News For Tuesday Oct 7, 2008 News For Tuesday Oct 7, 2008

World World

Suspected US missile strike kills 20 in Pakistan - Added 3 days ago

Militants on Saturday buried the bodies of Arab comrades who were among at least 20 people killed when suspected U.S. missiles hit a house near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said. The United States has...

US nuclear envoy holds N. Korea talks in Beijing - Added 3 days ago

The top U.S. nuclear envoy held talks with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Saturday, an embassy spokesman said, after a trip to North Korea failed to stop the communist regime from restoring its atomic facilities....

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Turkey's military says a Kurdish rebel attack has killed 15 of its soldiers. ...

US coalition kills 5 militants in Afghanistan - Added 3 days ago

The U.S. coalition says its forces have killed five militants in two operations targeting al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. The coalition says an operation in Ghazni province targeting a roadside...

Hurricane Marie drifts far off Mexico's coast - Added 3 days ago

Hurricane Marie formed off western Mexico and drifted through the Pacific Ocean on a path that forecasters said would keep it well away from land. Marie was centered 860 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja...

Former defense minister detained in Venezuela - Added 3 days ago

A former Venezuelan defense minister who has become a prominent critic of President Hugo Chavez was detained by military prosecutors on suspicion of mismanaging government funds during his command. Retired Gen. Raul...

Somalia deaths climb, insurgents reject aid groups - Added 3 days ago

Help for hundreds of thousands of Somalis is in jeopardy, two international aid groups said Friday after Islamic insurgents forced one to suspend some operations and threatened the other. The last two weeks have been...

UN envoy says Congo fighting could escalate - Added 3 days ago

The top U.N. envoy to Congo warned Friday that renewed fighting in eastern Congo has heightened ethnic tensions and could lead to the renewal of a wider conflict in central Africa. Alan Doss urged all militias in the...

Analysis: Stable Iraq could influence Mideast - Added 3 days ago

As violence in Iraq recedes, neighboring states are pondering how to deal with an unwieldy country that could re-emerge as a key player along with Saudi Arabia and Iran in one of the world's most strategic regions. The...

Nobel speculation centers on rights activists - Added 3 days ago

Human rights activists from China and Russia are considered front-runners to win the Nobel Peace Prize next week, while bettors are putting their money on an Italian, a Syrian or an Israeli for the literature award. ...

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,177 - Added 4 days ago

As of Friday, Oct. 3, 2008, at least 4,177 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians...

Fashion designers shiver as economic crisis hits - Added 4 days ago

In the cutthroat world of fashion, a designer can quickly lose rising star status _ a fact that Alessandra Facchinetti knows only too well. For the second time in her career, the 36-year-old designer on Friday faced...

Embassy bombing suspect at Gitmo to face life - Added 4 days ago

The Pentagon on Friday denied military prosecutors' request to seek the death penalty in the trial of a Guantanamo detainee charged in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania, according to military documents. ...

Canada leader: No need for US style government - Added 4 days ago

As Canada faces an economic slowdown, the country's prime minister said Friday that Canadians don't need a Parliament that acts like the U.S. Congress and panics like the U.S. Treasury Department. Prime Minister...

Haiti raises storm death toll to nearly 800 - Added 4 days ago

The official death toll from four storms that ravaged Haiti this summer has nearly doubled to some 800 people, authorities said Friday. Civil defense director Maria-Alta Jean Baptiste said in an interview with The...

Police work in Caribbean not always fun in the sun - Added 4 days ago

A lawsuit filed by Antigua's ousted police commissioner shows it's not always a tropical idyll when a veteran officer from Britain or Canada chooses to spend the twilight of his career working in the Caribbean. A...

Ukrainians deny giving wartime help to Georgia - Added 4 days ago

Ukrainian officials on Friday denied Russian accusations that Ukraine provided weapons to Georgia during the August war with Russia and that its military personnel operated some of the weapons during the conflict. ...

Poll: Mexico feels less secure amid drug crackdown - Added 4 days ago

More than 40 percent of Mexicans say they feel less secure since the start of a government crackdown on the drug trade, according to a poll published Friday. Only 25 percent of Mexicans polled say they feel safer since...

Death toll up to 33 in Algerian desert flood - Added 4 days ago

Hundreds of troops, engineers and social workers have converged on the desert town of Ghardaia to help with relief operations after a flash flood there killed 33, Algeria's Interior Ministry said Friday. Torrential...

Drink up: Rum rebate in bailout benefits islands - Added 4 days ago

The U.S. economy got a US$700 billion shot in the arm Friday _ and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands got a shot of assistance from rum. Tucked into the unprecedented rescue package passed by Congress was a...

Blast kills 7 Russian soldiers in South Ossetia - Added 4 days ago

A car exploded Friday, killing seven soldiers outside Russia's military headquarters in South Ossetia, and Russian authorities charged it was a terrorist bombing meant to wreck the tense cease-fire that ended their war...

Venezuela's state bank says unaffected by crisis - Added 4 days ago

Venezuela's state-owned bank says it will not be affected by the U.S. financial crisis. The state-run Bolivarian news agency quotes the president of Banco del Tesoro as saying the government's financial institutions...

British PM Gordon Brown shakes up government - Added 4 days ago

!!-- pobj:XAG105-1003081914 -->British Prime Minister Gordon Brown reached into the past in a bid to save his future Friday, recruiting stars from the Tony Blair era into his Cabinet. Brown said sweeping changes were...

US envoy's visit did not stop NKorea nuclear work - Added 4 days ago

A senior U.S. envoy's trip to North Korea did not stop the communist nation from restoring its nuclear facilities, the State Department said Friday. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill returned to South Korea...

Sartre said no to Nobels; Gandhi missed out - Added 4 days ago

Some curious facts about the Nobel Prizes, which will be announced starting next week: _ A man's world: Less than 5 percent of all Nobel laureates are women. Only two women won the physics prize: Marie Curie of France...

Israeli general warns Hezbollah of harsh response - Added 4 days ago

Israel will use "disproportionate force" if Hezbollah guerrillas attack Israel, a senior military commander said in published comments Friday, adding that any village used to fire missiles against the Jewish state will...

Former defense minister detained in Venezuela - Added 4 days ago

A former Venezuelan defense minister who is a prominent critic of President Hugo Chavez has been detained by military intelligence agents. Gen. Raul Baduel tells The Associated Press that that agents stopped him while...

Ex-Khmer Rouge soldiers tried for murder of Briton - Added 4 days ago

Five former Khmer Rouge soldiers accused of killing a British mine-clearing expert 12 years ago testified Friday that another soldier shot the man in the head as he sat in the dark at their remote base, illuminated only...

Latam stocks lower on slowdown concerns - Added 4 days ago

Latin American stocks were mostly lower Friday after U.S. lawmakers approved a bailout plan for financial institutions amid concerns it won't be enough to prevent a global economic slowdown. Mexico's IPC index led...

Kenya terror suspects in Ethiopia to come home - Added 4 days ago

Eight terror suspects flown to secret jails in Ethiopia a year and a half ago for questioning, some of them by American agents, will return to Kenya, a police spokesman said Friday. Eric Kiraithe did not say why the...

Iraq's presidency approves elections law - Added 4 days ago

Iraq's presidential council on Friday ratified a law that paves the way for the first provincial elections in four years, officials said. U.S. officials hope the election will give greater representation to minority...

Trucker suspended for behind-the-wheel TV viewing - Added 4 days ago

A court has suspended the license of a truck driver who careened down a highway while watching episodes of "Battlestar Galactica" on a laptop computer atop his dashboard. Police say Benjamin Trotman drove for 25 miles...

Beyond French-Angola arms trial, other iffy trades - Added 4 days ago

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he wants to clean up the way France sells its weapons abroad. A trial opening in Paris on Monday about alleged arms trafficking to Angola shows why, by exposing corrupt dealings...

Guns, dirty money and French elite on trial - Added 4 days ago

The 468-page French indictment makes seamy reading: secret arms deals feeding bloodshed in an oil-rich African country. Envelopes of cash changing hands in a Paris mansion. A cast of defendants ranging from a...

Aussie boy breaks into zoo, feeds animals to croc - Added 4 days ago

A 7-year-old boy broke into a popular Outback zoo, fed a string of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to death with a rock, the zoo's director said Friday. The 30-minute rampage, caught on the...

Nobel speculation centers on rights activists - Added 4 days ago

Human rights activists from China and Russia are considered front-runners to win the Nobel Peace Prize next week, while betters are putting their money on an Italian, a Syrian or an Israeli for the literature award. ...

Mexicans boo Mayan pyramids concert by Great Tenor - Added 4 days ago

Placido Domingo's concert at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza on Saturday night is being billed as "the world's greatest tenor at one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World," a claim few lovers of opera or history...

Mbeki to continue mediation efforts in Zimbabwe - Added 4 days ago

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki will continue efforts to mediate an end to the political crisis in Zimbabwe. Mbeki's spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said he had agreed to resume mediations after being...

Cambodian, Thai troops said hurt in border clash - Added 4 days ago

Soldiers from both Cambodia and Thailand were wounded Friday in a brief clash along their volatile border, officials from the two countries said. Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said a Cambodian soldier...

Russia: Will work with US, EU to stop pirates - Added 4 days ago

Six U.S. warships circled a hijacked ship off Somalia and a Russian frigate headed toward the standoff Friday, while Russia called for naval forces gathering in the area to coordinate their efforts against piracy. The...

3 men in court charged with publisher attack plot - Added 4 days ago

Three men charged with plotting to attack the publisher of a novel about the Prophet Muhammad's child bride made a brief court appearance Friday after being charged with plotting to damage the offices of Gibson Square...

Analysis: Stable Iraq could influence Mideast - Added 4 days ago

As violence in Iraq recedes, neighboring states are pondering how to deal with an unwieldy country that could re-emerge as a key player along with Saudi Arabia and Iran in one of the world's most strategic regions. The...

Kenya, US fight over travel ban for officials - Added 4 days ago

A diplomatic dispute was brewing Friday between America and Kenya over a potential visa ban for Kenyan officials who oversaw last year's catastrophic elections. More than 1,000 died in clashes following Dec 27's...

Cost of living up 7.6 percent in Chile - Added 4 days ago

The Chilean government says the cost of living rose by 7.6 percent during the January-September period this year, compared with 7.3 percent during the same period in 2007. The National Statistics Institute said Friday...

Mexican soldiers find stolen planes on ranch - Added 4 days ago

Mexican soldiers have found five small planes that were stolen after they were seized in an anti-drug operation. Security officials say the planes were found on a ranch in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, a hotbed...

AP Interview: Havel calls economic chaos "warning" - Added 4 days ago

The man credited with toppling communism in Czechoslovakia says the global economic crisis is a warning not to abandon basic human values in the scramble to prosper. Unrestrained materialism is not what freedom and...

Vietnam finds tainted products from China - Added 4 days ago

Vietnam's health ministry has discovered the industrial chemical melamine in 18 food products imported from China and three other countries and has ordered them recalled and destroyed, officials said Friday. Russian...

3 men in court charged with publisher attack plot - Added 4 days ago

Three men charged with plotting to attack the publisher of a novel about one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives made a brief court appearance Friday and were returned to custody. Ali Beheshti, 40, Abrar Mirza, 22, and...

UN: 80 dead, 100 wounded in Somalia fighting - Added 4 days ago

The United Nations says fighting has killed at least 80 civilians in Somalia's capital over the last two weeks. More than 100 people have been injured. U.N. humanitarian office spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs says the true...

UN in Kosovo reopens court in tense north - Added 4 days ago

International judges and prosecutors began working in Kosovo's ethnically divided north on Friday, more than six months after violent clashes forced them to evacuate. The justice workers' return to the U.N.-run...