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Australia: Lebanon claims it is searching for six people who flew from Beirut to Australia after the assassination of its former prime minister Rafik Hariri - leaving TNT traces on aircraft seats.
The Herald understands that counter-terrorism officers from the Federal Police did interview a small number of Australians returning from Lebanon after the bombing, but a source dismissed reports that a dozen people suspected of being linked to the Beirut bombing had been arrested at Sydney Airport. Read here for more
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USA:A threat by the biggest U.S. Presbyterian church group to dump investments in companies profiting from Israel's occupation of the West Bank and related strife has set off a wave of dissent in the church and angered American Jewish leaders.
But those in the 2.5-million-member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) backing the move see it as a response to human rights violations consistent with the approach it took against South Africa two decades ago when the group used divestment as a pocketbook weapon trying to fight apartheid.
Israel's occupation "is at the center of the cycle of violence in the region -- whether it is suicide bombings or the displacement caused by the occupation ... and impedes a peaceful solution to that conflict," the committee now picking out possible divestment targets said recently.
The church's General Assembly which set the matter in motion in July called for a "phased, selective divestment" beginning no earlier than July 2006, the next time the governing body meets. One dissident group, however, wants a moratorium placed on the whole project now and is asking the church's interim leadership to do so as early as next month. Read here for more
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Palestine: An Italian peace activist has suffered a broken jaw and concussion after being attacked by a group of Jewish settlers in southern West Bank, a peace group said.The incident occurred on Wednesday when a group of international peace activists were accompanying Palestinian shepherds as they grazed their flocks on their land, which lies near the Havat Maon settlement outpost at the southernmost tip of the West Bank.
According to Sally Hunsberger, a US national working with the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) who witnessed the attack, two settlers approached her and two other Italian peace activists on a hillside near the outpost.
Relations between the settlers and the Christian activists have never been good.
Jewish settlers, indoctrinated by a staunchly anti-Christian ideology, routinely throw rocks and shout obscenities at them. Read here for more
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Israel: Palestinian woman has been forced to deliver her baby at an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank. The 25-year-old woman was forced to give birth to her baby at the Qalandia military checkpoint on Thursday after Israeli soldiers blocked her passage.
It was the first time Aljazeera was on hand to record a woman in labour being prevented from proceeding to the maternity ward to deliver her child.
Nivin with her newborn baby boy, Abd Allah
The woman, a resident of Jerusalem, who gave only her first name, Nivin, found herself in labour at the checkpoint on her way to al-Quds hospital. Her pleas to Israeli occupation soldiers to allow her through were to no avail.
"No offer of assistance came from the occupation soldiers, such as calling an ambulance" she said. Read here for more
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Iraq: Suicide bombers shattered a day of prayers at two Shia mosques and at a religious procession Friday, killing at least 27 people and injuring dozens more on on the eve of Shia Islam's most important holiday, officials said.
Read here for more
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Iraq: The Pentagon has found that Iraqi insurgents can conduct up to 60 strikes a day and occasionally more, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Thursday."We've tracked the number of attacks per day and what they can do is 50 to 60 attacks that they are able to conduct countrywide, with spikes. And that seems to be their capacity," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers told the Senate Armed Services Committee.Read here for more
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Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is convinced Iran is NOT trying to develop nuclear weapons and that Russia will continue cooperating with Iran on its nuclear program, according to Russia's Interfax news agency.Read here for more
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Japan: The United States and Japan will declare Saturday for the first time in a joint agreement that Taiwan is a mutual security concern, according to a draft of the document. Analysts called the move a demonstration of Japan's willingness to confront the rapidly growing might of China.
The United States has long focused attention on the Chinese government's threat to use military force against Taiwan if the island, which China views as a renegade province, moves toward independence. Until now, Japan has been content to let the United States bear the brunt of Beijing's displeasure.
Japan has generally been inclined to sidestep conflict with China. But in recent years, China has dramatically modernized its military while expanding its sphere of influence in Asia on the strength of its booming economy. The effort to extend its reach has included exploring for natural gas near Japanese-claimed waters only 110 miles north of Taiwan and countering Japan's claims to exclusive economic zones in the Pacific.Read here for more
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Iran: A Russian deal to provide Iran with nuclear fuel in defiance of the United States was likely to rekindle fears of confrontation.
Under the deal, spent fuel would be sent back to Siberian storage units after about a decade of use -- a condition Russia thinks should allay U.S. concerns that Iran could use the material to make weapons.
Word of the Russian agreement came one day after Iranian state television shook world markets -- already worried about any possible U.S. or Israeli intervention -- by reporting an explosion near the Russian-built nuclear power plant.
The explosion was later attributed to work during dam construction, but only AFTER reports of the blast were flashed around the world.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani, saw a calculated campaign by the United States and the Western media. "Reports of a strike were false and are psychological warfare," against Iran's legitimate nuclear program, he said.Read here for more
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China: China denounced a U.S. assessment that its weapons buildup is tilting the balance of power in the Taiwan Straits, and it said the comments sent the wrong signal to Taiwan, the self-governing island Beijing claims as its own. Porter Goss, the U.S. director of central intelligence, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Wednesday that China's capabilities threaten U.S. forces in the region. Read here for more
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United Nations: U.N. team monitoring sanctions on al-Qaida predicted Tuesday there will be an escalation in the brutality of terrorist attacks, saying the network remains determined to strike around the world. Terrorism involving al-Qaida and weapons of mass destruction remains among the paramount global threats, the team said in a report.
Al-Qaida still had a strong interest in acquiring chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, and it was only "a matter of time" before a successful attack occurs, the report said. Read here for more
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Lebanon:To understand who assassinated Rafik al-Hariri, don’t go further than the $1.5 billion US Embassy currently under construction in Baghdad. The new embassy, the largest of its kind in the world, will facilitate 1,800 employees and serve as the regional nerve center for American political and economic activity. What does this have to do with al Hariri?
Hariri’s assassination provides the raison d'être for severing ties with Syria and for transforming Lebanon into a US vassal. This conforms nicely with Israel’s ambition to surround itself with non-threatening states as well as affording access to the vital water resources of Lebanon’s Wazzani River.
In other words, the murder of al Hariri has created some extremely fortunate opportunities for both Israel and the US; merging seamlessly with their overall objectives in the region.
If Washington’s plan to control Middle East oil does not succeed, the dollar is headed for the landfill. There’s no way that the world will continue to hold paper that represents $8 trillion worth of debt unless that happens to be the only way they can purchase the oil that’s essential to their industries.
The Bush administration is on a tight “time-line” which requires ham-fisted tactics to play out on city streets in foreign capitals. The murder of al Hariri fits conveniently within this regional strategy.
The likelihood that Syria was involved in the assassination is zilch.
Few people realize that Syria provided more assistance in the first year of the war on terror after 9-11 than any other nation.
That’s of little consequence now, as the US is on a mission to quickly integrate the entire region beneath the American standard. Read here for more
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USA: The day after the State of the Union Address, two Interpol fugitives attended the "National Prayer Breakfast" held in Washington DC.
The day before that, these fugitives from the law were the guests of honor at an hour-long meeting of the International Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, invited by ranking Democrat Tom Lantos (Calif.)
You would think it would be hot news when wanted men being hunted by European police suddenly pop up in the US particularly on Capitol Hill and at events attended by the US president.
Yet, there was NOT a single AP story in the US on any of this.
Not a single national network television or radio news program even mentioned these facts.
In fact, Google and LexisNexis searches four days after these events took place turned up only three newspaper articles on them anywhere in the entire country.
Who are these fugitives from the law, wanted by Interpol, who are meeting at the highest levels of the US government?
And why didn't we learn of them?
Therein lies the story.
They are Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov, Israeli-Russian partners in the giant Russian oil company Yukos. They, along with a number of their cronies, are wanted by Interpol for allegedly bilking Russian citizens out of billions of dollars.
To elude Russian prosecution, these men have taken up residence in Israel.
The fact is that Israel is an important factor in the ongoing, nation-shaking power struggle now going on in Russia.
Yet AP virtually NEVER reports this connection.
For example, a few months ago in a typical AP story on this power struggle:"Report: Russia again charges Berezovsky,"
Moscow AP Bureau Chief Judith Ingram makes NO mention anywhere that Berezovsky is an Israeli citizen, or of his many connections to Israel.
Such omissions by AP and large swaths of the American media leave Americans seriously disadvantaged in deciphering what is going on in Russia, and its profound significance for the world. Read here for more
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