After Ali Abu Kamal shot and killed a man and wounded six others on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in 1997, his wife claimed he had been despondent over losing a great deal of money. Now, 10 years later, the Daily News on February 18 ran a special report by Mahmoud Habboush in which Kamal's 48-year-old daughter, Linda, said her father "wanted to punish the U.S. for supporting Israel - and revealed her mom's 1997 account was a cover story crafted by the Palestinian Authority."

The tanker truck seemed harmless. Yes, it was carrying liquid chlorine. But on any day, plenty of trucks transport chlorine, one of life's most common - and useful - chemicals.

This truck carried something else, though. This was not New Jersey, not even America. It was Baghdad.

As it rolled past a roadside restaurant, the driver flipped a switch. A bomb ripped the truck apart, spreading a greenish cloud of deadly chlorine gas. Nine people died and 148 were injured, including 52 children.

Two Chicago-area cousins linked to a terrorism conspiracy last week traveled to Egypt in 2004 and planned to head to Pakistan for military training, federal prosecutors told a judge Monday. Zubair A. Ahmed, 27, and Khaleel Ahmed, 26, were seeking ''training in Jihad,'' prosecutors said during a detention hearing on whether Khaleel Ahmed should be kept in custody as he is transferred to Ohio to face the charges. The trip was not a vacation as the Ahmeds have maintained, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vickie Peters said.

Last month's uranium smuggling episode in Georgia has renewed concerns about nuclear terrorism. In that incident, a rogue Russian trader sought to sell 100 grams of highly enriched uranium on the local black market.

The United States is immersed more deeply than ever in the Muslim world's sectarian divide. A five-part series explores the split between Shia and Sunnis, from its origins shortly after the death of Muhammed in the seventh century to the modern-day upheaval in Iraq.