2 Iraq earmarks Iraq earmarks $15 billion for reconstruction5 billion for reconstruction
By BUSHRA JUHI, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 1, 9:33 am ET
| BAGHDAD - Iraq has earmarked some $15 billion - nearly 25 percent of its 2009 draft budget - to help rebuild the country's crumbling infrastructure, energy and oil facilities, the finance minister said Saturday.
But Bayan Jabr stressed those funds fall far short of the hundreds of billions of dollars Iraq needs to put its shattered economy back on its feet and appealed to foreign investors to help bridge the gap.
Speaking at a U.S-Iraqi investment conference in Baghdad, Jabr said a government study determined Iraq needs some $400 billion to upgrade its existing infrastructure and build new facilities. |
3 Grand jury weighs sodomy claim against NYPD cops
By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 1, 7:22 am ET
| NEW YORK - On the afternoon of Oct. 15, a body piercer named Michael Mineo was approached by a group of police officers who thought he was smoking marijuana. Mineo fled into a subway station, argued with the officers, and was issued a ticket for disorderly conduct.
But what really happened inside that subway station is highly contested, and has led to one of the most explosive allegations of police brutality by the NYPD in recent memory.
Mineo claims four officers assaulted him in horrific fashion, yanking down his pants and sodomizing him with a walkie-talkie antenna so brutally that he was left bleeding. He says the officers then put him into a police car, and, unsure what to do with him, let him go with a minor ticket and told him to keep his mouth shut. He spent the next four days in a hospital. |
4 Evidence of a recession piles higher with new data
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
Sat Nov 1, 4:23 am ET
| WASHINGTON - Evidence of a recession piled ever higher Friday, with new figures showing Americans are spending less and gloomy about the economy, while the government signaled it won't buy stock in the financing arms of auto companies to prop them up. The Commerce Department reported consumer spending dropped a sharp 0.3 percent in September while their incomes, the fuel for future spending, managed only a small 0.2 percent gain.
That followed a report a day earlier that the U.S. economy shrank by 0.3 percent in the third quarter. The accepted definition of a recession is two straight quarters of a shrinking economy.
Closing out the worst October in 21 years but one of the best weeks ever, investors did some bargain shopping on Wall Street, snapping up stocks that have plunged in value. The Dow Jones industrial average gained nearly 145 points. |
5 Iraq sends more police to Syrian border
Associated Press
1 hr 32 mins ago
| BAGHDAD - Iraq sent police reinforcements Saturday to the Syrian border after last weekend's U.S. raid against an alleged al-Qaida hideout in Syria raised tension between the two countries, officials said.
Police Col. Jubair Rashid Naief said a police quick reaction force for Anbar province moved to the border town of Qaim, about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, to prevent al-Qaida from moving into the area from Syria.
Al-Arabiya television quoted witnesses as saying scores of armored vehicles were seen moving from the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi to Qaim, which had been a major al-Qaida stronghold until Anbar's Sunni tribes turned against al-Qaida. |
6 China, India wary of taint of global economic crisis
By Angus MacSwan, Reuters
Sat Nov 1, 11:05 am ET
| LONDON (Reuters) - Two powerhouse emerging market countries in Asia felt the sting of the global financial crisis on Saturday as India cut its main short-term lending rate and China said it was bracing for a slowdown.
In Europe, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has played a big role in combating the crisis, appealed to oil-rich Gulf states to pour money into stabilizing the world financial system and helping afflicted countries.
Other countries took steps to shore up their own economies. Russia moved 170 billion roubles ($6.41 billion) from a national fund to a state bank on Saturday as part of Moscow's $200 billion markets and economy rescue plan. |
7 October auto sales may have hit two-decade low
By Poornima Gupta and David Bailey
Fri Oct 31, 7:22 pm ET
| DETROIT (Reuters) - U.S. auto sales are expected to plunge to the lowest levels of the year in October and possibly the slowest running rate in two decades, with no certainty of when consumer confidence will return.
The U.S. automakers, struggling to preserve their shrinking pools of cash as they fight for survival, are poised to post sales declines of up to 40 percent, with the overall market sagging potentially to levels not seen since the 1980s, when the United States had 60 million fewer residents.
General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC are expected to lead the U.S. sales declines, but all six of the top sellers -- including Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co Ltd and Nissan Motor Co Ltd -- were expected to report lower sales. |
8 Gates skeptical NATO will boost Afghan force
By Andrew Gray, Reuters
Fri Oct 31, 5:54 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday he did not expect America's NATO allies to provide many more troops for the war in Afghanistan.
Gates said the United States would try to send three more brigades -- likely more than 10,000 troops once support forces are included -- to Afghanistan next year, on top of existing commitments.
But he said the longer-term solution was to hand the fight to Afghan forces and it would be a "terrible mistake" if the conflict in Afghanistan was seen as America's war. |
9 Verdict reached but not read at Guantanamo
By Jane Sutton, Reuters
Fri Oct 31, 6:57 pm ET
| GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - U.S. military jurors reached a verdict on Friday in the Guantanamo trial of Osama bin Laden's accused media chief, who is accused of inciting murder and inspiring September 11 hijackers.
But the verdict will not be announced until Yemeni defendant Ali Hamza al Bahlul, who could face life in prison, is brought back into the courtroom on Monday, one day before the U.S. presidential election.
Moving prisoners from the detention center to the hilltop court at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is a laborious process and the judge, Air Force Col. Ron Gregory, wanted to give the guard staff the weekend off. |
10 Iraq says to show U.S. troops pact to neighbors
Reuters
Fri Oct 31, 8:43 pm ET
| BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq will send delegations to neighboring countries to explain a pact with the United States allowing U.S. troops to remain on its territory for three years, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office said on Friday.
Iraq is at pains to reassure its neighbors -- especially Iran which has influence among Maliki's fellow Shi'ites and opposes the presence of U.S. troops -- that the Americans would not use Iraq as a base to strike them, concerns heightened this week by a U.S. attack at the Syrian border which killed eight.
The pact, which would allow U.S. troops to stay until 2011, has been held up after Baghdad asked for amendments, including tightening the wording on the withdrawal deadline and a stronger pledge not to use Iraqi territory to attack neighboring states. |
11 One in five homeowners with mortgages under water
By Jonathan Stempel, Reuters
Fri Oct 31, 4:26 pm ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nearly one in five U.S. mortgage borrowers owe more to lenders than their homes are worth, and the rate may soon approach one in four as housing prices fall and the economy weakens, a report on Friday shows.
About 7.63 million properties, or 18 percent, had negative equity in September, and another 2.1 million will follow if home prices fall another 5 percent, according to a report by First American CoreLogic.
The data, covering 43 states and Washington, D.C., includes borrowers nationwide, even those who took out mortgages before housing prices began to soar early this decade. |
12 Petraeus takes over at U.S. Central Command
By Andrew Gray, Reuters
Fri Oct 31, 2:39 pm ET
| TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus took over the command running the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Friday and said it was vital to combine military and civilian power and work with allies.
Petraeus, hailed as an outstanding U.S. military leader for helping to pull Iraq back from the brink of all-out civil war, took charge of U.S. Central Command in a ceremony at the headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
Central Command, known as Centcom, oversees U.S. military operations and strategy in a volatile swathe of the world that covers 20 countries and stretches from Egypt across the Middle East and into south and central Asia. |
13 New president-elect may move quickly to fill jobs
By Caren Bohan, Reuters
Fri Oct 31, 11:48 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two wars and a deepening financial crisis have raised expectations that whoever wins the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday will move quickly to announce picks for senior government jobs.
Democrat Barack Obama, who leads in the polls over Republican John McCain, has been accused by his rival of being so confident of a victory that he is already "measuring the drapes" in the Oval Office.
Republicans also are seizing on reports that Obama's transition team has been working to enable him possibly to unveil key picks such as Treasury secretary and secretary of State soon after the election if he wins. |
14 Auto aid pleas mount; Treasury says no GM talks
By David Bailey and David Lawder, Reuters
Fri Oct 31, 2:11 pm ET
| DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Six U.S. governors and a group of chief executives on Thursday urged the Bush administration in a letter to aid the embattled auto industry while the White House rebuffed a request for direct support of a merger between GM and Chrysler.
An administration official said the focus instead would be on speeding of $25 billion of low-interest loans for factory retooling, a step the industry's allies say does not go far enough to reverse a deepening industry crisis.
Meanwhile, auto parts makers worried that a merger would eliminate vehicles that they supply, and a prominent industry consultant said GM could up to 40,000 Chrysler jobs and 16 of its 26 models. |
15 Diplomatic drive to avert disaster in DR Congo
AFP
Sat Nov 1, 11:57 am ET
| KINSHASA (AFP) - The French and British foreign ministers held crisis talks with President Joseph Kabila on Saturday, in a diplomatic push to halt a rebel advance and looming humanitarian disaster in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Bernard Kouchner and David Miliband met Kabila for 90 minutes before travelling to rebel-beseiged Goma, and then on to Kigali to see President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, which has been accused of aiding the Tutsi rebel assault.
"We had a good meeting... The key theme of our discussion has been the need to implement the agreements that have already been made," said Miliband after he and his French counterpart conferred with Kabila. |
16 ANC dissidents meet to prepare new South African party
by Aderogba Obisesan, AFP
Sat Nov 1, 9:10 am ET
| JOHANNESBURG8 (AFP) - Dissidents in South Africa's African National Congress gathered Saturday to form a new party before next year's polls, in a bitter split from the group that led the anti-apartheid struggle.
Former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota opened the convention with a traditional ANC chant "Amandla!" -- or "Power!" -- and led the crowd in cheering, "Forward with the convention, forward!"
"We have no apology to anybody. We have decided and we are ready to fight as messengers and representatives of hope for the people," he said. |
17 Brown starts Gulf tour in bid to calm economic storm
by Katherine Haddon, AFP
2 hrs 27 mins ago
| RIYADH (AFP) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrived in Saudi Arabia Saturday seeking financial support to calm the world economic storm, as Germany and the United States faced up to more bad news.
Brown's visit was the first in a four-day tour of oil-rich Gulf states during which he will try to persuade leaders to give extra funds to countries hit by the economic crisis.
He wants the International Monetary Fund's 250-billion-dollar (195-billion-euro) bailout fund for the worst affected countries to be extended to prevent "contagion" spreading to other nations. |
18 Swiss central banker calls limiting bankers' pay 'senseless'
AFP
1 hr 37 mins ago
| ZURICH (AFP) - Switzerland's top central banker said Saturday that a mounting call to limit bankers' pay was "senseless", as such action could spark an outflow of talent from the sector here.
"If the state starts to define salaries, that would be counterproductive. To say that a banker should not make more than a specific amount is for me senseless," said Swiss National Bank chairman Jean-Pierre Roth in an interview with Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung published Saturday.
He warned that such a move could lead to talent "leaving for banks abroad or for unregulated institutions." |
May I just editorialize- Who cares where these greedy gambling addicted brain dead moron motherfuckers work? They're proven idiot losers and conmen common criminals. Good riddance to bad rubbish!
19 UN panel backs call for standards in arms trade
by Gerard Aziakou, AFP
Fri Oct 31, 3:06 pm ET
| UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - A UN General Assembly panel on Friday overwhelmingly backed steps to draft a treaty establishing international standards for the arms trade.
It endorsed a resolution urging UN member states to consider how to implement "the highest possible standards to prevent the diversion of conventional arms from the legal to the illicit market, where they can be used for terrorist acts, organized crime and other criminal activities."
Some 147 countries in the Assembly's disarmament committee supported the text, 18 abstained while only the United States and Zimbabwe voted against. |
20 Ecuador ends contract with Repsol YPF
AFP
Fri Oct 31, 3:08 pm ET
| QUITO (AFP) - Ecuador on Friday broke off its oil extraction contract with Spanish-Argentine company Repsol YPF after they failed to agree on a new oil deal, as the Socialist government seeks more control over the energy sector.
"Unfortunately, we could not reach an agreement with Repsol," Oil Minister Derlis Palacios told a news conference.
"They constantly changed their criteria and we were unable to negotiate," Palacios said. |
21 Serial blasts rock northeast India, 61 dead
by Zarir Hussain, AFP
Thu Oct 30, 2:55 pm ET
| GUWAHATI, India (AFP) - At least 61 people were killed and more than 300 injured Thursday in a dozen blasts that ripped through towns and markets in the insurgency-hit northeastern Indian state of Assam.
A police spokesman confirmed a total of 12 explosions within the space of about one hour, six of them in the state's main city of Guwahati.
Three other districts in western Assam were also hit. |
22 China acts to stem the tide of officials fleeing with cash
By Peter Ford, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Oct 31, 4:00 am ET
| Beijing - When Yang Xianghong, a middle-ranking Chinese Communist Party official, slipped away from a government delegation trip to Paris three weeks ago, he said he was visiting his daughter.
When he didn't come back, though, his disappearance sparked much speculation on state-run media that Mr. Yang was the latest escapee in a growing exodus of officials fleeing corruption probes.
If true, he joins as many as 10,000 corrupt Chinese officials who have fled the country over the past decade, taking as much as $100 billion of public funds with them, according to an estimate by Li Chengyan, head of Peking University's Anticorruption Research Institute. |
23 Insurgents increasingly employing complex attacks in Afghanistan
By Anand Gopal, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Oct 31, 4:00 am ET
| Kabul, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a government ministry Thursday, killing at least five and injuring dozens. The attack is the latest in a series this year showing insurgents' ability to penetrate the capital using complicated and daring methods.
"Security in the capital is decreasing day by day," says Ajmal Karimi, analyst with the Center for Peace and Conflict studies, a Kabul-based think tank.
He says that Thursday's attack, which involved multiple insurgents and included small-arms fire, is an example of the sophisticated methods increasingly used. |
24 Britain says EU could send troops to Congo
By MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 8 mins ago
| TONGO, Congo - The European Union could send troops to Congo if a fragile cease-fire between rebel fighters and the army fails, the British minister for African affairs said Saturday as rebels forced tens of thousands of people from makeshift refugee camps in the insurgent-held zone.
The French and British foreign ministers arrived in Congo for talks with Congolese and Rwandan officials as pressure mounted for a regional summit to secure an end to the country's worst violence in years.
Outside the regional capital, Goma, rebels were pushing people to leave camps and return home, witnesses and a U.N. official said. They did not say why this was happening and the rebels issued no immediate comment. |
25 ANALYSIS: Al-Maliki stressing US departure
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 25 mins ago
| BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister is pushing the idea that the U.S. departure is in sight in a bid to sell the security deal with Washington to Iran.
To reinforce the message, the Iraqis are asking for changes to the deal that would effectively rule out extending the U.S. military presence beyond 2011.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his allies are also describing the agreement not as a formula for long-term U.S.-Iraqi security cooperation - the original goal when the talks began earlier this year - but as a way to manage the U.S. withdrawal. |
26 Fears of new war rise around separatist Abkhazia
By MATT SIEGEL, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 1, 12:30 pm ET
| MUJHAVA, Georgia - The crackle of gunfire at night makes sleep all but impossible along Georgia's border with separatist Abkhazia, feeding the fears of so many here that the war they hoped was over may be erupting anew.
A cease-fire ended major hostilities between Georgia and Russia after August's five-day war. But shootings and bombings continue - and nowhere more so than here along the poorly defined, porous border that separates Georgia proper from Abkhazia.
Most of the world's attention has focused on the uneasy peace around war-ravaged South Ossetia, the other Russian-backed separatist region that was at the heart of the fighting. |
27 Rabbis' ruling puts thousands of converts in limbo
By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 1, 12:18 pm ET
| JERUSALEM - Raised without religion in Maryland, Shannon sought to make a new life for herself as a Jew in Israel.
In a rigorous conversion process, she studied religious law for a year, took a Hebrew name and changed her wardrobe to long skirts and sleeves as dictated by Orthodox Jewish custom. Finally, a panel of rabbis pronounced her Jewish.
But five years later, she and some 40,000 like her have suddenly had their conversions annulled by Israel's Rabbinical High Court. The court says the rabbi who heads a government authority set up to oversee conversions is too liberal in approving them. |
28 Truth and rumor mix in Indian terror shooting
By TIM SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 1, 12:15 pm ET
| NEW DELHI - The first account came from the police: In a September raid on a fourth-floor apartment in a crowded Muslim neighborhood, authorities stumbled upon the heart of a militant network behind a series of bombings.
They shot two militants, arrested dozens over the following weeks and gutted the network of much of its leadership, authorities bragged.
Then there's this version: "It was fake, everybody here knows that," said Shahabuddin Hafeez, who owns a small shop in the neighborhood known as Jamia Nagar. "They needed an encounter so the politicians could say they were taking care of the problem." Around him, a group of men nodded. All agreed the shooting - an "encounter" in Indian terminology - was staged. |
29 Amnesty: Somali rape victim, 13, stoned to death
Associated Press
Sat Nov 1, 11:34 am ET
| MOGADISHU, Somalia - A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants, a human rights group said.
Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death Oct. 27 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses. The Islamic militia in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, the rights group said.
Initial local media reports said Duhulow was 23, but her father told Amnesty International she was 13. Some of the Somali journalists who first reported the killing later told Amnesty International that they had reported she was 23 based upon her physical appearance. |
30 Mining for minerals fuels Congo conflict
By LOUISE WATT, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 1, 10:40 am ET
| LONDON - The conflict in eastern Congo is being fueled and funded by a tussle for mineral resources that end up in cell phones, laptops and other electronics - deepening the stakes in a war that sprung out of festering hatreds from the Rwandan genocide.
Rebel militias and Congolese army troops are fighting each other for control of mineral-rich land. They can then sell the raw materials they mine and use the proceeds to fund their activities and arms - which prolongs the conflict.
"The links are very clear between the mining activity going to finance these groups, and these armed groups we know have been benefiting financially from the mining areas," said Lizzie Parsons, a member of the Congo team at London-based Global Witness, a non-governmental organization that investigates natural resource exploitation. |
31 Spain: citizenship for descendants of war emigres
By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 54 mins ago
| MADRID, Spain - Spain began allowing citizenship applications Saturday from the descendants of people who went into exile after its Civil War. The government said as many as 500,000 people could be eligible under the program to address the painful legacy of the conflict.
The government says 300,000 of those children and grandchildren of war emigres live in Argentina.
The Spanish Cabinet approved the measure Friday under a law passed last year to make amends to victims of the 1936-39 war and the ensuing right-wing dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco. |
32 Iran upholds sentence against Kurdish activist
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 1, 11:45 am ET
| TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's appeals court has upheld an 11-year jail sentence against a prominent Kurdish human rights activist, his lawyer said Saturday.
Nasrin Sotudeh said the court ruled on Sept. 28 against her client, Mohammad Sadeq Kaboudvand, who has been convicted of acting against national security and propagating against the ruling Islamic establishment. Sotudeh was informed of the ruling on Oct. 18, she said.
Kaboudvand, a 47-year-old journalist who founded the non-governmental Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan in Iran's Kurdish region three years ago, has been held in Tehran's Evin prison since June 2007. |
33 Thaksin says Thai enemies make return impossible
By AMBIKA AHUJA, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 33 mins ago
| BANGKOK, Thailand - Thailand's exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told tens of thousands of supporters in his homeland Saturday that he cannot return as long as he has a jail sentence hanging over him.
Thaksin, who served as the country's elected leader from 2001 until he was ousted by a military coup in September 2006, was this year convicted in absentia to two years in prison on conflict of interest charges. He spoke in a phone call broadcast to his supporters attending a rally at a Bangkok stadium.
The event represented the biggest response yet of Thaksin's followers to a rival movement that is seeking to demolish his political legacy. Thaksin's opponents in the People's Alliance for Democracy accuse him of corruption and demonstrated for his ouster in 2006. The alliance has occupied the prime minister's office since late August and is seeking the resignation of current Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, whom they call Thaksin's proxy. |
34 China: Feed makers defied rule in adding chemical
Associated Press
Sat Nov 1, 7:11 am ET
| BEIJING - Animal feed makers deliberately added an industrial chemical to their products, ignoring a year-old government rule meant to protect China's food supply, a government official said.
Inspection teams have descended on feed makers nationwide in a "punishment" campaign to ferret out those found using excessive amounts of the chemical melamine, Agriculture Ministry official Wang Zhicai said in remarks posted on the ministry's Web site and carried by state media Saturday.
Among the quarter of a million feed-makers and animal breeding farms inspected, inspectors found more than 500 engaged in illegal or questionable practices, with police further investigating 27 companies, Wang said. He likened the behavior of some of the companies to organized crime, calling them "black nests of gangsters." |
35 Australia: No residency for boy with Down syndrome
By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 1, 10:53 am ET
| SYDNEY, Australia - Thirteen-year-old Lukas Moeller has Down syndrome. His father is a doctor who came to Australia from Germany to help fill a shortage of physicians in rural communities.
But now Australia has rejected Dr. Bernhard Moeller's application for residency, saying Lukas does not meet the "health requirement" and would pose a burden on taxpayers for his medical care, education and other services.
The case has provoked an outcry in the rural region of southeastern Victoria state, where Moeller is the only internal medicine specialist for a community of 54,000 people. Residents rallied outside Moeller's practice this week demanding the decision be overturned, and hundreds of Internet and radio complaints from across the country bombarded media outlets Friday. |
36 Libya completes payments for US terror victims
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 1, 4:09 am ET
| WASHINGTON - Libya has paid $1.5 billion into a fund to compensate the families of American victims of Libyan-linked terror attacks in the 1980s, clearing the last hurdle in full normalization of ties between Washington and Tripoli.
In exchange, under a deal worked out earlier this year, President Bush on Friday signed an executive order restoring the Libyan government's immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases, the White House said.
"This removes the last obstacle to a normal relationship between the United States and Libya," said David Welch, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East who negotiated the agreement. |
37 Indian police question six people in Assam bombings
By Biswajyoti Das, Reuters
Sat Nov 1, 9:27 am ET
| GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Indian police detained six people on Saturday after a little-known Islamist group claimed responsibility for bombings that killed 77 people in the troubled state of Assam.
Police said two cars and mobile phones used to detonate bombs in the remote northeastern state, including its main city Guwahati, had been traced to four men while the remaining two were picked up for possible links with the attackers.
A police officer said two of three cars used as bombs in Guwahati had been identified. |
38 Opposition cries foul in Zambia presidential poll
By Shapi Shacinda, Reuters
2 hrs 28 mins ago
| LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia's main opposition party asked officials on Saturday to suspend the release of further election results after its candidate's lead over acting President Rupiah Banda dwindled.
The Patriotic Front's formal request to Zambia's electoral commission came several hours after PF leader Michael Sata accused officials of rigging the vote to prevent him from ruling the mineral-rich southern African nation.
"We have genuine grounds on which not to accept these results," Given Lubinda, a PF spokesman, told reporters in Lusaka. He added that there were discrepancies between vote tallies and the number of voters on registration lists. |
39 Bolivia's Morales bars "spying" U.S. DEA agents
By Carlos Quiroga, Reuters
58 mins ago
| CHIMORE, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales accused U.S. anti-drug agents of spying on Saturday, and barred them from fighting cocaine traffickers in the Andean country until further notice.
"There were DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agents that were doing political espionage, ... financing criminal groups so that they could act against authorities, even the president," Morales said.
Morales accused the DEA of maintaining ties with anti-government groups that staged violent protests in eastern and central regions governed by the opposition in September. He said the organization's actions amounted to "conspiracy." |
40 Iraq expects U.S. reply on troop pact within days
By Peter Graff, Reuters
59 mins ago
| BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq expects a reply from the United States within days to its proposal for changes to a pact requiring U.S. troops to leave by the end of 2011, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Saturday.
"We expect by Tuesday or Wednesday next week to receive answers from the American side about the suggestions of amendments proposed by the Iraqi cabinet," Zebari told U.S.-funded al-Hurra Arabic language television.
"We are talking about a small space of time. It is not open ended, and every side is coming nearer to the moment of truth." |
41 Russia, Libya discuss nuclear cooperation deal
By Denis Dyomkin and Salah Sarrar, Reuters
2 hrs 1 min ago
| MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and Libya are negotiating a deal under which Moscow would build nuclear research reactors for the North African state and supply fuel, officials said on Saturday.
Russia earns billions of dollars each year by exporting its civilian nuclear expertise, but it has faced criticism from Western governments who say the nuclear technology could fall into the wrong hands.
Officials said a document on civilian nuclear cooperation was under discussion at talks on Saturday between Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, on his first visit to Russia for 23 years, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. |
42 Illegal killings by army seen widespread in Colombia
By Hugh Bronstein, Reuters
45 mins ago
| BOGOTA (Reuters) - The widespread and systematic killing of innocent civilians by Colombian security forces must be investigated by the government or else the international courts could intervene, the United Nations said Saturday.
The government fired 27 army officers Wednesday after a probe implicated them in the deaths of a group of young men who disappeared from their homes and were later shot, piled into mass graves and counted as combat deaths.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay called for more investigations into what rights groups say is a growing trend of soldiers artificially improving their statistics by shooting civilians and passing their bodies off as combatants killed in Colombia's 44-year-old guerrilla war. |
43 Georgian parliament endorses new prime minister
By Margarita Antidze and Matt Robinson, Reuters
Sat Nov 1, 12:37 pm ET
| TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia's parliament endorsed career diplomat Grigol Mgaloblishvili as prime minister on Saturday in a step billed by President Mikheil Saakashvili as the start of a reform drive.
Saakashvili has promised wide-ranging democratic reforms, in what analysts say is an attempt to offset domestic criticism over ex-Soviet Georgia's crushing defeat by Russia in a five-day war in August.
The 150-seat parliament, dominated by Saakashvili loyalists, voted 98-11 to elect 35-year-old Mgaloblishvili, an Oxford-educated diplomat who until this week was Georgia's ambassador to Turkey. |
44 Japan defense minister sacks general over WW2 views
By Yoko Kubota, Reuters
Fri Oct 31, 11:30 am ET
| TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's defense minister said on Friday he will sack the air force chief of staff for saying that Japan was ensnared into World War Two by the United States and was not an aggressor in the conflict in Asia.
General Toshio Tamogami's essay, posted on the website of a Japanese hotel and apartment developer, was expected to rouse anger in China and South Korea, where memories of Japan's wartime acts and colonization run deep.
"I think it is improper as the air force chief of staff to publicly state a view clearly different from that of the government's," Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told a group of reporters. |
45 Bali bombers await firing squads as Indonesia stands guard
AFP
2 hrs 32 mins ago
| CILACAP, Indonesia (AFP) - Three Islamist militants convicted over the Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people awaited execution Saturday as Indonesia stood guard against a feared extremist backlash.
A source at the Nusakambangan island prison off southern Java said Amrozi, 47, his brother Mukhlas, 48, and attack strategist Imam Samudra, 38, had been placed in isolation and the execution order had been delivered.
"The letter ordering the execution was submitted last night at 9:00 pm (1400 GMT Friday)," the source said. He did not say whether the letter gave a precise time for the executions. |
46 Russia humiliating EU over Georgia: Lithuanian president
AFP
Fri Oct 31, 2:40 pm ET
| VILNIUS (AFP) - Russia's failure to fully respect an EU-brokered ceasefire in its war with Georgia is a humiliation for the European Union, Lithuania's President Valdas Adamkus said Friday.
"Not all the efforts of President Sarkozy to guarantee Georgia's territorial integrity have been implemented," Adamkus told reporters during a visit by his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili.
"This is a humiliation for the entire European Union," he added. |
47 Ibero-American leaders call for UN summit on economic crisis
AFP
Fri Oct 31, 6:09 pm ET
| SAN SALVADOR (AFP) - Leaders from Spain, Portugal and Latin America on Friday called for an emergency world summit overseen by the United Nations to tackle the financial crisis, as recession fears rose.
Economic concerns dominated the 18th Ibero-American summit, which ended Friday in San Salvador.
A final statement called for participants to take steps to "urgently" organize an international summit on the crisis. |
48 Massive protest in Rome over sweeping Italian education cuts
by Ljubomir Milasin, AFP
Thu Oct 30, 1:36 pm ET
| ROME (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of teachers, students and parents took to the streets of Rome and other Italian cities on Thursday, to protest conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's multi-billion-euro education cuts.
Organisers said up to one million people marched in the capital while nine in ten schools across the country were closed.
The Senate on Wednesday approved cuts of more than nine billion euros (11.6 billion dollars) in education spending for the loss of 130,000 jobs in primary schools. |
49 Congolese Rebel Leader Laurent Nkunda
By KATE PICKERT, Time Magazine
Fri Oct 31, 6:20 am ET
| War, famine and disease have killed more than 5 million Congolese citizens in the past decade and it's hard not to lay a good part of the blame at the feet of rebel leader Laurent Nkunda. |
50 Japan Offers a Lifeline to Failing Businesses
By COCO MASTERS / TOKYO, Time Magazine
Fri Oct 31, 5:05 pm ET
| Bikkuri Honpo, a chain of Japanese sushi restaurants, lived up to its name last week. Literally translated, the chain is called the "original house of surprise." The surprise? The 25-year-old business, which for several years had been expanding quickly in Tokyo and appeared to be thriving, filed for bankruptcy protection, dragged down by $50 million in liabilities. |
51 China's Worst Nightmare: Unemployment
By SIMON ELEGANT / BEIJING, Time Magazine
Sat Nov 1, 1:00 am ET
| When China's President Hu Jintao made his first official visit to Washington in April of 2006, he encountered a string of diplomatic snafus that culminated in enduring several minutes of screaming from a protester admitted into the media stand. Still, U.S. officials say he and President George W. Bush developed a genuine personal rapport. At one point, Bush asked his counterpart which of the numerous challenges China faced was the most serious - which one kept Hu awake at night worrying. "Unemployment," Hu reportedly answered without hesitating. |
52 Britain in a Bad Humor Over the "Bad Taste" BBC
By CATHERINE MAYER/LONDON, Time Magazine
2 hrs 55 mins ago
| Maybe it's because Brits are so bad at articulating disapproval (think of the strangled harrumphs directed at "queue-jumpers") that they outsource their outrage to richly opinionated newspapers and rent-a-quote politicians. And the scale of opprobrium directed this week at Britain's public service broadcaster, the BBC, and two of its best-known stars by the full spectrum of newspapers and politicians from Prime Minister Gordon Brown downwards, suggests that Britons are very, very cross. |
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Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
