 An oil spill from an unidentified source has hit Vietnam's central coast, blackening popular resort beaches as thousands of local people help with the cleanup, officials said Thursday. Authorities are investigating the source of the spill that reached the coast Tuesday night in Quang Nam province, said Nguyen Ngoc Dung, director of the provincial Natural Resources and Environment Department. "Oil is everywhere at sea," he said. "In some areas it's as far as 12 miles." The spill has affected beaches along the coast in the ancient town of Hoi An, a UNESCO recognized site, Dung said. ...
http://abcnews.go.com
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Editor - 09:24:00 02-01-07
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 Afghanistan's Parliament Urges War Crimes Amnesty Covering Civil War Leaders |
Parliament has voted for an amnesty for leaders accused of war crimes during a quarter-century of fighting, arguing that it would help heal the deep divisions in Afghanistan. The amnesty resolution, passed in the lower house Wednesday, covers the mujahedeen leaders who led the resistance against the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and later turned their weapons on one another, plunging the country into civil war. Lawmaker Sayed Mustafa Kazmi, who backed the resolution, said it was aimed at fostering national unity. But rights activists have called for Afghanistan's factional leaders and warlords to face prosecution for the massacres and torture they allegedly committed in their struggle for power, especially during the 1992-96 civil war. Only justice, the rights advocates say, will heal the wounds of Afghanistan's traumatic past. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2841140
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Editor - 09:22:00 02-01-07
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| Admitted Mafia Boss in South Florida Pleads Guilty to Racketeering, Could Get 20 Years |
The admitted boss of the Genovese organized crime family's South Florida operations pleaded guilty Thursday to federal racketeering charges and could spend 20 years in prison. Renaldi "Ray" Ruggiero, 73, admitted in a plea agreement that he was a "capo" in the New York-based Mafia family and supervised a crew that committed numerous crimes including extortion, robbery, money laundering and possession of stolen property. "I plead guilty, your honor," Ruggiero told U.S. District Judge James Cohn. Sentencing was set for April 27 for Ruggiero, who could also be fined $25,000. Ruggiero pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, but did not agree to cooperate with federal Mafia investigators in his deal. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2841143
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Editor - 09:10:00 02-01-07
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| Britain to increase forces in Afghanistan; U.N. considers greater political presence |
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he may increase the United Nations' political presence in southern Afghanistan, where resurgent Taliban militias are engaged in fierce fighting against NATO forces. After discussing the Afghan conflict with the Dutch leadership, Ban suggested that strengthening the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in the south would boost coordination between the United Nations and international troops taking part in the U.N.-mandated Afghan stabilization force. "I am considering increasing the presence of UNAMA office in southern Afghanistan," Ban told reporters. "I hope this will help the important contribution" by members of the stabilization force, including Dutch troops in the area. The 1,000-member U.N. body, mostly comprised of Afghan nationals, was created in 2002 to oversee U.N. humanitarian relief projects and assist the peace process. It has eight regional offices outside the capital, Kabul including one in the southern capital of Kandahar...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-02-01-afghanistan-UN-britain_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 09:07:00 02-01-07
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| Senate corners Bush over troop increase |
George Bush was today facing further political isolation over his policy on Iraq after top Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed on a provisional resolution opposing a troop increase. The White House has been lobbying fiercely to head off such a resolution and its failure to do so underlines the unpopularity of Mr Bush's plan to send an extra 21,500 troops to Iraq. Several proposals had been circulating in the Senate, but the Democratic chairman of the senate armed services committee, Carl Levin, and his predecessor, the Republican senator John Warner, have managed to craft a resolution designed to attract maximum support from both parties. Their joint resolution expresses the Senate's opposition to Mr Bush's "surge" in military numbers in Iraq but would protect funding for troops already there. The proposal drops Democratic wording that the troop increase is against the national interest and also leaves out an earlier provision by Mr Warner suggesting Senate support for ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2003574,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
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Editor - 09:04:00 02-01-07
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| France Bids Adieu To Public Smoking Smoking Ban For "Closed And Covered" Public Spaces To Affect 15 Million Smokers |
A ban on smoking in public spaces came into effect Thursday, a change that may alter the image of a country defined in part by its smoky cafes and cigarette-puffing intellectuals. France's 15 million smokers will be banned from lighting up in workplaces, schools, airports, hospitals and other "closed and covered" public places. More than 175,000 agents are to enforce the ban, handing out fines of $88 for smokers and $174 for employers who look the other way. In a year, the ban will extend to cafes and restaurants — sure to be the moment of truth for a certain image of France, where writers like Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre are remembered with cigarettes dangling from their mouths. "A world is collapsing," writer Philippe Delerm wrote in a front-page ode to the cigarette in Le Monde newspaper, referring to the alluring image of the chain-smoking intellectual. "Those were good times. But nobody thought about the collateral damage." ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/01/world/main2420532.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2420532
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Editor - 09:00:00 02-01-07
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