UK troops 'to spend 10 years' in AfghanistanTHE commander of the British taskforce in southern Afghanistan said last week that UK troops could be in the country for as long as 10 years.
In his first interview since arriving in Afghanistan, Brigadier Ed Butler said: “I don’t think there’s any doubt we will be here for a considerable time. There will need to be training teams and embedded officers for 10 years or so.”
Butler, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, took full responsibility ... (more)
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Religious leaders across Mideast rage against pope's comments on IslamISTANBUL (AP) — Pakistan's legislature unanimously condemned Pope Benedict XVI. Lebanon's top Shiite cleric demanded an apology. And in Turkey, the ruling party likened the pontiff to Hitler and Mussolini and accused him of reviving the mentality of the Crusades.
Across the Islamic world Friday, Benedict's remarks on Islam and jihad in a speech in Germany unleashed a torrent of rage that many fear could burst into violent protests like those that followed public... (more)
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Families of British soldiers banned from Labour conference in censorship rowLabour officials have banned the grieving families of the Iraq war dead from staging a peaceful protest outside the party's forthcoming annual conference in Manchester.
Furious members of Military Families Against The War accused the party of 'censorship' after they applied to hold a small peace camp near the conference later this month.
But officials on Labour-run Manchester council told them they could not do so for 'health and safety' reasons.
The ... (more)
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Five Former Soviet Republics Give Up NukesSAN FRANCISCO, Sep 13 - The Bush Administration is objecting to a groundbreaking treaty that set up a nuclear weapon-free zone in Central Asia.
Under the treaty signed Friday, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan committed themselves not to produce, buy, or allow the deployment of nuclear weapons on their soil.
But the United States, along with Britain and France, refused to attend the signing ceremony in the Kazakh capital, Almaty, citin... (more)
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Former IDF chief says soldiers were sacrificed for spinFormer chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon believes the prime minister and chief of staff should resign, and the defense minister should be replaced for mismanaging the war in Lebanon.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Haaretz which will be published in Friday's Magazine, Ya'alon condemned the decision to launch the ground operation at the end of the war, in which 33 soldiers died.
"That was a spin move," Ya'alon said. "It had no substantive security-political goal, ... (more) Not one mention of how this war devastated the Lebanese... |
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Falconer tones down his attack on Guantanamo BayLord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, tempered his planned criticism of the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay as a "shocking affront" to democracy when he delivered a lecture in Australia yesterday.
In a version of his speech issued to reporters in advance, he said that acceptance of the rule of law meant that the courts could exercise jurisdiction over the government. "It is because of that principle, that the USA, deliberately seeking to put the detainees beyond the reach of the... (more)
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Norwegian imam: Muslims not behind 9/11The spiritual leader of Norway's Muslims told readers of Aftenposten Monday he doubts Muslims were responsible for the 2001 terror attacks on the United States.
Imam Zulqarnain Sakandar Madni answered questions from the newspaper's readers.
There's some good evidence that (U.S. President George) Bush and company were behind this, he said. See the film that's called 'Loose Change.' An American film!
He also said he doubts that al-Qaida and Osama bin La... (more)
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Bush to hold talks on Ali G creator after diplomatic rowUS President George Bush is to host White House talks on British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
Cohen, 35, creator of Ali G, has infuriated the Kazakhstan government with his portrayal of Borat, a bumbling Kazakh TV presenter.
And now a movie of Borat's adventures in the US has caused a diplomatic incident.
The opening scene, which shows Borat lustily kissing his sister goodbye and setting off for America in a car pulled by a horse, had audiences ... (more)
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UK minister condemns GuantanamoLord Falconer has made his strongest attack yet on Guantanamo Bay by denouncing it as a "shocking affront to the principles of democracy".
Speaking in Sydney, the Lord Chancellor accused the US of "deliberately seeking to put detainees beyond the rule of law in Guantanamo Bay".
But he also stressed the UK remained "a close and staunch ally" of America.
The peer told the BBC he believed it was time to air his private disapproval of the detention cam... (more)
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Meanwhile in Baghdad...I've recently received several emails from Iraq. Some, like the first, have been sent to me from people I know. Others were passed on by my friend Gerri Haynes, who receives emails regularly from friends she made during her several trips to Iraq. I include them here, as the brunt of this piece, because they show the living hell that Iraq has become under US occupation.
Here is an email from a doctor living in Baghdad:
Although I have perfect job satisfaction as a fu... (more)
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MK Eitam calls for 'removal' of ArabsMK Effi Eitam (NU-NRP), called Sunday for the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank and the removal of Israeli-Arabs from the political scene, Army Radio reported.
Eitam's comments followed a visit to Syria by three Arab Knesset members.
Army Radio on Monday aired the remarks, which Eitam made Sunday at a memorial service for Lt. Amihai Merhavia, who was killed in the battle for Bint Jbail in south Lebanon.
"We have to do three things," Eita... (more)
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The world in 2031: How September 11 could shape our futureLast week, the Harvard academic Niall Ferguson offered an optimistic prediction of how our world could look, 30 years after the September 11 attacks. But is the future really so rosy? Will our society and way of life survive the traumas of war, terrorism and climate change? Here, three leading historians look ahead - to a time we can only imagine
The new Thirty Years' War by Paul Kennedy
It seems very hard and strange now, to look back more than 30 yea... (more)
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Top soldier quits as blundering campaign turns into 'pointless' warTHE former aide-de-camp to the commander of the British taskforce in southern Afghanistan has described the campaign in Helmand province as “a textbook case of how to screw up a counter-insurgency”.
“Having a big old fight is pointless and just making things worse,” said Captain Leo Docherty, of the Scots Guards, who became so disillusioned that he quit the army last month.
“All those people whose homes have been destroyed and sons kill... (more)
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Afghan governor assassinatedAbdul Hakim Taniwal was driving from his office when the attacker, his body strapped with explosives, ran towards the car and detonated the bomb, said Abdul Annan Raufi, the local police chief.
The other fatalities included one of Taniwal's bodyguards and another man, reportedly his nephew. At least three more people were wounded.
Taniwal, in his 60s, was a former sociology professor who had been in exile for about 20 years in Melbourne, Australia. He returned to A... (more)
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Iraq defends Arab TV channel banBAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government on Friday defended its decision to close the Baghdad bureau of Al Arabiya television for "sectarian" reporting, despite criticism from media bodies which called the ban an assault on press freedom.
"If al Qaeda wanted reporters to work for it, it could do no better than the reporters for Arabiya," Yasseen Majeed, media advisor to Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said, a day after cabinet voted to close the channel's Baghdad bureau for a m... (more)
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A Monarch's Dire Warning About the Middle EastStriding past ceremonial Circassian guards into a sitting room at Basman Palace, King Abdullah II is looking fresh and energetic, as if he has just come from another spin around town on his treasured Harley-Davidson. But his natural ebullience masked an uncharacteristic inner gloom that deepened this summer when the Middle East was plunged into yet another conflict with the Israeli-Hizballah war in Lebanon.
As the 44-year-old monarch settled into a stuffed sofa for a 1-hour TIME ... (more)
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Pro-Israel lobby targets BBC online pollBBC History Magazine was forced to remove an online poll after it was targeted by a project aimed at influencing internet opinion in Israel's favour.
The Give Israel Your United Support (GIYUS) website hosts a downloadable desktop tool called Megaphone. The program alerts users to opinion polls and "talkback" features on news sites so they can respond with pro-Israel views. In turn, users can alert GIYUS operators to any opinion polls they think should be targeted.
... (more)
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Iran says U.S., Israel ordered September 11 attacksTehran, Iran, Sep. 06 – The Supreme Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps accused the Bush Administration and the Israeli security service Mossad of ordering the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, DC.
“The events of September 11 were ordered by U.S. [officials] and Mossad so that they could carry out their strategy of pre-emption and warmongering and unipolarisation in order to dominate the Middle East”, Major General Ya... (more)
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Press secretary to the president of Pakistan tells ABC Osama bin Laden will not be captured if he agrees to live 'peaceful life'Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan, press secretary to the president of Pakistan, tells ABC News that -- if found -- Osama bin Laden won't be arrested, as long as he promises to behave like a "peaceful citizen."
"If he is in Pakistan, bin Laden 'would not be taken into custody,' Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan told ABC News in a telephone interview, 'as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen," report Brian Ross and Gretchen Peters at ABC's blog, The Blotter.
... (more)
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