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Amnesty Says UN Failed to Prevent Exodus From Southern Sudan

Posted December 19th, 2011 at 10:20 pm (UTC-5)
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An international rights group says United Nations peacekeepers failed to stop Sudanese troops from driving more than 100,000 people from their homes in the country’s southern border region last May. Amnesty International says the U.N. troops took no meaningful action to prevent Sudanese forces and allied militia from attacking people’s homes in the town of […]

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Police Break Up Vigil for Political Prisoners in Belarus

Posted December 19th, 2011 at 8:20 pm (UTC-5)
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Belarusian police broke up a vigil in central Minsk Monday — the first anniversary of a bloody crackdown on the opposition after President Alexander Lukashenko’s re-election. Witnesses say police arrested about 30 demonstrators, including an elderly woman who shouted at authorities that they will “burn in hell.” Some of the protesters carried pictures of people […]

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North Korea Mourns Death of Kim Jong Il

Posted December 19th, 2011 at 7:55 pm (UTC-5)
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Throngs of somber, weeping mourners marched through the streets of the North Korean capital Monday, carrying flowers and offering prayers for Kim Jong Il, their reclusive leader whose death was announced earlier in the day. Television footage from the closed communist state showed thousands of mourners in Pyongyang gathered at the foot of a giant […]

Tags: , , , Posted in East Asia Pacific

Arrest Warrant Issued for Iraq’s Vice President on Terrorism Charges

Posted December 19th, 2011 at 7:30 pm (UTC-5)
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The Shi’ite-led government in Iraq has issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, a move that is seen as evidence of a deepening political crisis in the wake of the U.S. military withdrawal from that country. A spokesman for Iraq’s Interior Ministry said Hashemi is accused of terrorism. The accusation is […]

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Reports: Turkish Troops Kill 20 Kurdish Fighters in Southeast

Posted December 19th, 2011 at 7:25 pm (UTC-5)
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Turkish news agencies say Turkish troops killed as many as 20 Kurdish rebels Monday in a military strike in the southeast. Helicopters backed-up soldiers on the ground in the operation in Diyarbakir province. One report says Turkish forces discovered the rebels through information taken from a dead Kurdish rebel’s cellphone. The Kurdistan Workers Party has […]

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Syria Agrees to the Presence of Arab League Observers

Posted December 19th, 2011 at 7:15 pm (UTC-5)
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Syria has agreed to allow Arab League observers to monitor its compliance with a peace plan designed to end a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters that the United Nations says has killed at least 5,000 people. Syria’s deputy foreign minister ((Faisal al-Mekdad) signed an accord in Cairo Monday that initially gives the monitors a one-month […]

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North Korea Mourns Death of Kim Jong Il

Posted December 19th, 2011 at 6:50 pm (UTC-5)
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Throngs of somber, weeping mourners marched through the streets of the North Korean capital Monday, carrying flowers and offering prayers for Kim Jong Il, their reclusive leader whose death was announced earlier in the day. Television footage from the closed communist state showed thousands of mourners in Pyongyang gathered at the foot of a giant […]

Tags: , , , Posted in East Asia Pacific

US, Japan Call for Peaceful Transition in North Korea

Posted December 19th, 2011 at 6:45 pm (UTC-5)
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Pacific powers have been in close consultation following the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il amid concern for the wellbeing of the reclusive nation’s people. Clinton spoke following talks in Washington Monday with Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba. She said their two countries share a […]

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Protesters Demand Troops Leave Embattled Kazakhstan Town

Posted December 19th, 2011 at 6:45 pm (UTC-5)
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Hundreds have protested for a third day in oil-rich western Kazakhstan against the police shooting deaths of at least 15 people demonstrating against job cuts. The protesters were demanding Monday that troops pull out of the town of Zhanaozen, where President Nursultan Nazarbayev declared a state of emergency because of the violence. Kazakhstan’s ambassador to […]

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Nigeria Launches New Broadcast Satellite

Posted December 19th, 2011 at 6:11 pm (UTC-5)
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Nigerian officials say they have launched a communications satellite into space to replace one that has failed. Nigeria’s state-run television reports that the satellite, called NigComSat-1R, was launched Monday from a Chinese launch pad. Officials say a Chinese team built the satellite to replace Nigeria’s first broadcast satellite, which stopped working in 2008. The satellite […]

Tags: , Posted in Africa