Iraq's prime minister sent an envoy to the southern city of Amara on Friday after clashes between Shi'ite militias and police in areas U.S. and British forces handed over to Iraqi control months ago. Violence between Shi'ite militias and Iraqi security forces, fueled by tribal divisions, have killed 15 people and wounded 91 since Thursday, a security source in Amara said.National Security Minister Shirwan al-Waeli told Reuters by telephone on his way to Amara that the situation was "serious," but he denied reports the city was totally under control of the Mehdi Army, a Shi'ite militia loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.A spokesman for the British military, which handed over responsibility for the city to Iraqi forces around two months ago, said the situation remained volatile....
http://news.yahoo.com
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Editor - 07:42:00 10-20-06
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 9/11 families outraged after body parts found Utility crews stumble onto bones that might be from WTC victim |
The discovery of human bones in a damaged manhole at the World Trade Center site has outraged victims’ families, who say the city hasn’t done enough to ensure the remains of those killed in the 2001 terrorist attack are located and treated with respect. Some relatives called for a new, systematic search by outside experts, such as the military command that identifies missing soldiers’ remains. “We can no longer rely on accidental discoveries,” the group WTC Families for Proper Burial said in a statement Thursday. “This must be a deliberate search. May this awful news be the catalyst needed to go back and do the job well.” The remains, some as big as arm or leg bones, were found Thursday by a Port Authority contractor working with a Consolidated Edison crew excavating a manhole, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15345694/
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Editor - 07:39:00 10-20-06
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| Shiite militia seizes Iraqi city |
The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized total control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by one of the country's powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dispatched an emergency security delegation that included the Minister of State for Security Affairs and top officials from the Interior and Defense ministries, Yassin Majid, the prime minister's media adviser, told The Associated Press. The Mahdi Army fighters stormed three main police stations Friday morning, planting explosives that flattened the buildings, residents said. About 800 black-clad militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers were patrolling city streets in commandeered police vehicles, eyewitnesses said. Other fighters had set up roadblocks on routes into the city and sound trucks circulated telling residents to stay indoors...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/10/20/iraq.sadr.ap/index.html?eref=rss_world
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Editor - 07:37:00 10-20-06
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| Hamas charities thrive despite U.S.-led fund freeze |
A U.S.-led funding squeeze, which has paralyzed the Hamas-led Palestinian government, has had the unintended effect of bolstering the militant group's network of schools, hospitals and alms societies. Foreign donations, often consisting of cash in suitcases smuggled across the border, have permitted Hamas' vast social-welfare network to thrive, say officials and analysts. "All charitable organizations affiliated with Hamas are still functioning," said Sheik Yazeeb Khader, an editor of Hamas' West Bank newspaper. He said the charities in Gaza have especially benefited from money "brought across the border and not checked." For years, while Hamas' military wing dispatched suicide bombers to Israeli cities, the group's civilian wing quietly built up a grass-roots following with its network of Islamic social-welfare organizations...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20061019-111227-7935r.htm
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Editor - 07:34:00 10-20-06
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| General's comment no help to Blair |
A top general's retreat from a call for an early exit from Iraq has done little to ease the damage to Prime Minister Tony Blair, with public pressure building for the early withdrawal of British troops. Former Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind of the opposition Conservative Party announced he was putting together a multiparty group of lawmakers to demand a full-day debate on Iraq. "It is a disgrace that the House of Commons has not been allowed a full debate on Iraq since 2004," Mr. Rifkind said. House leader Jack Straw, who previously served as Mr. Blair's foreign secretary, has rejected requests for an Iraq debate. Gen. Richard Dannatt, the British army's chief of the general staff since August, said in a newspaper interview last week that British forces should "get ourselves out sometime soon," warning that "we are in a Muslim country, and Muslims' views of foreigners in their country are quite clear." Gen. Dannatt backed down a day later by saying that the words "...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20061019-111226-3264r.htm
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Editor - 07:32:00 10-20-06
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| Conservatives hit for 'whining' over turnout |
Top Republican Party supporters yesterday accused fellow conservatives of "whining" in response to complaints from activists worried that grass-roots Republican voters are disillusioned and will stay home on Nov. 7. Grover Norquist, a close associate of White House political strategist Karl Rove, dismissed concerns about voter turnout as empty threats. "There are always in every election cycle self-appointed conservative leaders who announce, 'You haven't done enough for me, so my troops are staying home,' " Mr. Norquist said. "The National Rifle Association, Americans for Tax Reform, the [National] Right to Life Committee -- the groups that actually put lead on the target and who do stuff all the time, they're not unhappy," Mr. Norquist said. "The people who are whining are the guys that don't have grass roots that they can actually move. So they are frustrated, and they don't have anything to do other than threaten not to participate."...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061019-115634-7883r.htm
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Editor - 07:23:00 10-20-06
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