|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Israel and Hezbollah set for swap (World, 11 articles)
|
Hezbollah has been touting the prisoner exchange deal with Israel as confirmation that the Shi'ite militant group ultimately defeated Israel in the Second Lebanon War, but the swap is at least as much of a Hezbollah victory within Lebanon. Consider the Harans and the Goldwassers, two families in Nahariya linked by shocking killings nearly 30 years ago that have returned anew to break mothers' hearts. The Israeli government on Tuesday gave final approval to a controversial prisoner swap with Hizbollah, paving the way for the release of the two Israeli soldiers whose capture triggered Israel's war with the Lebanese Shia group two years ago. In return, Israel will hand over Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese militant who took part in a cross-border attack that killed five Israelis and who has now spent almost 30 years in an Israeli jail. There are also concerns that Israel's readiness to release high-profile, living prisoners for the bodies of two Israelis will complicate a separate set of negotiations with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group. A Lebanese newspaper reported Tuesday that at least one of the two Israel Defense Forces soldiers set to be returned in a prisoner exchange with the Hezbollah militant group was killed at the time of his abduction in 2006.
|
Other stories about Israel, Palestinian and Israeli:
|
|
|
Charges of Darfur genocide pose no threat to Sudanese leader's rule (World, 19 articles)
|
KHARTOUM, Sudan - Sudan's president, buoyed by support from the Arab and African world, showed no signs of giving in to pressure on Tuesday after an international prosecutor sought his arrest for war crimes in Darfur. THE prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has made the tough decision to seek an arrest warrant for a leader of a country at war - Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya, whose nation is an ally of Sudan, said that bringing charges against al-Bashir could jeopardize peace talks and put peacekeepers and humanitarian aid workers in Darfur at greater risk.
|
| |
U.S. diplomat to attend Iran nuclear talks: source (World, 18 articles)
|
In a break with past Bush administration policy, a top U.S. diplomat will for the first time join colleagues from other world powers at a meeting with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator. WASHINGTON, July 15 - In a shift in policy, the United States will send an envoy to talks this weekend between Iran and major powers over Tehran's nuclear program, a senior US official said on Tuesday. Official contacts between Iran and the United States are extremely rare and although Washington is part of a six-nation effort to get Iran to stop enriching and reprocessing uranium, the administration has shunned contacts with Tehran on the matter.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Drug war mayhem instills a new fear (World, 4 articles)
|
That description isn't redundant in a country in the grip of a raging drug war: The vast majority of the thousands of dead are thought to have some connection to the cartels. The head of Mexico's intelligence service has said that drug cartels are threatening the country's democratic institutions, including Congress. First, three local police officers were murdered in a single night, apparently in retaliation for a bust that a drug-cartel boss warned them not to carry out.
|
| |
Militants breached US Afghan base (World, 8 articles)
|
Seven insurgents were killed in a military operation near where militants this week breached a U.S. outpost in eastern Afghanistan, the Afghan Defense Ministry said Tuesday. In the eastern operation Monday, troops killed seven insurgents and nabbed an "Arab terrorist" in the area of Wanat village in Nuristan province where nine American soldiers died in a militant attack over the weekend, the Defense Ministry said. Moving in darkness before dawn Sunday, about 200 fighters surrounded the newly built base in a remote area near the Pakistan border without being spotted by the troops inside, said Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh
|
Other stories about Pakistan, Afghanistan and Afghan:
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Suicide Bombers Kill 35 Iraqi Recruits (World, 8 articles)
|
At least 28 Iraqi security force recruits were killed on Tuesday in two suicide bombings in Diyala province north of Baghdad, where the government has said it plans a military offensive against insurgent groups. BAQOUBA, Iraq (AP) und Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of army recruits Tuesday in an Iraqi province where devastating attacks persist despite security improvements elsewhere. At least 28 people died, the Iraqi police and military said.The bombings came ahead of what Iraqi military officials have described as an imminent offensive in troubled Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.
|
| |
Russia talks yield a few scraps of cold comfort for Gordon Brown (World, 7 articles)
|
BERLIN - Russia has denied that political motives are behind a sudden reduction in oil deliveries to the Czech Republic that began a day after Prague annoyed the Kremlin by signing a missile-shield agreement with the United States. Last week, the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, visited Prague to sign a treaty allowing the Pentagon to deploy part of its antiballistic missile shield on Czech territory. " The Russians said the reduction in supplies was not political Tomas Bartovsky said in an interview.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
In Colombia, Hostage's Letter Hits Home (World, 4 articles)
|
The letter rang with such profound pain and despair that Betancourt's mother, Yolanda Pulecio, has still not stopped crying. In the past year, Colombia has been awed by several dramatic stories involving hostages, including that of a policeman who hiked 17 days through the jungle to escape guerrillas and that of a boy born to a hostage mother. The Colombian army seized the letter on Nov. 29 from three rebel emissaries who were transporting the correspondence and video footage of several hostages through Bogota, the capital.
|
| |
VIDEO: Lawyers release first-ever footage of Guantanamo interrogation (World, 9 articles)
|
The video is blurry and the soundtrack muffled, but the technical shortcomings of the video recordings released Tuesday did not obscure the emotions of Omar Khadr as he was interrogated at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba. The video tape, made public by order of a Canadian court, showed Mr Khadr during four days of questioning by Canadian intelligence agents. Lawyers for a Canadian prisoner at the American Guantanamo Bay detention camp released hours of videotaped interrogations Tuesday, providing a first-ever glimpse into the secretive world of questioning enemy combatants at the isolated U.S. prison in Cuba.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Turkish Warplanes Again Cross Border To Bomb in N. Iraq (World, 5 articles)
|
On a visit to Washington, British Defense Minister Des Browne said Iraq was heading in the right direction in the fight against militants but said it would take longer to achieve success in Afghanistan. Iraq, which has the world's third-largest known crude oil reserves, is also benefiting from a drop in pipeline attacks and the sharp rise in global oil prices. The brief campaign triggered protests from Iraq, although Erdogan said Iraq has cooperated with Turkish military operations on Iraqi soil.
|
Other stories about Turkey, Turkish and Erdogan:
| |
Yves Leterme, Belgian Prime Minister, quits after four months (World, 4 articles)
|
In office for less than four months, Belgium's government is once again teetering on collapse after Prime Minister Yves Leterme offered his resignation. The country is split between the 6.5m Dutch speakers in the Flemish north of the country, described as having a vibrant economy and low unemployment. The south is home to 4m French speakers in Wallonia, caricatured (perhaps unfairly) as the Belgian rust-belt with sluggish growth, high unemployment and a general air of stagnation.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
U.S. looks at more sanctions against Zimbabwe (World, 7 articles)
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) President Bush and his international policy team pushed on all fronts Tuesday to increase pressure on Zimbabwe's government after an attempt to impose U.N. sanctions on the regime failed last week. Bush spoke out at his White House news conference, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked at a meeting with African leaders, and Rice's point person on Africa testified to members of Congress. Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has told the BBC of his frustration at mediation efforts led by South Africa's leader Thabo Mbeki.
|
| |
Canada Expels an American Deserter From the Iraq War (World, 5 articles)
|
OTTAWA - An American Army deserter who sought refuge in Canada from the war in Iraq was expelled Tuesday to the United States. Protesters rallied at the Peace Arch border crossing south of Vancouver on Tuesday morning against a Federal Court decision to deport Robin Long. (CBC) American war deserter Robin Long is being returned to the units he deserted at Fort Carson in Colorado, a U.S. army spokesman said Tuesday.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Anti-pope activists given legal right to 'annoy' Catholic pilgrims -Times Online (World, 4 articles)
|
Anti-papal activists in Australia have won permission to annoy Catholic pilgrims at the World Youth Day celebrations in Sydney after a court upheld their right to hand out condoms and coat hangers. As soon as the court had given its ruling , Rachel Evans, one of two protesters from the No To Pope Coalition who brought the case, started handing out condoms to pilgrims. On the first day of the Catholic "faith fest" known as World Youth Day, the city of Sydney swarmed with flag-carrying youths from around the world.
|
| |
Cambodia: Thai troops still in country (World, 4 articles)
|
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia- Cambodian officials said more Thai troops crossed into their country's territory Wednesday in the second day of alleged incursions amid tensions over disputed border land near a historic temple. The director of Cambodian agency in charge of the Preah Vihear temple , Hang Soth, said the Thais continued to cross the border Wednesday. BANGKOK, Thailand, Jul 16, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) It's hot in Bangkok, but the hottest show yet in the kingdom's capital is the 3rd TAITRONICS BANGKOK 2008.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
North Korea Faults South in Death of Tourist and Rejects Talks Offer (World, 4 articles)
|
Vienna, Va. i. CHINA 'S announcement on Saturday that negotiators have agreed on a blueprint for verifying North Korea's nuclear disarmament is being seen as the latest in a string of hopeful signs. For a while, the drumbeat in Washington has been that the so-called six-party talks are going well and the North Korean nuclear program is well on its way to being contained. Given how frustrating negotiations with North Korea have been in the past, the end might not be as near as it seems.
|
| |
|
|
blaster@cs.columbia.edu
|
