Rigging row over Georgia pollMikhail Saakashvili, the Georgian president, has claimed victory in municipal elections, but the opposition accuses him of seeking to falsify results.
Saakashvili said at his party's headquarters late on Thursday that his group received 70 per cent of all votes across Georgia.
On Friday, the Central Election Commission said that preliminary results for most of Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, gave Saakashvili's party 66 per cent of the vote; Republicans 11.9 per cent; La... (more)
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Experts warn of an accidental atomic war - Nuclear missile modified for conventional attack on Iran could set off alarm in RussiaA Pentagon project to modify its deadliest nuclear missile for use as a conventional weapon against targets such as North Korea and Iran could unwittingly spark an atomic war, two weapons experts warned Thursday.
Russian military officers might misconstrue a submarine-launched conventional D5 intercontinental ballistic missile and conclude that Russia is under nuclear attack, said Ted Postol, a physicist and professor of science, technology and national security policy at the Mass... (more)
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Chavez denies being anti-USHugo Rafael Chavez Frías, the 53rd president of Venezuela, was born on July 28 1954. He came to power in 1998, promising to help Venezuela's poor majority, and was re-elected in 2000. He survived a coup in 2002 and faces a presidential election in December.
Since becoming president he has followed a policy of democratic socialism, Latin American integration and anti-imperialism.
His reforms have created much controversy in Venezuela and abroad. Most Venezuela... (more) "We are not against the US people, where there are children, women, intellectuals and students. We have investments in the US, we have eight refineries there, we have 14,000 gas stations. I have many friends there, I have played baseball there, I even have a nephew there.
What we are against is the imperial elite and that is very different. This is not a game. Do you think Iraq is a game, the aggression against Latin America for a century is a game, the toppling of Allende, the invasions of Grenada, Haiti, Panama, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, is that a game?
If that's a game, then my goodness that would be awful. This is an aggression and every day more and more people are against this hegemony and trying to save the world. Look at Lebanon, the aggression against the Palestinian people, why do they do that? Because the Israelis are supported by the elite of the US. We are against that." |
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Israelis Win Contract To Secure US BordersOn Sept. 21, Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced that a consortium headed by the Chicago-based Boeing Company had won a multi-billion dollar contract to install sensors and radar along the U.S. border. The deal, the first part of a multibillion-dollar government plan designed to reduce illegal entry along the Canadian and Mexican borders calls for cameras, sensors and even unmanned planes.
When Chertoff was asked why DHS had cho... (more)
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Israeli minister says war may resumeIsrael's national infrastructure minister said on Tuesday that war with Hizbullah might restart in a few months, and called for an enhancement of the Israeli Army's capacities. Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Israeli public radio that the deployment of the Lebanese Army along the border with Israel "will not ensure safety for Israel" and that Hizbullah still presents a threat to the Jewish state.
Meanwhile, Britain-based Jane's International Defense Review reported that Hizbullah receiv... (more)
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Turkish jet hijacker surrenders A man who hijacked a Turkish airliner flying from Tirana to Istanbul has surrendered after the Boeing 737 landed at Brindisi in southern Italy.
First reports suggested there were two hijackers, protesting against the Pope, but it has now emerged that the man is a Turkish army deserter seeking asylum.
Italian police are checking reports that he may have had an accomplice.
All the Turkish Airlines pl... (more)
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Human Rights Watch Faults UN for Little Action in Uzbekistan Massacre Case The watchdog group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the UN Human Rights Council of missing a “crucial opportunity” to expose a “massacre” that took place in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan in May 2005, Radio Free Europe reports.
HRW says the council’s first discussion of rights issues in Uzbekistan since bloody crackdown was moved behind closed doors after the UN body met on October 2, instead of being ... (more)
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Musharraf U-turn on TalibanRetired Pakistani intelligence officers could be running the Taliban insurgency against coalition forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan's president, Gen Pervez Musharraf, has said.
He made the admission to an American television channel at the weekend — the first time he had broken from his usual policy of denying any Pakistani hand in the rebellion against American, British and other forces.
Asked on NBC television if his Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) wa... (more)
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Fox may use force to end Oaxaca protests MEXICO CITY - As Mexico marked the anniversary of a 1968 student massacre, President Vicente Fox warned Monday that force could be used to remove protesters in the southern state of Oaxaca if negotiations fail.
Military helicopters flew over Oaxaca City, the state capital, during the weekend, and members of leftist groups and striking teachers prepared Molotov cocktails and set up barricades in anticipation of police and military a... (more)
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Thwarted Coup d'Etat in Georgia?The Georgian authorities have detained dozens of political activists who they accuse of plotting a coup, but sceptics say the mass arrests are a sign of creeping authoritarianism in the country.
The 29 people arrested on September 6 were members of Justice – a party founded by the fugitive former security chief Igor Giorgadze – or its satellite parties. Many have been charged with involvement in a plot to overthrow the government, and could face up to 15 years in jail ... (more)
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British troops in secret truce with the TalibanBRITISH troops battling the Taliban are to withdraw from one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan after agreeing a secret deal with the local people.
Over the past two months British soldiers have come under sustained attack defending a remote mud-walled government outpost in the town of Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan. Eight have been killed there.
It has now been agreed the troops will quietly pull out of Musa Qala in return for the Taliban doing the same.... (more)
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US boosts Israel aid by half a billion(WASHINGTON) The US congress has approved a USD 500 million aid package for the development of joint defense systems with Israel.
The package was approved as part of the USD 447.6 billion defense budget for 2007, which includes USD 70 billion for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The package comes in addition to USD 2.36 billion in military aid granted to Israel by the US each year.
Israeli officials welcomed the move, which they say underlines US... (more)
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Pakistan 'role in Mumbai attacks' Pakistan's intelligence agency was behind the train blasts in Mumbai in July that killed 186 people, Indian police say.
The attacks were planned by the ISI and carried out by the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba, based in Pakistan, Mumbai's police chief said.
AN Roy said the Students' Islamic Movement of India had also assisted.
Pakistan rejected the allegations and said India had giv... (more)
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Dictator hires doubles to do the boring jobs The eccentric North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il has hired doubles to carry out his more mundane tasks, according to South Korean intelligence officials.
While Kim himself attends major state occasions, two men stand in for him for more routine visits to tractor factories or farms.
"They are the spitting image of Kim — the same age, same height and with the same bouffant hairstyle and pot belly," a South Korean new... (more)
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US imposes sanctions on ThailandThe United States has imposed sanctions against Thailand in response to the military coup which ousted civilian Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The move involves cutting off $24m (£12.8m) in military assistance, according to the US state department.
The US has urged the ruling generals to call elections as soon as possible.
Last week's coup has been widely welcomed in Thailand, but it has been condemned by most Western governments as a step b... (more)
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First friction between UN peacekeepers, Israeli troops in Lebanon Tanks belonging to French contingent of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon were involved in a brief confrontation with Israeli tanks Thursday on a road where Israeli troops had been erecting checkpoints.
Four French Leclerc tanks with UN peacekeepers moved to the entrance of the border village of Marwaheen where at least five Israeli Merkava tanks were operating in the area for the past two days, preventing civilians and journali... (more)
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Take UK troops out of Iraq, senior military told ministers Senior military officers have been pressing the government to withdraw British troops from Iraq and concentrate on what they now regard as a more worthwhile and winnable battleground in Afghanistan.
They believe there is a limit to what British soldiers can achieve in southern Iraq and that it is time the Iraqis took responsibility for their own security, defence sources say. Pressure from military chiefs for an early and significant cut ... (more)
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Most Iraqis Favor Immediate U.S. Pullout, Polls ShowBAGHDAD, Sept. 26 -- A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers.
In Baghdad, for example, nearly three-quarters of residents polled said they would feel safer if U.S. and other foreign forces left Iraq, with 65 percent of those asked favoring an immediate pullout... (more)
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Blair pinched speech from The Grapes of WrathHis promise to the party faithful that he would 'always' be with them earned Tony Blair a seven-minute standing ovation.
But the Labour conference may have been slightly less overawed if they had realised that the Prime Minister had based the finale to his farewell speech on the words of a fugitive double murderer.
Mr Blair has confided to friends that he drew inspiration for his big sign-off from a favourite passage of John Steinbeck's 1939 classic The Grapes of Wr... (more)
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Chinese Discuss Thai Coup D'Etat's Inspiration for China The recent peaceful coup d'etat in Thailand attracted worldwide attention. Many Chinese associate the events in Thailand with China's current political situation, and are concerned that it may be an inspiration for a coup in China, and wonder if such a coup is possible in China. Feedback from mainland China's media and overseas Chinese reveals that the Chinese army has undergone tremendous changes in recent years.
Thai Coup D'Eta... (more)
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