|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
U.S. Military Releases Video Footage of Airstrike in Pakistan (World, 12 articles)
|
The Pentagon has said an air strike by US forces in the Afghan-Pakistani border region, said to have killed 11 Pakistani soldiers, was legitimate. The strikes underscored the often faulty communications involving American, Pakistani and Afghan forces along the border, and the ability of Taliban fighters and other insurgents to use havens in Pakistan to carry out attacks into neighboring Afghanistan. NATO and American commanders say cross-border attacks in Afghanistan by insurgents have risen sharply since talks for those peace deals began in March. The footage, shot by a circling drone, was issued after Pakistani government officials had unleashed a torrent of criticism over the U.S. military operation. Only a few minutes long, the video shows about six or seven men firing rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at unseen coalition troops from an area overlooking a valley in Afghanistan's Konar province, about 200 yards from the Pakistani border. Pakistan's military has condemned an air strike by Afghanistan-based US forces that killed 11 of its troops as a "cowardly attack". The dead included a major and were all from the Mohmand Rifles, a paramilitary detachment of the Frontier Corps, the force deployed in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, a security official said.
|
Other stories about Pakistan, Afghanistan and Afghan:
|
|
|
Gaza blast kills 7 at Hamas bomb-maker's house (World, 12 articles)
|
An explosion flattened a house in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least seven people, including a four-year-old girl, in what Hamas initially said was an Israeli attack, but later suggested was accidental. Hamas, which a year ago wrested control of the coastal territory from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, unleashed a barrage of rocket attacks on Israel shortly after the blast. JERUSALEM - A large explosion destroyed a residential building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya on Thursday, killing at least five Palestinians, among them several Hamas militants and a baby girl.
|
| |
Ireland holds historic referendum that could derail EU treaty (World, 12 articles)
|
Irish voters headed to the polls Thursday in a historic referendum that will determine the fate of a treaty designed to overhaul the European Union. From peat farmers bitter about Brussels to a prime minister indignant about his opponents' campaign tactics, all Ireland was on display on Thursday in a make-or-break referendum on the European Union's Lisbon treaty. Ireland - the only one of the EU's 27 member states to have a referendum on the treaty - accounts for less than 1 per cent of the bloc's population of almost 500m.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Kosovo struggles to control border with Serbia (World, 4 articles)
|
BRUSSELS - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates joined NATO defense ministers here Thursday in an effort to push forward a design for missile defenses that will protect all alliance nations from a potential Iranian ballistic missile attack. Over their scheduled two days of talks, the defense ministers also will discuss additional fighting forces and military trainers for the NATO-led stability mission in Afghanistan, as well as security issues arising from insurgents hiding across the border in neighboring Pakistan. The future status of a NATO training mission in Kosovo, which adopts its constitution on June 15 but whose independence is not yet recognized by all alliance members, also is on the agenda.
|
| |
Quake refugees forced to move again (World, 6 articles)
|
In a panic, thousands of soldiers, earthquake survivors and aid workers raced headlong for the hills, some helping babies and old people negotiate a mountain of jagged debris. MIANYANG, China - As China today marked one month since its deadly earthquake, some weary survivors were once again on the move, setting up tents and shelters on city sidewalks away from a threatened flood. BEIJING - Low-lying areas in one of the towns most devastated by the May 12 earthquake were flooded Tuesday as a torrent of water was released from a dangerous lake formed by landslides, dislodging wrecked homes, cars and corpses.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Bush, Merkel jointly call for new sanctions on Iran (World, 11 articles)
|
At a European Union summit in Slovenia on Tuesday, Mr. Bush won a pledge to consider additional punitive sanctions against Iran, including restrictions on its banks, if Iran rejects a package of incentives to suspend its uranium enrichment program. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Bush's presidency was over and the president has failed in his goals of attacking Iran and stopping its nuclear program. Merkel, who appeared with Bush at the German government's main guesthouse, called Schloss Meseberg, said if Iran does not agree to suspend its enrichment program, additional sanctions would be needed.
|
| |
U.S., British diplomats waylaid in Zimbabwe - (World, 11 articles)
|
The top UN humanitarian official says the situation in Zimbabwe is worsening, with up to four million people - a third of the population - needing aid. The diplomats were looking into political violence before a presidential election runoff, and the incident was the latest sign of how tense Zimbabwe is as Mugabe prepares to face an opposition leader who led voting in the first round. The secretary general of Zimbabwe's main opposition party will be charged with treason and faces a possible death sentence, police say.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Atlas shows effects of climate change in Africa - (World, 4 articles)
|
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Africa produces a tiny fraction of the world's greenhouse gases but is particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming, U.N. environmental experts said Tuesday at a conference of African environment ministers here. Some of those present had harsh words for the developed world, in particular the United States, the largest producer of greenhouse gases. " Computer models project major changes in precipitation patterns on the continent, which could lead to food shortages and increased desertification says a United Nations Environment Program report released at the conference.
|
| |
South Korea Seeks a Revised Beef Deal (World, 6 articles)
|
South Korean officials said Mr. Kim hoped to persuade Ms. Schwab to agree that American exporters would not ship beef from cattle 30 months old or older. The demonstrations against Mr. Lee started six weeks ago when students began protesting his government's decision in April to resume imports of American beef despite widespread fears of mad cow disease. The beef protests have dealt a sharp blow to Mr. Lee, who was elected in December championing a new "pragmatic" approach to ties with Washington.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Probe into Sudan's plane inferno (World, 6 articles)
|
The F.A.A. action followed an incident June 5 at Midway Airport in Chicago that involved an Eclipse 500, one of a new class of " very light jets with two pilots and only three or four passenger seats. KHARTOUM, Sudan - Investigators examined the scorched hull of a jetliner Wednesday to determine what caused the plane to veer off a runway and burst into flames, killing at least 29 people, officials said. Sudan Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Abdel Hafez Abdel Rahim Mahmoud told The Associated Press that at least 29 people died inside the burning plane and 171 managed to escape.
|
| |
China and Taiwan agree flights in first talks in years (World, 6 articles)
|
BEIJING - Representatives of China and Taiwan agreed Friday to start weekend charter flights next month between the two sides, taking the first step toward establishing regular transportation links that could ease relations. The election of Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, who won by a landslide in March on pledges to boost the local economy by improving trade with China, has suddenly warmed relations. On Thursday the two sides agreed to host representative offices, and early on Friday they signed a deal to boost transport and tourism links, in a ceremony broadcast live on Chinese state television.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Spain's PM warns striking drivers (World, 5 articles)
|
Thousands of Spanish police and civil guards were called out on Wednesday to clear roads of striking truck drivers who have disrupted food and fuel supplies. As the country prepared for its fourth consecutive day of industrial action over high fuel prices, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba deployed more than 25,000 national police and civil guards as talks between strikers and the government broke down. The government has reached agreement with most of Spain's hauliers on relief from rising fuel prices but about 12% are continuing a fourth day of strikes.
|
| |
Aid Team Head Says Team Will Have Full Access in Myanmar (World, 4 articles)
|
SINGAPORE, June 12, 2008 (AFP) - A team of aid experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the UN will have full access to parts of cyclone-devastated Myanmar, ASEAN's secretary general said Thursday. ASEAN said one week ago that the Emergency Rapid Assessment Team had begun to deploy in the delta region to start a long-awaited examination of the needs of millions of people affected by the storm. Foreign relief workers still face hindrances in reaching cyclone victims, especially outside Yangon, the country's biggest city, aid groups say.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Secret Intelligence Files on Al Qaeda and Iraq Are Left on a Train in Britain (World, 4 articles)
|
The incident comes only weeks before Sir Gus O'Donnell was due to publish his report on improving data security in Whitehall after discs with child benefit records were lost in the post. The 37-year-old Ministry of Defence official, who has been suspended pending a police investigation, had been seconded to the Cabinet Office for intelligence work. There were some suggestions in Whitehall that the official, who is understood to earn about $70,000 a year, had written the reports.
|
| |
|
|
blaster@cs.columbia.edu
|
