Political violence in Iraq killed 456 Iraqis in August, the
highest monthly death toll since July 2008. And with the United States showing
no sign it plans to reverse the troop withdrawal that is now well underway,
numerous struggles for power are shaping up inside Iraq.
They involve both competing factions within the country and also, perhaps more
ominously, several neighboring countries.
These levels of violence are deeply entwined, as was shown by the aftershocks
of the most deadly of August's acts of violence: on August 19, unknown parties,
suspected to be disgruntled Sunnis, detonated large vehicle bombs outside three
Iraqi
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Category: World |
Views: 659 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 09.09.2009
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(AP) — JERUSALEM - Israel is pushing ahead with a long-delayed plan
to build hundreds of apartments in east Jerusalem, staking
claims to land the Palestinians want for a future state and
complicating already tense relations with the U.S. over its
demand for a construction moratorium.
The government has chosen developers to build 486 new
apartments in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood after a yearlong
delay over pricing disputes, the state-run land agency said Tuesday.
The announcement came just days after Israel approved up to
455 apartments in the West Bank. Construction plans are
continuing even as Israel negotiates with the U.S. on its
demand for a total building freeze in both the West Bank and
east Jerusalem.
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Category: World |
Views: 575 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 09.09.2009
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 KABUL
- About 200,000 votes have been thrown out of the tally of Afghan
election results because of fraud, an election official said Tuesday.
Widespread allegations of ballot-box stuffing and suspicious tallies are threatening the legitimacy of Afghanistan's
Aug. 20 vote as the country awaits final results. More than 650 major
fraud charges have been lodges with a complaints commission. The Independent Electoral Commission
previously said that results from 447 polling stations were thrown out,
and an official said that amounts to about 200,000 ballots. "The numbers were suspicious and the resul
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Category: World |
Views: 713 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 08.09.2009
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JERUSALEM - Israel officially approved the construction of hundreds of new homes in the West Bank on Monday, deepening its rift with the U.S. over settlement expansion. The construction is the first approved by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
who is under heavy U.S. pressure to freeze all settlement activity on
captured lands claimed by the Palestinians for a future state. "Given
the choice between making peace and making settlements, they have
chosen to make settlements," chief Palestinian negotiator
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Category: World |
Views: 690 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 08.09.2009
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 Months-long review of plans for the deployment of U.S. missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, initiated by the White House after coming to power of Barack Obama, nearing the end. It is expected that the result of the review will be a number of proposed options Months-long review of plans for the deployment of U.S. missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, initiated by the White House after coming to power of Barack Obama, nearing the end. It is expected that the result of the review will be a number of proposed options - from carrying out installations to their complete abolition. Obama administration has not yet come to a decision about what to do. In Poland and the Czech Republic might and main circulating rumors that the United States abandoned its plans to deploy missile defense systems in these countries.The source of the r
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Category: World |
Views: 748 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 07.09.2009
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 Rostov-on-Don and Odessa, which has long been informally known as "Papa" and "mother", became sister cities, reports RIA Novosti quoting the press service of the mayor of Rostov-on-Don.
The corresponding agreement was signed on September 3 Odessa Mayor Edward Hurwitz and Rostov mayor Mikhail Chernyshev.
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Category: World |
Views: 781 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 05.09.2009
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Category: World |
Views: 705 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 05.09.2009
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 In India, 67 people died after the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Radzhashekhara Reddy (YS Rajasekhara Reddy) was killed in a plane crash. Some of them died of shock after learning of the death of a loved politics, others committed suicide. About it writes The Times of India.
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Category: World |
Views: 702 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 04.09.2009
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 TAWANG, India — This is perhaps the most militarized Buddhist enclave in the world. Uneasy Engagement Enclave of Hostility
Perched above 10,000 feet in the icy reaches of the eastern Himalayas, the town of Tawang is not only home to one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most sacred monasteries, but is also the site of a huge Indian military buildup. Convoys of army trucks haul howitzers along rutted mountain roads. Soldiers drill in muddy fields. Military bases appear every half-mile in the countryside, with watchtowers rising behind concertina wire.
A road sign on the northern edge of town helps explain the reason for all the fear and the fury: the border with China is just 23 miles away; Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, 316 miles; and Beijing, 2,676 miles.
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Category: World |
Views: 697 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 04.09.2009
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 The blast was thought
to have burned alive villagers as they gathered to collect fuel from the
tankers when one became stuck in a river.
Nato officials
insisted the strike had killed a large number of militants, but said they were
investigating the reports that civilians had died as well.
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Category: World |
Views: 655 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 04.09.2009
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 Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia awarded the exodus of U.S. Ambassador John Tefft Order of St. George. This July 3 news agency reportedInterfax."Any country should be proud of a diplomat of that rank, which is Tefft. He did a lot for Georgia", - Saakashvili said at the awarding ceremony. The Ambassador said: "Together we did a lot of great things. There was a difficult period, but together we overcame it."John Tefft served a diplomatic mission in Georgia for five years. He will leave his post on September 8. His successor will be John Bass, who until now headed the group that had helped the Iraqi authorities to rebuild Baghdad after the war
Category: World |
Views: 681 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 04.09.2009
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 According to Swiss minister Christa Markwalder, when Khadafy comes to New York Sept. 23, he will ask the UN to dismantle Switzerland and parcel out the land to neighboring France, Germany andItaly.The UN charter specifically states that no member can threaten the sovereignty of another, so the demand is unlikely to get far. But it's another sign of tension to come during the eccentric dictator's visit.The Libya-Swiss kerfuffle began a year ago, when Khadafy's trouble-making youngest son, Hannibal, was arrested in aGeneva hotel for beating two servants with a belt and a coat-hanger.He had previously had run-ins with cops in France and Italy and once was busted for driving drunk on Paris' Champs-Elysees at 90 mph - the wrong way.Libya retaliated with fury, recalling some diplomats, withdrawing $5 billion from Swiss banks, shuttering the&n
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Category: World |
Views: 627 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 04.09.2009
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 The Ukrainian parliament on Sept. 4 temporarily left without leadership, managed to run for a while and has twice been blocked by deputies from the Party of Regions.
As reported IA "Ukrainski News Agency,the work of the Verkhovna Rada began with the fact that the Regions Party blocked the rostrum and presidium.
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Category: World |
Views: 674 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 04.09.2009
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 Idleness in the Ukrainian Rada acquired a political meaning
The deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, returning from leave,
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Category: World |
Views: 718 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 03.09.2009
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 In his first six months, President Obama has made more of an effort to improve relations with the Muslim world than any other American president before him.
He began with his inauguration speech, stressing the importance of relaxing defensive postures so that the demonization process can stop. He followed with his speech at the Turkish Parliament, offering the r
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Category: World |
Views: 715 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 03.09.2009
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 It was a moment that promised to define a new era in U.S.-Latin American relations: Obama greeted Hugo Chávez at the Summit of the Americas with a smile and a handshake, and Chávez responded with a gift and a heavily accented "I wanna be your friend." The Cold War-style chasm between Washington and the leftist leaders of the Andes that had widened during the Bush administration finally seemed to be narrowing a bit.
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Category: World |
Views: 642 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 03.09.2009
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 Mexican President Felipe Calderon, in his relentless yet ineffective crusade against drug traffickers, deployed around 2,500 troops into his native state of Michoacán on July 20. The obvious objective was to fight the growing "narco insurgency" which is spreading throughout what was until recently a relatively tranquil part of the country. This serious challenge to the central authority in Mexico City is spreading faster than the H1N1 swine flu virus, which still plagues parts of Mexico. There seems to be no cure for either the drug wars or the influenza so far; both
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Category: World |
Views: 739 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 03.09.2009
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 Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenkohas refused to sign the law on presidential elections and returned it to the Verkhovna Rada. In the case of the law comes into force on Yushchenko vowed to appeal to the Constitutional Court, informs
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Category: World |
Views: 670 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 03.09.2009
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 The recent conflict in the Peruvian Amazon is only the most violent symptom of an ongoing cold war being waged by President Alan García and his ruling Aprista party against indigenous groups. Besides a racist propaganda campaign and violent repression, the government has tried highly suspect legal mechanisms to disarticulate indigenous power.
Government propaganda is
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Category: World |
Views: 699 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 03.09.2009
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 Argentina - Buenos Aires Herald (July 5): Venezuela, Brazil and others had sought to include language [in the resolution passed on Saturday to suspend Honduras from the Organization of American States] that would have mandated a cutoff in bilateral cooperation with Honduras—wording that was opposed by the United States, Canada, Mexico and Colombia among others, diplomats said. Zelaya said he wanted to try to return to Honduras later on Sunday. But several countries at the O.A.S
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Category: World |
Views: 714 |
Added by: magictr |
Date: 03.09.2009
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The off-the-wall threat that Libyan leader