The Pentagon plans to give South Korea wartime operational control over Korean troops within three years and will keep U.S. troop levels at more than 20,000 over the next several years, defense officials said yesterday. "Things are changing in Korea," said a defense official involved in the changes being drawn up in talks called the Security Policy Initiative. Following the latest round of U.S.-South Korea talks July 13 and 14, the Pentagon and South Korean military and defense officials agreed to draw up the command transfer plan that will shift combat authority from the U.S.-led combined forces command to a new structure led by South Korean military commanders and supported by U.S. forces. The goal is to complete the transfer of authority by 2009, but some changes could take five years. "We are responding to the new realities on the peninsula," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. ... http://www.washingtontimes.com censor News |
Editor - 10:11:00 08-04-06 |
Bridge bombings cut Lebanese lifeline |
Lebanon was today further cut off from the rest of the world when Israel destroyed four key bridges north of Beirut, blocking a vital aid supply route, while more than two dozen farm workers were killed in an attack near the border with Syria.The strikes were the Israeli air force's first bombing missions against bridges along the main north-south coastal road in the Christian heartland north of capital that links Beirut to Syria. "This is Lebanon's umbilical cord," Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said. "This [road] has been the only way for us to bring in aid."The bridge at Maameltein, just north of Beirut, was split along its centre by a huge crater that partially engulfed the crushed shell of a minivan. Further north, another bridge lay stretched out in the valley it once spanned.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1837196,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
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Editor - 10:08:00 08-04-06 |
Israeli border strike 'kills 28' |
An Israeli air strike near Lebanon's north-eastern border with Syria has killed at least 28 people and injured about 20, Lebanese officials have said. The raid hit farm workers as they loaded produce at a depot, they said. Five people also died when Israeli planes bombed bridges in mainly Christian areas north of Beirut. Hezbollah has continued its barrage of rockets, firing more than 130 across northern Israel and killing four civilians, Israeli police said. One person was killed and another injured in a direct hit on a house in the village of Mughar, while a strike on Kiryat Shmona left one person dead. Two Israeli Arab villages were also struck, killing a man in each, police officials told the Associated Press news agency. Earlier on Friday, two Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes in southern Lebanon where there is heavy fighting as Israeli forces try to push Hezbollah back from the border.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5245884.stm
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Editor - 10:05:00 08-04-06 |
School Fire Races Through Eskimo Village |
A school in a remote Eskimo village caught fire Thursday and the blaze quickly grew out of control, engulfing several homes and buildings and forcing 250 people to flee. No injuries were reported among the 1,100 residents of Hooper Bay."There are no roads or a formal fire department with big shiny red fire engines here," said Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Bill Tandeske. "The water supply is also a challenge. All the things we take for granted in urban areas are not there, which makes everything so much more difficult."The fire's cause was not immediately known.... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,207038,00.html
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Editor - 10:04:00 08-04-06 |
Gunbattles erupt in restive city of Mosul Four police, four insurgents killed; car bomber kills 10 in nearby city |
Heavily armed militants on Friday fought gunbattles with U.S. and Iraqi troops in which four policemen, including a top officer, and four insurgents were reported killed. In Hadhar, a town 55 miles south of Mosul, a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a crowd of policemen watching a football match, killing 10 people, including seven civilians. Twelve were wounded. In Baghdad, tens of thousands of supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied to protest against Israel’s offensive in Lebanon. The fresh bloodletting came a day after the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid, said Iraq was caught in the worst sectarian violence yet seen and faced the threat of civil war, echoing a warning by the outgoing British ambassador. As is often the case in Iraq, accounts of the fighting in Mosul were confused and the U.S. military offered only scant information on the gunbattles which police sources told Reuters lasted from about ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14179086/
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Editor - 10:00:00 08-04-06 |
Six US Marines charged in Iraq assault case |
Six U.S. Marines were charged with assault late on Thursday in connection with suspected assaults on several Iraqi civilians in Hamdania, days before the alleged kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian there. Three of the Marines charged with assault Thursday, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, Cpl. Trent Thomas and Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate Jr., have already been charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy in the April 26 killing of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad.They are being held in the brig awaiting hearings in that killing, according to Capt. Amy Malugani, a Camp Pendleton spokeswoman.Three others, Lance Cpl. Saul Lopezromo, Pfc. Derek Lewis and Lance Cpl. Henry Lever, were each charged with one count of assault.... http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060804/ts_nm/iraq_abuse_charges_dc
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Editor - 21:10:00 08-03-06 |
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