Al Jazeera Satellite Channel

When a top-ranking Al Qaeda operative was nabbed in the Pakistani city of Karachi in September, the rumor on the Arab streets was that Western intelligence agencies had traced him there with the help of Al Jazeera television. Yet when associates of Osama bin Laden wanted to air a tape to show that the Al Qaeda chief was still alive, they arranged a James Bond-esque hand-over to the station's man in a Karachi market. Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S.

The videotapes arrive by courier at the information desk in the shadowy lobby of the Swan Lake, a fading hotel in Baghdad's battle-pocked downtown that now serves as the Iraqi headquarters for the television channel Al Jazeera. Chillingly similar, the grainy videos of frightened hostages have become a defining image of Iraq's new violence: tearful pleas for life and masked kidnappers, swords held aloft, laying out their demands.

For most of the central figures in the documentary film "Control Room," the grisly images that emerged from last year's U.S. invasion of Iraq were no cause for a change of opinion. Over the length of the film, director Jehane Noujaim's inside look at the war through the eyes and lenses of Al Jazeera's journalists based at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Doha, Qatar, the chasm only widens between the U.S.

Two men went on trial for allegedly leaking a classified memo in which President Bush reportedly referred to bombing Arab television channel Al Jazeera. David Keogh, a cipher expert, and Leo O'Connor, a lawmaker's aide, deny violating secrecy laws by disclosing a document relating to 2004 talks between Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Daily Mirror newspaper previously reported that the memo noted Blair had argued against Bush's suggestion of bombing Al Jazeera in Qatar.

A British court Tuesday ordered two men to face trial on charges of leaking a memo that reportedly described a plan by President Bush to bomb Arabic television channel Al Jazeera. Civil servant David Keogh and Leo O'Connor, a researcher who worked for a former British lawmaker, face a preliminary hearing Jan. 24 on charges of breaking the Official Secrets Act. Their lawyers are pushing for the secret document to be disclosed.

Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman Zawahiri called on Muslims to attack the West in an audiotape posted on the Internet on Saturday, urging strikes similar to those against New York, London and Madrid in recent years. In a video of his remarks aired by Al Jazeera television, Zawahiri urged the Islamic militant group Hamas not to recognize peace deals signed by the Palestinian Authority with Israel.

Al Jazeera broadcast Thursday a video of what were described as preparations for the Sept. 11 attacks, in which Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was said to be meeting with some of the planners in an Afghan mountain camp. The station said that Bin Laden also was shown greeting some of the hijackers, although their faces were not clearly visible and it was not immediately known which of them were purportedly shown.

Al Jazeera, praised for confronting the Middle East's oft-coddled ruling regimes and criticized for bringing viewers regular updates from Osama bin Laden's cave, says it is launching its new English-language international network today. A lot of people don't believe it. "This is getting a little boring," said one droll industry insider who asked not to be named. "Call me back when they actually get on the air."

Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite TV station that has drawn the ire of officials in Washington, is studying how to become a private company without subsidies from Qatar's government, a station spokesman said Sunday. Since its start in 1996, Al Jazeera has won a large following across the Arab world with a reputation as an independent voice in a region where most news media are state-controlled. U.S.

Iran suspended the operations of satellite TV channel Al Jazeera, accusing it of inflaming violent protests by the Arab minority in the country's southwest, state-run TV reported. Al Jazeera called the move "unexpected and unwarranted." The government said three protesters had died in three days in Khuzistan province. Iran's intelligence chief said 200 opposition-linked leaders of the demonstrations had been arrested.

Two men went on trial for allegedly leaking a classified memo in which President Bush reportedly referred to bombing Arab television channel Al Jazeera. David Keogh, a cipher expert, and Leo O'Connor, a lawmaker's aide, deny violating secrecy laws by disclosing a document relating to 2004 talks between Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Daily Mirror newspaper previously reported that the memo noted Blair had argued against Bush's suggestion of bombing Al Jazeera in Qatar.

Al Jazeera, praised for confronting the Middle East's oft-coddled ruling regimes and criticized for bringing viewers regular updates from Osama bin Laden's cave, says it is launching its new English-language international network today. A lot of people don't believe it. "This is getting a little boring," said one droll industry insider who asked not to be named. "Call me back when they actually get on the air."

Al Jazeera broadcast Thursday a video of what were described as preparations for the Sept. 11 attacks, in which Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was said to be meeting with some of the planners in an Afghan mountain camp. The station said that Bin Laden also was shown greeting some of the hijackers, although their faces were not clearly visible and it was not immediately known which of them were purportedly shown.

Lucia Newman, CNN's first and only correspondent based in Havana, has jumped to the new Al Jazeera International network, which plans to begin operations later this spring. Newman will be based in Al Jazeera's bureau in Buenos Aires. Journalist Mariana Sanchez, a former news anchor for Panamericana Television, will also work for Al Jazeera International in a Caracas, Venezuela, bureau, the network said Wednesday.

Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman Zawahiri called on Muslims to attack the West in an audiotape posted on the Internet on Saturday, urging strikes similar to those against New York, London and Madrid in recent years. In a video of his remarks aired by Al Jazeera television, Zawahiri urged the Islamic militant group Hamas not to recognize peace deals signed by the Palestinian Authority with Israel.

The Arab news network Al Jazeera announced Thursday that Dave Marash, an award-winning former correspondent for ABC News' "Nightline," is joining its 24-hour English-language network, to be launched this spring. In an interview Thursday, Marash, 63, described his new position as "the most interesting job on Earth."

A British court Tuesday ordered two men to face trial on charges of leaking a memo that reportedly described a plan by President Bush to bomb Arabic television channel Al Jazeera. Civil servant David Keogh and Leo O'Connor, a researcher who worked for a former British lawmaker, face a preliminary hearing Jan. 24 on charges of breaking the Official Secrets Act. Their lawyers are pushing for the secret document to be disclosed.

Two men appeared in court Tuesday accused of mishandling official secrets in connection with a memo that, according to a newspaper account, showed President Bush had proposed bombing the Arab news channel Al Jazeera and was talked out of it by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. When the Daily Mirror published its account Nov. 22, the White House dismissed it as ludicrous. "We are not going to dignify something so outlandish with a response," a White House official said at the time.

Veteran British broadcaster David Frost will go on-air next spring with Al Jazeera International, the English-language channel of the popular Arab satellite broadcaster, the network announced. Frost, who broadcast his final "Breakfast with Frost" program for British Broadcasting Corp. in May, would be among the "key on-air talent" on the 24-hour news and current affairs channel, Al Jazeera said in a statement. It quoted Frost as saying he was excited about his new job.

Iran suspended the operations of satellite TV channel Al Jazeera, accusing it of inflaming violent protests by the Arab minority in the country's southwest, state-run TV reported. Al Jazeera called the move "unexpected and unwarranted." The government said three protesters had died in three days in Khuzistan province. Iran's intelligence chief said 200 opposition-linked leaders of the demonstrations had been arrested.