Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad put his proposed Cabinet to parliament Sunday, lashing out at the West and liberalism and promising a government that will “promote virtue and prohibit vice.” Signalling his shock election win had delivered a clean break from the previous reformist administration of Mohammad …
Read More »First week of Israel’s historic withdrawal sweeping, dramatic, relatively smooth
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — So far Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza is as significant for what did not happen as for what did. No major attacks from Palestinians. No use of weapons by settlers. No significant disruption of life inside Israel. No mass refusal of soldiers to carry out orders. The army …
Read More »Israel resumes evacuation
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Israeli Cabinet yesterday formally approved the evacuation of the remaining settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank, as bulldozers tore down 30 houses in the Nissanit settlement, the first large-scale demolition of settler homes in the evacuated Gaza settlements. An Israeli court …
Read More »Bush invokes 9/11 to defend war
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) — President George W. Bush said on Saturday US troops in Iraq were fighting to protect Americans at home from more attacks like those of Sept. 11, 2001, starting a five-day focus on his case for the war amid growing public discontent. “Our troops know that they’re …
Read More »Palestinian elections set for January 25
GAZA CITY (AP) — Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree Saturday appropriating Jewish settlement land for public use once Israel’s evacuation of Gaza is complete, and announced that overdue Palestinian legislative elections will be held January 25. Both measures are meant to ease suspicions among Abbas’ political rivals over …
Read More »Pakistan to meet with UN nuclear agency on Iranian uranium contamination
VIENNA (AFP) — The UN nuclear watchdog is to meet here next week with Pakistani officials as part of its efforts to determine if Iran was using smuggled Pakistani equipment to make enriched uranium that could be used for atom bombs, diplomats said Saturday. Pakistan had in May sent centrifuge …
Read More »S. Arabia announces tighter measures to try to curb polio
CAIRO (AP) — As millions of Muslims prepare to make the annual Hajj to Mecca this January, Saudi Arabia is adopting stricter measures to stop a new and startling spread of polio across the region, Saudi and United Nations officials said Saturday. The country that hosts the annual Islamic pilgrimage …
Read More »Prisoner release gives momentum to peace efforts
RABAT — The release of the last Moroccan prisoners of war held by separatist rebels in southwestern Algeria reignited efforts Friday to resolve the 30-year-old conflict in the Western Sahara. The conflict began in 1975 with the annexation of the Western Sahara by Morocco. The Algerian-backed separatist Polisario Front rebels, …
Read More »Sunni Arabs gear up for referendum despite Al Qaeda
BAGHDAD — Disenchanted Sunni Arabs, who largely boycotted Iraq’s first post-Saddam elections in January, are gearing up in force to participate in the upcoming referendum on the constitution, despite deadly threats from Al Qaeda. “The participation in this process [referendum] is a duty and a responsibility. We all should take …
Read More »US concedes ground to Islamists on Iraqi constitution
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — US diplomats have conceded ground to Islamists on the role of religion in Iraq, negotiators said on Saturday as they raced to meet a 48-hour deadline to draft a constitution under intense US pressure. US diplomats, who have insisted the constitution must enshrine ideals of equal rights …
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