Recent Posts

Security Council debates barrier

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The UN Security Council opened a debate Thursday on Middle East tensions ahead of the planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, with Israel and the Palestinians clashing over Israel’s West Bank separation barrier. As Israel indicated that the Gaza pullout, due to begin in mid-August, …

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Radar finds water for refugees

A NEW TECHNIQUE using satellite radar images may hold the key to providing the water needs of 200,000 Sudanese living in sweltering heat in camps along the Chadian border. Alain Gachet, a geologist who spent most of his working life exploring for oil and mining companies, has developed a system …

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Hospitals under strain

BAGHDAD — It is early afternoon in the emergency room of Baghdad’s Yarmouk Hospital. Medics are on stand by for a big influx of casualties from a bomb south of Baghdad. But right now they have a more pressing job. Several doctors, blood spattered on their white coats, are calmly …

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Jailed dissident maybe pardoned

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran’s hardline judiciary said Wednesday it may consider a pardon for dissident writer Akbar Ganji, the country’s highest profile political prisoner who has been on hunger strike for five weeks. “Maybe a pardon can be applied to him. We are considering the matter,” judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud …

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