|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Beijing tries to assure smooth ascent of Olympic torch as Tibetan exiles plan protest (World, 11 articles)
|
Soldiers and police have been deployed around two Buddhist monasteries in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa where monks launched protests against Chinese rule earlier this week, witnesses and residents said Thursday. A man who answered the phone at the Sera monastery said monks have been confined inside its walls, shut off from outside contact, and are relying on dwindling food supplies. Police in India have detained more than 100 Tibetan refugees who were trying to march to the Chinese border in protest against China hosting the Olympics. BEIJING - China is denying mountaineers permission to climb its side of Mount Everest this spring, a move that reflects government concerns that Tibet activists may try to disrupt plans to carry the Olympic torch to the world's tallest peak. Chinese security officers were out in force on Thursday as an uneasy calm settled on the city after hundreds of Buddhist monks and ethnic Tibetans staged protests against Chinese rule. Rights groups said the demonstrations were the biggest display of opposition to Chinese rule in Tibet since 1989. NEW DELHI - About a hundred Tibetan exiles on a six-month protest march to their homeland defied the Indian government's orders to halt Tuesday, and could be headed for a conflict with the local police.
|
Other stories about Tibetan, Tibet and China:
|
|
|
At least 42 killed in Iraq; 3 U.S. troops die - (World, 8 articles)
|
According to an Associated Press count, at the height of unrest from November 2006 to August 2007, on average about 65 Iraqis died each day as a result of violence. US soldiers and Iraqi militants exchanged fire after a rocket attack from a Shi'ite Mehdi Army militia stronghold on a U.S. base southeast of Baghdad, Iraqi police said on Thursday. Two Iraqi men, who the police source said were brothers, were killed and four others, including a 6-year-old girl, were wounded when U.S. soldiers responded to the rocket attack with mortar rounds, the official said.
|
Other stories about Iraqi, Iraq and Baghdad:
| |
Admiral William Fallon quits over Iran policy (World, 13 articles)
|
March 12, 2008 The thanks of a grateful nation are in order for Adm. William J. Fallon, who retired yesterday after 41 years of distinguished service to his country. The Pentagon and the White House sought Wednesday to counter speculation that the abrupt departure of the top commander in the Middle East, who publicly opposed going to war with Iran, signals a shift in Bush administration policy toward Tehran. WASHINGTON - The Pentagon on Tuesday announced the abrupt resignation of the commander overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who was seen as an internal critic of the Bush administration's troop decisions in Iraq.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
EU opens door to Croatia membership (World, 8 articles)
|
Brussels and Washington on Thursday papered over a dispute on visa-free travel to the US that has re-ignited tensions between "old" and "new" European Union members. Thursday's move draws a line, for now, under a clash that broke out last month when Prague reached an agreement with Washington that paves the way for Czechs to visit the US without visas. Croatia's bid for early membership of the European Union received a boost on Thursday when the European Commission said it should be possible to complete accession negotiations by the end of 2009.
|
Other stories about EU, Serbia and European:
| |
U.S. convenes first meeting on Israeli-Palestinian plan (World, 15 articles)
|
A PROMISING lull in Israeli-Palestinian violence ended this week, after Israel assassinated an Islamic Jihad commander and three other militiamen Wednesday, and retaliatory rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel the next day. Jerusalem - Over the past seven days, Israel and the Palestinians have absorbed stunning blows that have led to mourning across the region - and shaken hopes for U.S.-promoted peace talks. No one was injured by the salvo against the border town of Sderot, the first such attack by Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant faction, since March 5.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
A Post-Musharraf Pakistan Policy (World, 12 articles)
|
U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan fired across the border into Pakistan in a strike against Taliban militants, but the Pakistani army said Thursday that two women and two children were killed. The attack illustrates Washington's concern the Taliban and al-Qaida are using Pakistan's lawless frontier as a base for attacks in Afghanistan. Anger at civilian deaths could lead to a review by the incoming Pakistani government of the country's counterterrorism strategy and its U.S.-backed policy of using military force to root out militants.
|
| |
US demands N Korea nuclear data (World, 7 articles)
|
The US said it was critical to make progress in negotiations on North Korea's nuclear programme, which the secretive communist state agreed to abandon under a 2005 deal, agencies report from Geneva. Top negotiators from the US and North Korea are holding talks in a bid to break a deadlock on a deal aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programme. The United States and North Korea made progress Thursday in overcoming obstacles that have stalled a major nuclear disarmament deal but remained short of a breakthrough, the chief U.S. negotiator said.
|
Other stories about Nuclear, Hill and energy:
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What's old is new: Reviving Lord & Taylor (World, 5 articles)
|
Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor ordered militias to eat the flesh of their enemies, a former death squad leader has told his war crimes trial. Joseph "Zigzag" Marzah said Mr Taylor had instructed his fighters in Liberia to even eat UN peacekeepers to "set an example for the people to be afraid". NEW YORK (Fortune) As tourists flooded New York City over the recent Christmas holiday, Lord & Taylor CEO Jane Elfers wanted to make sure her store got its share of the crowds.
|
| |
Pakistani, Afghan civilians caught in deadly attacks (World, 5 articles)
|
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN A suicide bomber targeting U.S. troops instead killed six Afghan civilians today, while U.S. forces acknowledged carrying out a cross-border missile strike that reportedly killed four civilians in Pakistan. The civilian deaths on both sides of the border came days before a new Pakistani government is due to be sworn in one that may prove a less pliant ally in the U.S.-led fight against Islamic militants than President Pervez Musharraf has been. A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan said the strike, which was carried out with precision-guided munitions, had been aimed at Taliban militants.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Iran's choice: a man in a military cap or a man in a military cap (World, 9 articles)
|
More than 50 million Iranians are invited to vote today in elections that Ali Khamenei has described as "fixing the frontiers" with the American Great Satan. The survey foresees a voter turnout of about 50% in Tehran, the capital, and 60% in other major cities for parliamentary elections on Friday - up from 51% nationwide in the previous 2004 vote - IRNA said. The young cleric in this spiritual center of the Islamic revolution says the vote will sweep the country closer to hard-liners' ideal of the Islamic state.
|
| |
Sudan and Chad strike peace deal (World, 9 articles)
|
The presidents of Chad and Sudan have signed an accord in Senegal aimed at halting five years of hostilities between the two countries. DAKAR (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Chadian President Idriss Deby signed a peace agreement on Thursday designed to end cross-border rebel attacks in a region which includes Sudan's conflict-ravaged Darfur area. In Soba Aradi, people see little difference between the conflict in southern Sudan, the current conflict in Darfur and their own treatment in Khartoum.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Colombian president defends Ecuador raid - (World, 9 articles)
|
In Washington, the Organization of American States approved a compromise resolution drafted jointly by Ecuador and Colombia that declared the raid a violation of Ecuador's sovereignty. MEXICO CITY - Amid the posters decrying the war in Iraq and free-trade deals, students at the National Autonomous University of Mexico have blanketed the walls for their latest cause: a classmate lying in a hospital bed in Ecuador. At least four Mexican university students were believed killed in the raid against the rebels, whom the U.S. and Colombian governments consider terrorists.
|
| |
ABC News: Al-Qaida Sets Deadline for Held Tourists (World, 4 articles)
|
In an internet statement, the militant group gave Austria three days to secure the freedom of members held in Algeria and Tunisia in exchange for the two. The statement said: " Austria is responsible for the lives of the two hostages in the event of the expiration of the time period and not responding to our demands. Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said on Thursday efforts were being made to secure the release of the hostages but noted the demands were outside Vienna's jurisdiction.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
A Profile of Cuba's Fidel Castro (World, 6 articles)
|
Cubans will be allowed for the first time to own DVD players and computers, according to an internal government memo leaked to Reuters news agency. Curbs may also be lifted on video machines, electric pressure and rice cookers, microwaves and car alarms, as well as 19-inch and 24-inch TV sets. Cubans are no longer banned from buying computers and other electrical devices that were previously sold legally only to companies and foreigners in the communist country.
|
| |
Reprieve for gay Iranian who fears he will be killed (World, 4 articles)
|
A gay Iranian teenager is to be allowed to stay in Britain because his case is now so notorious that it would be dangerous to deport him to Tehran. Jacqui Smith granted Mehdi Kazemi a temporary reprieve yesterday as she announced that his case would be reconsidered when he returns from the Netherlands. Ms Smith intervened after receiving representations from MPs and peers alarmed that Mr Kazemi could face execution if returned to his homeland.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Russia and Ukraine end gas stand-off (World, 4 articles)
|
The agreement unveiled on Thursday was signed by Alexey Miller and Oleg Dubina, who heads Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas company, Naftogaz Ukrainy. The accord removes controversial middlemen companies from the multi-billion dollar gas trade between Russia, Ukraine and Central Asian gas suppliers, a demand championed by Ms Tymoshenko in recent years. The Ukrainian side also agreed to pay Rosurkenergo - the Swiss-registered intermediary that supplied Ukraine with gas in previous years - a higher rate of $315 for Russian gas consumed without a contract from January through February.
|
| |
Passengers evacuated from tourist boat that ran aground off Poros in Greece (World, 4 articles)
|
ATHENS, Greece - Crews scrambled Thursday to evacuate some 280 people - mainly American, Japanese and Russian tourists - from a ship that ran aground today off an island near Athens. Most of the passengers are tourists, authorities said, including 103 from Japan, 58 from the U.S. and 56 from Russia, the ministry said. The boat is one of several that runs day trips between Piraeus and the nearby islands of Aegina, Poros and Hydra.
|
|
|
blaster@cs.columbia.edu
|
