 Sudan says its officials will meet next week to put into effect the first phase of expanding the current peacekeeping force in Darfur to take in UN troops. A Sudanese government spokesman told the BBC the expansion agreement showed his country's commitment to peace. He said the size of any force remained to be settled. More than 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in conflict in the troubled western region in the past three years. There are also fears that the fighting is destabilising Chad, home to hundreds of thousands of refugees, where there has been an upsurge in violence. Under a three-phase plan, the existing peacekeeping force of 7,000 African Union (AU) soldiers would be augmented by dozens of UN experts and then expanded into a hybrid force, with UN troops providing logistical and other support....
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 10:29:00 12-24-06
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 Israel releases Palestinian cash |
The Israeli cabinet has approved the release of $100m (£51m) in frozen Palestinian funds. The move was agreed at the first meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel has withheld $600m in tax revenues from the PA since Hamas formed a government earlier this year. It says it will hand over the funds for humanitarian purposes if a mechanism can be found to bypass Hamas. The two leaders also agreed to establish or re-establish three joint committees - a security committee to discuss the expansion of the current shaky Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire in Gaza to include the West Bank; a financial committee tasked with the transfer of tax revenues and other funds to the PA; and another to deal with eventual prisoner exchanges. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6207291.stm
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Editor - 10:23:00 12-24-06
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| Denver Airport Operating at Capacity After Storm, Denver Airport Operates at Capacity As Holiday Travelers Scramble to Get Home |
Even with a few added flights, planes leaving Denver's beleaguered airport Christmas Eve teemed with passengers, many of whom had been stranded when a two-day blizzard shut down the runways last week. The airport's two biggest airlines, United and Frontier, said they finally flew full schedules of a combined 1,200 flights Saturday, plus 12 extra by United. They expected a similar schedule Sunday as travelers around the country whose itineraries were wrecked by the storm's ripple effect raced to get home. "If we filled up every single seat, we probably got out 30,000 passengers (Saturday)," Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said. Last Christmas Eve, an estimated 129,000 passengers passed through the airport, the nation's fifth-busiest annually, but officials say patterns change from year to year. Airline officials said they had no way of knowing when the backlog of passengers might be cleared because they don't know what decisions the travelers made....
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2749275
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Editor - 10:18:00 12-24-06
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| PM: Ethiopia at war with Somali Islamists |
Ethiopian prime minister says his country is at war with Islamists in Somalia.Ethiopia launched an attack Sunday on Somalia's powerful Islamic movement, sending fighter jets across the border and bombarding several towns in a sharp escalation in the violence that threatens to engulf the volatile Horn of Africa."After too much patience, the Ethiopian government has taken a self-defensive measure and has begun counterattacking the aggressive extremist forces of the (Islamic council) and foreign terrorist groups," said Ethiopia's foreign affairs spokesman, Solomon Abebe.The airstrikes hit the strategic town of Belet Weyne on the Ethiopian border and surrounding villages up to 12 miles away, said Sheik Mohamoud Ibrahim Suley, an official with Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts. A resident of Belet Weyne — Ayanle Husein Abdi — said the strikes hit a strategic road and a recruiting center....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-12-24-ethiopia-somalia_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 10:16:00 12-24-06
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| Olmert suggests Palestinian prisoner release |
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suggested on Sunday he could release some Palestinian prisoners this week, even though Gaza militants have yet to free a captured Israeli soldier. Israel has been under U.S. and European pressure to take steps to bolster moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a power struggle with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which ousted Abbas's Fatah faction in a parliamentary poll last year. At their first formal meeting on Saturday, Olmert pledged to release $100 million in withheld tax revenues to Abbas, bypassing the Hamas-led government. At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, three senior Israeli ministers supported the idea of freeing some prisoners as a gesture to Abbas before a Muslim holiday that starts this week. A cabinet source said Olmert responded by saying: "The time has come for flexibility and generosity, and it (Israeli policy) could be different than what has been said in past meetings." ...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061224/ts_nm/palestinians_israel_dc
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Editor - 10:14:00 12-24-06
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| Iraqi police deaths 'hit 12,000' |
Some 12,000 police officers in Iraq have died in the line of duty since the US-led invasion in 2003, Interior Minister Jawad Bolani said. The figure is from a total force of about 190,000 officers, he said. The announcement follows a suicide bomb attack that killed seven policemen and wounded 20 others during a morning parade at a base north of Baghdad. Correspondents say despite the risks, young Iraqi men see the security forces as one of the few sources of work. The interior minister said 12,000 police officers have been killed since March 2003 - one death for every 16 officers. Iraq's police are a frequent target for attacks, and are widely thought to have been infiltrated by insurgents. Wave of attacks Sunday's suicide bombing happened at a police parade ground in Muqdadiya, about 90km (56 miles) north-east of Baghdad. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6208331.stm
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Editor - 10:11:00 12-24-06
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