the U.S. military camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, returned to Britain today and were immediately arrested

The U.S. Senate began debating Condoleeza Rice's secretary of state nomination Tuesday as Democrats focused on the Bush administration's Iraq failures

The White House estimated on Tuesday that the U.S. budget deficit for 2005, including an extra $80 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan operations, will total $427 billion

Senior scientific advisers to the World Health Organisation (WHO) have recommended the creation of a genetically modified version of the smallpox virus to counter any threat of a bioterrorist attack. But the man who led the successful global vaccination campaign to eradicate smallpox from the wild said he opposed the move on the grounds that the scientific benefits were not worth the risks to public health -Independent UK

On Friday, in the shadow of the splashy presidential inauguration jamboree, the Bush EPA offered factory farms a tempting tradeoff: more than two years of immunity from the Clean Air Act and certain toxic-discharge standards in exchange for participating in a data-collection program that would monitor air emissions from their facilities -Grist

Department of Homeland Security officials forced a small plane carrying four apparently illegal Chinese immigrants and a pilot identified as a Mexican national to land at an airport in San Antonio Monday night, officials said today. Authorities are trying to determine if the four passengers on board the Cessna 172-P, two men and two women, are linked to a report that several Chinese nationals were attempting to set off a "dirty bomb" in the Boston area.

In a potentially damaging move for Sino-US business relations, American regulators are reportedly blocking IBM's proposed $1.25 billion sale of its personal computer business to the Lenovo Group of China, on national security concerns.

The bizarre terror connections of Bush's choice for Homeland Security Czar

The four Britons still held in Guantanamo Bay are due to fly home today as their lawyers prepare to launch a record £30million compensation claim over their "illegal" detention.—Drudge Report

THE Iraqi Government stands accused today of some of the same human rights abuses as Saddam Hussein’s regime, including the torture of prisoners, illegally detaining suspects and arresting political opponents -London Times

Taiwan's president Chen Shui-bian has named a senior member of his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Frank Hsieh, as the island's new prime minister.Analysts believe it(a new cabinet) will only be a partial reshuffle, with many key ministers, including those responsible for defence, foreign affairs and relations with China, likely to retain their posts -BBC

The United States government is attempting to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar, claiming the litigation would jeopardize national security. -Toronto Star

The Pentagon sent its top intelligence official to Capitol Hill on Monday to explain the mission and makeup of a secret battlefield intelligence group that some lawmakers suggested may have skirted congressional oversight and not been coordinated fully with the CIA

In a one-superpower world, this is pretty brazen behavior by all concerned, but it is symptomatic of a growing perception of the United States as a declining, overstretched giant, albeit one with the capacity to strike out lethally if wounded. US military and economic dominance may still be the central fact of world affairs, but the limits of this primacy are becoming ever more evident - something reflected in the dollar's precipitous descent on foreign-exchange markets -Marshall Auerback/Asia Times

In a potentially damaging move for Sino-US business relations, American regulators are reportedly blocking IBM's proposed $1.25 billion sale of its personal computer business to the Lenovo Group of China, on national security concerns.Citing unnamed sources "familiar with the matter", Bloomberg reported on Sunday that members of the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) are concerned that Lenovo employees might be used to conduct industrial espionage -Asia Times

Social Security reform promises to be the biggest domestic issue this year in Washington, but most of the proposals are nothing more than flim-flam.The only honest solution to the future insolvency of the program is for Congress to stop spending so much money.Unless Congress makes real cuts in spending-- and stops spending Social Security taxes on completely unrelated programs-- millions of Americans simply will not receive even a fraction of the money they paid into Social Security.Ignore the rhetoric about tax increases andcuts in benefits, as though you are to blame for the problem! -Rep.Ron Paul M.D.

Election centers have been bombed, candidates and electoral officials threatened and even killed. With only a week to go, intimidation is turning Iraq's landmark polls into a new kind of secret ballot. Some Iraqis don't know who to vote for as most candidates keep their identities hidden, fearing for their lives. Those who've made up their minds don't know where to cast their ballots, since the location of polling stations is being hushed up until the last minute to thwart election day attacks…"They intentionally complicated the election so we don't understand and they can bring in pre-picked faces loyal to the Americans," said Jamal Ibrahim, 50, a shopkeeper from Fallujah.

The Bush administration plans to announce as early as Tuesday that it will seek about $80 billion in new funding for military operations this year in Iraq and Afghanistan, administration and congressional sources said on Monday.

An emotional Attorney General John Ashcroft has said goodbye to Justice Department employees, expressing his love for them, and praising them for pulling together in the wake of the 9-11 attacks to wage the domestic fight against terror.