DAMASCUS (AP) — Syrian troops have clashed with members of a militant group in the northern city of Hama — a region that once saw brutal clashes between the government and radicals. Five militants were killed, Syria’s state-run news agency reported Saturday. SANA, quoting an unnamed official at the Syrian …
Read More »Court lets civil society groups monitor poll
CAIRO (AP) — A court ruled Saturday that civil society groups will be allowed to monitor Egypt’s historic multi-candidate presidential election set down for next week. The administrative court also referred articles for a controversial law regulating Wednesday’s first-ever presidential vote to a court to determine their constitutionality. Both decisions, …
Read More »Gaza begins 1st school year occupation free
GAZA CITY — Palestinian children started their school year Saturday hoping that Israel’s withdrawal from the war-weary Gaza Strip meant they were free of the military raids that made their student days a nightmare. One million pupils returned to schools across the West Bank and Gaza, as Israel was putting …
Read More »UN investigator to go to Syria over Hariri murder
BEIRUT (AP) — Under intense pressure to cooperate with a UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, Syria on Saturday invited the world body’s chief investigator to Damascus to meet Syrian authorities within days. But in a move sure to turn the heat further up …
Read More »Palestinian Elections pose challenges for secular liberals
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — With January 25, 2006 set as the new date for Palestinian parliamentary elections, most talk has been about what the ruling Fateh faction can do to stop the apparently inexorable rise in popularity of the opposition Hamas Islamists. Indeed, the delay in holding the elections originally slated …
Read More »New Orleans gets more troops, mass evacuations
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) — President George W. Bush ordered more troops to help evacuate and secure New Orleans on Saturday as rescuers moved thousands of desperate refugees out of the city and shut down two huge shelters that had become the scene of murder, rape and chaos. Under fire for …
Read More »‘Bibi’ seeks to lead Likud, replace Sharon
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that he would challenge Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for leadership of the ruling Likud Party and replace him as premier, setting off a bitter fight that could shake up Israeli politics and paralyse Mideast peacemaking. Appealing to his hawkish supporters, Netanyahu lashed …
Read More »Displaced in West Darfur still facing threats that keep them from returning home
EL GENEINA — The killings and burning of homes has diminished since terrified villagers in West Darfur state fled to camps for the displaced and African Union soldiers arrived to protect them. But a campaign of intimidation blamed on semi-nomadic “Arabs” known as the Janjaweed continues, and has cut so …
Read More »Constitution dangerously short of US goals — experts
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Iraq’s new draft constitution falls dangerously short of initial US goals and will likely fuel an increase in violence in the war-battered country, American analysts said. “It’s not a good path we are on right now,†said Flynt Leverett, of the Brookings Institution think tank here. “You …
Read More »Nuclear deadline sets stage for showdon on Iran
VIENNA — Iran is almost certain not to heed a UN call for it to stop nuclear fuel work by next Saturday, setting the stage for a showdown on what the United States says is a secret Iranian drive to make atom bombs. “New York is the key now,” a …
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