 The Taleban have ousted Afghan security forces from a district headquarters in the western Farah province after days of heavy fighting, police say. The forces were besieged and support was unable to reach them, Farah police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib told the BBC. The Taleban have fought fierce battles with Afghan and foreign troops this year, mostly in the south and east, in which hundreds of people have died. The Farah attack has raised concerns of a new front opening up in the west. Hundreds of heavily-armed Taleban fighters have been involved in this week's violence in the province, the authorities say. The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press quoted the country's hardline former rulers as saying they took the Golestan district headquarters "after a brief clash" on Thursday evening. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 09:03:00 09-15-06
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 NATO Asks Again for Afghanistan Troops |
NATO's top commander renewed an appeal Friday for allies to urgently provide up to 2,500 troops for the battle with Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, but officials said it likely would take two weeks before governments reply. Gen. James L. Jones told a closed meeting of ambassadors from the 26 NATO allies that Poland's welcome offer of 900 troops in February had not diminished the immediate need for more troops, planes and helicopters, according to officials at NATO headquarters. Diplomats said they expected the call for more troops to feature at a meeting of allied foreign ministers Thursday in New York, but said decisions likely will have to wait until defense ministers gather Sept. 28-29 in Slovenia. They said governments needed time to assess what forces they could make available, to test political support for deployment and to find funding for such a mission. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6082725,00.html
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Editor - 09:00:00 09-15-06
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| EU agrees to back Palestinian unity government |
European Union foreign ministers agreed on Friday to back a Palestinian national unity government being formed by President Mahmoud Abbas with the Hamas Islamist movement, despite U.S. misgivings. "We agreed that we have to support the new Palestinian government. It's a very important turning point for the situation," Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told Reuters. "(EU foreign policy chief) Javier Solana told us in the platform there will be recognition by the new government of the treaty signed by the Palestinian Authority in the past — it means recognize Israel as a partner," D'Alema said. The EU and the United States have boycotted the Hamas-led government formed in March because it refused to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace accords. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2448581
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Editor - 08:58:00 09-15-06
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| Trenches plan to secure Baghdad |
Iraq's interior ministry has announced plans to increase security in Baghdad by digging trenches around the city, and surrounding it with checkpoints. The plan was unveiled amid continuing violence in the capital. At least 49 bodies have been recovered from the city's streets in the past 24 hours. A spokesman said the security plan was designed to prevent insurgents from getting into and out of Baghdad. But correspondents say it could take months to dig trenches round the city. The Iraqi capital has a circumference of around 80km (50 miles). Brigadier Abdul Karim of the interior ministry told the BBC that hundreds of minor roads would be sealed off under the plan, so that the city could only be accessed via 28 checkpoints. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5349398.stm
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Editor - 08:55:00 09-15-06
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| UN Lebanon deaths 'tragic error' |
An Israeli bombing raid on a UN post in southern Lebanon in July that killed four peacekeepers was the result of a "tragic error", Israel has said. An official Israeli inquiry found the post was wrongly targeted because of flawed military maps of the area during the conflict with Hezbollah. Observers from China, Austria, Finland and Canada were killed in the raid. The UN said that, prior to the bombing, it had contacted Israel several times to ask it to stop firing in the area. The UN post, in the town of Khiam, is thought to have been hit by precision-guided munitions in the attack on 26 July. At the time, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described the raid as "apparently deliberate". Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed "deep regrets" over the deaths. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5348364.stm
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Editor - 08:24:00 09-15-06
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| Woman is fitted with 'bionic' arm |
A former US Marine has become the first woman in the world to be fitted with a "bionic" arm that she can control by her thoughts alone. Claudia Mitchell lost her left arm at the shoulder in a motorbike accident. Her new arm works by detecting movements of a chest muscle that has been connected to the remains of nerves that once went to her real arm. The first prototype was fitted to double amputee Jesse Sullivan four years ago. However, the latest version has been significantly improved....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5348458.stm
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Editor - 08:19:00 09-15-06
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