The United Nations' top refugee official said on Thursday an international peacekeeping force in Darfur was essential to prevent the whole of central Africa plunging into conflict."If the security situation deteriorates, we will have a very serious problem," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told a news conference in neighboring Chad. "That is why a solution to the Darfur problem is necessary for the stability of the whole region," the former Portuguese prime minister said. Eastern Chad adjoins Sudan's Darfur region, where a political and ethnic conflict has raged since 2003, killing tens of thousands of people and forcing 2.5 million others into sprawling camps and across the border into neighboring states. ...
http://abcnews.go.com
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Editor - 09:47:00 12-21-06
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 Small quakes rattle nerves in Oklahoma |
Two minor earthquakes shook central Oklahoma, rattling nerves but causing no serious damage or injuries, authorities said.The quakes were centered in the Del City-Midwest City area east of Oklahoma City. The first struck at 8:41 p.m. Wednesday with a preliminary magnitude of 2.6. The second, at 12:14 a.m. Thursday, had a preliminary reading of 2.7, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey."The quake scared a lot of people," Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said. "We had multiple calls about shaking homes. They thought it was some kind of explosion."...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/21/oklahoma.quake.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us
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Editor - 09:45:00 12-21-06
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| Military to announce Haditha charges |
The U.S. military was expected to announce charges on Thursday against a group of Marines in the killing of 24 unarmed civilians in Haditha, Iraq, following an investigation into what Iraqi witnesses say was a massacre. A Marine colonel has scheduled a press briefing for 1 p.m. PST (4 p.m. EST) at Camp Pendleton, California, to discuss the case, and sources say he will announce charges, possibly including murder, against at least five Marines. The November 19, 2005, shooting of two dozen unarmed men, women and children in the western Iraqi town is one of a series of cases in which U.S. service members have been accused, and in some cases convicted, of involvement in killing civilians. Few details have been made public about the charges, although a U.S. military investigation centered on a squad of Marines lead by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich. Wuterich sued Democratic Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record) in August after he said U.S. troops "killed innocent civilians in cold blood."...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061221/ts_nm/iraq_haditha_dc
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Editor - 01:33:00 12-21-06
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| Irving is freed after 13 months in Austrian jail for Holocaust denial |
David Irving, the disgraced British historian jailed in Austria for denying the Holocaust was freed from prison and given permission to return home after a Vienna appeals court ordered that he should serve the remainder of his 3-year sentence on probation. Irving, 68, was convicted in Feb of Holocaust denial, which is a crime in Austria, in a case that spark-ed an international debate about free speech. Yesterday Vienna's highest court ordered that the historian serve the remainder of his term on probation and that he should be allowed to return to Britain after spending more than 13months in prison. Judges accepted pleas by Irving's lawyer, Herbert Schaller, who argued that his client had already served time in jail and that he had a wife and young daughter in England to look after. The prosecutor in the case, Louise Nittel, had earlier demanded that Irving serve the maximum 10-year sentence for the offence. She told the court that the threat posed by Irving should not be ...
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2091864.ece
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Editor - 01:17:00 12-21-06
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| President Confronts Dissent on Troop Levels Bush Indicates Military Won't Dictate Numbers; Top General to Retire |
The debate over sending more U.S. troops to Iraq intensified yesterday as President Bush signaled that he will listen but not necessarily defer to balky military officers, while Gen. John P. Abizaid, his top Middle East commander and a leading skeptic of a so-called surge, announced his retirement. At an end-of-the-year news conference, Bush said he agrees with generals "that there's got to be a specific mission that can be accomplished" before he decides to dispatch an additional 15,000 to 30,000 troops to the war zone. But he declined to repeat his usual formulation that he will heed his commanders on the ground when it comes to troop levels. Bush sought to use the 52-minute session, held in the ornate Indian Treaty Room in a building adjacent to the White House, to sum up what he called "a difficult year for our troops and the Iraqi people" and reassure the American public that ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122000308_pf.html
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Editor - 01:13:00 12-21-06
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| Bush warns of more U.S. losses in Iraq |
Acknowledging deepening frustration over Iraq, Bush said Wednesday he is considering an increase in American forces and warned that next year will bring more painful U.S. losses. New Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Baghdad that a troop surge was an obvious option. Bush was unusually candid at a year-end news conference about U.S. setbacks and dashed hopes in the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 2,950 U.S. military members. He said "2006 was a difficult year for our troops and the Iraqi people. We began the year with optimism" but that faded as extremists fomented sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites. "And over the course of the year they had success," the president acknowledged. "Their success hurt our efforts to help the Iraqis rebuild their country, it set back reconciliation, it kept Iraq's unity government and our coalition from establishing security and stability throughout the country."...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061220/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq
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Editor - 01:07:00 12-21-06
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