A U.N. rights panel Fri demanded the immediate closure of any secret U.S. detention facilities and criticized Washington on a range of other issues, calling for a moratorium on capital punishment and improved treatment of poor and black citizens following Hurricane Katrina. Officials in Washington said the U.N. Human Rights Committee was out of bounds in examining U.S. practices outside the United States, but said they would consider its recommendations. "The committee is concerned by credible and uncontested information that the state party has seen fit to engage in the practice of detaining people secretly and in secret places for months and years on end," according to the 12-page report by the committee, which held a two-day hearing last week on U.S. compliance to a major human rights treaty."Our initial reaction is disappointment," said State Dept official Matthew Waxman, who led a U.S. delegation to the hearing. He said the panel appeared to ignore much of the American testimony...
http://www.usatoday.com
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Editor - 18:48:00 07-28-06
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 U.N. humanitarian chief asks for 72-hour truce in Lebanon fighting |
The U.N. humanitarian chief called Friday for a three-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah to evacuate trapped civilians and replenish supplies to areas cut off by the fighting.Jan Egeland told reporters that thousands of children, elderly and disabled had been stranded after more than two weeks of war, while supplies of food and medicines are dwindling.Egeland estimated that nearly 600 Lebanese civilians have been killed in the fighting, a third of them children. The number could be higher, but a proper count is not possible with communications breached in many remote areas and those with heavy fighting."There is something fundamentally wrong with a war where there are more dead children then armed men," he said. "It has to stop."...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-07-28-UN-truce_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 18:45:00 07-28-06
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| U.N. Security Council reaches Iran resolution Country would face sanctions if uranium program not ended by August |
The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council reached a deal Fri on a resolution that would give Iran until the end of Aug to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of economic & diplomatic sanctions. The latest draft is weaker than an initial proposal from Britain, France and Germany, with US backing. While the earlier version would have made the sanctions threat immediate if Iran did not comply, the latest draft would essentially give Iran another chance later on to come around. That was a victory for Russia and China, which argue that the resolution is not an ultimatum but a new request for Iran to accept a deal that would give it various incentives if it suspends uranium enrichment and reprocessing. “There (are) no sanctions introduced on Iran in the draft resolution which we are finalizing,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said. Churkin stressed that work on the resolution was not finished, raising the possibility the introduction of the draft could be postponed...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14078231/
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Editor - 18:43:00 07-28-06
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| Rice to return to Mideast negotiations Saturday |
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will resume her Middle East shuttle diplomacy on Saturday when she travels to Jerusalem, NBC's Andrea Mitchell reported on Friday. The official announcement will come from President Bush at his news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Rice's two top Middle East advisors have been in Israel since Thursday in non-stop meetings to lay the groundwork for further talks. “I do think it is important that groundwork be laid so I can make the most of whatever time I can spend there,” Rice told a news conference at a conference on Asian issues. “Let me be very clear. I am going to return to the Middle East. The question is when is it right for me to return.” I guess she could wait until a whole lot more men, women and kids are killed or maimed and Lebanon is destroyed. However, what’s a few more deaths. Meanwhile we will continue to supply Israel with all the weapons and bombs and the People of Lebanon will understand I’m sure....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14071246/
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Editor - 12:41:00 07-28-06
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| Minister: Hezbollah doesn't need al-Qaeda's help fighting Israel in Lebanon |
Hezbollah doesn't want al-Qaeda's help or fighters from Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization to come into Lebanon to battle Israeli forces targeting the militant group, one of two Hezbollah ministers in Lebanon's government told USA TODAY on Friday."Hezbollah does not need non-Lebanese fighters — certainly not any al-Qaeda fighters to join the lines," Energy Minister Mohammed Fneish said. He is one of two Hezbollah members who are in the Lebanese parliament. "Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah are two different groups," Fneish said in an interview in his office in the Energy Ministry in Lebanon's capital. "Al-Qaeda believes in killing innocents. Hezbollah is involved in a legitimate resistance (against Israel)."Hezbollah, he said, never would have launched anything like the Sept. 11 attacks on the USA....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-07-28-lebanon-hezbollah_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 12:22:00 07-28-06
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| Israel ends deadly Gaza operation |
The Israeli army has pulled out of the Gaza Strip after a two-day operation in which at least 29 Palestinians were killed, many of them civilians. Air strikes overnight destroyed several buildings across the territory, killing two Palestinians, one a teenage boy. The Israeli army says it attacked weapons facilities in four areas in a continuing campaign to weaken militant groups in Gaza. Eyewitnesses say farmland, power lines and telephone cables were destroyed. Among those killed in the operation were a baby, two infants, three teenagers and a 75-year-old woman, Palestinians say. One report said that 13 militants had been killed in the operation. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5223784.stm
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Editor - 12:18:00 07-28-06
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