Tiny cameras hidden in clothing, eyeglasses, ballpoint pens, and even ordinary objects like smoke detectors and light bulbs are able to secretly monitor people anywhere. Since the terrorist attacks on the United States in September, a large Texas supplier of the technology reports heightened interest in the spy cameras.
Western governments are in no doubt that Osama bin Laden is in the nuclear market and that the threat of a terrorist nuclear weapon is real. The only significant uncertainty is the timing of the first attempt at a nuclear attack, and what kind of bomb would be used.
In a ground war in Afghanistan, U.S. battle planners will turn to geographic information systems, or GIS, to provide troops with detailed views of terrain and elevation. No matter the topography—mountains, deserts, plains, inhabited urban areas—GIS enables commanders to pinpoint distinctive physical characteristics, from back alleys and munitions caches to vegetation and creek beds.
Indian scientists say they have developed a new vaccine against anthrax, the infectious disease that has recently become part of the terrorist arsenal. The new vaccine is said to be less toxic and longer lasting than the current vaccine. The researchers hope it will be widely available within a year.
An ingenious, centuries-old network of irrigation channels that criss-cross Afghanistan give the Taliban a strategic advantage in a ground war in the country. Unmarked on maps and largely invisible at ground level, the trenches could allow the Taliban to move their forces around in a guerilla campaign.
For centuries, the town of Sighisoara has slumbered in the heart of Transylvania, a region most outsiders would associate with bats and vampires. Now, the Romanian government has decided to capitalize on the region's most infamous son: Officials hope to draw a million tourists a year to a Dracula Land theme park.
Concerns about evil images and violent characters even before the September 11 terrorist attacks have put gory, mean-spirited monsters, once as Halloween as pumpkins and candy, on the endangered species list. In America, many Halloween parties for kids, now called "fall festivals," don't even allow ghosts and other scary costumes.
In the nooks and crannies of Utah, off the interstate highways and tucked away from today's fast-food civilization, sit villages of sinking foundations and splintered wood, boarded-up windows and scattered stones. They are the ghost towns of the U.S. West, popular with writers, photographers, and tourists because they capture the spirit of a distant past.
Intelligence analysts hunting Taliban bases and troop movements with globe-circling satellites have significantly improved their eyesight since the Gulf War a decade ago, experts say. Improved high-speed computer connections can instantly flash full-color scenes to battle commanders on the surface, making satellite images far more useful than ever before.
President Bush has announced the U.S. armed forces are "mounting a sustained campaign to drive the terrorists out of their hidden caves and to bring them to justice." But despite talk of vast underground labyrinths, Afghanistan has few real caves, according to the cave explorers and the few outsiders who have visited the region.
If terrorists should seek to carry out an even deadlier attack than the one in New York and Washington a month ago, anthrax, smallpox, and plague are three of the biological agents that experts fear most, mainly because these diseases can be spread so quickly through a population.
The sole known image that was thought to show the face of George Dixon, the captain of the ill-fated Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, has turned out to be of someone who lived after the vessel sank, the Hunley Commission announced.
As the United States observed the one-month anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, the FBI warned that certain information gives the government reason to believe that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days.
As the terrorist network al Qaeda vowed that the "the storm of plane attacks will not abate" on the United States, President Bush unveiled the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's most wanted list of terrorists and offered rewards of up to $5 million to catch them. Meanwhile, the U.S.-led coalition continued to strike targets in Afghanistan for the fourth day.
National Geographic News provides the latest photos of bomb damage in Afghanistan and links to resources to help readers monitor the war. There are also National Geographic maps, images, and facts on Afghanistan and its environs.
