 US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has arrived in Iraq on a previously unannounced visit. Gates flew to Baghdad from Israel, where he told reporters he wanted to see "faster progress" towards political reconciliation in Iraq. His visit came a day after bombings in Baghdad killed nearly 200 people. At least 11 people died in another blast in the capital on Thursday. The violence was the worst since a US-led security push began in February. Shortly after arriving, Mr Gates went by helicopter to the insurgent stronghold of Falluja, where he met Gen David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Iraq, and Gen Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The visit is Mr Gates' third to Iraq since he took office in December. As he set off for Baghdad, the defence secretary said the Iraqi leadership must be aware that the US' military commitment to the country was not "open-ended". Some 28,000 extra US troops were ordered to Iraq as part of President Bush's security offensive in Baghdad...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 07:35:00 04-19-07
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 Ice traps Canadian seal hunters |
Canadian coastguards are trying to rescue the occupants of about 100 boats carrying seal hunters trapped by pack ice off the country's eastern coast. Several of the boats are threatened with damage or sinking, and at least one crew had to abandon ship. Fishermen have described conditions as the worst for more than 20 years. The hunt, described by activists as cruel and unnecessary, is currently in its third and largest stage off the coast of Newfoundland province. A spokesman of the Canadian Fisheries and Oceans Department said two-thirds of the quota for the cull had already been filled. The total quota for the hunt is 270,000 seals. Winds pressing the ice floes in towards land have made conditions difficult for the boats, some of which are hemmed in and face having their hulls cracked open. Conditions are set to continue until the end of the week and could deteriorate further, coastguards say....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6570723.stm
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Editor - 07:32:00 04-19-07
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| Chrysler Dealer Bets on Survival Amid Gallows Humor |
The same day investor Kirk Kerkorian offered $4.5 billion for money-losing Chrysler Corp., a car salesman in Southold, New York, dusted off a framed print. ``Time to hang this up again,'' Chrysler dealer Dick Mullen said on April 5, smiling at the editorial cartoon from the 1980s. It shows a car bursting from the ground beneath a gravestone marked ``Chrysler: R.I.P.'' Mullen's 80-year-old shop on Long Island's northeast corner is a microcosm of the rise, fall -- and stubborn survival -- of Chrysler through decades of miscues. Mullen loaned Chrysler $10,000 when it neared bankruptcy in 1980. As an auction by German parent DaimlerChrysler AG clouds Chrysler's future once more, Mullen is unafraid, leavening the wait with gallows humor. ``It's the fourth time I'm going out of business with you guys, I'm getting a little tired of it,'' Mullen, 70, says he told Chrysler sales chief Steve Landry at the New York Auto Show on April 4. Mullen suggested that Chrysler write a book based partly on ...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aaQnPwyqvGXA&refer=exclusive
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Editor - 07:28:00 04-19-07
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| Moscow university locks down foreign students Authorities fear ethnic violence before Adolf Hitler’s birthday, students say |
A leading Moscow university ordered its foreign students on Thursday to remain in their dormitories for the next three days because of fears of ethnic violence before Adolf Hitler’s birthday, students said. Hundreds of students at the prestigious Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy were told to stock up on food and warned they would not be let out of the dormitories through Saturday in an attempt to protect them amid a marked rise in hate crimes. Ethnically motivated violence tends to increase in the days leading up to and after Hitler’s birthday on April 20, when some members of ultra-nationalist organizations shout slogans and stage attacks on dark-skinned foreign and other non-Slavic-looking people. The measure at Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy did not appear to be exclusive. Other universities and organizations have in the past also warned foreigners of possible violence ahead of Hitler’s birthday. ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18198043/
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Editor - 07:24:00 04-19-07
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| 7 Hostages Beheaded in Philippines |
The heads of seven men who were kidnapped by Muslim extremists on a volatile southern island were delivered to a Philippine army detachment on Thursday, officials said. The men six road project workers and a dried-fish factory worker were kidnapped at gunpoint in two separate incidents Monday near the town of Parang. Maj. Gen. Ruben Rafael, commander of military forces on Jolo island, said a group of civilians was ordered to take the heads to Parang by Muslim rebel commander Habier Malik, whose men have been battling troops since last week. "This is a retaliation for the killing of one of their commanders," Rafael said. "This is a terrorist act that should be condemned by all." He said the company which employed the road workers had refused to pay a ransom. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3056449
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Editor - 07:21:00 04-19-07
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| U.S. troops kill 24 Taliban: military |
U.S. and Afghan troops killed about 24 Taliban in a battle in the Afghan south, the U.S. military said on Thursday, while government forces said they recaptured a road near Kabul. U.S. and Afghan troops fought a seven-hour battle with the Taliban in the Sangin district of Helmand province on Wednesday night and U.S. aircraft were called in for support, the American military said in a statement. "Approximately 24 Taliban were killed and four vehicles destroyed," it said. Two members of the U.S-led coalition force were wounded. Violence has been increasing in Afghanistan in recent weeks after a winter lull, but a threatened Taliban spring offensive has yet to materialize. In the meantime the U.S.-led force and troops from a separate NATO force have been mounting sweeps in Sangin and other parts of Helmand....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070419/ts_nm/afghan_violence_dc
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Editor - 07:17:00 04-19-07
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