 A mysterious Russian-built cargo plane believed to be loaded with weapons landed in this capital Wed, setting off a fresh round of allegations that Somalia has become a proxy battleground for its neighbors Eritrea and Ethiopia. The United States and other Western powers have cautioned outsiders against meddling in Somalia, which has no single ruling authority and can be manipulated by anyone with money and guns. But there's little sign the warning has been heeded. Somalia's virtually powerless government charged on Wednesday that the Ilyushin-76, only the second flight to land at Mogadishu International Airport in a decade, was packed with land mines, bombs and guns. It said the shipment had come from Eritrea, which supports the Islamic militia that has seized the capital along with most of southern Somalia. Just hours later, a U.N. envoy confirmed that troops from Ethiopia, Eritrea's foe, were in Somalia to protect the defenseless government from the advancing Islamic forces...
http://abcnews.go.com
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Editor - 13:33:00 07-26-06
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 Specter proposes challenge of Bush's power on laws |
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter introduced legislation on Wednesday to challenge Bush's assertion that he can bypass sections of bills that he signs into law. Judiciary Committee Chairman Specter's bill would empower Congress bring to federal court lawsuits to test the constitutionality of Bush's signing statements, which the president has appended to several bills he has signed.In the statements, Bush has reserved the right not to enforce certain provisions of laws if he believes they impinge on his authority or interpretation of the Constitution.Under the Constitution, Congress passes bills and the president may either sign or veto them, and give lawmakers an opportunity to override any veto....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060726/pl_nm/usa_congress_bush_dc
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Editor - 13:31:00 07-26-06
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| Israel troops 'ignored' UN plea |
UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon contacted Israeli troops 10 times before an Israeli bomb killed four of them, an initial UN report says. The post was hit by a precision-guided missile after six hours of shelling, diplomats familiar with the probe say. UN-led crisis talks in Rome ended with no agreement to urge an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. In ongoing clashes, up to 13 Israeli soldiers were reported killed in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. Israel has not confirmed any deaths from among its soldiers, but says there have been 20 casualties in the clashes around the town of Bint Jbail, a strategically located Hezbollah stronghold. Later, the centre of Tyre was hit by a massive explosion, possibly caused by an Israeli air strike. More than 400 Lebanese and 42 Israelis have died in two weeks of conflict, which began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5217176.stm
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Editor - 13:06:00 07-26-06
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| Ethiopian troops 'are in Somalia' |
Ethiopian troops are in Somalia, United Nations envoy Francois Fall has confirmed after a one-day trip there. But he told Reuters news agency reports of 4,000-5,000 troops were exaggerated. Ethiopia backs the weak transitional government based in Baidoa. They accuse Eritrea of arming the Union of Islamic Courts, who are running the capital. There are fears that Somalia could end up a battleground for a proxy war between Ethiopia and Eritrea - who fought a two-year border war. Analysts say neither Eritrea nor Ethiopia would want to see a regime in Somalia hostile to their interests. Both the Ethiopian government and the weak transitional government have refused to confirm the presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5216128.stm
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Editor - 13:01:00 07-26-06
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| Tracking system for colleges would violate privacy. Cradle-to-grave tracking |
Does the fed government need to know whether you aced Aristotelian ethics but had to repeat introductory biology? Does it need to know your family's financial profile, how much aid you received & whether you took off a semester to help out at home? The Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education thinks so. In its first draft report, released in late June, the commission called for creation of a tracking system to collect sensitive information about our nation's college students. Its second draft, made public last week, softens the name of the plan, but the essence of the proposal remains unchanged.Whether you call it a ``national unit records database'' (the first name) or a ``consumer-friendly information database'' (the second), it is in fact a mandatory federal registry of all American students throughout their collegiate careers every course, every step, every misstep. Once established, it could easily be linked to existing K-12 & workforce databases ...
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/15116331.htm
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Editor - 12:58:00 07-26-06
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| Saddam 'forced' back to his trial |
Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who had been on hunger strike, says he was taken to court from his hospital bed against his will. He was taken to hospital on Sunday because of his hunger strike, which he reportedly began on 7 July in protest at the killing of three of his lawyers. He said if he was found guilty and faced death, he would like to be shot, not hanged "like a common criminal". The trial resumed on Monday without him as he was being treated in hospital. On Wednesday, Saddam Hussein appeared in front of the court, looking slightly thinner and said: "I was brought against my will directly from the hospital... The Americans insisted that I come against my will. This is not fair. "Three days ago I was taken to hospital and today I was brought here forcibly from the hospital. I was fed intravenously," he said. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5215866.stm
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Editor - 12:48:00 07-26-06
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