Danish journalists on trial for publishing leaked intelligence reports on IraqCOPENHAGEN, Denmark: The editor in chief and two reporters at one of Denmark's largest newspapers went on trial Monday for publishing classified intelligence reports about former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's weapons program.
A former intelligence officer has previously been sentenced to prison for leaking the documents in the case, which is viewed in Denmark as a landmark test of media freedom.
Niels Lunde, the Berlingske Tidende newspaper's top editor, and repor... (more)
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Venezuela: 9/11 attacks were `self-inflicted' CARACAS - When Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chávez called President Bush ''the devil'' in a U.N. speech in September, many thought his ''anti-imperialist'' rhetoric had reached rock bottom.
But fresh depths have since been plumbed. The Venezuelan government, to judge from recent events, officially regards Bush as a genocidal Nazi who arranged the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to justify aggression against other nations.
I... (more)
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Olmert warns against hasty U.S. withdrawal from Iraq For the first time yesterday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed in public the possibility that the United States may withdraw its forces from Iraq following the victory of the Democratic Party in the mid-term congressional elections. Olmert warned against a hasty withdrawal that may undermine the balance of power in the Middle East and endanger the moderate regimes in the region.
"From our point of view every withdrawal needs to be carefully planned," Olmert said, "in order no... (more)
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'We are dead people' - Gaza defiance grows as Israeli grip stifles economyIt was not long after dawn and only a handful of fishing boats from Gaza city harbour were still out at sea. Some had come in earlier to offload the night's sardine catch, most hadn't bothered going out at all. Nearly all the small fleet's wooden boats, their paint fading, lay anchored up in the harbour, as they have for most of this year.
Abu Naim waited for his five sons to return aboard his boat. If the fishing had matched recent days they would be lucky to haul in 200 shekels-... (more)
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We overcame our fear: The unarmed women of the Gaza Strip have taken the lead in resisting Israel's latest bloody assaultYesterday at dawn, the Israeli air force bombed and destroyed my home. I was the target, but instead the attack killed my sister-in-law, Nahla, a widow with eight children in her care. In the same raid Israel's artillery shelled a residential district in the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, leaving 19 dead and 40 injured, many killed in their beds. One family, the Athamnas, lost 16 members in the massacre: the oldest who died, Fatima, was 70; the youngest, Dima, was one; seven were childre... (more)
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1,500 Baathists assassinated in southAssassinating former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party is going on unabated particularly in southern Iraq, according to an independent group monitoring human rights in Iraq.
“The number of Baathists killed since the start of 2006 has reached 1,556 people and none of the cases has been investigated,†the group, Freedom Monitoring Commission, said in a statement faxed to Azzaman.
It said the killings took p... (more)
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Russia Concerned About Space Weapons Deployment -- Putin President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia was concerned about foreign nations planning to deploy weapons in space and developing armaments he called destabilizing, The Associated Press News agency reports.
While Putin didn’t name any country, his remarks appeared to reflect a growing strain in ties with the U.S.
“Some nations are trying to untie their hands to deploy weapons in space, including nuclear weapons,” Pu... (more)
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Bombings shake up MexicoMEXICO CITY - Broken glass and debris will be cleaned up, but three low-level bombs Monday may have done their greatest damage in adding to fears that Mexico is hurtling toward instability.
The early morning explosions destroyed a bank branch lobby and blew out windows and doors at the nation's Federal Electoral Tribunal and a major political party's headquarters auditorium.
Five leftist guerrilla groups from the southern state of Oaxaca claimed responsibility for t... (more)
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Two TV stations closed for showing Iraqis protesting against death sentence for Saddam
Reporters Without Borders today condemned the Iraqi government’s decision yesterday to close down two privately-owned TV stations for “inciting violence and murder” by screening footage of protests against former President Saddam Hussein’s death sentence. The main daily newspapers have also been suspended for three days beginning yesterday under a curfew decreed prior to the verdict.
“As well as the growing violence against journalists in the ... (more)
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Air force officers held for attempt to murder Musharraf with rockets A cabal of Pakistani military officials with access to President Pervez Musharraf's innermost security circle has been arrested after trying to assassinate him in a rocket attack.
The strike, aimed at the president's high-security personal residence-office in Rawalpindi, took place shortly after he returned from Britain and the US in late September.
Although the president was not hurt, the attempt demonstrates the political instability engulfi... (more)
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70% Of Iraqi's Want U.S. Occupation Troops Withdrawn Within A Year BAGHDAD, Iraq - Ask an Iraqi what American troops are fighting for in Iraq, and the answer likely will be: not for me.
No matter the politics of the respondent, recent interviews with 19 Iraqis, both Shiite and Sunni Muslims, found almost no one who thought the Americans were fighting for them. Only ethnic Kurds, who have established a largely autonomous region in Iraq's north, were willing to say that American troops serve their interests.
Public opinion surveys o... (more)
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France blocks Nato bid to create a global terror forcePlans to boost Nato's co- operation with countries such as Australia and Japan in an effort to forge a partnership against terrorism have been blocked by France.
The moves were to have been at the centre of a summit of the alliance's leaders to be held in Riga this month. Nato officials now accept that only a loosely worded pledge to increase contacts with partners in Asia and Australasia will be included in the communiqué, which will be agreed by President George Bush and ... (more)
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US force storms Allawi's Home An Iraqi security source disclosed Wednesday that the US forces stormed the home of former Iraqi Premier Iyad Allawi who leads the Iraqi list, one of the biggest Iraqi parliament blocs, and arrested eight of his bodyguards.
The source told Kuna that the US force of four Humvies and tanks stormed Allawi's National Reconciliation Movement's list and ransacked its contents at the Raghma Khatoun neighborhood.
A US army spokesman denied any comment... (more)
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U.S. speeds attack plans for North KoreaU.S. military planners have put the Yongbyon plutonium-processing facility at the top of the list of targets in North Korea. (Google Earth)The Pentagon has stepped up planning for attacks against North Korea's nuclear program and is bolstering nuclear forces in Asia, said defense officials familiar with the highly secret process.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the accelerated military planning includes detailed programs for striking a North Korea... (more)
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Swiss Investigate Suspected CIA Spying on Trade Union Members Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Switzerland's federal prosecutor is investigating a case of suspected spying by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency on trade union members in the country.
Swiss investigators, who initiated a probe on Sept. 12, ``have corroborated the suspicions'' and identified the people involved, Jeanette Balmer, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor, said today in an e-mail. Because the case involves a foreign state and suspicions of political crimes, she said, the prosecuto... (more)
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Syria switching to euros to combat U.S. sanctionsThe U.S.’s sanctions against Syria prompted Damascus to start switching its foreign currency surplus from U.S. dollars to euros, the United Press International reported.
A Syrian source told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that Syria has already started to take a series of steps to deal with the U.S. sanctions barring trade between the two countries.
Syria's Central Bank Governor Dr. Adib Mayala said on Tuesday that the country "would rid itself of the rel... (more)
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Christians: Here to serve IsraelSome 70 Christian delegates from around the world met at the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem Wednesday evening to express solidarity with the State of Israel, and to convey the message that the Israeli people were "not alone."
The meeting was held to welcome representatives of the Pentecostal European Fellowship (PEF) to Jerusalem. Pentecostalism is a growing Evangelical sect in Europe, and millions of Christians are members of the movement.
Ingolf Ell... (more)
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U.S. war games target Iran A B-2A Spirit thunders down the aging airstrip of Whiteman Air Force Base and takes off, curving east over Missouri.
More than 19 hours later, the bomber slices above central Iran and releases a 4,500-pound "bunker buster" over a complex of buildings guarded by aging missiles and obsolete guns. That, according to many experts, would be the opening gambit in a war against Iran -- should the United States decide to undertake that risky option.
"Iran has be... (more)
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Israel launches major Gaza raidIn one of Israel's biggest raids into Gaza in recent months, troops carried out three air strikes and moved to encircle the town of Beit Hanoun.
Some 60 people were wounded as troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, carried out the raid.
An Israeli military spokesman said the operation was aimed at stopping rocket fire into Israel.
Palestinian leaders have strongly condemned it.
Both the Palestinian Authority President Mahmo... (more)
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False Flag Attack Averted?: Venezuela detains 2 in bomb plot on US EmbassyVenezuelan police detained a university student outside the US Embassy on Monday, saying he left two low-intensity explosives on the street outside the diplomatic mission. No one was hurt, and the student's motives remained unclear.
Police set off the homemade devices - essentially large fireworks - while they closed the street to traffic outside the embassy. Children were evacuated from an adjacent school.
Wilfredo Borraz, police chief for the Baruta section of Car... (more)
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Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based weapon in southern Lebanon this summer in the 34-day assault that cost more than 1,300 Lebanese lives, most of them civilians?
We know that the Israelis used American "bunker-buster" bombs on Hizbollah's Beirut headquarters. We know that they drenched southern Lebanon with cluster bombs in the last 72 hours of the war, leaving tens of thousands of bomblets which are still killing Lebanese civilians every week. And we now know - after it fi... (more)
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Operation enduring chaos: The retreat of the coalition & rise of the militias The message to the Baghdad morgue was simple - they could do what they liked with the plastic handcuffs, but the metal ones were expensive and needed to be returned. Such is the murderous state of affairs in Iraq at the moment that the demand, made by a militia gunman who is also believed to be a member of the Special Police Commandos, hardly caused a stir.
There was a similar lack of shock when a dozen bodies were brought in with identification cards showing that each ha... (more)
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Secret Cabinet memo admits Iraq is fuelling UK terror Tony Blair's claim that there is no link between Britain's foreign policy and terrorist attacks in this country is blown apart by a secret cabinet memo revealed today.
A classified paper written by senior Downing Street officials says that everything Britain does overseas for the next decade must have the ultimate aim of reducing "terror activity, especially that in or directed against the UK".
The memo, circulated in recent weeks to ministers and secur... (more)
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Warships deploy to protect Arab oil facilitiesDUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Coalition naval forces in the Persian Gulf are on watch for possible terror threats to oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Western naval officials said Friday.
A British navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said a threat from al-Qaida last month to target gulf oil terminals had resulted in stepped-up security and vigilance at Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura terminal, as well as ... (more)
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