A gun battle between two units of the Iraqi army has left one soldier and a civilian dead, underlining how ethnic and sectarian divisions are crippling the US-trained force. The shooting, which took place between Kurdish and Shia soldiers on Friday near Duluiyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad, is a bad omen for US plans to hand over security to the Iraqi army by the end of the year.The fighting started after a powerful roadside bomb exploded as an Iraqi army convoy carrying Kurdish troops was passing Duluiyah, a small agricultural town that has long been a centre of armed resistance to the occupation. Four soldiers were killed and three wounded in the explosion, according to police, while the US military said one soldier died and 12 were wounded.Immediately after the attack the Kurdish soldiers rushed their wounded to the local hospital, firing their weapons to clear the streets and killing one civilian. At this point, going by the police account, another unit of the Iraqi army,...
http://news.independent.co.uk
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Editor - 22:56:00 05-13-06
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 Russia and US trade angry words over Iran at UN dinner |
The American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, traded barbs during bad-tempered talks at a foreign ministers' summit in New York on Iran's nuclear programme.The exchanges provided a candid introduction to diplomacy for Margaret Beckett, the new Foreign Secretary, who attended the tetchy session at the end of her first full day in the job. The row, which further undermines hopes of a diplomatic solution to the Iran crisis, reflects deepening rifts between the United States and Russia. Tension surfaced at a private meeting hosted by Ms Rice in the Waldorf Hotel for the Russian, British, French, German and Chinese foreign ministers, and spilt over into a much-delayed dinner....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/14/wrice14.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/14/ixnews.html
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Editor - 22:52:00 05-13-06
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| Chavez offers oil to Europe's poor |
Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez arrives in London today with an extraordinary promise to offer cut-rate heating oil for needy families in Europe, modelled on a similar campaign in the US which has been seen partly as a bid to embarrass President George Bush.Last night Chavez also issued a taunting obituary for the 'American empire' on the eve of a visit where he will be shunned by Downing Street but welcomed by London Mayor Ken Livingststone.Chavez said in Vienna yesterday that the 'final hours of the North American empire have arrived ... Now we have to say to the empire: "We're not afraid of you. You're a paper tiger."'Referring to his supply of heating to poor American families last winter, Chavez told a meeting of political supporters: 'I'd like to do the same here in Europe.'...
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1774649,00.html?gusrc=rss
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Editor - 22:41:00 05-13-06
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| U.S. Military Is Split on Insurgency Strategy |
In the region around Qaim, a northwestern Iraqi town near the Syrian border, Marines are fanning out from their main base and moving into villages as part of a new strategy to root out insurgents who enter the country here. The troops have set up 19 small base camps throughout the area and begun routinely patrolling insurgent hot spots north of the Euphrates River. The deployment follows a strategy favored by a new generation of counterinsurgency experts: disperse, mingle with the population and stay put. But the shift comes as the Pentagon appears to be moving the overall U.S. military effort in the opposite direction across much of the country. Army units are being concentrated in "super bases" that line the spine of central Iraq, away from the urban centers where counterinsurgency operations take place. ...
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/nws/latimes33.htm
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Editor - 22:38:00 05-13-06
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| Desperate Republicans chase the black vote |
Facing disastrous poll numbers and collapsing support ahead of vital elections this year, Republican Party strategists have taken firm aim at a surprise voting bloc - black Americans.The White House and top Republican officials have launched a blitz to persuade black people that their future will be better served by shedding decades of loyalty to the Democratic Party and voting Republican instead. Prominent black Americans, including a Hall of Fame football star, are Republican candidates in several high-profile races for November's mid-term elections.Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, has been speaking at events hosted by traditional black civil rights groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and the Urban League. The national committee has organised at least 50 events aimed at black Americans. Later this month, Republicans will hold their first workshops for training black candidates....
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1774371,00.html?gusrc=rss
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Editor - 22:33:00 05-13-06
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| Thousands Flee Slopes of Indonesia's Merapi Volcano Amid Warning of Possibile Eruption |
Thousands of people fled the fertile slopes of Indonesia's most dangerous volcano Saturday as glowing lava oozed down the side and ash and rock spewed from the mountaintop, leading authorities to warn that an eruption could come soon. Villages on Mount Merapi were left virtually empty. Women, children and the elderly filled buses and trucks to be driven to shelters set up at government buildings and schools in nearby towns on the island of Java. Throughout the day, volcanic tremors shook the ground, some strong enough to send people running in fear. After nightfall, fiery magma from the volcano's cauldron lit up the bottoms of clouds above the nearly 9,700-foot peak, and cascades of bright red stones tumbled down the mountainside. Many people already had evacuated from homes closest to Merapi's crater after the volanco recently emerged from several years of relative quiet, but authorities said as many as 7,000 living farther down the slopes had refused to go and ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1958245
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Editor - 11:59:00 05-13-06
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