The UN head has urged Iraq's neighbours not to close their borders to refugees, and states further afield to do more to help tackle the humanitarian crisis. Ban Ki-moon was speaking to a major UN conference in Geneva highlighting the plight of Iraqi refugees, which the UN says most countries have ignored. The UN wants help for Syria and Jordan, which host 2m Iraqis, and for the US and EU to offer more refugees asylum. It estimates up to 50,000 people flee the violence in Iraq each month. There are up to four million Iraqis now living away from home, including 1.9m living as internally displaced people. "I hope this conference will galvanise international support to provide them with more protection and assistance and I hope it will mobilise resources in establishing much needed protection space," Ban Ki-moon said in a video message. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk censor News |
Editor - 08:35:00 04-17-07 |
Bangladesh ex-PM 'in exile deal' |
Security forces in Bangladesh have released the younger son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, official sources have told the BBC. Arafat Rahman was taken from Khaleda Zia's home in Dhaka, by army forces in a pre-dawn raid on Monday. His release comes amid mounting speculation that it was part of a deal with the government under which Ms Zia's family would go into exile. Khaleda Zia's elder son, Tarique Rahman, was also arrested last month. More than 160 suspects have been held from both of the main political parties in a government anti-corruption drive under a state of emergency imposed in January. Unlike Tarique Rahman - whose case was suspended for six months by a High Court ruling on Tuesday - Arafat Rahman was not involved in politics. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6562811.stm
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Editor - 08:30:00 04-17-07 |
Coalition Airstrike Hits Afghan House Afghan officials say coalition airstrike hits Afghan house, killing family of 9 |
A coalition airstrike destroyed a mud-brick home, killing nine people from four generations of an Afghan family during a clash between Western troops and militants, Afghan officials and relatives said Monday. It was the second report in two days of civilian deaths at the hands of Western forces. On Sunday, U.S. Marines fired on cars and pedestrians as they fled a suicide attack. Up to 10 Afghans died in that violence, and President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings. Both times, the U.S military blamed militants for putting innocent lives in danger. But Karzai has repeatedly pleaded for Western troops to show more restraint amid concern that civilian deaths shake domestic support for the foreign military involvement that the president needs to prop up his weak government _ increasingly under threat from a resurgent Taliban. In the latest incident, militants late Sunday fired on a U.S. base in Kapisa province, just north of Kabul, prompting the airstrike on Jabar village.... http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/05/ap/world/mainD8NM56EO0.shtml
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Editor - 08:26:00 04-17-07 |
Credit Derivatives Flop on Exchanges; Dealers Boycott |
The world's biggest futures and options exchanges are failing to break Wall Street's hammerlock on credit-default swaps, the world's fastest-growing financial market. Three weeks after Eurex AG, Europe's biggest futures exchange, introduced the first contracts that allow investors to bet on a company's ability to pay its debt, 231 million euros ($313 million) have changed hands. Banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trade about 15 billion euros of credit-default swaps each day, according to data compiled by Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG. The banks are refusing to trade the Eurex contracts, heading off competition in a market that doubled to $294 billion in the year ended in June, according to the Bank for International Settlements in Basel. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the biggest U.S. futures exchange, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the biggest U.S. options markets, expect a similar ... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aywpMSadOm4s&refer=exclusive
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Editor - 08:24:00 04-17-07 |
Report: Korean War-Era Massacre Was Policy 1950 Ambassador's Letter Confirms Policy Of Firing On Civilians Suspected Of Being N. Korean Insurgents |
Six years after declaring the U.S. killing of Korean War refugees at No Gun Ri was "not deliberate," the Army has acknowledged it found but did not divulge that a high-level document said the U.S. military had a policy of shooting approaching civilians in South Korea. The document, a letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea to the State Department in Washington, is dated the day in 1950 when U.S. troops began the No Gun Ri shootings, in which survivors say hundreds, mostly women and children, were killed. Exclusion of the embassy letter from the Army's 2001 investigative report is the most significant among numerous omissions of documents and testimony pointing to a policy of firing on refugee groups — undisclosed evidence uncovered by Associated Press archival research and Freedom of Information Act requests. South Korean petitioners say hundreds more refugees died later in 1950 as a result of the U.S. practice. ... http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/14/national/main2683918.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2683918
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Editor - 08:03:00 04-17-07 |
List Of Virginia Tech Shooting Victims Students And Faculty Who Died In Blacksburg Tragedy |
The following is a list of confirmed victims in Monday's shooting spree on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., during which 32 people were killed before the shooter took his own life. Police have identified the shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior and English major at the school. Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, of Saugus, Mass., according to his mother, Lynnette Alameddine. Friends described him as "an intelligent, funny, easy-going guy." Ryan Clark, 22, a student from Martinez, Ga., was a fifth-year student working toward a triple-degree in psychology, biology and English and carried a 4.0 grade-point average. He was a member of the Marching Virginians band. He was a resident assistant at Ambler Johnson Hall, the dorm where the first shootings took place. Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, a Preuvian studying international relations, was killed while in his French class, said his mother, Betty Cueva.... http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/17/national/main2693354.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2693354
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Editor - 08:00:00 04-17-07 |
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