The governments of 10 South American countries signed an agreement on Friday to allow their citizens to travel within the region without passports.The measure is designed to boost tourism in a region which has long been a destination for European and North American travelers but is increasingly developing an internal tourist market of its own. Tourists from the 10 nations will be able to travel within the region by showing only an identity card at country borders. They will not need a visa and will be able to stay for 90 days. "We believe this measure will help us get to know how things are in each country," Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley said at a signing ceremony in Santiago. ...
http://abcnews.go.com
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Editor - 16:10:00 11-24-06
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 At Least 289 U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan, Pakistan Since 2001, Defense Dept. Says |
As of Friday, Nov. 24, 2006, at least 289 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The Defense Department last updated its figures on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2006. Of those, the military reports 187 were killed by hostile action. Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 56 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, two were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as: Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen. There was also one military civilian death and four CIA officer deaths. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2677994
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Editor - 16:07:00 11-24-06
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| U.N. Panel Cites Torture, Secret Detentions in Chechnya |
A U.N. anti-torture panel said Friday it had credible reports of unofficial detention centers, abuse and disappearances in Russia's restive southern province of Chechnya. In a 12-page report on Russian compliance with a global ban on prisoner abuse, the U.N. Committee Against Torture said it had "reliable reports of unofficial places of detention in the North Caucasus," where security forces are trying to quell Muslim separatists. The committee, comprised of 10 independent experts, said it had learned of "allegations that those detained in such facilities face torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." Russian officials have disputed abuse accusations in the past. The U.N. committee's report also highlighted "numerous, ongoing and consistent allegations that abductions and enforced disappearances" in Chechnya were carried out by government officials or with their consent and that perpetrators went unpunished. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2677942
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Editor - 16:06:00 11-24-06
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| Senate Democrats Revive Demand for Classified Data |
Seeking information about detention of terrorism suspects, abuse of detainees and government secrecy, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are reviving dozens of demands for classified documents that until now have been rebuffed or ignored by the Justice Dept and other agencies. “I expect real answers, or we’ll have testimony under oath until we get them,” Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, who will head the committee beginning in January, said in an interview this week. “We’re entitled to know these answers, and in many instances we don’t get them because people are hiding their mistakes. And that’s no excuse.” Mr. Leahy, who has said little about his plans for the committee, expressed hope for greater cooperation from the Bush administration, which he described as having been “obsessively secretive.” His aides have identified more than 65 requests he has made to the Justice Dept or other agencies in recent years that have been rejected or permitted to languish without reply...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/washington/24documents.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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Editor - 15:22:00 11-24-06
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| Iraq war was good for Israel: Olmert |
The Iraq war was a boon for Israel's security, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday, voicing fresh endorsement for a Bush administration sapped by the unpopularity at home of its Middle East policies. The mid-term election losses of U.S. President George W. Bush's Republican Party were widely considered a repudiation of his decision to topple Iraq's Saddam Hussein as part of a vision of democratizing the region and bolstering allies like Israel. Olmert avoided explicit comment on the Republicans' fortunes during Washington talks with Bush earlier this month. But in a speech to visiting American Jews, Olmert made clear he had few regrets about the changes wrought by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. "I know all of his (Bush's) policies are controversial in America. There are some who support his policies in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, and some who do not," he said. ...
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-11-22T201536Z_01_L22136236_RTRUKOC_0_US-ISRAEL-USA-IRAQ.xml
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Editor - 15:11:00 11-24-06
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| In Video, Hussein Uses Slingshots and Bows to Rally Iraqis for War |
As the world worried about Saddam Hussein’s quest for nuclear and biological weapons, he took time out to discuss with his top advisers the merits of a decidedly more primitive arsenal: slingshots, Molotov cocktails and crossbows.In a previously undisclosed video, apparently shot in the months before the American-led invasion in 2003, Mr. Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, beams as military officers display and demonstrate low-tech weapons spread on a table in a ceremonial room. Whether the episode shows genuine preparation for an insurgency or was merely a bizarre propaganda exercise is unclear.In the video, Mr. Hussein, wearing a double-breasted gray suit, aims a slingshot, shoots an arrow at a door using a crossbow (as aides scamper out of the way) and swings a mock gasoline bomb over his head with a rope. He urges his aides to get such weapons into the hands of Iraqis....
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/sf/nyt11_24_6_6.htm
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Editor - 11:56:00 11-24-06
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