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(04/01/08 2:52am)
The fortified Green Zone came under fresh attack Monday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces. Al-Sadr’s order stopped short of disarming his fighters and left the militia intact in a blow to the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew to the southern oil city of Basra a week ago to personally oversee a crackdown on militia violence.
(04/01/08 2:49am)
The fortified Green Zone came under fresh attack Monday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces. Al-Sadr’s order stopped short of disarming his fighters and left the militia intact in a blow to the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew to the southern oil city of Basra a week ago to personally oversee a crackdown on militia violence.
(03/28/08 2:58am)
A mother killed her two children and later went to the nearby college she attended and brandished a gun Thursday before handing the weapon to a health counselor, police said. The threat at the University of Louisville ended with no injuries about half an hour after it began, but police who were then asked by school officials to check on the children found them dead with gunshot wounds. Gail Lynn Coontz, 37, is charged with murder in the deaths of 14-year-old Greg Coontz and 10-year-old Nikki Coontz, said Louisville police Officer Phil Russell.
(03/26/08 2:55am)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that he cannot rule out the possibility he might boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics if China continues its crackdown in Tibet. An official from France’s state television company said the broadcaster would likely boycott the games if coverage was censored, and the European Union, United States, Australia and Canada urged China to show restraint as it tries to quell continuing unrest in its Tibetan areas.
(03/25/08 4:03am)
A longtime loyalist of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was elected Pakistan’s new prime minister Monday and immediately freed judges detained by President Pervez Musharraf. The release of the judges was a powerful symbol of Musharraf’s slipping authority since Bhutto’s party swept parliamentary elections last month. The newly elected prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, will form a new government dominated by Musharraf’s foes, who have vowed to slash the U.S.-backed president’s sweeping powers and review his counterterrorism policies.
(03/24/08 2:47am)
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf hailed the start of a “new era of real democracy” in Pakistan and vowed Sunday to support an incoming government led by foes bent on diminishing his powers. “The journey toward democracy and development we started eight years ago is now reaching its destination,” said the former army strongman, who seized power in a 1999 coup. “A new era of real democracy has begun.” The U.S.-backed leader was speaking at a military parade celebrating Pakistan’s national day.
(03/21/08 3:17am)
The Dalai Lama offered Thursday to meet with Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, but said he would not travel to Beijing unless there was a “real concrete development” in relations between the government and Tibet. Chinese officials said they would talk with the Dalai Lama on the condition that he “stopped separatist activities” and recognized Tibet and Taiwan as parts of China. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly offered to meet with Chinese leaders and has long maintained he is not seeking independence for Tibet but wants dialogue aimed at giving Tibetans autonomy under Chinese rule.
(03/19/08 3:55am)
Rallying troops after an overnight stay at an air base, Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that as long as freedom is suppressed in the Mideast, the region will remain a place of “stagnation, resentment and violence ready for export.” “You and I know what it means to be free,” Cheney told the troops at an outdoor rally.
(03/18/08 3:01am)
David Paterson was officially sworn in as New York’s governor on Monday, becoming the state’s first black chief executive and vowing to move past the prostitution scandal that has rocked the state Capitol. Paterson, who is legally blind, was interrupted at several times during his address with thunderous applause. “This transition today is an historic message to the world: that we live by the same values that we profess, and we are a government of laws, not individuals,” Paterson said.
(03/17/08 3:39am)
Two people in rural northwest Georgia are dead and dozens injured after a series of severe storms moved through the state, producing the first-ever tornado to hit downtown Atlanta. A woman was killed in Polk County early Saturday afternoon when a storm demolished her home and threw her and her husband into a field, while an elderly man in neighboring Floyd County was killed by flying debris as he sat in his home. In Atlanta, crews began cleaning up debris and broken glass Saturday from the tornado that struck the city with little warning the previous night. The storm cut a 6-mile path of destruction through the city with winds gusting up to 130 miles per hour, leaving homes crushed by centuries-old trees and numerous windows shattered in high-rise office buildings and hotels.
(03/07/08 4:37am)
A Russian arms dealer accused of breaking U.N. arms embargoes by supplying weapons to African war zones was arrested Thursday in Bangkok, Thailand, police there said. Viktor Bout was arrested in the heart of the capital city on a warrant issued by a Thai court, said police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan, head of the Crime Suppression Bureau. The warrant stemmed from an earlier one issued by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, he said.
(03/06/08 4:17am)
Despite losing several states, Sen. Barack Obama regained lost ground in the fierce competition for Democratic convention delegates on Wednesday based on results from the Texas caucuses, partially negating the impact of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s string of comeback primary victories. Late returns showed Clinton emerged from Rhode Island, Vermont, Texas and Ohio with a gain of 12 delegates on her rival for the night, with another dozen yet to be awarded in The Associated Press’ count. That left Obama with an overall lead of 101 delegates, 1,562-1,461, as the rivals look ahead to the final dozen contests on the calendar. It takes 2,025 delegates to win the nomination.
(03/05/08 3:13am)
Russia and China on Tuesday scuttled a Western attempt to introduce a resolution on Iran’s nuclear defiance at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, diplomats said. The decision appeared to be the result of lingering unhappiness by the two world powers about not being informed earlier of plans for such a resolution. It came a day after the U.N. Security Council imposed another round of sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. Iran defiantly vowed to continue its nuclear program, which it insists is aimed only at generating power.
(02/29/08 4:29am)
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Kenya’s rival politicians have reached an agreement. Annan offered no immediate details on the deal Thursday. His announcement comes after weeks of talks between negotiators for President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga about sharing power. The two sides both claim to have won the country’s Dec. 27 presidential election, a dispute that has sparked deadly violence nationwide.
(02/27/08 4:40am)
Mediator Kofi Annan said he has suspended talks between Kenya’s government and the opposition to end the country’s deadly postelection crisis. The talks have dragged on for weeks with no tangible progress. Annan said he will speak to the rival leaders personally to try to rejuvenate them.
(02/26/08 4:47am)
Northern Illinois University students returned to campus Monday ready to get on with their semesters, even as the deadly shooting rampage of 10 days ago weighed heavily on their minds. Students wearing red lapel pins in honor of their school colors returned to lectures and labs as classes began for the first times since the Feb. 14 shootings, in which former NIU graduate student Steve Kazmierczak opened fire on students – killing five and wounding 16 – before committing suicide.
(02/22/08 5:01am)
Pakistan’s two main opposition parties announced Thursday they would form a new government together after their victory over President Pervez Musharraf’s allies in elections this week. The two leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto and the Pakistan Muslim League led by Nawaz Sharif made the announcement at a joint news conference after meeting in Islamabad. “We have agreed on a common agenda. We will work together to form a government together in the center and in the provinces,” Sharif said.
(02/20/08 4:37am)
Amtrak will start randomly screening passengers’ carry-on bags this week in a new security push that includes officers with automatic weapons and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains. The initiative, to be announced by the railroad on Tuesday, is a significant shift for Amtrak. Unlike the airlines, it has had relatively little visible increase in security since the 2001 terrorist attacks, a distinction that has enabled it to attract passengers eager to avoid airport hassles. Amtrak officials insist their new procedures won’t hold up the flow of passengers.
(02/19/08 3:47am)
Former President George H.W. Bush endorsed Sen. John McCain on Monday, a nod of approval from the Republican political dynasty’s patriarch that sends a strong signal to a GOP establishment wary of the Arizona senator. “No one is better prepared to lead our nation at these trying times than Sen. John McCain,” Bush said, standing alongside the Republican nominee-in-waiting in an airport hanger.
(02/15/08 4:54am)
A senior Justice Department official told Congress on Thursday that laws and other limits enacted since three terrorism suspects were waterboarded have eliminated the technique from what is now allowed. “The program as it is authorized today does not include waterboarding,” Steven G. Bradbury, acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, told the House subcommittee on the Constitution. “There has been no determination by the Justice Department that the use of waterboarding under any circumstances would be lawful under current law,” he added.