News For Tuesday Sep 30, 2008 News For Tuesday Sep 30, 2008

World World

Troops rush in to free tour group taken from Egypt - Added 1 day ago

Egyptian and Sudanese troops, backed by European commandos, swooped down in helicopters Monday to rescue a tour group that had been kidnapped in Egypt and taken on a 10-day dash across the Sahara to the frontier of...

US Navy watches seized ship with Sudan-bound tanks - Added 1 day ago

U.S. helicopters on Monday buzzed a hijacked Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 Soviet-designed tanks and other weapons that officials fear could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia if the pirates...

Ecuador has new constitution; opposition worried - Added 1 day ago

Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa urged his opponents Monday to join his efforts to build a more just society, saying the overwhelming victory of his constitutional referendum gives him a broad mandate. "Thank...

Asset freeze sought for 2 jailed Venezuelans - Added 1 day ago

The attorney general said Monday she is seeking to freeze the assets of two Venezuelans jailed in the U.S. in a case involving the seizure of a cash-filled suitcase. Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz said her office...

Solar panels installed on Vatican roof - Added 1 day ago

The first solar panels were installed Monday on top of the papal audience hall at Vatican City. Workers began putting photovoltaic cells on the roof of the hall to convert sunlight into electricity. In sunny Rome,...

Bomb kills 1 as Indian Muslims break Ramadan fast - Added 1 day ago

A small bomb exploded at a market packed with Muslims breaking their Ramadan fast in western India Monday, killing one person and wounding 15, police said. Two of the wounded were in critical condition, a police...

IAEA chief urges Iran to end its nuclear secrecy - Added 1 day ago

A six-year probe has not ruled out the possibility that Iran may be running clandestine nuclear programs, the chief U.N nuclear inspector said Monday, urging Iran to reassure the world by ending its secretive ways. At...

Al-Qaida criticizes Pakistani leaders in new video - Added 1 day ago

A new video message purportedly by al-Qaida criticizes Pakistani leaders _ both past and present _ and accuses them of having no concern for the welfare of Muslims. Monday's message was posted on militant Web sites...

Car bomb targets Lebanese troops, killing 5 people - Added 1 day ago

A remote control car bomb packed with ball bearings ripped through a military bus Monday, killing four soldiers and a civilian in a city that has been tormented by sectarian violence, Lebanese officials said. It was...

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The House has decided to reconvene Thursday after markets nosedive on bailout defeat. ...

Austria is stunned by right's election gains - Added 1 day ago

Austrians struggled Monday to understand the reasons behind a resurgence of the far right, a day after the country's two anti-immigration parties soared to almost 30 percent of the vote. Some experts suggested the...

Iraq says doctors can carry guns for protection - Added 1 day ago

Iraq will allow doctors to carry guns to protect themselves after hundreds have been targeted and killed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the government said Monday. The government also ordered the Health Ministry to...

Afghan policeman opens fire on US troops, kills 1 - Added 1 day ago

An Afghan policeman opened fire on U.S. troops at a police station, killing an American soldier and wounding three, officials said Monday. An American commander said U.S. forces in the station in eastern Afghanistan...

As rivals take aim, Britain's Brown bounces back - Added 1 day ago

Prime Minister Gordon Brown began a new work week Monday with the cushion of a positive poll as his Conservative Party rivals held their annual conference. The poll follows a speech by Brown last week to his Labour...

Iraq buys 12 US-made reconnaissance planes - Added 1 day ago

Iraq has bought 12 new U.S.-built reconnaissance planes to monitor militants and the borders, the Defense Ministry said Monday, a small step in the country's attempt to reassert itself in air space now controlled by...

US: Belarus vote that shut out opposition flawed - Added 1 day ago

Parliamentary elections in Belarus that shut out the opposition fell short of democratic standards despite the authoritarian president's promise to play by Western rules, the U.S. and international observers said...

Al-Maliki says security pact in US, Iraqi interest - Added 1 day ago

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Monday that the government is ready to compromise to reach a security accord with the United States because Iraq still needs American troops despite the drop in violence. In an...

Zimbabweans overwhelm banks to withdraw cash - Added 1 day ago

Banking authorities raised the daily withdrawal limit in Zimbabwe, prompting tens of thousands to line up Monday in desperate hopes of getting enough cash for groceries before spiraling inflation eats away more value. ...

Sudan: Darfur aid flight shot down, 4 crew dead - Added 1 day ago

An aid helicopter for the U.N.-African Union mission in Darfur was shot down outside a refugee camp on Monday, killing all four crew members and scattering debris over a half-mile, Sudanese police and the U.N. said. ...

7.3 quake strikes outer New Zealand islands - Added 1 day ago

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck near New Zealand's remote and largely uninhabited Kermadec Islands early Tuesday, New Zealand's GNS Science geological agency said. New Zealand's Ministry of Civil Defense issued no...

7,500 Mexicans evacuate; flooding shuts oil wells - Added 1 day ago

Mexican officials have evacuated 7,500 people and are keeping oil wells shut in Veracruz due to severe flooding from heavy rains along Mexico's Gulf coast. The state's top civil protection official, Ranulfo Marquez,...

Israelis welcome Jewish New Year - Added 1 day ago

Israelis ushered in the Jewish New Year on Monday with festive family dinners _ and a warning from their outgoing prime minister that they'll have to return virtually all the land captured in 1967 to win peace with the...

China marks Olympics, spacewalk for National Day - Added 1 day ago

China kicked off its National Day celebrations Monday by highlighting its hosting of the Beijing Olympics and the country's first spacewalk, two hard-won successes in a tumultuous year marked by natural disasters,...

Some of the major attacks in Pakistan since 2007 - Added 1 day ago

Some of the deadliest attacks on Pakistani government or military targets since the siege of the Red Mosque in July 2007: _ Sept. 22, 2008 _ A suicide car bomber attacks an army post at Badain in the Swat valley,...

Suicide attacks kill 1,188 in Pakistan since '07 - Added 1 day ago

Suicide attacks have killed nearly 1,200 people in Pakistan since July 2007, most of them civilians, according to military statistics Monday that underscored the ferocity of the threat facing the U.S. ally in the war on...

Brazil says Amazon destruction is up sharply - Added 1 day ago

Brazilian officials say the Amazon is being deforested more than twice as fast as last year. They blame higher global food prices for a sharp increase in illegal logging as soy farmers and cattle ranchers clear rain...

Bomb hits Sri Lanka capital, fighting kills 21 - Added 1 day ago

Suspected Tamil separatists set off a bomb in a parking lot in Sri Lanka's capital Monday, wounding three people a day after fighting in the country's intensifying civil war killed 20 rebels and one soldier, the...

300 EU monitors in place to watch Russian pullback - Added 1 day ago

Almost 300 monitors from 22 EU nations were in place Monday to oversee Russia's promised troop withdrawal from the large swaths of Georgia it has occupied since a war in August. But the troop withdrawal, which begins...

Bulgarian poet Konstantin Pavlov dies at 75 - Added 1 day ago

Poet and screenwriter Konstantin Pavlov, who became one of Bulgaria's most prominent intellectuals with his rare defiance of the country's communist regime, has died, a filmmakers union said. He was 75. Pavlov died...

Cadbury says Chinese-made chocolate have melamine - Added 1 day ago

A Cadbury spokesman says preliminary results show its Chinese-made chocolates contain the industrial chemical melamine. The spokesman said Monday it was too early to say how much melamine the chocolates contained. He...

2 trapped Filipino miners rescued after one week - Added 1 day ago

Two gold miners were rescued Monday after being trapped for a week in a flooded underground tunnel in the mountainous northern Philippines, raising hopes that 12 other missing miners are also still alive, officials...

Czech agency: Spies interested in missile defense - Added 1 day ago

A Czech intelligence agency says foreign intelligence services operating in the Czech Republic have been trying to gather information about a planned U.S. missile defense facility on Czech territory. The Military...

UK: Prince Charles to mark 60th with 2 parties - Added 1 day ago

Not one, but two, royal affairs are in the works to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Prince of Wales. Queen Elizabeth plans to host one party for her son, Prince Charles, at Buckingham Palace. A second, private,...

Suicide bomber kills 3 at checkpoint in Algeria - Added 1 day ago

A suicide bomber killed three people and injured six as he blew up his explosives-laden car at a military checkpoint east of Algeria's capital, a local security official said Monday. The attack occurred in the Dellys...

Sarkozy's son acquitted of fleeing accident scene - Added 1 day ago

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's son was acquitted Monday of accusations he fled the scene of a 2005 scooter accident. The Paris court also ordered plaintiff M'Hamed Bellouti to pay euro2,000 ($2,928) in damages to...

Excerpts of Iraq PM comments on US deal - Added 1 day ago

Excerpts of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's interview Monday with The Associated Press on the status of a deal being negotiated to set the terms to continue a U.S. military presence in Iraq: _____ "We regard...

Fire at London children's hospital injures 4 - Added 1 day ago

A fire broke out early Monday at one of Britain's biggest children's hospitals, injuring four firefighters and forcing the hospital's cardiac wing to evacuate. The fire began on the fifth floor in the Great Ormond...

Norwegian princess gives birth to third child - Added 1 day ago

Princess Martha Louise gave birth to her third child, a daughter named Emma Tallulaha, on Monday, the Norwegian royal family announced. A news release from the palace in Oslo said Martha Louise and husband Ari Behn's...

Former Dutch Defense Minister Ter Beek dies - Added 1 day ago

Former Dutch Defense Minister Relus ter Beek, who abolished the draft and sent troops to an ill-fated United Nations peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, died Monday of lung cancer aged 64, the government announced. Ter...

Olmert says peace requires Israeli withdrawals - Added 1 day ago

Israel will have to give up virtually all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem if it wants peace with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a farewell interview published Monday. Olmert, who began talks...

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Cadbury spokesman says preliminary test results show melamine in its Chinese-made chocolates. ...

Egypt: Kidnapped 19-member European tour released - Added 1 day ago

A rescue mission has freed 19 European and Egyptian hostages and killed several of the kidnappers who snatched the tour group more than a week ago during a desert safari, Egypt's state news agency and television...

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Italian media quotes foreign minister as saying all hostages taken in Egypt have been freed. ...

UN: 20,000 flee from Pakistan into Afghanistan - Added 1 day ago

The United Nations says 20,000 Pakistani refugees have fled to Afghanistan to avoid fighting between militants and Pakistan's military. The U.N.'s refugee agency says nearly 4,000 Pakistani families have fled...

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Algerian media say suicide bomber kills three people and injures six east of the capital. ...

Syria says suicide attacker behind weekend bombing - Added 1 day ago

The attack that killed 17 people in Damascus this weekend was carried out by a suicide bomber who belonged to a Muslim extremist group, Syria's state-run media said Monday. The official news agency SANA and state...

Austria stunned by right's election gains - Added 1 day ago

Austria's governing coalition is in turmoil after losing seats in parliament and watching two far-right parties make big gains in national elections. The conservative Austrian People's Party and the Social Democrats...

4 Afghan bodyguards die in attack on politician - Added 1 day ago

Gunmen targeting an Afghan provincial council chief killed four of his bodyguards, while a Taliban leader died in an airstrike in central Afghanistan, officials said Monday. Gunmen in the southern city of Kandahar...

US ambassador appeals for patience in Iraq - Added 1 day ago

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Sunday accused Iran of trying to interfere with a new security pact between Iraq and the United States, and said Americans need to view Iraq with "a sense of strategic patience" because...

New Thai prime minister faces investigation - Added 1 day ago

Thailand's Election Commission opened an investigation Monday into whether new Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat should resign for violating the constitution, less than a month after a similar process ousted his...