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/ 22 October 2007
The prospect of a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq in pursuit of fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) drew closer on Sunday after another round of clashes in the mountainous frontier region that left at least 12 Turkish soldiers and 23 PKK guerrillas dead, and saw a number of Turkish troops captured by the rebel group.
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/ 21 October 2007
Kurdish rebels killed at least 12 Turkish soldiers and wounded 16 others in an ambush on Sunday, prompting Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to call crisis talks to consider a military strike against rebel bases in Iraq. The attack came four days after Turkey’s Parliament approved a motion to allow troops to enter northern Iraq.
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/ 19 October 2007
The Pakistan government blamed Islamist militants for twin blasts early on Friday that killed 133 people as opposition leader Benazir Bhutto drove through masses of supporters in Karachi. Bhutto, travelling in a truck reinforced to withstand bomb attacks, was unhurt by the deadliest bomb attack in her country’s violent history.
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/ 19 October 2007
A suspected suicide bomber killed 133 people on Friday in an attack on former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, as she was driven through Karachi to greet supporters on her return from eight years in exile. Bhutto was unhurt in one of the deadliest attacks in her country’s history.
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/ 18 October 2007
A suspected suicide bomber killed at least 115 people and wounded 100 on Friday in an attack targeting a vehicle carrying former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto through Karachi on her return from eight years in exile. Bhutto was safe and at her home after leaving the truck that had been transporting her.
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/ 18 October 2007
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto ended eight years of self-exile on Thursday, returning to Karachi where more than 200Â 000 supporters poured on to the streets to welcome her home. ”I am thankful to God, I am very happy that I’m back in my country and I was dreaming of this day,” said Bhutto.
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/ 18 October 2007
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ended eight years of self-exile on Thursday, making a comeback that could eventually lead to power sharing with President Pervez Musharraf. ”I am thankful to God, I am very happy that I’m back in my country and I was dreaming of this day,” said a sobbing Bhutto.
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/ 18 October 2007
Russia launched an inter-continental ballistic missile on Thursday from its Plesetsk cosmodrome in the north of the country, a Russian military spokesperson said. The RS-12M Topol’, called the SS-25 Sickle by Nato and configured for a mobile platform, was successfully launched at 9.10am Moscow time.
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/ 18 October 2007
Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto set out on Thursday on a journey home to end eight years of self-exile, under threat of assassination from militants linked to al-Qaeda once she reaches Karachi. For years Bhutto had promised to return to Pakistan to end military dictatorship, yet she is coming back as a potential ally for President Pervez Musharraf.
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/ 17 October 2007
The Turkish Parliament Wednesday voted to allow military strikes against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, despite stiff United States opposition and appeals from Baghdad for time to purge the rebels. A government motion seeking a one-year authorisation for one or more incursions into Iraq was approved.
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/ 16 October 2007
Turkey on Tuesday accused Washington of playing "petty" politics and threatened reprisals if the United States Congress votes on a motion branding the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks an act of genocide. "We see that common sense is gradually losing ground to petty political calculations," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
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/ 14 October 2007
Senior United States officials were engaged on Saturday night in last-ditch efforts to persuade Turkey not to launch a major military incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan to target armed separatists. A team was diverted from a mission to Russia to make an unscheduled stop in Ankara on Saturday.
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/ 12 October 2007
A diplomatic rift between Turkey and the United States deepened on Friday after Ankara recalled its ambassador to Washington over a vote in the US Congress to label the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks an act of genocide. The envoy’s recall came as the White House sought to mollify its Nato partner.
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/ 12 October 2007
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened on Friday in talks with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to abandon a key nuclear-missile treaty, while also telling Washington to freeze plans for a European anti-missile shield. The Kremlin leader said the Cold War-era INF treaty limiting Russian and US short- and medium-range missiles was outmoded.
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/ 11 October 2007
Russia’s latest outburst of passive-aggressive paranoia, aimed at Britain in particular, may reflect a realisation in the Kremlin that Western resistance to its perceived bullying of neighbours, disdain for civil and human rights, and cut-throat energy policy is growing after years of blind eyes, held noses and wishful thinking.
A volcano on a Yemeni island in the Red Sea was spewing a deadly mix of lava and ash for the third straight day on Tuesday, after erupting for the first time since the 19th century. Yemeni authorities said three soldiers had been killed during the eruption on the island of Jabal al-Tair, home to a garrison of 50 soldiers.
At least eight Yemeni soldiers were killed in a volcanic eruption on an island off the country’s Red Sea coast, the government said on Monday. A Defence Ministry official said the western part of the island had "collapsed" following the eruption. Yemen’s oil minister said several earthquakes felt on Sunday had triggered the eruption.
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/ 30 September 2007
A suicide bomber killed 28 Afghan troops and two civilians on Saturday in an attack on an army bus in Kabul, the Afghan president said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in the Afghan capital since the hard-line Islamist movement was ousted from power for harbouring al-Qaeda leaders.
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/ 26 September 2007
Nato and United States-led troops backed up by warplanes said on Wednesday they had killed nearly 170 Taliban in two major battles in southern Afghanistan, while a US-led coalition soldier also died. The heaviest of the fighting with the Islamic insurgents erupted on Tuesday in the volatile southern province of Helmand.
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/ 24 September 2007
Two Italian soldiers kidnapped in western Afghanistan last week were freed in a raid by Nato-led forces early on Monday, Italy’s Defence Ministry said. The soldiers were wounded during the raid to free them, one of them seriously, the ministry said, adding that they had been taken to a hospital.
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/ 24 September 2007
An explosion killed two people and injured 11 when it tore through shops early on Monday in the capital of Serbia’s breakaway Kosovo province. The explosion scattered glass and debris from a dozen shops on Pristina’s Bill Clinton Boulevard. Part of a building collapsed.
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/ 21 September 2007
Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf appointed a new military spy chief and made several other promotions on Friday, days after announcing his plan to step down as head of the army. Appointments are closely watched in Pakistan, as generals have ruled for more than half of the 60 years since the country was founded.
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/ 13 September 2007
Russia’s military on Wednesday announced that it had successfully tested a lethal new air-delivered bomb, which it described as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear weapon. Officials said Moscow had developed the new thermobaric bomb to add to its already potent nuclear arsenal.
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/ 13 September 2007
Major clashes between Taliban and security forces in Afghanistan left 56 rebels dead while an Afghan soldier and a Bangladeshi aid worker were also reported killed, officials said on Thursday. The deadliest of the incidents kicked off with an ambush on Afghan and coalition troops who called in air support.
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/ 12 September 2007
The United States launches a new military command for Africa in Germany next month, with small teams of key staff, but no troops, based on the continent, a senior US defence official said on Wednesday. The Africa Command will initially work from Stuttgart, and have a year to prepare six locations in as yet unidentified African countries.
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/ 8 September 2007
General David Petraeus, the commander of United States forces in Iraq, admitted on Friday that sending 30 000 more troops into the war zone in January had failed to yield the desired results. ”It has not worked out as we had hoped,” the general said.
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/ 4 September 2007
A lone South African submarine left some Nato commanders with red faces on Tuesday as it ”sank” all the ships of the Nato Maritime Group engaged in exercises with the South African Navy off the Cape coast. The SAS Manthatisi not only evaded detection by a joint Nato and South African Navy search party, it also ”sank” all the ships taking part in the fleet.
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/ 3 September 2007
Forget the blazing guns of yesteryear — these days naval warfare is a high-tech and sophisticated operation. This became clear on Monday as an exercise involving Nato warships and the South African Navy got under way off the South African coast.
The United Nations reported on Monday that there had been a ”frightening” explosion in opium production in Afghanistan with Helmand province, where Britain has 7 000 troops deployed, leading the way. A record crop means that the country now accounts for 93% of the world’s supply and the situation is getting worse daily despite billions being spent to eradicate the trade since 2001.
More than 100 suspected insurgents were killed in a battle with United States-led troops in southern Afghanistan, the US military said on Wednesday. The battle erupted after a convoy of Afghan and US coalition forces came under attack in the Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province, it said in a statement.
Taliban insurgents will release 19 South Korean Christian volunteers they have been holding for more than a month in Afghanistan, South Korea’s presidential Blue House said on Tuesday. The announcement followed the resumption of negotiations that had been on hold for two weeks.
The United Kingdom’s drug policy in Afghanistan’s Helmand province lay in tatters on Monday as the United Nations declared a ”frightening” explosion in opium production across the country, led by Taliban-backed farmers in the volatile south. Opium production soared by 34% to 8 200 tonnes.