 A 24-hour deadline by Chad's government for two major foreign oil companies to leave the country has expired. President Idriss Deby ordered US firm ChevronTexaco and Malaysia's Petronas, together responsible for 60% of Chad's production, to quit the country. Three government ministers have been sacked and may be prosecuted over the alleged non-payment of taxes by the oil companies, a charge the firms deny. It is not clear how the authorities might enforce the expulsion order. "The problem was that Petronas and Chevron had to pay tax, then they arranged with a certain individual, a minister, in order to get a tax exemption," Mahamat Bechir Okormi, the country's minister for state control and ethics, told Reuters news agency in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. "In Chad, only the national assembly can exempt companies, not a minister." On Sunday, the government announced the dismissal of Oil Minister Mahamat Nasser Hassane, as well as the ministers for livestock and planning....
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 08:58:00 08-28-06
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 Israel Watchdog Says 4 Olmert Allies Got Key Jobs in Agency Linked to Ministry He Ran in 2004 |
Four political allies of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received key jobs in a state-funded agency linked to a government ministry he headed in 2004, Israel's top government watchdog said Monday. The report has been handed to the attorney general to determine whether criminal charges should be filed, said Zvi Vertikovsky, deputy director general in the State Comptroller's office. At issue are appointments of four members of the Likud Party's Central Committee to the Small Business Administration, an agency that received government funding and was linked to the Trade and Industry Ministry. The ministry was headed at the time by Olmert, then a senior Likud member. The comptroller said he found "serious defects" in the hiring process. "This fact, together with their political connection with the minister (Olmert), raises concern that political considerations were the basis for selecting the projects," the report said. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2365387
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Editor - 08:56:00 08-28-06
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| Dozens die in fresh Iraq violence |
Twenty-five Iraqi soldiers have died in clashes with Shia militiamen in southern Iraq, hospital sources say. The fighting broke out on Sunday night after troops conducted raids against a splinter group of Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army in the city of Diwaniya. In the capital Baghdad, at least 14 people were killed in a suicide car bombing by Iraq's interior ministry. The violence comes a day after at least 47 people were killed in a series of insurgency attacks across Iraq. A spokesman for the Diwaniya general hospital said 34 bodies had been brought in - 25 Iraqi soldiers, seven civilians and two militiamen. He said at least 70 people were injured. Local leaders are quoted as saying the gunmen in Diwaniya have split from the from the Mehdi Army after rejecting a call from their radical leader to take part in Iraq's political peace process...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5292000.stm
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Editor - 08:54:00 08-28-06
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| Baghdad violence cut by half: U.S. military |
Violence in Baghdad has dropped by nearly half since July, when U.S.-led forces launched an operation to pacify the capital, a U.S. general said on Monday, while acknowledging a spike in bombings in the past 48 hours. U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell also said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would assume operational control of Iraq's armed forces by next month in what he called a significant step toward Iraq taking responsibility for its security. Caldwell hinted at a looming confrontation between U.S. and Iraqi forces and the Mehdi Army militia of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr, whose Sadr City slum stronghold has not yet been targeted in Operation Together Forward. "The intention is for Iraqi security forces to operate through the entire city of Baghdad," Caldwell told journalists. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2365418
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Editor - 08:51:00 08-28-06
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| Four dead in Israeli raid in Gaza |
Four members of a security force of the governing Palestinian movement Hamas have been killed by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials say the men died in a strike by a pilotless Israeli aircraft on the outskirts of Gaza City. Israeli officials said two men had been killed in an exchange of fire and other gunmen were targeted from the air. The deaths bring to eight the number of Palestinians killed during an Israeli incursion which began on Saturday. Reports say the Hamas militants killed on Monday belonged to a special forces unit of the Palestinian interior ministry, which is controlled by Hamas. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5292158.stm
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Editor - 08:50:00 08-28-06
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| Afghan 'suicide bombing kills 17' |
At least 17 people have been killed and many more injured in a suspected suicide bombing in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, officials say. The blast ripped through a crowded bazaar in the town of Lashkar Gah. A spokesman for the provincial governor told the Associated Press news agency that the bomber had blown himself up opposite a police station. Helmand province has seen some of the worst of the violence that has killed hundreds in Afghanistan this year. At least 47 people were wounded in the latest blast, six of them critically, Hanif Khan, a local hospital official, told the Associated Press news agency. Shattered glass and blood-soaked turbans were scattered at the site of the bomb, AP quoted security guard Hayatullah Khan as saying....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5292182.stm
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Editor - 08:47:00 08-28-06
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