 China has responded to international criticism of its internet regulations by saying its rules are "fully in line" with the rest of the world. Government official Liu Zhengrong said western criticism of China's internet censorship smacked of double standards. He also said no one had been arrested just for writing online content. According to a BBC correspondent in Beijing, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, these assertions contrast sharply with a number of recent cases. Several people are reported to have been jailed in recent years for posting information on the internet deemed subversive. Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, was last year jailed for 10 years for sending foreign-based websites the text of an internal Communist Party message. The Chinese official's comments came amid mounting concern in the US about how its companies are operating in China, because of local regulations. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 09:59:00 02-15-06
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 Disabled Jenin man shot by troops |
A young Palestinian man with learning disabilities has been shot dead by Israeli troops near the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian officials said. Mujahid al-Simadi, 20, was shot through the chest during a raid to arrest militants. The Israeli military said its soldiers had seen a "suspect armed with a weapon who was threatening them". A 12-year-old boy was shot dead in the Jenin refugee camp three months ago during a stone-throwing protest. Local residents said Mujahid al-Simadi had gone up to the troops with a toy gun and shouted that they should leave the village. He was among a number of children who had surrounded a house occupied by Israeli soldiers and began to throw stones, Palestinian security sources said. The soldiers opened fire from the house and Mujahid al-Simadi hit in the chest and died immediately, they said. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4715570.stm
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Editor - 09:55:00 02-15-06
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| Tanzania: Food needed for 3.7 million |
Tanzania is appealing for 100,000 metric tons of food aid for 3.7 million people suffering because of a drought, an official said Wednesday.The appeal came two days after the U.N. refugee agency said an average of 100 people from neighboring Burundi flee to western Tanzania every day to escape a punishing drought that has left 2.2 million people in need of food aid in the small central African country.Up to 7 million people in neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia also are affected by the drought, with the situation in Somalia particularly severe because of its ongoing lawlessness, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday."The crisis that we are witnessing cannot be expected to end until July," said Jacques de Maio, the Geneva-based ICRC's head of operations for the Horn of Africa. "The places where this is occurring would be a challenge to any government on Earth."...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/02/15/tanzania.food.ap/index.html?section=cnn_world
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Editor - 09:51:00 02-15-06
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| Texan shot by Cheney on hunt has heart attack |
A companion accidentally shot by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney during a weekend quail hunt suffered a minor heart attack on Tuesday when some of the birdshot still in his body lodged near his heart, a hospital spokesman said. Harry Whittington, 78, was whisked back into intensive care and a cardiac catheterization performed after doctors at Christus Spohn Hospital discovered an irregular heartbeat during a Tuesday morning checkup. Whittington, a Republican stalwart and lawyer in Texas, was struck by an estimated 200 pellets when Cheney, hunting on Saturday on a south Texas ranch, reportedly whirled around to fire at a covey of quail and hit Whittington instead."Some of the birdshot appeared to have moved and lodged into a part of his heart and caused the atrial (fibrillation) and what we would say is a minor heart attack," hospital administrator Peter Banko said in a press conference. The news of Whittington's setback gave a serious edge to the incident that ...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060215/pl_nm/cheney_accident_dc
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Editor - 21:20:00 02-14-06
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| A close ally, but no influence |
The Pentagon review has significant political, military, financial and even legal implications for Britain, analysts have told the Guardian. It assumes Britain will be closely tied to the US without any influence on its military strategy, they say, while the UK and its European allies are left with the burden of peacekeeping.The US could in future be a "more comfortable partner" for Britain, says Colonel Christopher Langton of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, if it means there will be greater emphasis on "preventive threats rather than a heavy footprint". But this is only a part of the picture painted by the Pentagon. British military chiefs, MI5 and MI6 have never liked the idea of a war on terror. Now, they say, the concept of a long war gives a spurious legitimacy to international terrorists. The Pentagon makes clear the US will rely less and less on "static" alliances such as Nato. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1710048,00.html
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Editor - 19:33:00 02-14-06
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| Katrina Victims, Military Personnel Sell Rations Online |
Emergency rations paid for by taxpayers and distributed to Hurricane Katrina victims and military personnel to sustain them in their hour of need are being sold on eBay, according to a government report. A Government Accountability Office report released yesterday found that government-issued Meals Ready-to-Eat are being sold for profit on that site, and that at least some of the MREs were diverted from hurricane-relief efforts. Today ABC News found 83 military ration items on sale on eBay when searching for "Ready-to-Eat Meals" — almost all of them government rations and at least 14 of them from sellers claiming to be Katrina victims. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1619126&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
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Editor - 19:28:00 02-14-06
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