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/ 6 February 2008
Funny, isn’t it, how we have come this far in the United States election campaign, reaching the milestone of results from 24 states in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and still a mystery remains. What, exactly, do these warring candidates stand for?
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/ 27 January 2008
Sudan summoned the top United States diplomat in Khartoum saying he had interfered in the internal affairs of the country and rejected US criticism of the appointment of Musa Hilal to a central government post. US Charge D’Affaires Alberto Fernandez told Reuters that Khartoum’s lack of implementation of internal peace accords had created an environment of distrust.
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/ 15 January 2008
At least three people were killed in an explosion that damaged a United States diplomatic car in Beirut on Tuesday and wounded a US passenger, security sources said. The sources said a total of 16 people were wounded in the explosion, which occurred in a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut. They said no US personnel were killed.
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/ 10 January 2008
Impoverished Zimbabwean farmers have to show they are loyal members of the ruling party if they want free equipment that the government is offering, and opposition supporters have been threatened with dogs, independent democracy monitors said on Thursday.
Australian police launched a criminal investigation on Wednesday after the Israeli, United States and British embassies were sent packages containing white powder, forcing evacuation of the Israeli and American missions. ”We are treating all three as linked until we can prove otherwise,” a police spokesperson said.
Gunmen killed a United States government aid agency official and his driver in Khartoum on Tuesday, US and Sudanese officials said. The unknown assailants opened fire as the official from the US Agency for International Development was heading home in an embassy vehicle shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, diplomatic sources said.
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/ 30 November 2007
Randel Parks pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and rocked back on the heels of his cowboy boots. ”I’ve been here 30 years,” he said, staring at the ground, ”and I’ve spent most of my adult life working on this property, turning it into my piece of paradise. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let them spoil it.”
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/ 21 November 2007
A week after a cyclone killed nearly 3 500 people on the Bangladesh coast, relief workers said on Wednesday they had been able to get food, medicine and other provisions to almost all those affected. A relief operation by civil authorities and the army, navy and airforce was at full force after roads blocked by fallen trees has been cleared.
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/ 19 November 2007
Nearly four days after Bangladesh’s worst cyclone since 1991 killed at least 2Â 350 people, rescuers were struggling to reach some devastated areas and officials feared the toll could climb sharply. Media reports and Bangladesh Red Crescent Society chairperson Mohammad Abdur Rob said the death toll had already surpassed 3Â 000, and was likely to go up.
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/ 18 November 2007
Grieving survivors and rescuers picked through the rubble left in the wake of a cyclone that battered Bangladesh as the death toll reached over 2Â 200 on Sunday. Mohammad Abdur Rob, chairperson of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, said the overall death toll from the cyclone could reach 10Â 000.
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/ 5 November 2007
Pakistan police used tear gas and batons on Monday against lawyers protesting at President Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule and detentions mounted, prompting Washington to postpone defence talks. Musharraf cited spiralling militancy and hostile judges to justify Saturday’s action, and slapped reporting curbs on the media.
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/ 31 October 2007
The Turkish army on Wednesday said it killed 15 Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border, as ministers discussed possible economic sanctions against Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish government. The latest fighting took place in the Cudi Mountains in Sirnak province, where helicopters and artillery have been pounding Kurdish rebels since Monday.
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/ 25 October 2007
A man who may have been the victim of a money scam was arrested by police outside the United States embassy in Pretoria on Thursday. The man, who is in his early 40s and who was initially reported to have been planning an attack on the embassy, was praying and chanting across the street from the embassy when police were alerted.
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/ 15 October 2007
Authorities have ordered the deportation of two Americans working for a security firm that was trying to recruit Namibians to work as guards at United States facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Namibian Cabinet also recommended the closure of the local branch of the Las Vegas-based security firm, Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group.
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/ 10 October 2007
Iraqi authorities on Wednesday condemned the killing in Baghdad of two women by foreign security guards, as the firm which hired the contractors defended its action. Tuesday’s bloodbath comes just days after Iraq vowed to punish United States security firm Blackwater after a probe found that its guards opened "deliberate" fire in Baghdad three weeks ago.
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/ 10 October 2007
An American citizen arrested by police in Zimbabwe and charged with smuggling was free to leave the country after paying a fine, a US embassy official said on Tuesday. Leslie Francis Howell Jr, from Florida, was arrested at Victoria Falls airport when he tried to board a plane with two pistols and 300 rounds of ammunition.
Sudanese government troops and allied militia on Monday attacked a town belonging to the only Darfur rebel faction to sign a 2006 peace deal, rebels said. ”Government planes have attacked Muhajiriya, which belongs to us, and government forces and Janjaweed militia are fighting our forces” said Khalid Abakar, a senior representative from the Sudan Liberation Army.
Iraq has vowed to punish United States security firm Blackwater after a probe found that its guards were not provoked when they opened ”deliberate” fire in Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 civilians. The US embassy was tight-lipped on Monday on whether those involved in the September 16 killings would be handed over for prosecution.
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/ 29 September 2007
The United States on Friday warned that Somali Islamist militants might kidnap Western tourists on vulnerable Kenyan beaches. In a message to US nationals in Kenya, the US embassy in Nairobi said it had received information that Islamic extremists from southern Somalia may be planning kidnapping operations across the border.
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/ 25 September 2007
Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Monday that the United States government must be more open to discussions with Iran if it wants peace between the nations. Tutu criticised the George Bush’s administration for refusing to engage in more negotiations with Iranian officials.
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/ 22 September 2007
They needed to be hired fast after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. With too few United States soldiers on the ground, demand for private security guards was at a level not seen since the mercenary heyday of Congo in the 1960s. But the Iraq boom for private security firms is coming to an end, even without the Blackwater shooting row.
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/ 5 September 2007
Germany said on Wednesday it had foiled a ”massive” attack with the arrest of three Islamic extremists who were targeting airports, as well as bars and discotheques used by Americans. ”They were planning massive attacks,” Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms said.