CONFLICT & TERR0R 11/14

Denmark votes in early elections
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 8:18am
Denmark is voting in an early general election with a close result expected. Opinion polls are suggesting a slim victory for Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's centre-right coalition over the centre-left opposition. There has been much campaign wrangling about welfare and tax reforms, immigration and the environment. Full Story

Spain seeks to defuse Chavez row
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 8:28am
The Spanish foreign minister has moved to defuse a public row between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Spanish King Juan Carlos. "I don't believe it should affect relations with Venezuela", he said. On Saturday the king told Mr Chavez to "shut up" at a summit in Chile after the president said ex-Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar was a "fascist". Full Story

7 killed in attacks across Iraq
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 10:56am
At least seven Iraqis were killed early Tuesday, including a policeman and his 13-year-old son gunned down in northern Iraq, police said. Full Story

Britain Takes Tougher Stance on Sanctions Against Iran
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 10:58am
Britain will push for a worldwide ban on foreign investment in Irans oil and gas industry and other financial sanctions unless two reports due this month show that the Tehran government is ready to abandon efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday. Full Story

Some Restrictions to Be Lifted in Baghdad
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 11:00am
Iraqi military commanders signaled Monday that they would soon remove some roadblocks and other restrictions that had been imposed over the past nine months as part of the effort to reduce violence here in the capital. However, with tens of thousands of American troops likely to remain on the streets of Baghdad for some time, the announcement appears to have been made by the Iraqi leadership to show its constituents that it wants to change the emphasis of the nine-month security operation from the military crackdown of its earlier stages to the provision of vital utilities and social services. Full Story

March 14 officials accuse Nasrallah of 'killing' consensus
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 11:02am
Lebanon's ruling March 14 coalition took aim at Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday, condemning the Hizbullah leader's speech a day earlier as a blow to ongoing attempts to resolve the impasse over the selection of a new president. Speaking on behalf of the Cabinet, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi called Nasrallah's speech "harsh and bitter." Full Story

Beirut prepares to host new mediation missions
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 11:03am
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is scheduled to arrive in Beirut early Tuesday to hold consultations with rival Lebanese leaders on electing a new president before the constitutional deadline expires on November 24. Kouchner is expected to wrap up a series of meetings with a visit to Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir. Also expected to arrive in Beirut in the next 24 hours is Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, while there is a strong possibility that both Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al- Faisal and his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmad Abou al-Gheit, could arrive in Beirut along with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported. Full Story

Canadian tapped to take over from Brammertz
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 11:05am
Canada's Daniel Bellemare is expected to be appointed as successor to Serge Brammertz to head the international commission of inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri and others, according to a report published in London-based Al-Hayat newspaper Monday. Bellemare, an international expert in criminal cases, will also be appointed as the prosecutor before the international tribunal which will prosecute those involved in the Lebanon assassinations," the daily said. Full Story

Two dead, at least 10 hurt in bomb blast at Philippine Congress
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 11:47am
Philippine congressman Wahab Akbar was killed in a bomb attack at the House of Representatives Tuesday, hospital staff and radio reports said, raising the death toll to two with at least 10 injured. "Congressman Akbar is gone, he is gone," one of his staff who took him to hospital said on DZMM radio. The death was confirmed by the hospital. Full Story

Bhutto urges Musharraf to quit as President
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 11:49am
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto called on President Pervez Musharraf to quit Tuesday in her most direct challenge yet to his rule, vowing never to serve under him in government. Holed up under house arrest with close aides in Lahore as more than 1,000 police manned barbed wire barricades outside, she urged the world to abandon the president, seen by many in the West as vital to the "war on terror". Full Story

Bangladesh launches Internet sabotage probe
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 1:01pm
Bangladesh on Tuesday launched an investigation after the country's Internet link was sabotaged, disrupting communications nationwide for most of the day. Officials said cables were also severed twice last week causing massive disruption to businesses in the impoverished country. Full Story

China says October inflation 6.5 percent
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 1:06pm
China's consumer prices rose sharply in October, tying a decade-high monthly inflation rate of 6.5 percent, the government reported Tuesday, adding to pressure for measures to cool a politically sensitive surge in food prices. Food prices jumped 17.6 percent in October over the same month last year, while the price of pork, China's staple meat, soared 54.9 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Full Story

French unions strike over reforms
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 3:01pm
France's national rail workers have begun an open-ended strike called in protest at President Nicolas Sarkozy's planned pension reforms. Rail employees stopped work at 2000 (1900 GMT) in an action expected to affect thousands of commuters. Utility workers are also set to strike. They may be joined by teachers and civil servants on 20 November. Full Story

Danish PM set to win third term: TV projection
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 3:39pm
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen looked set to lead his centre-right coalition to a third term in power in parliamentary elections on Tuesday, according to projections from national broadcaster DR. With 9 percent of votes counted, the broadcaster said the ruling Liberal-Conservative coalition and its far-right ally, the Danish People's Party, would take 94 seats in the 179-seat parliament -- an absolute majority. Exit polls before voting ended had suggested the bloc, led by Rasmussen's Liberals, would need the added muscle of the New Alliance, a six-month-old centrist party that has pledged to support Rasmussen in coalition talks. Full Story

German economic prospects grow gloomy despite retail outlook
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 3:42pm
Prospects for the biggest eurozone economy grew gloomy Tuesday despite an upbeat retail appraisal, after fresh US subprime fears pushed a key financial barometer to an almost 15-year low. A six-month outlook of financial analysts and leading investors compiled by the ZEW economic research institute plunged to its lowest level since February 1993, shedding 14.4 points to minus 32.5 points. Full Story

Iran and China vow to boost ties
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 4:05pm
Iran and China vowed on Tuesday to boost ties that Beijing believes will help preserve regional and international peace, official Iranian media reported. The two countries' pledge to cooperate more closely is likely to irritate Western powers seeking tougher sanctions on oil-producing Iran over its disputed atomic ambitions. Full Story

Mafia 'commanders' arrested in major Italy swoop
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 7:51pm
Italian police on Tuesday said they arrested five high ranking mafia 'military commanders' in Sicily and were carrying out warrants against a further 70 suspected mobsters across Italy. The commanders had reported directly to the Mafia's new 'boss of bosses', Salvatore Lo Piccolo, before he was arrested on the southern island of Sicily last week after nearly a quarter century on the run, investigative sources said. Full Story

Explosion in Tajik capital kills at least one
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 11:56pm
An explosion rocked the centre of the Tajik capital Dushanbe on Wednesday, killing at least one person, witnesses said. A Reuters witness at the scene saw at least one body lying on the pavement outside a conference hall located 300 metres (yards) from the presidential palace. It was not immediately clear what caused the blast. Police and rescue workers have cordoned off the area but were not commenting. Full Story

More than 600 killed, millions impacted by Yangtze flooding
Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 12:59am
Floods and other disasters killed at least 600 people in China's Yangtze River basin during this year's May-October rainy season, when serious flooding ravaged much of the nation, state media reported. The disasters affected about 90 million people along the country's longest river and destroyed 440,000 houses, Xinhua news agency said in a report late Tuesday. Full Story

Bhutto set to stay under house arrest
Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 1:00am
Security officials in Pakistan said former premier Benazir Bhutto was likely to stay under house arrest Wednesday in her increasingly bitter showdown with President Pervez Musharraf. About 1,000 police kept a security stranglehold around the residence where Bhutto was assigned to house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore, preventing her leading a mass procession against emergency rule. Full Story

Iran hands IAEA nuclear blueprints
Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 1:04am
Iran has met a key demand of the U.N. nuclear agency, handing over long-sought blueprints showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads, diplomats said Tuesday. Iran's decision to release the documents, which were seen by U.N. inspectors two years ago, was seen as a concession designed to head off the threat of new U.N. sanctions. Full Story

Canadian named to head UN's Hariri probe
Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 1:05am
The U.N. chief has appointed a former Canadian prosecutor to head a commission investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, according to a letter to the Security Council released Tuesday. Daniel Bellemare replaced Belgian lawyer Serge Brammertz, who was nominated to head the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in the Hague. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made both announcements in two letters to the Security Council, which must approve the Brammertz appointment. Full Story

North Korean premier starts rare visit to Seoul
Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 2:40am
North Korea's Prime Minister Kim Yong-Il arrived Wednesday in South Korea for talks on joint economic projects, in the highest-level visit by a Pyongyang official to Seoul for 15 years. Kim, whose brief includes reviving the North's crumbling command economy, will hold three days of discussions with his counterpart Han Duck-Soo to follow up the results of a historic inter-Korean summit last month.Full Story

France faces transport strike chaos
Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 2:46am
France is facing travel chaos after transport workers began a nationwide strike in protest at changes to pensions proposed by the president, Nicolas Sarkosy. Much of the public transport system is expected to shut down as workers on Paris' metro trains walk out on Wednesday after unions at rail operator SNCF went on strike the night before. Full Story

Pakistan's Khan emerges from hiding; arrested
Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 4:55am
Opposition leader Imran Khan surfaced at a student demonstration against emergency rule today. His party said he was promptly detained by police. Some 200 students cheered wildly and lifted Khan into the air when he appeared on a university campus in the eastern city of Lahore. Seconds later, men in plainclothes grabbed him and hustled him into a nearby building. Full Story

Emergency to end in ex-Soviet Georgia
Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 4:55am
Georgia's parliament speaker said the national state of emergency that followed a police crackdown on opposition will be lifted Friday, a pledge made under a strong pressure from the United States. "The state of emergency will be lifted on Nov. 16, and we will switch to a normal life mode," Nino Burdzhanadze, a close ally of Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili, said in parliament Wednesday. Full Story

Courtesy Terrorism Research Center, Inc.