Officially it was all smiles when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met the 25 foreign ministers of the European Union on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last week. But a pointed exchange behind closed doors on methods of fighting terrorism between Rice and Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, highlighted transatlantic tensions lurking below the surface.It began near the end of the meeting, according to one participant, when Tuomioja said ministers were bound to be asked if they had discussed the issue of secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons for suspected terrorists and "rendition flights" to transfer prisoners to states where they may face torture.Since the matter was not on the official agenda, he suggested they should all agree to say it had not been discussed and that they had agreed on all the points on the agenda....
http://news.yahoo.com
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Editor - 09:54:00 09-25-06
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 Judge orders Saddam removed from court, saying 'Get him out!' tiff over title starts argument |
The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial threw the former leader out of the courtroom Monday in a stormy session boycotted by his defense team."I have a request here that I don't want to be in this cage any more," Saddam said, referring to the court. He waved a yellow paper before he spoke to chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa.Al-Khalifa snapped back: "I'm the presiding judge. I decide about your presence here. Get him out!" He pointed to guards to take Saddam out."You need to show respect to the court and the case, and those who don't show it, I'm sorry, but I have to apply the law," al-Khalifa said.The exchange began when Sabri al-Douri, director of military intelligence under Saddam, referred to a fellow co-defendant _ Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai _ by his former rank of lieutenant general....
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/25/ap/world/mainD8KBUNG80.shtml
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Editor - 09:51:00 09-25-06
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| Afghan women's official shot dead |
A leading Afghan official working on women's rights has been shot dead in the southern province of Kandahar. Safia Amajan, head of the province's women's department, was leaving her home for work when a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire, police said. She may have been targeted by Taleban militants because of their opposition to women taking part in politics and education, the BBC's Dan Isaacs says. Hundreds have died in clashes between troops and Taleban fighters this year. Nato-led forces have been battling a resurgent Taleban militia, with some of the fiercest fighting taking place in the south of the country. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5376968.stm
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Editor - 09:47:00 09-25-06
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| A journey into the 'Taliban republic' where the militias rule unchallenged |
Civil war is raging through the Iraqi countryside. Sunni insurgents have largely taken control of the province of Diyala, where local leaders believe the insurgents are close to establishing a "Taliban republic". Officials in the strategically important province - composed of a mixture of Sunnis and Shias with a Kurdish minority - have no doubt about what is happening. Lt-Col Ahmed Ahmed Nuri Hassan, a weary-looking commander of the federal police, says: "Now there is an ethnic civil war and it is getting worse every day."At the moment, the Sunni seem to be winning.As the violence has escalated over the past three years, it has become too dangerous for journalists to find out what is happening in the provinces outside the capital. The UN said last week that 5,106 civilians were killed in Baghdad in July and August and 1,493 in the provinces outside it....
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1747149.ece
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Editor - 22:37:00 09-24-06
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| U.S. envoy says Sudan one of his toughest tasks |
The Bush administration's new envoy to Sudan said his mission to try to stop the genocide in Darfur will be a daunting assignment. Andrew Natsios, a former head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said his new job will be "one of the most difficult I've had." In an interview Friday, he compared it to his work on Boston's "Big Dig." Natsios was chairman and chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority for a year. In 2000, he was brought in to try to get the calamity-plagued bridge and tunnel project on track.Natsios said his first task will be to convince the Sudanese government to stop bombarding rebel villages in Darfur and allow the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in the western Sudanese region, which is the size of France....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-24-sudan-us-envoy_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 19:24:00 09-24-06
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| String of heists raises fears bank jobs are on rise |
The Paparazzi Bandit photographs bank tellers as he robs them. The Goofy Hat Bandit wears a black fedora. The Hallmark Bandit writes lengthy notes demanding cash — and sometimes asks tellers if they had a good weekend.These serial bank robbers, and a few others, are behind what authorities say is an unusual surge in bank robberies during the last few months in Los Angeles, one of several U.S. cities where such crimes have ticked upward recently.FBI officials say they are concerned that bank robberies — generally a high-risk, low-reward type of crime — might be increasing again after declining nationwide since 2001. Numbers for 2006 won't be available for months.It's unclear precisely why Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago and other cities are seeing a jump in bank robberies, but it appears to be part of a general increase in violent crimes nationwide, says Chip Burrus, the FBI's assistant director for criminal investigations....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-24-bank-robberies_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 19:14:00 09-24-06
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