 Police in Zimbabwe are reported to have arrested more than 16,000 people as part of a government drive to curb illegal mining. The three-week-long campaign targeted settlements around the mining fields and seized large quantities of gold and diamonds, state media said. During the raids, police officers burnt temporary homes used by panners. Tens of thousands have turned to mining following the collapse of commercial agriculture, correspondents say. People dig or pan for gold or diamonds, risking their lives in shallow mines which frequently collapse, says the BBC's Tony Andoh-Korsah. A Zimbabwean journalist told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme poor people felt they had little choice if they were to survive. "The unemployment rate is above 80%. Also the manufacturing sector has shrunk by 60%. Zimbabwe is in its worst economic recession so everybody will do anything to survive," Brian Hungwe said...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 10:35:00 12-28-06
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 Canaries migrant death toll soars |
About 6,000 African migrants have died or gone missing on the sea journey to the Canary Islands in 2006, Spanish immigration officials say. They say more than 31,000 migrants reached the islands in the Atlantic - more than six times as many as in 2005. The coastguard intercepted fewer than 5,000 of them in small wooden - and often overcrowded - boats. The Canaries is one of the most popular destinations for Africans trying to reach Europe to escape poverty. "We're talking about a dramatic number of dead," Froilan Rodriguez, the Canary Islands' deputy director of immigration, told Spain's Cadena Ser radio station. Mr Rodriguez said that about 600 bodies had been picked up on the shores of the Canaries and the African mainland in the past 12 months, but the total of migrants killed had been about 10 times higher. Jose Segura, Spain's interior ministry official in the Canaries, said that almost as many Africans had reached the islands in 2006 as in the previous four years combined...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6213495.stm
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Editor - 10:21:00 12-28-06
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| University of Texas Reconsiders 4 Confederate Statues After Complaints |
The new president of the University of Texas says he will appoint a panel to decide what to do with four bronze statues on the Austin campus that honor confederate leaders and have drawn complaints for several years.William Powers Jr., who took over as president this month, said the advisory committee would look into concerns about the statues, which include likenesses of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States, and Gen. Robert E. Lee."A lot of students, and especially minority students, have raised concerns. And those are understandable and legitimate concerns. On the other hand, the statues have been here for a long time, and that's something we have to take into account as well," Powers said in Wednesday's Austin American-Statesman.The university's previous president, Larry Faulkner, wrote an open letter to the campus more than two years ago saying the statues convey "institutional nostalgia" for the Confederacy and its values....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,239543,00.html
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Editor - 10:12:00 12-28-06
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| Saddam's defence pleads for POW status |
Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer implored world leaders today to prevent the US from handing over the ousted leader to Iraqi authorities for execution, saying the former dictator should enjoy protection from his enemies as a "prisoner of war".Iraq's highest court on Tuesday rejected Saddam's appeal against his conviction and death sentence for the killing of 148 Shias in the northern city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days."According to the international conventions it is forbidden to hand a prisoner of war to his adversary," said Saddam's lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi."I urge all the international and legal organisations, the United Nations secretary-general, the Arab League and all the leaders of the world to rapidly prevent the American administration from handing the president to the Iraqi authorities," he said....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1979553,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
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Editor - 10:10:00 12-28-06
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| Yemeni troops fire on fleeing Somali refugees At least 17 drown, 140 missing after boats hit by gunfire |
Yemeni authorities opened fire on boats filled with refugees fleeing the fighting in Somalia and at least 17 people drowned when one of the vessels capsized, the U.N. refugee agency said Thursday. About 140 people were missing.The incident took place late Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden when four boats smuggling 515 people were spotted by Yemeni authorities, UNHCR said.The authorities opened fire, causing two of the boats to try to escape, the agency said. Yemeni authorities were searching for survivors, the UNHCR said. “I am deeply saddened by this latest tragedy involving smugglers’ boats carrying desperate people across the Gulf of Aden,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16380840/
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Editor - 10:09:00 12-28-06
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| Islamist fighters retreat from Mogadishu |
Somali government troops rolled into Mogadishu unopposed today, the prime minister said, hours after an Islamist movement that tried to establish a government based on the Koran abandoned the capital. The Islamist militia promised a last stand in southern Somalia. "We are in Mogadishu," Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi said after meeting with local clan leaders to discuss the transfer of the city. "We are coordinating our forces to take control of Mogadishu." Mr. Gedi was welcomed to the town of Afgoye on the outskirts of Mogadishu by dozens of traditional leaders from the capital and hundreds of government and Ethiopian troops who have been fighting for more than a week against the Islamist militia. The Islamist fighters had at one point taken over the capital and most of southern Somalia. The Islamist movement's retreat early today, which its leaders called tactical, was followed by looting by clan militiamen, some of whom had been allied to the Islamists....
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20061228-115846-5929r.htm
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Editor - 10:07:00 12-28-06
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