October, 2006

• 13 October

  Gunmen storm Iraqi television station, kill 11

  BAGHDAD (AP) — Suspected Shiite gunmen, some dressed as police, broke into a television station and gunned down 11 executives, producers and other staffers Thursday — the deadliest attack against the media in Iraq, where at least 81 journalists have been killed in the past three years.

  Read More »
• 13 October

  Britain says Guantanamo detentions unacceptable

  LONDON (AP) — The detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay is unacceptable and counterproductive, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Thursday, underlining an increasingly critical British line on the US camp in Cuba.

  Read More »
• 13 October

  8 dead in Gaza as Israeli troops mount fresh incursion

  GAZA CITY   (AFP) — 8 Palestinians, including a teenage boy and three Hamas fighters, were killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip on Thursday as troops mounted a fresh incursion as part of a four-month offensive. The violence — at a time of increased tensions between rival Palestinian factions …

  Read More »
• 13 October

  North Korea, Iran may be ready for talks, but not Washington

  VIENNA — North Korea says it wants to talk. Ditto Iran. So why is America saying no? Some experts say that direct talks with Pyongyang and Tehran might be the only option the US has left to defuse the world’s two most pressing nuclear crises. But for the Americans, the …

  Read More »
• 13 October

  US quietly reopens Iran-focused diplomatic mission

  DUBAI (AP) — A handful of US diplomats here on Iran’s doorstep have quietly reopened an Iran-focused diplomatic mission, the first such office since the US embassy in Tehran was taken over by radical students 27 years ago. The low-key Iran Regional Presence Office, which sits inside the US consulate …

  Read More »
• 13 October

  Palestinian film festival battles odds

  RAMALLAH — A Palestinian festival showcasing women filmmakers has battled against Israeli closures, rampant insecurity, recession and funding shortages to promote cinema in Gaza and the West Bank. “It’s hard to work in films here,” said Alia Arasoughly, who runs Shashat, a non-profit organisation focusing on women’s cinema which is …

  Read More »
• 13 October

  Refugees live in increasing fear of Janjaweed

  FATA BORNO  (AP) — A 10-year-old boy huddled behind African Union soldiers as half a dozen pickup trucks full of armed Arab militiamen screeched through the dusty riverbed outside his North Darfur refugee camp Wednesday. “These Janjaweed aren’t the most dangerous ones,” Najmaddin Idriss whispered as he stood behind the …

  Read More »
• 13 October

  UN pulls foreign staff out of Islamist-held Somalia

  NAIROBI (AFP) — The United Nations said Thursday it had pulled out all of its foreign staff from parts of Somalia controlled by the country’s powerful Islamist movement, citing threats to workers. The world body said the threats, coupled with insecurity in southern and central Somalia after the murder of …

  Read More »
• 13 October

  US forces in Iraq to test IBM translation device

  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — The US military may soon be able to communicate better with Iraqis in their own language, thanks to technology developed by IBM that quickly translates spoken English into Iraqi Arabic. The technology could help the military overcome a major hurdle in Iraq, which is the inability …

  Read More »
• 13 October

  Olmert scrambles to shore up faltering gov’t

  OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — With his political fortunes plummeting after the summer’s war in Lebanon, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is scrambling to shore up his rickety coalition by courting a hardline party that favours redrawing Israel’s borders to exclude Arab citizens.

  Read More »