Mass grave find fuels sectarian tension in IraqIraq moved closer to sectarian civil war as police found the bodies of 87 men killed in Baghdad, many of them showing signs of torture. The dead appear to be Sunni Muslims killed in retaliation for the bombs that slaughtered 58 people and wounded 200 when they exploded in crowded markets in the strongly Shia area of Sadr City.
Some 29 dead men were found yesterday buried in a pit in a playing field. "Some children were playing soccer and they smelt something strong and the police ... (more)
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Pentagon 'hedge' strategy targets ChinaThe Pentagon is moving strategic bombers to Guam and aircraft carriers and submarines to the Pacific as part of a new "hedge" strategy aimed at preparing for conflict with China, Pentagon officials said yesterday.
Peter Rodman, assistant defense secretary for international security affairs, told a congressional commission that the response to the emerging military threat from China is part of the White House national security strategy made public yesterday.
... (more)
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Rep. Curt Weldon: Bin Laden is DeadRep. Curt Weldon, who broke the Able Danger story last year revealing that military intelligence had identified lead hijacker Mohammed Atta as a terrorist threat before the 9/11 attacks, now says that Osama bin Laden has died.
Weldon made the stunning claim during an interview Wednesday with the Philadelphia Inquirer, which reported:
"Weldon is making explosive new allegations. He says a high-level source has told him that terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has died i... (more)
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Investors flee Iceland banks as economy heads towards forecast 'hard landing'Iceland's banks were pummelled yesterday as the Nordic economy lurched into its third week of crisis, flashing an ominous early-warning signal for markets worldwide.
The krona tumbled another 3pc against the US dollar and is now down almost 18pc this year, a victim of "hot money" flight by investors scrambling for the exit doors at the same time. Reykjavik's blue-chip stock index was down 3.3pc.
The cost of insuring against a bond default by Iceland's three big bank... (more)
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Belarus Says US Planned School Bombings On Election DayBelarusian State Security Committee Chairman Stepan Sukhorenko has accused the opposition of conspiring to stage a coup, news agencies said Thursday. Sukharenko said he had evidence that the United States and Georgia were backing efforts to overthrow the country’s current regime by force in Sunday’s presidential elections.
Stepan Sukharenko showed a press conference in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, a video of an interview with a man he said was one of those involved ... (more)
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Congressman Says Iran War Delayed: Government still in propaganda phase of build-upCongressman Ron Paul has contradicted other high profile warnings that a military strike on Iran is right around the corner by opining that any act of aggression is still some time away and that the build-up to another war is still in the propaganda phase of being sold to the American people.
Appearing on the Alex Jones Show, Paul speculated that the Iranian oil bourse issue cannot be the only and most pressing reason for war because a similar situation arose before the Iraq i... (more)
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Lasseter Reveals Iraq War's Dirty Little Secret: U.S. Stepping Up BombingThe Pentagon announced this week that, far from pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, it is rushing another few hundred there, as reinforcements. It still maintains that it hopes to "draw down" troops soon. But how can the U.S. pull some troops out of Iraq with an insurgency seemingly growing in strength, and yet maintain military pressure?
The answer from Knight Ridder's longtime Baghdad correspondent Tom Lasseter: American forces have dramatically increased air strikes in Iraq--a sub... (more)
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Euro Parliament Criticizes Israel The EP censured Tel Aviv for the 10-hour military operation with heavy artillery that left at least two dead and dozens wounded.
Tel Aviv claims the main assassin of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in October 2001 is Ahmad Saadat, head of the Palestinian Popular Liberation Front, but the Jericho attack was to capture six others also accused.
The assault caused a strong reaction from Arabs in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip,
EP Socialist ... (more)
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Pro-Israel Activists Block Travel ReformWASHINGTON — Jewish organizations played a leading role in defeating the effort, launched in response to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, to ban privately funded trips for members of Congress.
Advocates of lobbying reform and many members of Congress stepped up their push for a ban on travel paid for by private individuals and organizations after Abramoff — who organized junkets for many lawmakers — pleaded guilty in January to fraud, tax evasion and conspirac... (more)
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Chinese PM Downplays China ThreatChinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao outlined specific reasons why his country's growing strength does not represent a threat to other nations at a press conference Tuesday.
The premier's remarks, made after the final session of the National People's Congress, is part of the Chinese government's attempt to downplay mounting concerns expressed in Washington and other capitals that China's rise is coming at their expense.
This is a key time for Beijing to get its point a... (more)
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Top Russian Communist Blames U.S. of Using Bird Flu as Biological WeaponThe leader of the Russian Communist Party has said the outbreak of bird flu in a number of European countries including Russia is a plot by the United States.
“It’s strange that not a single duck has yet died in America —- they are all dying in Russia and European countries. This makes one seriously wonder why,” Gennady Zyuganov was quoted by UPI as saying.
The Communist leader said that he learned all about biological warfare during his time... (more)
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Top U.S. Military Official: No Evidence of Iran Involvement in IraqMarine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, said today he has no evidence the Iranian government has been sending military equipment and personnel into neighboring Iraq.
On Monday, President Bush suggested Iran was involved in making roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, that are being used in Iraq. And Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld last week accused Iran of sending members of its Revolutionary Guard to conduct operations in Iraq.<... (more)
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U.S. may veto bid for UN condemnation of jail siegeThe threat of a U.S. veto hovers over planned closed-door deliberations Wednesday over Qatar's bid for a UN Security Council to condemn Israel's Jericho jail siege and its capture of the killers of former cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi.
A draft statement by Qatari Ambassador Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, representing Arab nations, would have condemned "Israel's violent incursion" in besieging the Jericho jail, and would have demanded that Israel return the prisoners it seized "and to retu... (more)
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Tribunal formally closes case against MilosevicJudges at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague have formally closed the case against Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president who died in his prison cell over the weekend.
He had been facing 66 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes related to his bloody reign during Yugoslavia's breakup in the 1990s.
Presiding judge Patrick Robinson expressed regret Tuesday that a verdict in the landmark trial was impossible. He said Mil... (more)
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Iraqis Fear US Secretly Wants Civil WarRumors in Iraq have a weight that government and even newspaper reports don't seem to carry, and the latest rumors suggest Iraqis believe a civil war is imminent and the United States secretly wants it to happen.
Just three days after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld criticized what he believes to be "exaggerated" and one-sided press coverage of apparently sectarian violence in Iraq sparked by the Feb. 22 attack on a Shiite mosque in Samarra, U.S. military intelligence repor... (more)
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Arab central banks move assets out of dollarMiddle Eastern anger over the decision by the US to block a Dubai company from buying five of its ports hit the dollar yesterday as a number of central banks said they were considering switching reserves into euros.
The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, said it was looking to move one-tenth of its dollar reserves into euros, while the governor of the Saudi Arabian central bank condemned the US move as "discrimination".
Separately, Syria responded to US san... (more)
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Russia Does Not Trust Milosevic Autopsy Results — Foreign MinisterRussia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia doesn’t fully trust Milosevic’s autopsy and wanted to send doctors to examine the body, agencies reported Monday.
Lavrov said Russia had been disturbed by the UN war crime tribunal’s refusal to let Milosevic undergo treatment in Russia.
“In fact, they did not believe us,” Lavrov was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.
“In the situation when we weren’t beli... (more)
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