US places TTP on terror outfit list
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Sep 02, 2010 | Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON: The United States slapped Pakistani Taliban chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, with terrorism charges on Wednesday for his alleged role in the murder of seven Americans at a CIA base in Afghanistan.
The Justice Department move came as the State Department added the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to a blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations, which means members face asset freezes and travel bans.
The State Department...
Israel, Palestinians must not miss peace chance: Obama
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Sep 02, 2010 | Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Wednesday pleaded with Israelis and Palestinians not to let slip a fleeting opportunity for peace, as he opened landmark Middle East talks.
“This moment of opportunity may not soon come again,” Obama warned after holding separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan. ...
Evacuations start as US braces for Hurricane Earl
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Sep 02, 2010 | Leave a Comment
RALEIGH: Thousands of people evacuated North Carolina’’s barrier islands on Wednesday as a strengthened Hurricane Earl threatened to pound large areas of the US east coast with heavy winds and rough seas.
The strongest Atlantic storm of 2010 was on a path to lash the North Carolina coast and then move north, wreaking havoc on the end-of-summer US Labor Day holiday weekend that usually draws millions to...
Israel ready to cede parts of Jerusalem: Barak
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Sep 01, 2010 | Leave a Comment
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israel is ready to cede parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians in the framework of a peace deal, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday ahead of the start of talks in Washington, as the Israeli settlers announced they would break a moratorium and resume construction in the West Bank.
Barak told a local newspaper in an interview that partition in Jerusalem — at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli...
Poland fetes Solidarity 30th anniversary with stars
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Sep 01, 2010 | Leave a Comment
GDANSK: US singer Macy Gray, British songstress Marianne Faithfull and US stage director Robert Wilson on Tuesday lent their talents to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Poland’’s freedom fighting Solidarity trade union.
A big open-air show took place on an immense stage at the birthplace of the movement that was instrumental in bringing down communism in Europe.
After an unprecedented two-week-long strike...
Indian troops martyr 72 innocent Kashmiris in Aug
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Sep 01, 2010 | Leave a Comment
SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops, in their continued acts of state terrorism, martyred 72 innocent Kashmiris including 31 teenagers and four women during the last month of August.
According to the data compiled by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, of those martyred three were killed in custody.
These killings rendered three women widowed and nine children orphaned.
The troops disgraced 20 women...
US defense secretary makes surprise visit to Iraq
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Sep 01, 2010 | Leave a Comment
AL-ASSAD US AIRFORCE BASE: US Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived on a surprise visit to Iraq early Wednesday, as the US Army officially ended its combat mission there, a French news agency journalist said.
Gates was scheduled to attend the change of command ceremony for the head of US forces in Iraq.
General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq since taking over from General David Petraeus in 2008 is stepping...
2010 highest annual US deaths since Afghan war began
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Sep 01, 2010 | Leave a Comment
KABUL: The number of US soldiers killed in the Afghan war has reached its highest annual toll since the conflict began almost nine years ago, a news agency count based on an independent tally showed Wednesday.
By Wednesday 323 US soldiers had died, compared to 317 in 2009, according to a news agency count based on the icasualties.org website which keeps a running tally.
The total number of foreign troops killed...
Conditions will set pace of Afghan pullout: Obama
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Sep 01, 2010 | Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON: The pace of a US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will be determined by the conditions on the ground, US President Barack Obama said Tuesday in a landmark address to the nation.
As Obama formally declared an end to the US combat mission in Iraq, he vowed American forces fighting a Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgency in Afghanistan would begin “a transition to Afghan responsibility.”
Amid growing...
Obama warns of ”tough fight” ahead in Afghanistan
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Sep 01, 2010 | Leave a Comment
FORT BLISS: President Barack Obama Tuesday warned the United States faced a “very tough fight” in Afghanistan, with more casualties and “heartbreak” to come.
“We obviously still have a very tough fight in Afghanistan,” Obama told troops here as he prepared to mark the formal end of combat operations in Iraq.
Five US troops were killed earlier Tuesday, four in a bombing and another in...
Palestinian prime minister condemns killing of Israelis
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Sep 01, 2010 | Leave a Comment
RAMALLAH: Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad condemned Tuesday’’s killing of four Israelis in the West Bank on the eve of renewed peace talks between the sides, saying that the shooting was against Palestinian interests.
In a statement he said that the attack came just as the Palestinian leadership was seeking to mobilise international support for its positions in the renewed negotiations, aimed at...
India offers $20m for Pak flood affectees
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Aug 31, 2010 | Leave a Comment
NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday announced additional $20 million assistance to Pakistan which is grappling with the worst floods in recent history of the region.
The announcement by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna in the Lok Sabha comes in the wake of Pakistan’s readiness to accept India’s initial aid offer of $ 5 million which is to be routed through the United Nations.
“As a more concrete assessment of the damage...
Obama to address US on Iraq transition
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Aug 31, 2010 | Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama must walk a fine line in a speech on Tuesday night as he highlights progress toward winding down the war in Iraq while trying to avoid any perception of a “Mission Accomplished” moment.
The White House says the removal of all but 50,000 U.S. troops and the declaration of the end to the combat phase shows Obama is fulfilling a campaign promise he made in 2008 to pull out of...
Afghan violence claims eighth NATO fatality
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Aug 31, 2010 | Leave a Comment
KABUL: NATO reported Tuesday the death of an eighth soldier in a day of concentrated violence in the Afghan war, as this year’’s toll for foreign soldiers nears the total for all of 2009.
In a statement, NATO’’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the soldier was killed on Monday in a Taliban-style bomb attack in the country’’s south, where the insurgency is at its fiercest.
The...
China offers $140,000 to plane crash relatives
Posted by GeoNewsBlog.Com on Aug 31, 2010 | Leave a Comment
BEIJING: Relatives of the 42 people killed last week in a plane crash in northeast China will receive 960,000 yuan (141,000 dollars) in compensation for each victim, according to the airline.
The Brazilian-made Henan Airlines jet crashed in heavy fog on August 24, while attempting to land at an airport in the city of Yichun near the Russian border. Fifty-four passengers and crew survived the disaster.
The airline...
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