 EU foreign ministers have said there is little immediate hope of re-launching the EU constitution, a year after French and Dutch voters rejected it. Several ministers called for another year to reflect on what to do about the constitution, as they started a two-day meeting at a monastery near Vienna. Some think the constitution could still be revived by the end of the decade. The constitution had aimed to make decision-making easier in an enlarged EU of 25 members or more. Amid the baroque splendour of a monastery overlooking the Danube, there is talk of resurrecting Europe's constitution - but not just yet. The Spanish foreign minister claimed the treaty was not actually dead, as 15 EU countries have already ratified it. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 10:57:00 05-27-06
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 Hamas militia returns to streets |
Members of a controversial Hamas militant force have made a limited reappearance on the streets of Gaza. This came after the Hamas-controlled government had ordered the force back to their bases on Friday. That withdrawal was an effort to reduce violent tensions between the Hamas men and their rivals, who are linked to the Fatah faction. For several days a force of well-armed Hamas men had been deployed on the streets here. But they disappeared almost completely early on Friday. They had been withdrawn in what the Hamas-controlled government described as a move to reduce friction with Fatah party loyalists. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5023102.stm
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Editor - 10:34:00 05-27-06
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| Hamas rejects Abbas' border plan deadline Palestinian state proposal would effectively recognize Israel |
The Hamas-led Palestinian government has rejected the 10-day deadline set by President Mahmoud Abbas to accept a plan for a Palestinian state to exist alongside Israel, according to the prime minister's office.A representative for Palestinian Prime Minister's Ismail Haniya's office said Hamas, however, is open to a dialogue to reach a national consensus on issues facing Palestinians.Abbas, a member of the Fatah party, on Thursday gave his rivals 10 days to accept a plan that calls for the areas captured by Israel in the 1967 war -- including the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem -- to compose the Palestinian state. (Full story)Hamas, which has historically vowed to seek the destruction of Israel, took control of the Palestinian Authority from Fatah after a surprise election win in January. ...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/05/27/palestinian.referendum/index.html?section=cnn_world
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Editor - 10:28:00 05-27-06
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| US 'winding up' Iraq deaths probe |
An investigation into claims that US marines may have deliberately killed civilians in Iraq is nearing its end, the Pentagon says. Official accounts from the Iraqi city of Haditha in November said 15 people were killed by a bomb and firefight. But reports in the US press say as many as 24 people may have died, and that murder charges may be in preparation. Moves are being made to prepare the public, perhaps for something shocking, says a BBC correspondent in Washington. A defence department spokesman said he believed the inquiry into Haditha - being carried out by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service - was nearing an end. But he would not say what investigators had found, and added that he did not expect an announcement on charges in the next few days....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5022380.stm
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Editor - 10:25:00 05-27-06
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| Memories of 1918 flu pandemic haunt 21st century |
As health agencies worldwide scramble to stop bird flu from becoming a pandemic that could claim millions of lives, memories of the murderous flu that swept the globe almost 100 years ago haunt the 21st century, passed on from generation to generation, or, in my case, from grandmother to granddaughter. My grandmother lived through the Great War, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War Two, the cultural revolution of the '60s and three decades beyond. There was little that could threaten her nerve but until the day she died, Marie Starace was afraid of two things. One was lightning. The other was "The Grip" -- the deadly flu that wreaked havoc on the Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood where she was born and raised. So vivid were her memories of the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 that whenever she saw us with open coats and throats exposed to the cold, she would gravely warn: "Button up or you'll get the grip." ...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060527/ts_nm/birdflu1918_dc
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Editor - 10:23:00 05-27-06
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| Dentist seeks divorce -- after his death |
Dr. John Yelenic and his wife separated in 2002, agreed to a divorce and even hammered out a property settlement. But the Blairsville dentist was slain the day before he was to sign his divorce papers, setting the stage for what attorneys say is a first-of-its-kind request in Pennsylvania: a divorce decree after death. The dentist's divorce attorney, Effie Alexander, says simply that Yelenic would have wanted it that way. Another attorney who represents Yelenic's estate believes the decree is needed to protect a property settlement an Indiana County judge approved last week. But an expert in Pennsylvania family law says there is no reason to declare a dead man divorced because the dentist's wife and adopted son will receive support under the property settlement, which legally overrides his will. "What difference does the decree really make?" said Pittsburgh attorney Jay Blechman, chairman of the family law section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. "As far as ...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/27/dentist.divorce.ap/index.html?section=cnn_us
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Editor - 10:20:00 05-27-06
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