Tuesday 19 May 2009

xFruits - time turk english - 20 new items

Ethiopia troops 'back in Somalia'  

2009-05-18 22:00


Ethiopian military forces have crossed back into Somalia, barely three months after leaving, witnesses told the BBC. Their reported return comes as Islamist militants like al-Shabab continue to seize towns from the fragile Western-back transitional government. One resident said he spotted Ethiopian troops in Kalabeyr, a key junction that links southern, central and northern Somalia to the Ethiopian border. The Ethiopian army withdrew in January after UN-backed peace talks. Its troops entered Somalia in 2006 to help oust Islamist...
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Russia and US begin nuclear talks  

2009-05-18 22:00


Russia and the US are holding the first of three days of talks in Moscow on a new treaty aimed at reducing their stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Senior diplomats need to hammer out a replacement for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start I) which expires in December. The main sticking points are limits on the number of warheads and whether the treaty will cover bombers and missiles. Also on the agenda is Moscow's concern over a US missile defence programme. Analysts say a successful outcome would be a boost for relations before a visit to Moscow in July by US President Barack Obama. Mr Obama and his Russian...
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When the CIA Lies  

2009-05-18 22:00


Article by WorldNews.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. Eric Alterman writes in 'When Presidents Lie,' "Given that we have become accustomed to a culture in which everyday political lies are taken for granted, it is nevertheless remarkable to what degree presidential lies have shaped our postwar history."(1) The supporting cast of characters behind these lies, and in some cases the main actor, to say the least, has been the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Highly politicized and immoral intelligence officers can deceive the American people, resulting in unintended and horrific consequences, just as easily as a president. If the CIA's purpose, formed in 1947 after World War II to prevent...
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War is over, but Sri Lanka may struggle to heal scars  

2009-05-18 22:00


COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - After three bloody decades of civil war, Sri Lanka faces the daunting task of trying to reconcile and rebuild after its troops routed the last Tamil Tiger separatist rebels Monday and killed their feared leader. One of the world's most sophisticated insurgencies, the Tamil Tigers and their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, were brought down by a string of fatal misjudgments and an unrelenting government onslaught aimed at crushing the...
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Biden begins Balkan tour  

2009-05-18 22:00


Joe Biden, the US vice-president, has embarked on a tour of the Balkans, a move the White House hopes will rebuild ties with Serbia after relations soured over Kosovo's independence. Biden began his trip on Tuesday, arriving in Bosnia, a country that remains ethnically divided between Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim-Croat federation. Bosnia has remained split since the US-brokered Dayton peace accords ended the country's civil war in 1995. "The fact that the vice president is going is evidence that we are looking to demonstrate intensified US  engagement in the region, starting with Bosnia," an unnamed US official, was reported by the Associated Press as saying. "The vice president is...
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Sri Lanka leader hails 'victory'  

2009-05-18 22:00


President Rajapaksa told parliament: 'Let us all be united' Sri Lankan leader Mahinda Rajapaksa has declared the country "liberated" from Tamil Tiger rebels after a 26-year war. Mr Rajapaksa made the announcement in a speech to the country's parliament, a day after the army said rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed. An army spokesman told the BBC that authorities were yet to identify Prabhakaran's body, saying it was among a number of badly-burnt corpses. Tamil media outside Sri Lanka have denied the Tiger chief's death. In a nationally televised live address, President Rajapaksa hailed "a day which is very, very...
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Burma riot police in crackdown as pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi goes...  

2009-05-18 22:00


A boy holds a poster of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during anti-Myanmar government protest in Bangkok Burma's pro-democracy opposition leader went on trial yesterday facing a further five years in detention. Aung San Suu Kyi is charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest after an American intruder swam across a lake and sneaked into her home this month. Critics say the charges have been trumped up to keep her detained after her current arrest order expires on May 27. If convicted, she would be held during multi-party elections next year, which have been widely derided by the West as a sham aimed at entrenching military rule. Burma's ruling junta, which denied Suu Kyi's...
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Astronauts finish repairs on Hubble space telescope  

2009-05-18 22:00


MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer= CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) â€" Spacewalking astronauts completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope on Monday, leaving it more powerful than ever and able to peer even deeper into the cosmos â€" almost to the brink of creation. The last humans to lay hands on Hubble outfitted the observatory with another set of fresh batteries, a new sensor for precise pointing and protective covers. That equipment, along with other improvements made over the last five days, should allow the telescope to provide dazzling views of the universe for another five to 10 years. "This is a very important moment in human history," Hubble senior project scientist David Leckrone said...
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Netanyahu stops short of endorsing two-state solution in Obama talks  

2009-05-18 22:00


BARACK Obama today held intense first talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that laid bare differing approaches on Iran and the US goal of a Palestinian state. In blunt comments after talks that stretched past the three-hour mark, Mr Netanyahu offered talks “immediately” with the Palestinians but stopped short of endorsing Mr Obama's call for a two-state solution. Both leaders also dwelt on Iran, with Mr Obama defending his diplomatic outreach strategy and an impassioned Mr Netanyahu voicing his fears that a nuclear-armed Tehran would pose a mortal threat to Israel. The crucial first meeting between two leaders new to power was Mr Obama's deepest plunge yet into...
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Colombian defense chief quits, may seek presidency  

2009-05-17 22:00


BOGOTA -- Colombia's defense minister resigned on Monday, saying he will launch a presidential bid if current President Alvaro Uribe decides not to seek a third term. Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, who has received credit for some of the military's biggest successes against leftist rebels, said he is stepping down on May 23 after nearly three years in the post. Colombian law says public officials have to step down a year...
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U.S. to Issue Tougher Fuel Standards for Automobiles  

2009-05-17 22:00


WASHINGTON -The Obama administration will issue new national requirements for the emissions and mileage of cars and light trucks in an effort to end a long-running conflict among the states, the federal government and auto manufacturers, industry officials said Monday. President Obama will announce as early as Tuesday that he will combine California's tough new auto-emissions rules with the existing corporate average fuel economy standard to create a single new national standard, the officials said. As a result, cars and light trucks sold in the United States will be roughly 30 percent cleaner and more fuel-efficient by 2016. The White House would not divulge details, but environmental...
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Obama, Netanyahu meet amid US-Israeli differences  

2009-05-17 22:00


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched their first White House talks on Monday grappling with rare U.S.-Israeli differences over Middle East peacemaking and how to deal with Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd L) arrives at the West Wing of the White House to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, May 18, 2009. (REUTERS/Jason Reed) Wading into the thicket of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy four months after taking office, Obama planned to press the hawkish Israeli leader to endorse Palestinian statehood and freeze Jewish settlement expansion on occupied land. But Netanyahu, who heads a new right-leaning...
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Tamil Tiger chief killed: Sri Lanka  

2009-05-17 22:00


Sri Lanka declared Monday it had crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels, killing their chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran, and ending his three-decade quest for an independent homeland for minority Tamils. State television broke into its regular programming to announce Mr. Prabhakaran's death, and the government information department sent a text message to cellphones across the country confirming he was killed along with top deputies, Soosai and Pottu Amman. The announcement sparked mass celebrations around the country, and people poured into the streets of Colombo dancing and singing. Mr. Prabhakaran's death has been seen as crucial in bringing closure to this war-wracked Indian Ocean island nation. If...
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Fire at EU Commission building forces evacuation, firefighters move in  

2009-05-17 22:00


BRUSSELS - A fire sent dark smoke billowing from the executive floor of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels Monday, and hundreds of workers and visitors were evacuated. The smoke was seen rising shortly after 1 p.m. (1100GMT) on Monday from the floor where the European Commissioners have their offices. There was no panic as EU workers filed outside and stood watching the developments. There were no reports of injuries. At least a half-dozen fire trucks quickly moved into the Commission compound, and a helicopter swooped overhead as smoke continued rising over an hour after the fire was detected. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso had to scurry down the stairs to...
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Iraq's general election set for January 30  

2009-05-17 22:00


BAGHDAD – Iraq on Monday decreed it will hold a general election early next year that is expected to be a key test of popular support for the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. "At the request of the speaker of parliament, the Supreme Court has fixed January 30, 2010 as the date for the next legislative elections," deputy speaker of parliament Khalid al-Attiya told AFP. The last parliamentary vote in Iraq, on December 15, 2005, was largely boycotted by Sunni Arabs, resulting in an easy victory for Shiite parties which formed a ruling coalition under the United Iraqi Alliance. The...
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Sri Lanka rebel head 'surrounded'  

2009-05-17 22:00


The leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, Velupillai Prabhakaran, is alive and surrounded by government troops, the Sri Lankan military has said. Prabhakaran is guarded by about 200 rebels and encircled by Sri Lankan troops in a small patch of jungle, a military spokesman said on television. Sri Lankan forces have routed the rebels in the past few weeks, bringing a 26-year war to its conclusion....
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Pakistan Is Rapidly Adding Nuclear Arms, U.S. Says  

2009-05-17 22:00


WASHINGTON - Members of Congress have been told in confidential briefings that Pakistan is rapidly adding to its nuclear arsenal even while racked by insurgency, raising questions on Capitol Hill about whether billions of dollars in proposed military aid might be diverted to Pakistan's nuclear program. Skip to next paragraph Related Times Topics: Pakistan Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed the assessment of the expanded arsenal in a one-word answer to a question on Thursday in the midst of lengthy Senate testimony. Sitting beside Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, he was asked whether he had seen evidence of an increase in the size of the Pakistani nuclear...
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Burma's San Suu Kyi set for trial  

2009-05-17 22:00


Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi goes on trial on charges related to a visit to her home by an American, who swam across a lake to reach it. The charges against Ms Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest, have been widely condemned as baseless. If found guilty she faces a prison sentence of three to five years. She could also be banned from...
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Guatemala rally targets president  

2009-05-17 22:00


Thousands of Guatemalans have marched through the capital to demand the resignation of President Alvaro Colom over the killing of a lawyer. Before his death lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg recorded a video saying that if he was found dead the...
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At Notre Dame, Obama Calls for Dialogue on Abortion  

2009-05-17 22:00


SOUTH BEND, Ind. - President Obama directly confronted America's deep divide over abortion on Sunday as he appealed to partisans on both sides to find ways to respect one another's basic decency and even work together to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. Skip to next paragraph Multimedia Slide Show Obama Speaks at Notre Dame Related Transcript: Obama's Commencement Address at Notre Dame (May 17, 2009) The Caucus: Protester Interrupts Obama Post a Comment on The Caucus | Read Blog The Caucus The latest on President Obama, the new administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion. More Politics News Anti-abortion leaders protested his appearance...
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