 Philippine police stormed a courtroom to end a 24-hour hostage standoff Wednesday, freeing all four captives who were held by a movie stuntman and his common-law wife. The gunman was killed when he dropped a grenade during the confrontation. Gunshots and a blast rang out inside the Taguig city court building in suburban Manila as black-clad SWAT teams carried out the assault shown on nationwide TV. Moments later, Mayor Sigfrido Tinga confirmed the gunman, Al Bautista, was dead and the hostages rescued. Bautista’s wife was in custody. Two hostages were hurt from being beaten by the gunman. “The crisis is over,” said Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Varilla, one of the negotiators. “The good thing is all hostages are safe and only the hostage-taker is dead.” As the crisis dragged into its second day, Varilla said he and other negotiators persuaded Bautista to surrender. ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com
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Editor - 08:21:00 03-14-07
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 Iran sanctions talks at UN entering last phase |
Major powers expect an embargo on weapons Iran can export and a call to nations to restrict loans to Tehran as part of a sanctions package against Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment work. No date for a vote has been set in the 15 nation U.N. Security Council and initial predictions for this weekend have slipped, China said on Wednesday."To my knowledge there are a number of members who have indicated their concerns about this draft," Beijing's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters.Ambassadors from the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, the five permanent council members with veto power, as well as Germany, which holds the European Union presidency, have been negotiating since March 1....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070314/ts_nm/iran_nuclear_un_dc
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Editor - 08:16:00 03-14-07
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| Victim's Kin, NYC Officials Await Grand Jury Action on Cop Killing of Unarmed Man |
City officials were on alert Wednesday and extra officers were on standby in anticipation of a decision by a grand jury on the blaze of police gunfire that killed an unarmed man on his wedding day and wounded two of his friends. All five officers involved in the shooting, in which 50 shots were fired, were called before the grand jury last week. The shooting raised questions about police tactics and prompted vigils and protests by civil rights activists; the slain man and his friends were black; some of the officers are black and some are white. Friends and relatives of Sean Bell, the man who died, planned to gather with the Rev. Al Sharpton in case the grand jury's decision on charges were announced. Bell's relatives have called for prosecution of the five officers. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2950475
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Editor - 08:14:00 03-14-07
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| Japan court overturns key WW2 Chinese labor ruling |
A Japanese court on Wednesday overturned a landmark ruling ordering the Japanese government and a company to compensate Chinese who were forced to work as slave laborers in Japan during World War Two, Kyodo news agency said.The Tokyo High Court acknowledged that the state and the firm had violated the human rights of the 11 Chinese, but rejected the plaintiffs' demand for compensation because a 20-year statute of limitation had expired, Kyodo news agency said. "I'm shocked to find that the judges' idea is still like this even though more than 60 years have passed," Kyodo quoted Zhang Yixian, a plaintiff whose father was a forced laborer, as saying after the court upheld appeals by the company and the government. "It seems Japan has been covering up this tragic history and seeking to have people forget," Zhang added. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2950366
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Editor - 08:13:00 03-14-07
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| Basque issue brings Spanish PM weekends of protest |
Spain's prime minister must hate Saturdays. That's the day of the week hundreds of thousands of people march through the streets of Madrid chanting for him to resign for allegedly making concessions to Basque rebels ETA.The huge crowds of what must be the world's best-dressed demonstrators, who tend to come from the higher income brackets, have prompted newspaper headlines fretting over rising national tensions in a country where memories of Civil War still smart. With regional elections due in May and a national vote next year, they also reflect a gamble by the conservative opposition Popular Party which is focusing its energies on rejecting government attempts to coax ETA into talks. There have been marches most weekends in Madrid so far this year, organized by the opposition or groups critical of the Socialist government. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2950365
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Editor - 08:11:00 03-14-07
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| U.S. lobbies Europe over disputed missile shield plan |
The top U.S. missile defense official is in Europe this week to try to convince skeptics like Germany that the plan will not provoke a new arms race between the West and Russia, U.S. and European officials said. Lieutenant General Henry A. Obering, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, was in Germany for meetings with officials and will have stops in Ukraine and France. "One of things Obering is trying to do is to calm down the hysteria about this issue," a U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "This project is not at all aimed at Russia and isn't going to cause a new arms race."The United States wants to set up a radar system in the Czech Republic and a missile battery in Poland as part of a shield that would counter missiles fired by what Washington calls "rogue states" like Iran and North Korea....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070314/ts_nm/missile_shield_usa_dc
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Editor - 08:10:00 03-14-07
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