Shells pounded Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, yesterday, killing at least 73 people to swell a death-toll already in the hundreds after battles pitting militias and Islamists against Somali and Ethiopian troops. The escalating war has also sent more than 321,000 residents fleeing in the biggest refugee movement in Somalia since the 1991 fall of a dictator ushered in 16 years of anarchy. The UN and aid agencies say the exodus is creating a humanitarian catastrophe, with diseases already spreading."I counted 20 dead in the street and on the pavement. Some were missing heads, others were so mutilated you couldn't tell if they were men or women," Suleman Mohammed said from the Al Barakah market area, where more than seven mortars landed.... http://news.independent.co.uk censor News |
Editor - 22:18:00 04-21-07 |
Analysis: Iraq surge may be extended |
The Pentagon is laying the groundwork to extend the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq. At the same time, the administration is warning Iraqi leaders that the boost in forces could be reversed if political reconciliation is not evident by summer. This approach underscores the central difficulty facing President Bush. If political progress is not possible in the relatively short term, then the justification for sending thousands more U.S. troops to Baghdad — and accepting the rising U.S. combat death toll that has resulted — will disappear. That in turn would put even more pressure on Bush to yield to the Democratic-led push to wind down the war in coming months. If the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki does manage to achieve the political milestones demanded by Washington, then the U.S. military probably will be told to sustain the troop buildup much longer than originally foreseen — possibly well into 2008. Thus the early planning for keeping it up beyond late summer. ... http://The Pentagon is laying the groundwork to extend the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq. At the same time, the administration is warning Iraqi leaders that the boost in forces could be reversed if political reconciliation is not evident by summer. This approach underscores the central difficulty facing President Bush. If political progress is not possible in the relatively short term, then the justification for sending thousands more U.S. troops to Baghdad — and accepting the rising U.S. combat death toll that has resulted — will disappear. That in turn would put even more pressure on Bush to yield to the Democratic-led push to wind down the war in coming months. If the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki does manage to achieve the political milestones demanded by Washington, then the U.S. military probably will be told to sustain the troop buildup much longer than originally foreseen — possibly well into 2008. Thus the early planning for keeping it up beyond late summer. ...
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Editor - 22:17:00 04-21-07 |
Maliki's survival tied to security effort |
Iraq's first constitutionally elected government may rise or fall with the success of an ongoing U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in Baghdad, Iraqi politicians and analysts said today.Amid growing signs that the government of national unity is beginning to fracture, experts say Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has increasingly invested his political survival in the ambitious, 2-month-old security campaign. After a promising start, which boasted a noticeable decline in certain types of sectarian attacks, violence is once more increasing.... http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/mayfaire/latimes16.htm
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Editor - 22:06:00 04-21-07 |
Israeli-Palestinian clashes flare |
Six Palestinians have been killed in Israeli army raids in the West Bank and an air strike in the Gaza Strip, in the worst flare-up of violence in weeks. Five of the dead were in Jenin in the West Bank, where gunfire was reported to be continuing into the night. Also late on Saturday, an Israeli missile struck a car in the northern Gaza Strip, killing a Palestinian man. The strike came shortly after rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel, slightly injuring two people. Three Palestinian militants, two from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and one from Islamic Jihad, were killed when Israeli undercover troops opened fire on their car in Jenin. A Palestinian policeman was also shot and killed by Israeli troops near Jenin, Palestinian witnesses said. The man, Mohammed Abed, was watching an Israeli arrest operation in the village of Kafr Dan from a roof when he was shot, Palestinian security forces said. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6580459.stm
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Editor - 19:58:00 04-21-07 |
Phony fax gives prisoner almost 2 weeks of freedom |
Officials released a prisoner from a state facility after receiving a phony fax that ordered the man be freed, and didn't catch the mistake for nearly two weeks.Timothy Rouse, 19, is charged with beating an elderly western Kentucky man and was at the Kentucky Correctional & Psychiatric Center in La Grange for a mental evaluation. He was released from that facility on April 6 after officials received the fake court order.It contained grammatical errors, was not typed on letterhead and was faxed from a local grocery store. The fax falsely claimed that the Kentucky Supreme Court "demanded" Rouse be released.Lexington police arrested Rouse at his mother's home Thursday evening."It's outrageous that it happened," Fulton County Attorney Rick Major said. "I'm just glad nobody got hurt, because he's dangerous."... http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/21/wrongly.freed.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us
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Editor - 19:16:00 04-21-07 |
Religious offerings not welcome at Mount Kilauea |
Rangers at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park are launching a program to stop people from leaving religious offerings at the summit of Mount Kilauea -- including food they say attracts rats and cockroaches.Visitors leave 45 pounds of offerings from Halemaumau Crater each week, including flowers, bottles, money, incense, candles and crystals, park rangers say.But food offerings are the most problematic, they say."The accumulation of rotting food and foliage attracts rats, flies, ants and cockroaches," a park statement said.One ranger recently found a whole, cooked piglet replete with a papaya, orange and apple in a cardboard box, the park service said.The rotting offerings pose a hazard to the endangered nene goose, the state bird endemic to the islands, the park service said.... http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/21/hawaii.volcano.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us
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Editor - 18:55:00 04-21-07 |
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