USA
Security Guard Fires From Convoy, Killing Iraqi Driver
Witnesses said that a taxi driver who was shot and killed by a guard with DynCorp International, a private security company, had posed no threat.
A New Channel for Soft Money Starts Flowing
Hundreds of millions of dollars are expected to pour into groups built to sway voters outside of campaign law limitations.
‘I’ll Sell My Soul to the Devil’
Sweeping federal scandal probe is reaching into top tier of Alaska’s well-oiled political hierarchy.
19,500 U.S. prisoners could get early release
Reduced sentences could result in a bid to fix cocaine laws that target crack – and jail blacks longer.
The early release of 19,500 inmates could result as officials try to address perceived unfairness in sentencing under federal cocaine laws.
Middle East
Hurdles Stall Plan For Iraqi Recruits
U.S. struggles to manage nearly 70,000 mainly Sunni fighters as Shiite-controlled government resists incorporating them into police and army
Inside the green zone
David Smith shares his reflections on being out on patrol with the US 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment in Baghdad.
I made way into Baghdad via the US army base in Kuwait. Waiting there in a tent with uniformed US soldiers, some entering Iraq for the first time, I could see the range of expressions on their young faces.
Europe
Italy fans rampage after killing
Italian football fans have reacted violently inside and outside stadiums following the police shooting of a Lazio supporter.Gabriele Sandri, 26, was shot in what police called a “tragic error” as they tried to stop violence between rival fans at a motorway stop in Tuscany.
Loyalists lay down arms in N. Ireland
Northern Ireland’s largest loyalist paramilitary force announced Sunday that it will put its weapons aside, another step toward ending the low-level violence that besets the region despite the election of a power-sharing government this year.In a statement timed to coincide with a holiday commemorating war victims across Britain, the Ulster Defense Assn., or UDA, said its military wing would stand down and put its weapons out of reach.
Latin America
Chavez in Spanish king coup jibe
The spat between Spain’s king and Venezuela’s president took a new turn as Hugo Chavez demanded to know the monarch’s knowledge of a 2002 coup
Africa
Hundreds of thousands of women raped for being on the wrong side
“This thing of rape,” said Colonel Edmond Ngarambe, shifting uneasily on his wooden bench high in the mountains of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, “I can’t deny that happens. We are human beings. But it’s not just us. The Mai Mai, the government soldiers who are not paid, the Rastas do the same thing. And some people sent by our enemies do it to cause anger against us.”
Somalis flee Mogadishu violence
Somali government troops and Ethiopian forces have closed down Mogadishu’s main market to search for insurgents.Insurgents fired mortar rounds at the presidential palace in Mogadishu on Sunday, prompting an artillery duel with government forces.
Asia
Indian state paralysed over land grab demo violence
KOLKATA, India (AFP) – India’s state of West Bengal came to a standstill Monday at the start of an indefinite strike called in protest at the killing of villagers opposed to the establishment of a massive industrial park.Bus and train services were disrupted and businesses shut as the strike, called by parties opposed to the state’s ruling Marxists, took effect, amid reports of fresh tensions in Nandigram, one of the hotspots of recent violence.
China Cracks Down On Critical Journalist
Pang Jiaoming’s career as a reporter ends following two stories pointing to Communist Party’s substandard construction practices.
1 comments
My first read every morning. Keep em’ coming.