As the US carries out massive military exercise in the Persian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates became the second Gulf state to declare it would not take part in any attack on Iran. Qatar—home to 6,500 US troops and the enormous al-Udeid Air Base, headquarters of the Pentagon's Central Command—said earlier it would not permit an attack on Iran from its soil. The Gulf Cooperation Council, consisting of Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the Emirates, has called on all its members not to support any US action against Iran.

The Pentagon conducted a test March 28 of a new ultra-powerful 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The MOP, carrying more than 5,300 pounds of explosives, delivers more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor, the BLU-109. Designed to be carried in B-2 and B-52 bombers and dropped from high altitudes, the MOP is guided by global positioning system navigation and has cropped wings for improved agility. The $30 million MOP development program is overseen by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in conjunction with Boeing Co. (AP, March 15)

The government of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, forced to resign last month after a defeat on the issue, narrowly won a Senate vote to keep Rome's 1,900 troops in Afghanistan March 27. But questions remain over the mission's future, as NATO allies criticize Italy's handling of a recent hostage crisis, in which Rome engineered a prisoner-swap to secure the release of Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a well-known Italian journalist held 15 days by the Taliban. The United States, Germany, Britain, and the Netherlands have all denounced the deal, under which five jailed Taliban figures—indlucing three considered high-level—were freed in exchange for Mastrogiacomo. "There was a clear sense in the room that none of us should agree to negotiate the release of hostages in return for terrorists," US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said after a NATO meeting in Brussels.

Marijuana is not kosher for Passover, Israel's pot-friendly Green Leaf Party says, advising Jews who observe the holiday's special dietary laws to take a break from smoking the weed. The Party, which has made several unsuccessful attempts to win election to the Knesset on a legalization platform, announced that products of the cannabis plant have been grouped by rabbis within a family of foods such as peas, beans and lentils that is off-limits to Ashkenazi Jews during Passover. But it said the rabbinical ban for the holiday beginning at sunset Monday could be a blessing in disguise. "Logic dictates that if the rabbis say cannabis is non-kosher for Passover, it is apparently kosher during the rest of the year," Michelle Levin, a spokeswoman for the party, told YNet news.

The construction of a Georgia's second "NATO standard" military base less than 20 miles from Tskhinvali, the capital of breakaway South Ossetia, is being protested by separatist leaders. Ossetian leaders charge that construction of the base near Gori is a sign that Tbilisi is preparing to use force in to reestablish its authority over the territory. Georgian officials deny any belligerent intentions. Georgia's first "NATO standard" base was completed last year in the western town of Senaki—close to Georgia's other separatist enclave, Abkhazia.

Militant activity in Pakistan is rapidly spreading from peripheral areas such as the Afghan border zone to the Punjabi heartland. A suicide bomber blew himself up near an army camp in Kharian, 85 miles southeast of the capital Islamabad March 29, killing a soldier and wounding seven others. (AFP, March 29)

Iran's embassy in London has stated that the British sailors captured last week were 0.5 km inside Iranian waters when they were taken by the Revolutionary Guard. British officials insist that their sailors were 1.7 miles within Iraqi waters. The ongoing dispute was further muddled as an initial set of coordinates released by Iranian officials were in fact within Iraqi waters, thus supporting the British case.

Hundreds of insurgents armed with rocket launchers, artillery and machine guns are clashing with Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu. Ethiopian tanks patrol the streets, and the southern part of Mogadishu has become a no-go zone. BBC reports that Ethiopian helicopter gunships fired on a public market when insurgent tried to take shelter there.