 Somali government troops and Islamist rebels are massing around the central town of Burhakaba a day after it was taken by government forces. Residents are fleeing as Islamic Courts rebels vow to retake the town - close to the government stronghold of Baidoa. Ethiopian soldiers are said to have helped the government troops. With Eritrean soldiers suspected of helping the rebels, diplomats have warned the situation could spiral out of control, engulfing the whole region. The danger is of a conflict for control of the Horn - a proxy war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, continuing the border war between the two states that ended six years ago in an uneasy peace, says the BBC's Africa analyst Martin Plaut. When the failed new government tried to collect taxes they send tax collectors around with 2 soldiers with machine guns to collect the taxes, the difference was, they had uniforms the Warlords didn’t, and the government demanded more with no protection, the Warlords gave protection. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 09:46:00 10-22-06
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 Vietnam net users fear crackdown |
Vietnamese authorities have been accused of creating a climate of fear amongst the country's internet users. Human rights organisation Amnesty International is using online informers to keep track of web users. Several campaigners for democracy are currently imprisoned as punishment for discussing their ideas on websites and in e-mails. The charity made the claims in a report ahead of next week's United Nations meeting on governing the internet. Activists detained The internet is booming in Vietnam. Online cafes can be found in even the smallest towns. It has given a big boost to the country's small dissident movement - allowing them to communicate with each other and with supporters abroad. In response, the security forces have blocked access to certain websites and targeted dissidents using the net. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6074432.stm
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Editor - 09:34:00 10-22-06
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| Panama to vote on expanded canal |
The people of Panama are due to vote in a referendum on an ambitious plan to expand the country's famous canal and increase traffic. Many modern container ships are too large for the 50-mile (80km) canal linking the Pacific and Atlantic. The Panamanian government and the company that runs the canal want to build a new channel and new locks at either end to accommodate them. The plan would double the canal's capacity, but at a cost of $3-5bn. Supporters say the expansion will bring widespread benefits to the country, but opponents argue it will add to Panama's debt. Increased revenue from tolls is expected to cover some of the costs, but the plan still needs $2.3bn in loans. Opinion polls suggest most Panamanians will back the proposal. Thousands of construction jobs would be generated, along with many more indirect jobs. But opponents are worried about cost overruns on the massive project, and that opportunities for corruption may prove too hard to resist. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6074106.stm
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Editor - 09:30:00 10-22-06
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| Scalia Rips Judges on Abortion, Suicide |
Deeply controversial issues like abortion and suicide rights have nothing to do with the Constitution, and unelected judges too often choose to find new rights at the expense of the democratic process, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday. Scalia, during a talk on the judiciary sponsored by the National Italian American Foundation, dismissed the idea of judicial independence as an absolute virtue. He noted that dozens of states, since the mid-1800s, have chosen to let citizens elect their judges. "You talk about independence as though it is unquestionably and unqualifiably a good thing," Scalia said. "It may not be. It depends on what your courts are doing." Scalia added, "The more your courts become policy-makers, the less sense it makes to have them entirely independent." ...
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/10/21/ap3109747.html
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Editor - 09:24:00 10-22-06
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| Afghans Appeal for Food Aid; 15 Insurgents Killed in Clashes |
The Afghan government and the United Nations appealed Sunday for $43 million in aid for 1.9 million people facing food shortages because of severe drought.Clashes between NATO troops and militants, meanwhile, left 15 insurgents dead on Saturday in Afghanistan's restive south, the alliance said.Because of extreme drought conditions, 1.9 million people will need food assistance, 200,000 more than estimated in July, a U.N. statement said. A similar appeal for $76.4 million in aid in June resulted in donations of about half that amount."We urge donor countries to step forward with pledges that will enable us to provide vital food and other essential living items as we approach the winter months," said Ameerah Haq, deputy head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.Afghanistan is facing a shortfall in this year's wheat harvest because of the prolonged drought, particularly in the north and northwest of the country....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,223377,00.html
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Editor - 09:02:00 10-22-06
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| One Solitary Life Detained For Years At A Pacific Refugee Camp, A Lonely Iraqi Seeks Escape From Legal Limbo |
Lying just south of the equator, the eight square-mile pinprick of land is a far cry from the postcard image of a South Seas paradise. Decades of phosphate mining have left much of the island of Nauru — the world's smallest republic — a parched moonscape. But while life is tough for its 11,000 inhabitants, it's arguably harder for a man who may qualify as the loneliest refugee in the world. Mohammed Sagar was one of 1,500 refugees from the Middle East and Afghanistan who were sent to Nauru as part of Australia's "Pacific Solution," a policy under which Canberra outsourced the problem of asylum-seekers trying to reach its shores by sending them to poverty-stricken neighbors. The refugees were intercepted by Royal Australian Navy warships in 2001 and 2002 and sent either to Nauru or Manus, an equally remote island in Papua New Guinea. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/20/world/main2111350.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2111350
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Editor - 09:00:00 10-22-06
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