August, 2005

• 16 August

  Bush administration hoped for on-time constitution

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday the Iraqi parliament “needed a little more time” to work out compromises but had made “substantial progress” towards drafting a constitution despite missing is self-imposed deadline. The process is working in an orderly fashion, and “I believe they are going …

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• 16 August

  2 peacekeepers injured in Sinai ‘terror attack’

  AL ARISH (AFP) — Two Canadian women peacekeepers were wounded in a bomb blast Monday in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula that officials described as a terrorist attack. “Terrorists planted two gas canisters on the road and linked them to an electrical wire. They hid in nearby apricot groves and blew them …

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• 16 August

  Israel begins pullout

  RAFAH — The official start of the Israeli evacuation of settlements in Gaza was marked in Rafah with midnight prayers of thanks at mosques across this conflict scarred border city in the southern Strip. And as another blisteringly hot day dawned, so, it seemed, did a growing realisation that a …

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• 3 August

  Rebels kill 33 Iraq as committee fails to solve constitution woes

  BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraqis tasked with drafting the new constitution failed Tuesday to make progress in resolving issues holding up the completion of the charter as rebel attacks left at least 33 dead. The constitution committee tried to solve some of the issues as parliamentarians vowed that the draft charter …

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• 3 August

  More violence in aftermath of Garang’s death

  Northern and southern Sudanese clashed in Khartoum on Tuesday in a second day of violence sparked by the death of ex-rebel leader John Garang who helped end two decades of war in Africa’s largest country. Authorities sent in police and helicopters to quell the violence in a shantytown on the …

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• 3 August

  Kiir — rebel commander, but political novice

  KHARTOUM (AFP) — Salva Kiir, who took over from John Garang as the leader of south Sudan, is a military commander with little experience as a statesman who faces the daunting task of shoring up the fledgling peace signed by his illustrious predecessor. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) convened …

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• 3 August

  South grieves for leader Garang

  NEW SITE (AFP) — Southern Sudan grieved Tuesday for the loss of ex-rebel leader John Garang who personified the region’s struggle against Khartoum before turning his sights on peace and negotiating a landmark deal to end Africa’s longest-running civil war. As mourners filed by a simple table where his body …

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• 3 August

  Former hostage tells of trial by kangaroo court

  SAMARRA — When militant groups in Iraq kidnap those suspected of working with the US-led coalition, what follows is often a long detention, a harrowing trial by kangaroo court and swift execution. Ghaleb Saadun Al Duri, a 37-year-old contractor, is a rare survivor of such an ordeal. He spent two …

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• 3 August

  Looming Gaza withdrawal sows division in army

  TEKOA, West Bank — As a combat soldier in an Israeli army engineers battalion, Avi Bieber had always volunteered for the toughest missions. But when the 19-year-old, US-born corporal was ordered to take part in pre-withdrawal operations in Gaza’s main settlement bloc, he refused, becoming a hero to many Jewish …

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• 3 August

  Constitution writers struggle with structure, legal system

  BAGHDAD — Issues blocking agraeement on a new constitution are critical to the future of Iraq, and compromise will require more than a little statesmanship among leaders with vastly different visions for the country’s new direction. The chairman of the committee writing the constitution has asked political leaders of the …

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