World


Five Blackwater guards charged in Iraq shooting
WASHINGTON — Five Blackwater security guards were charged yesterday with killing 14 unarmed civilians and wounding 20 others in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that outraged Iraqis and strained US-Iraqi relations. In a 35-count indictment, the US Justice Department charged the men with 14 counts of manslaughter,....

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Iraq security contractors face end to immunity
BAGHDAD — Private security guards in Iraq, whose armoured convoys once barrelled through the streets with impunity, could face being thrown into crowded and violent Iraqi jails once their era of legal immunity ends on January 1. Under a security pact signed with the US, foreign contractors, including some 30,000 armed-to-the-teeth private warriors,....

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Greeks riot for third day amid anti-govt furore
ATHENS — Rioting and demonstrations over the shooting of a teenager by police continued to spread to other cities across Greece yesterday, leaving authorities frustrated by their inability to stop what many are calling the country’s worst civil unrest in decades. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis once again appealed for calm after an emergency meeting ....

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EU increases sanctions against Zimbabwe
HARARE — European leaders yesterday piled pressure on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to quit, widening sanctions against the 84-year-old’s government and saying he has ignored his people’s suffering. Following a growing chorus from world leaders for Mugabe to go,....

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War booty disputes still rage
FRANKFURT AN DER ODER — More than 60 years after the end of World War II, disputes over war booty rage on as Germany seeks, with mixed success, the return of treasures looted by the victorious Red Army. Late last month, Russia handed over six medieval stained glass church windows — the last of a set of 117 panes from the Marienkirche (St Mary’s Church)....

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SA president dismisses top prosecutor
PRETORIA — South African President Kgalema Motlanthe yesterday dismissed the suspended head of the country’s prosecuting authority, which is spearheading the corruption case against ANC leader Jacob Zuma. Vusi Pikoli, head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), was suspended by former president Thabo Mbeki in September, 2007....

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