| Last updated 4:11pm EDT 05/09/2008 |
| Myanmar seizes UN aid supplies amid warnings country on verge of catastrophe |
GENEVA - Myanmar's military leaders seized aid shipments headed for cyclone survivors and told the top U.S. diplomat there Friday that they're not ready to let in foreign aid workers despite warnings the country is on the verge of a medical catastrophe.
Another 10 centimetres of rain was forecast to fall next week as more than one million people waited for food, clean water, shelter and medicine to reach them. Diplomats and aid groups warned number of dead could eventually exceed 100,000 because of illnesses and said thousands of children may have been orphaned.
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| Rocket fired by Shiite militants hits BBC bureau in Baghdad |
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BAGHDAD - Shiite militants launched rockets toward the fortified Green Zone on Friday, taking advantage of a sandstorm that gave cover from attacks by U.S. aircraft. Some rockets fell short, including one that damaged the British Broadcasting Corp. bureau.
At least seven other rocket explosions were heard. But U.S. authorities did not confirm any strikes inside the Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government.
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| Zimbabwe's opposition won't meet with mediator; Mugabe greets him at airport |
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HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's opposition says no one from that party will meet with the visiting South African president.
It also says he should be replaced as mediator in the country's political crisis. President Robert Mugabe met Thabo Mbeki at the airport as the South African leader arrived. It's his third visit as mediator on behalf of the Southern African Development Community.
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| Guantanamo grapevine spreads call for detainees to boycott war-crimes trials |
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GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The message travels among Guantanamo detainees in whispers between recreation areas and shouts through slots in cell doors: Don't trust the Americans. Boycott.
Guards call it the Detainee News Network, and it is now prompting inmates to turn their backs on their war-crimes trials at this U.S. naval station in southeast Cuba.
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| Foreign donors open their wallets despite problems with Myanmar junta |
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BANGKOK, Thailand - Myanmar's refusal to let foreign aid workers into the country has not stopped donors around the world, both large and small, from trying to help.
Besides the tens of millions of dollars in aid pledged by governments, help is also being offered by smaller groups and companies.
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| Calls mount for Olmert's resignation as Israeli prime minister |
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JERUSALEM - Calls are mounting for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's resignation as police probe allegations that he accepted hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars in cash-stuffed envelopes from a U.S. citizen.
The investigation into Olmert's fiscal conduct is the fifth in two years and threatens to force him from office. It also could derail troubled peace talks with the Palestinians.
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| Hezbollah routes forces loyal to U.S.-backed Lebanese government in Beirut |
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BEIRUT - Hezbollah gunmen have seized nearly all of the Lebanese capital's Muslim sector from forces loyal to the U.S.-backed government.
Security officials say at least 11 people have been killed and more than 20 wounded in three days of street battles in West Beirut.
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| Berlin's Holocaust memorial hosts open-air concert of experimental work |
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BERLIN - Berlin's Holocaust memorial was playing host Friday to an open-air concert with musicians spreading out across a field of concrete slabs to perform a modern experimental piece.
The performance by the Kammersymphonie Berlin of composer Harald Weiss' new piece "Vor dem Verstummen" ("Before Silence Falls") was being held to mark the third anniversary of the monument's opening to the public.
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| Government, militants agree to ceasefire in Pakistan's Swat Valley |
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistani authorities and pro-Taliban militants are declaring a ceasefire in the volatile Swat Valley.
Officials say it's the latest bid to curtail an explosion of violence along the Afghan border. The ceasefire follows talks between representatives of the North West Frontier provincial government and a militant leader whose armed followers grabbed control of much of the valley last year.
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| Palestinian mortar shell kills Israeli man, wounds three others |
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JERUSALEM - Rescue workers say mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip have killed and Israeli man and wounded three other people.
The radio station of Gaza's ruling Hamas movement says Hamas fighters have claimed responsibility for the mortar fire on the southern Israeli town of Kfar Aza.
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