Eta declares permanent ceasefireThe Basque separatist group Eta has declared a permanent ceasefire.
The group has been fighting for independence for the Basque region of northern Spain and south-west France for nearly four decades.
It is blamed for killing more than 800 people in that time, many of them Spanish police, judges and politicians.
In a statement released to Basque media, Eta said its objective now was "to start a new democratic process in the Basque country".
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Pentagon plans for an Iraqi civil warWASHINGTON - Pentagon and military officials say Iraq's not fighting a civil war yet, but warn that Iraqi security forces and the government could still collapse, dragging the country into one. So the U.S. military is drafting a series of contingency plans to deal with that very ominous possibility.
Military officials tell NBC News the first objective, however, is to head off a civil war. The U.S. military hopes to keep Iraqi security forces from taking sides in the sectarian viol... (more)
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Kissinger: ''America's global strategy benefits from the Indian participation in building a new world order."The civilian nuclear agreement reached by the United States and India ''promises to make a seminal contribution to international peace and prosperity, '' according to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
He has welcomed the agreement as ''an unprecedented level of cooperation and interdependence between the two powers''.
''In a period preoccupied with concerns over terrorism and the potential clash of civilisations, the emerging cooperation between the two ... (more)
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10 bodies found in Baghdad, including 13-year-old girlIraqi authorities today reported finding 10 more bullet-riddled bodies dumped in the capital Baghdad, one of them that of a 13-year-old girl.
The 10 bodies were the latest gruesome discoveries tied to the underground sectarian war being conducted by Shiite and Sunni Muslims as they settle scores in the chaos that grips the Iraqi capital.
As many as 700 people have been killed in sectarian violence since the February 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra and the s... (more)
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UAE, Saudi considering to move reserves out of dollarWASHINGTON — A number of Middle Eastern central banks said on Tuesday they would seek to switch reserves from the US greenback to euros.
The United Arab Emirates said it was considering moving one-tenth of its dollar reserves to the euro, while the governor of the Saudi Arabian central bank condemned the decision by the United States to force Dubai Ports World to transfer its ownership to a ‘US entity,’ the UK Independent reported.
“Is it pro... (more)
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Pakistan launches cruise missilePakistan says it has tested a cruise missile for the second time.
The Babur missile is capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads and has a range of 500km (310 miles), a military statement said.
Pakistan had fired its first cruise missile last August and described the launch as a "milestone" in its history.
Cruise missiles are usually low-flying guided missiles. South Asian nuclear rival India had no comment on the latest launch.
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THE IRAQ WAR: Three years: White House no longer sees quick end to difficult warWhen the U.S.-led coalition attacked Iraq three years ago, the Bush administration was brimming with confidence that this would be a war only in the sense that a lot of bombs would be dropped and the military would seize, temporarily, a foreign capital. It was going to be swift, high-tech, clean.
Six weeks later, President Bush spoke in the past tense about Operation Iraqi Freedom, thanking the Iraqis who welcomed the U.S. troops and promising that democratic change would sweep th... (more)
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Belarus President Lukashenko Calls George W Bush World’s Main TerroristBelarus President Alexander Lukashenko has called the U.S. President George W. Bush world’s biggest terrorist, RIA Novosti said Sunday.
“He is the planet’s main terrorist,” Lukashenko told the journalists after he cast his ballot at the presidential elections in Minsk.
“Look at how he has smashed countries and now he has reached out for presidents,” Lukashenko said.
Speaking about the documents concerning his income... (more)
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Former Iraq PM: 'We Are In Civil War'(CBS/AP) Iraq is in the middle of a civil war, Iraq's former prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. aired on Sunday.
Allawi said there was no other way to describe the increasing violence across the country.
"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," Allawi told the BBC. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war i... (more)
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Rumsfeld: We're trying to figure out what to do if Iraq falls into civil warAmerica has begun making plans to deal with a civil war in Iraq, three years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
As sectarian violence continues to claim lives every day, Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary, has disclosed that United States military intelligence is holding war games to predict what might happen in such a situation.
Mr Rumsfeld's admission that "the intelligence community are thinking about this and analysing it" comes despite... (more)
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60 detained in U.S.-led Swarmer offensiveIraqi police and soldiers found the bodies of 16 people in Baghdad on Saturday who were shot in the head and showed signs of torture, security forces said.
The bodies were found in six neighborhoods over the past 12 hours and could not be immediately identified.
In other developments Saturday, 60 people arrested in the U.S.-Iraqi military sweep north of Samarra remained in custody out of 80 who were initially detained, according to a spokesman for the 3rd Brigade Co... (more)
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Britain breaks with the US over IranBritain has told the United States that it will not take part in any armed action against Iran’s nuclear sites, according to diplomatic sources in London. Already facing huge public criticism for his participation in the Iraq war, Prime Minister Tony Blair is seeking to distance himself from America’s belligerent rhetoric towards Iran.
Blair knows he would probably not survive the political storm if Britain joined in an attack on Iran. The concern in Whitehall, however... (more)
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Brzezinski calls for Iraq pull outOne of America's most respected elder national security statesmen called for a full pull-out from Iraq Thursday.
Delivering the keynote address at the Center for American Progress' "Iraq; Next Steps for U.S. Policy," Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former National Security advisor for President Jimmy Carter, said that "within a year we should be able to complete a course of disengagement" and withdraw from Iraq.
Brzezinski cited several reasons for withdrawal, among them t... (more)
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Third anniversary of Iraq war is marked by protests around worldHundreds of thousands of people will take to the streets in Britain and around the world today to protest over the presence of British and American troops in Iraq, amid increasing official recognition that the country is slipping into civil war.
Organisers of the mass demonstration, timed to mark the third anniversary of the morning President George Bush declared war on Iraq on 20 March 2003, hope it will attract similar numbers to the million who protested in London in February t... (more)
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