World
Guantanamo military lawyer breaks ranks to condemn 'unconscionable' detention
Published: 27 October 2007
An American military lawyer and veteran of dozens of secret Guantanamo tribunals has made a devastating attack on the legal process for determining whether Guantanamo prisoners are "enemy combatants".
Survivors protest at Israel's stance on Armenian genocide
Published: 27 October 2007
She has no memory of her father or mother. She was abandoned as an infant –it almost certainly saved her life because she was found on the side of the road by an American missionary – on one of the death marches in 1915 from Gurun, in central Anatolia. Even her name was given to her by the Near East Relief orphanage in Lebanon where she grew up. Sadly, she says, most of her fellow survivors in Jerusalem of the Armenian genocide have died.
Happy birthday, Mrs President? Hillary celebrates her 60th
Published: 27 October 2007
Elvis Costello is no Marilyn Monroe, but as anyone who attended Hillary Clinton's 60th birthday bash at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre on Thursday night will attest he is as skilled as anyone at turning song into political flattery. "Happy Birthday," he crooned as the evening wound up, "Mrs President".
Search for bodies begins as wildfires subside in California
Published: 27 October 2007
As the wildfires subsided across southern California yesterday, rescue workers pressed ahead with the grim task of uncovering charred and blistered bodies from some of the 1,800 homes destroyed in five days of scorching heat and perilous desert winds.
Knickers to the general becomes latest ploy of Burmese rebels
Published: 27 October 2007
Activists seeking to pressure the Burmese regime are targeting the superstitions of its senior generals by asking for people around the world to send women's underwear to the junta.
Rice defends US sanctions on Iran as Russia objects
Published: 27 October 2007
Condoleezza Rice yesterday defended the tough new US sanctions imposed on Iran for its refusal to abandon its nuclear programme. The US Secretary of State also sought to play down differences with Russia over the best way to contain Tehran.
State minister 'encouraged massacre of 2,500 Muslims'
Published: 27 October 2007
India's largest opposition party has dismissed claims that its government in the state of Gujarat encouraged the killing of nearly 2,500 Muslims in March 2002.
Afghan Glastonbury brings music to minefield
Published: 27 October 2007
More than 170,000 Afghans packed into the country's first pop festival this week, the biggest recreational gathering since the fall of the Taliban almost six years ago and a gig that could have been dubbed Glastonbury Afghanistan. It was a far cry from the misery of suicide bombs and house-to-house fighting and like Glastonbury, it shared an agricultural theme.
Soldiers move in on militant cleric
Published: 27 October 2007
Pakistani troops and helicopter gunships attacked the village stronghold of a militant cleric yesterday, a day after a deadly suicide bombing, while militants retaliated by beheading four security personnel in an intensifying conflict in the northwest.
Turkey demands PKK extradition
Published: 27 October 2007
The US military commander in northern Iraq said yesterday he plans to do "absolutely nothing" to counter Kurdish rebels who are staging deadly cross-border attacks into neighboring Turkey.
Two Nato soldiers killed in Afghanistan
Published: 26 October 2007
Nato-led troops clashed with insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, leaving two alliance troops dead and three others wounded, Nato has confirmed.
PKK tactics may drive Turkey into a reluctant invasion
Published: 26 October 2007
Soon after midnight last Sunday, a detachment of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) surrounded a 50-strong unit of the Turkish army near the village of Daglica in Hakkari province, three miles from Turkey's border with Iraq.
US hits Iran with toughest penalties since 1979 siege
Published: 26 October 2007
The Bush administration has moved a step closer to military conflict with Iran, imposing punitive measures on its Revolutionary Guard Corps and calling the al-Quds unit of the guards a terrorist organisation.
The world of private 'security': Unleashed: the fat cats of war
Published: 26 October 2007
Bush swoops in with pledge to help California
Published: 26 October 2007
President Bush took a helicopter tour of the fire-ravaged hillsides of southern California yesterday, determined to prove that he was on top of a major disaster in all the ways he was not when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans two years ago.
Palestinian cancer patient denied entry from Gaza into Israel for hospital care
Published: 26 October 2007
A 21-year-old cancer patient in urgent need of specialist treatment was stopped from entering Israel from Gaza despite securing prior permission from the Israeli military to cross the border.
China rejects call for action against Burma as Suu Kyi meets junta
Published: 26 October 2007
China has rebuffed international demands to take tougher action against the Burmese regime, saying the recent demands for democracy and their violent repression by the authorities were issues that had to be resolved by Burma's "own people".
Dissident Uzbek reporter shot dead
Published: 26 October 2007
A prominent journalist with close ties to the opposition in neighbouring tightly controlled Uzbekistan has been shot to death in Kyrgyzstan, an official said.
Party atmosphere on superjumbo's maiden flight
Published: 26 October 2007
The world's largest jetliner, the new Airbus A380, flew into Sydney last night after a maiden flight from Singapore, disgorging passengers who had gorged themselves on caviar and lobster, washed down with Dom P�rignon Ros�.
'Preppy killer' faces return to jail after bust for cocaine
Published: 26 October 2007
Most New Yorkers thought they had seen the last of Robert Chambers, the privileged young man dubbed the "Preppy Killer" after his 1988 conviction for killing a woman in Central Park and leaving her body beneath a tree. After serving 15 years for manslaughter until his release in 2003, returning to the front pages of newspapers was probably not in his game plan either.
Song fails to appease OAPs after political gatecrashing
Published: 26 October 2007
It should have been a great photo-opportunity for Kevin Rudd, who hopes to become the next prime minister of Australia. Instead, the Labour Party leader was ticked off for gatecrashing a senior citizens' party in Tasmania yesterday, and called an "ignorant bastard" by one elderly guest.
As homes burn, the evacuees of San Diego lap up the good life
Published: 26 October 2007
The fire evacuees huddled by the thousand at San Diego's American football stadium may not have known whether their houses were still standing. But they still had options, suggesting that life – southern California style – would emphatically go on.
US imposes sanctions on Iran
Published: 25 October 2007
The Bush administration is imposing sweeping new sanctions against Iran's defense ministry, its Revolutionary Guard Corps and a number of banks to punish them for purported support for terrorist organizations in Iraq and the Middle East, missile sales and nuclear activities, US officials said Thursday.
California's desperate battle to repel flames
Published: 25 October 2007
Kurdish fighters defy the world from mountain fortress as bombing begins
Published: 25 October 2007
Turkey used its helicopters and artillery to attack Kurdish guerrillas inside northern Iraq yesterday as the Turkish army massed just north of the border. The helicopter gunships penetrated three miles into Iraqi territory and warplanes targeted mountain paths used by rebels entering Turkey.
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