Some half-dozen new TV news stations plan to begin broadcasting in the Middle East in the coming year, seeking to capture some of the audience Qatar-based al-Jazeera has created. Al-Jazeera has benefited from broadcasting from Qatar, which has not censored or restricted its news content; it is not clear if its competitors will enjoy the same freedom. Al-Jazeera also has plans to begin broadcasting in English in 2004. (WaPost)

Distrust and ill will toward the United States is increasingly widespread in Europe, some experts said. (WaPost)

A U.S. appeals court ruled that the state of Arkansas can legally force a mentally ill prisoner to take antipsychotic medication for his condition even though he is on death row. Because a previous U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibits the execution of the insane, the ruling clears the way for the state to execute the prisoner. The man's lawyers had asked that his sentence be reduced to life in prison. (NYT, WaPost/AP)

Several large businesses, as well as educational institutions, former military officials and others, plan to express their support to the U.S. Supreme Court for the University of Michigan's use of racial criteria in its admissions policy, lawyers involved with the case said. The support seems to stem both from the pragmatic advantages of expressing it and from the view that integration has economic benefits as well. (WaPost)

Enaam Arnaout, the director of the Benevolence International Foundation, pleaded guilty to illegally transferring donations to rebel fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s. Arnaout had also been accused of sending funds to al Qaeda, but his plea agreement did not require him to admit to any support for terrorist activities. (NYT, WaPost)

Some half-dozen new TV news stations plan to begin broadcasting in the Middle East in the coming year, seeking to capture some of the audience Qatar-based al-Jazeera has created. Al-Jazeera has benefited from broadcasting from Qatar, which has not censored or restricted its news content; it is not clear if its competitors will enjoy the same freedom. Al-Jazeera also has plans to begin broadcasting in English in 2004. (WaPost)