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 censor News |
Editor - 08:44:00 09-14-06 |
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 |
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 |
Russian police hunt central banker's killers |
Gunmen have murdered a Russian central banker who led a fight against money laundering in the highest profile assassination in Moscow during President Vladimir Putin's six years in power. Andrei Kozlov, 41, died in hospital early on Thursday from gunshot wounds, hours after assassins ambushed him as he left a football match between bank employees. Police hunting the killers later found two pistols near the scene of the crime, a spokesman for the Moscow prosecutor's office said. No arrests have yet been made. Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, leading a minute's silence at a cabinet meeting, said Kozlov's death was a "great loss." Russia's Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika took personal charge of the investigation and put Moscow police on high alert. ... http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2432627
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Editor - 08:29:00 09-14-06 |
Probe into Canada college attack |
Police in Canada are investigating the attack on a Montreal college in which a gunman ran amok, killing a young woman before being shot dead himself. The city's police chief ruled out racism or terrorism as the motive for the attack at Dawson College, which was reportedly carried out by a local man. Nineteen people were also wounded - six of them critically - in the rampage. A BBC correspondent says there is a deep sense of shock in Montreal and across Canada over the shooting. But it is slowly giving way to questions about the gunman's motives and how this could have happened in a country that prides itself on its tough gun control laws, the BBC's Lee Carter says. Those laws were no match for the illegal automatic weapon that the gunman wielded, our correspondent adds.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5344652.stm
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Editor - 08:27:00 09-14-06 |
Poland to boost Nato Afghan force |
Poland has announced it will send 1,000 troops to Afghanistan next year as part of the Nato peacekeeping force there. They will join 100 Polish soldiers already on the ground in Afghanistan, but will not arrive until February. The announcement comes after Nato generals met on Wednesday to demand an extra 2,500 troops for the operation in southern Afghanistan. Nato forces in the south are facing mounting casualties as they engage in fierce fighting with the Taleban. But the BBC's Jonathan Marcus says Nato officials in Belgium are making it clear the Polish deployment will not provide the solution commanders had hoped for. Our correspondent says they urgently need more troops before the onset of winter, when the fighting will slow down. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5344596.stm
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Editor - 08:23:00 09-14-06 |
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