 An influential think-tank has called on Pakistan to stop military action against nationalist militants in the restive province of Balochistan. The International Crisis Group urged the government to talk with political parties to resolve the conflict. It warned that conflict in gas-rich Balochistan could intensify if the government pressed on with an offensive against rebels fighting for autonomy. The province has been in turmoil since a top rebel was killed last month. Federal Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani rejected the report, telling the BBC many organisations compiled reports from information downloaded from the internet. "By choosing confrontation, the Musharraf government bears responsibility for the state of the conflict," the ICG report said. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 08:59:00 09-14-06
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 Pope's speech stirs Muslim anger |
Muslim religious leaders have accused Pope Benedict XVI of quoting anti-Islamic remarks during a speech at a German university this week. Questioning the concept of holy war, he quoted a 14th-Century Christian emperor who said Muhammad had brought the world only "evil and inhuman" things. A senior Pakistani Islamic scholar, Javed Ahmed Gamdi, said jihad was not about spreading Islam with the sword. Turkey's top religious official asked for an apology for the "hostile" words. In Indian-administered Kashmir, police seized copies of newspapers which reported the Pope's comments to prevent any tension. A Vatican spokesman, Father Frederico Lombardi, said he did not believe the Pope's comments were meant as a harsh criticism of Islam. In his speech at Regensburg University, the German-born pontiff explored the historical and philosophical differences between Islam and Christianity and the relationship between violence and faith. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5346480.stm
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Editor - 08:56:00 09-14-06
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| 'Drastic' shrinkage in Arctic ice |
A Nasa satellite has documented startling changes in Arctic sea ice cover between 2004 and 2005. The extent of "perennial" ice - thick ice which remains all year round - declined by 14%, losing an area the size of Pakistan or Turkey. The last few decades have seen summer ice shrink by about 0.7% per year. The drastic shrinkage may relate partly to unusual wind patterns found in 2005, though rising temperatures in the Arctic could also be a factor. The research is reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as the global average; and recent studies have shown that the area of the Arctic covered by ice each summer, and the ice thickness, have been shrinking. September 2005 saw the lowest recorded area of ice cover since 1978, when satellite records became available. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5344208.stm
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Editor - 08:49:00 09-14-06
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| Cab bombs, shootings kill 18 as violence rages in Iraq |
Car bombs and drive-by shootings on Thursday killed at least 18 people — including two U.S. soldiers — in a series of attacks around central Iraq, officials said. The tortured bodies of 20 men were also discovered across Baghdad, a day after more than 60 bodies were found dumped on the streets. The attacks came after a day that was especially bloody even by Baghdad's standards, when car bombs, mortars and other attacks killed at least 39 people and wounded dozens. The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, said the surge in violence was the result of sectarian "murder-executions" across the capital. Violence persists in Baghdad despite a monthlong security operation by thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops aimed mostly at stopping the killings carried out by Sunni and Shiite death squads. One of the U.S. soldiers died from wounds after his unit came under attack in Baghdad, while the second was killed after his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-09-14-iraq-violence_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 08:44:00 09-14-06
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| US Iran report branded dishonest |
The UN nuclear watchdog has protested to the US government over a report on Iran's nuclear programme, calling it "erroneous" and "misleading". In a leaked letter, the IAEA said a congressional report contained serious distortions of the agency's own findings on Iran's nuclear activity. The IAEA also took "strong exception" to claims made over the removal of a senior safeguards inspector. The IAEA said the letter was sent to "set the record straight on the facts". "This is a matter of the integrity of the IAEA and its inspectors," spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in a statement. 'Deja vu' The letter, signed by Vilmos Cserveny, a senior director at the International Atomic Energy Agency, was sent to the head of the House of Representatives' Select Committee on Intelligence, Peter Hoekstra. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5346524.stm
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Editor - 08:38:00 09-14-06
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| UN award for Karimov 'shocking' |
Human rights groups have strongly criticised the UN's cultural body, Unesco, for giving a prize to Uzbek President Islam Karimov. Unesco's Director-General, Koichiro Matsuura, presented a cultural heritage award to Mr Karimov when he visited Tashkent last week. Mr Karimov has been condemned by the UN for a bloody crackdown in May 2005. Rights groups called the Unesco award "scandalous, shocking, absurd and inappropriate". Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and Paris-based Reporters Without Borders have all expressed their concern at the award, which Unesco said was in recognition of Mr Karimov's preserving his country's cultural heritage. Just over a year ago, the UN condemned Mr Karimov for staging what it called a "massacre" in the city of Andijan, where government troops opened fire on demonstrators, killing hundreds of protestors. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5345280.stm
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Editor - 08:31:00 09-14-06
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