Poverty levels in Gaza have soared to record levels because of Israeli restrictions and the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday."Unemployment and poverty have reached unprecedented levels, with 79 percent of people in the Gaza Strip living below the poverty line, of which 51 percent live in utter poverty," Abbas said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Western donors suspended financial support to the Palestinian Authority last year after the militant Islamist group Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel and renounce violence, swept to victory in parliamentary elections. Abbas, who has been caught in a power struggle with Hamas, repeated his call for early elections if factions fail to reach agreement on a unity government that might be able to end sanctions and ease the economic plight....
http://abcnews.go.com
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Editor - 09:27:00 01-25-07
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 19 Cubans Sail to Shore of Key West Military Commander's Backyard on Homemade Boat |
Nineteen Cubans came ashore on the Naval Air Station Key West commander's backyard, officials said.The 12 men, five women and two children were discovered Wednesday morning by an off-duty Defense Department officer jogging on military property, Key West police said. The officer knocked on Capt. J.R. Brown's front door, alerting him to the group and asking to use his phone to call authorities.The group arrived in what appeared to be a homemade boat, police said.Brown asked a Spanish-speaking neighbor to meet with the Cubans, who appeared fine, he said....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,246801,00.html
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Editor - 09:25:00 01-25-07
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| Offer fails to end Guinea strike |
The general strike in Guinea is continuing despite President Lansana Conte's offer to name a new prime minister - a key union demand. Thousands of people have held protests in the eastern town of Kankan, reports the AFP news agency. Talks are also continuing, focused on how much power the president would hand over to the prime minister. About 40 people have died in 16 days of protests, organised by unions who say Mr Conte should step down. AFP says the authorities did not try to stop the Kankan march, while there are fewer police than in previous days on the streets of the capital, Conakry, where more than 30 people died on Monday. The talks are attended by trades union leaders, members of the Supreme Court and religious leaders. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6298827.stm
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Editor - 09:24:00 01-25-07
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| Slump at DR Congo's diamond firm |
Diamond exports from the Democratic Republic of Congo's main company, Miba (Miniere de Bakwanga), fell by 80% in the past year, official figures show. A BBC correspondent says the main cause is a violent conflict involving illegal miners at the state-owned firm's largest mine in the Kasaai region. Equipment worth $10m is not being used because of insecurity at the mine. As a result of the slump in output, Miba's 6,500 employees have not been paid for more than four months. From June to December 2006, Miba exported 545,000 carats of diamonds, compared to more than 2.5m in the same period in 2005, according to official figures leaked to the BBC. Miba head Gustave Luabeya says overall output has fallen by some 50%. He blames the collapse on DR Congo's landmark elections, held in July and October 2006. "It was electoral period from June. Since Kasaai is an opposition stronghold, it was not easy for us," he said....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6297425.stm
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Editor - 09:22:00 01-25-07
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| Mississippi man charged in 1964 killings of blacks |
A former Ku Klux Klan member has been charged with kidnapping and conspiracy in connection with the 1964 murders of two black teenagers in Mississippi, killings that occurred at the height of the U.S. civil rights movement. The Justice Department in Washington released on Thursday the three-count indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Jackson, Mississippi, that accuses James Seale for his role in the kidnapping and murders.The two black 19-year-olds, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, have long been thought to have been abducted and killed by members of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan.The murders were among dozens in the Deep South, mostly involving members of the Ku Klux Klan, during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070125/ts_nm/usa_rights_mississippi_court_dc
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Editor - 09:15:00 01-25-07
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| Israeli, Palestinian negotiators want direct talks |
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators called on Thursday for direct peace talks and said they wished to stick to a 24-month timeline to reach a final agreement. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, and Ephraim Sneh, Israeli deputy defense minister, told a media briefing that a peace accord was necessary to build an alliance of moderates in an increasingly polarized region."It may take six months to conclude these principles and another 18 months to conclude and iron out the details," Sneh told journalists at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum held in the Alpine ski resort of Davos."There is no need of mediation," he said. "We can do it directly. It is the best way. But we need international as well as regional backing and support."Erekat applauded recent peace efforts by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as "very practical."...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070125/ts_nm/davos_israel_palestinians_dc
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Editor - 09:13:00 01-25-07
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