MPs who have visited Guantanamo Bay have called on Britain and the international community to do more to help the US close the camp. Seven Foreign Affairs Committee members visited the detention centre for "enemy combatants" in Cuba in Sept. In a report they were critical of the conditions there, but said many inmates posed a threat and the world needed to find a "longer term solution". Opposition MPs and human rights groups called the report "disappointing". The Guantanamo Bay facility was set up at a US base in Cuba after the invasion of Afghanistan in 2002. A total of 395 prisoners are currently being held there, including 10 British residents, whom the government says it is not obliged to try to bring home. According to Clara Gutteridge of human rights group Reprieve, these 10 are of non-UK nationalities but with "long and serious ties with this country or who have indefinite leave to remain in the UK". The report by the 7 MPs said many of those detained presented a "real threat ... http://news.bbc.co.uk censor News |
Editor - 09:05:00 01-21-07 |
At Least 24 Americans Died in Iraq Saturday - 3rd Deadliest Day for U.S. Troops Since 2003 |
At least 24 Americans died in Iraq on Saturday the third deadliest single day for U.S. troops since the war began in March 2003. That total included four soldiers and a Marine killed in the violent Anbar province whose deaths were announced Sunday. The gunmen who killed five U.S. troops in the Shiite holy city of Karbala wore military uniforms and used vehicles commonly driven by foreign dignitaries an apparent attempt to impersonate Americans, Iraqi officials said Sunday. Saturday's carnage also included 12 soldiers killed in a Blackhawk helicopter crash northeast of Baghdad and two slain in roadside bombings. Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc, meanwhile, ended its nearly two-month political boycott after reaching a compromise over its demands for a timetable for Iraqi forces to take over security and the withdrawal of U.S. forces. ... http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2811321
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Editor - 08:59:00 01-21-07 |
Iran’s strongman loses grip as ayatollah offers nuclear deal |
IRAN’S supreme leader is considering a change of policy on the country’s nuclear programme in an effort to defuse growing tension with the West, according to senior sources in Tehran. Alarmed by mounting US pressure and United Nations sanctions, officials close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei favour the appointment of a more moderate team for international negotiations on the supervision of its nuclear facilities. The move would be a snub to the bellicose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose threats to destroy Israel have left Iran increasingly isolated and facing a serious economic downturn. Tehran sources said the impetus for a policy switch was coming from Khamenei, who has ultimate power over Iran’s foreign policy, security and armed forces.... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2557946,00.html
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Editor - 22:55:00 01-20-07 |
Banned Station Broadcasts Voice of Rebels in Iraq |
The video starts with a young American soldier patrolling an Iraqi street. His head is obscured by leaves, so a red target is digitally inserted to draw the viewer’s eye. A split second later, the soldier collapses, shot. Martial music kicks in, a jihadi answer to John Philip Sousa. The time and place of the attack scrolls at the bottom of the screen.Such tapes, along with images of victims of Shiite militias and unflattering coverage of Shiite leaders, are beaming across Iraq and much of the Middle East 24 hours a day, broadcast by a banned Iraqi satellite television station that has become a major information center for the Sunni insurgency — and the focus of a cat-and-mouse hunt that has exasperated and infuriated American and Iraqi forces.Making the situation even more galling for the authorities, American and Iraqi officials say that money stolen from the United States probably helps pay for the station.... http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/sf/nyt1_21_7_4.htm
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Editor - 22:35:00 01-20-07 |
Connecticut resident now world’s oldest woman Emma Faust Tillman, daughter of former slaves, holds title at age 114 |
A 114-year-old Connecticut resident who was born to former slaves in North Carolina has become the world's oldest known woman after the death this week of a Canadian woman. Emma Faust Tillman, born Nov. 22, 1892, became the oldest validated female "supercentenarian" in the world when 115-year-old Julie Winnifred Bertrand of Montreal, Canada, died in her sleep early Thursday. Tillman, of East Hartford, is now the second-oldest known person in the world behind 115-year-old Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico, born August 21, 1891. They are among many validated supercentenarians on a list maintained by the Gerontology Research Group in Los Angeles and other organizations.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16725298/
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Editor - 22:33:00 01-20-07 |
CIA, FBI, Aussie agents operating in south — AFP |
Several American and Australian intelligence agents are in Mindanao to monitor terrorist activities, military sources here claimed yesterday. "Mindanao is crawling with CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and even Australian federal agents," a source told The STAR. The source, who asked not to be named, said aside from the US Special Forces deployed in Zamboanga and assisting in Sulu, foreign intelligence agents are also helping track down Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah militants. The foreign agents pose as tourists, businessmen, consultants or even treasure hunters. Meanwhile, in Washington, the director of the CIA praised the Philippines on Thursday for its fight against terrorists, saying the country’s government and military have worked closely with the United States to decrease the threat from extremists. ... http://www.philstar.com/philstar/News200701200401.htm
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Editor - 22:23:00 01-20-07 |
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