Hawa Salih Ali sits on the sand with one of her grandchildren, their heads protected from the broiling sun by plastic sheeting draped across wooden poles. Around them sit thousands of other displaced people, the latest victims of Darfur's three-year-old tragedy. Hawa Salih fled her village once before, forced out when Janjaweed militia backed by the Sudanese government attacked the area because it harboured rebel fighters. The war moved on to other parts of this huge region of western Sudan, and two years ago she and her family felt safe enough to go home and restart their lives. Now they are homeless again, forced out this time by the very rebels who defended them before. Worse still, it happened after a peace deal was signed in May in a heavily trumpeted ceremony, which Hilary Benn, Britain's international development secretary, helped to broker along with top US and African Union negotiators...
http://www.guardian.co.uk
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Editor - 22:02:00 09-29-06
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 U.S. commander says insurgency in western province of Iraq unlikely to be defeated until U.S. forces leave |
The insurgency in Iraq's volatile western Anbar province can be beaten but probably not until after U.S. troops leave the country, the commander of forces in the provincial capital said Friday."An insurgency is a very difficult thing to defeat in a finite period of time. It takes a lot of persistence — perseverance is the actual term that we like to use," Army Col. Sean B. MacFarland, commander of 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, said in a video-teleconference with reporters at the Defense Department."Who knows how long this is going to actually last?" he added. "But if we get the level of violence down to a point where the Iraqi security forces are more than capable of dealing with it, the insurgency's days will eventually come to an end. And they will come to an end at the hands of the Iraqis, who, by definition, will always be perceived as more legitimate than an external force like our own."...
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/ap/2006/09/29/america/NA_GEN_US_Iraq.php
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Editor - 21:54:00 09-29-06
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| US Senate approves border fence |
The US Senate has overwhelmingly endorsed the building of a fence along part of the border with Mexico, in an effort to curb illegal immigration. The bill was approved by a vote of 80-19 - with leading Democrats such as Hillary Clinton joining the Republican majority that had proposed the measure. The bill must be reconciled with a similar move passed in the House of Representatives last week. Mexico has said the fence will badly affect relations with the US. Supporters of the 700-mile fence (1,125km) fence said it was a crucial tool to fight illegal immigration - which is expected to be a key issue in November's mid-term elections. An estimated 1.2m illegal immigrants were arrested last year trying to cross into the US along the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Sections of the fence would be built in each state. One segment is already under construction in California. When completed the fence will cover one-third of the length of the US-Mexican border...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5394222.stm
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Editor - 21:52:00 09-29-06
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| As Kurd and Arab clashes surge, a third war is looming in Iraq |
When the Kurdish President, Massoud Barzani, banned the Iraqi flag from being flown on top of public buildings in Kurdistan this month, the Iraqi Kurds took a further symbolic step towards de facto independence. He justified the ban by saying "so many pogroms & mass-killings were committed in its name". The Iraqi Kurds are not seeking statehood, calculating that this is not now in their interests, but they want a degree of autonomy that amounts almost to the same thing. "If there is no federal solution there is no hope for this country," Mr Barzani told The Independent in his mountain-top headquarters in Salahudin overlooking the Kurdish capital, Arbil. Mr Barzani's refusal to allow the Iraqi flag to be hoisted was sharply criticised by politicians in Baghdad. The Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, produced a bizarre endorsement of his national emblem saying: "Not only the Kurds were slaughtered under this flag, but many Iraqis were slain under this flag. Iraq was slain under this flag"...
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1772326.ece
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Editor - 21:50:00 09-29-06
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| U.S. intercepts Russian planes off Alaskan coast NORAD says fleet of Tu-95 Bear bombers weren’t considered a threat |
U.S. and Canadian fighter aircraft intercepted Russian planes off the Alaska coast, but it was not considered a hostile incident, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said Friday. NORAD said the aircraft never violated U.S. or Canadian airspace in the incident Thursday, But fighters were launched because the Russians had entered a zone around North America in which NORAD considers uninvited aircraft to be potential threatening. The Tu-95 Bear heavy bombers had been participating in an annual Russian air force exercise near the coast of Alaska and Canada, NORAD said. It did not specify how many Russian planes were involved. “This wasn’t treated as a hostile. It was just being vigilant and letting them know that NORAD is alive and well,” said Canadian Air Force Capt. Jennifer Faubert, a spokeswoman for NORAD’s Canadian Region. Faubert said the last time there was a similar interception was in April, but she declined to say if the incident could be described as a common occurrence...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15067980/
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Editor - 21:45:00 09-29-06
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| Scientists: St. Helens eruption slowing |
Two years after Mount St. Helens began its low-key eruption, a process that has extruded tons of rock into the crater left by the volcano's deadly 1980 blast, scientists say the mountain seems to be slowing down. But they're making no predictions about when the activity will end. "Volcanoes throw you a lot of curve balls. I've been humbled enough not to call the pitch till it's over the plate," said Cynthia Gardner, scientist in charge at the Cascades Volcano Observatory, a US Geological Survey facility about 50 miles from Vancouver, Wash, & 150 miles south of Seattle. The southwest Washington mountain is going through another "dome-building" phase within its crater. The volcano's May 18, 1980, eruption killed 57 people, sent superheated mud down the Toutle River Valley, flattened forests for miles and spewed ash across the state and, eventually, around the globe. It also reduced the 9,677-foot mountain to 8,363 feet, and replaced its symmetrical, snow-covered cone with a gaping crater...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-29-st-helens_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 21:41:00 09-29-06
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