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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Violent clashes and mass protests erupted Saturday across the West Bank and Gaza Strip between followers of the militant group Hamas and Fatah rivals, after a Hamas leader accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of treachery. The two sides traded gunfire and hurled stones and firebombs, escalating a fierce power struggle between militant and moderate factions focused on control over Palestinian security forces. Abbas said Saturday he would not allow the accusations to plunge the Palestinians into civil war. The unrest followed the president's recent moves to take control of all six security forces and Hamas's...

LONDON - You expect to have your luggage scrutinized at the airport. But how about your choice of music? Security staff at a British airport stopped a businessman from catching a flight because the songs he had asked a taxi driver to play on the car stereo made the driver suspicious, police said. Harraj Mann, who is of Indian origin, had the songs stored on an MP3 player, which the cab was equipped to play on its stereo. Mann asked the driver to play "London Calling" by the Clash as they headed for Tees Valley International Airport near Darlington in...

Nobody is above the law, says Hamas after rival groups clash By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem (Filed: 03/04/2006) Hamas yesterday faced its toughest internal challenge since being swept unexpectedly to power in the Palestinian territories when rival militant groups in Gaza took part in a series of clashes that left four dead and dozens wounded. Clashes were sparked by the murder of Abu Yussef al-Gouga Said Siam, the newly appointed Hamas interior minister, appealed for calm and warned that his government would clamp down heavily on armed groups who used their weapons against each other rather than in the struggle...

"If you want to know where the Muslim community is headed, the Shias are the canary in the coal mine," said Nazish Agha, a young Manhattan lawyer who helped found a national Shia group. "Just assume that if these groups hate Shias, then they're also anti-Christian, anti-Semite and anti-Hindu as well." While many Shia and Sunnis interact socially, they often worship in separate mosques. By and large, the national Muslim organizations are dominated by Sunnis with scant Shia representation. And while dialogue between the two sects has grown significantly since the Sept. 11 attacks, it is still informal. "At least...

There’s No Clash Here Only one civilization cares to put up a fight. By Lee Harris Does the so-called "cartoon war" represent the clash of civilizations? I wish I could answer "yes," but I can't. In order for there to be a clash of civilizations, it is necessary for there to be two civilizations, both of which are prepared to defend their deepest cultural values. Those in the Islamic world who are violently protesting the Danish cartoons clearly represent a civilization that is keen on maintaining its own deeply held traditions and convictions, as the Muslim rioters are prepared to...

Taleban clash 'leaves many dead' Some 300 army troops were said to have been involved in fighting Nearly 20 combatants have been killed in a battle between Afghan troops and Taleban fighters in the southern province of Helmand, officials say. Helmand's deputy governor told the BBC that at one point, he and 100 soldiers were surrounded by 200 Taleban. He said 16 Taleban and three soldiers had been killed, with 13 more wounded. The BBC's Paul Wood in Kandahar said it is the most serious fighting between government forces and the Taleban for two years. Taleban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf...

When Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his "wipe Israel off the map" remarks last month, many diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic rushed to explain, read between the lines and relativize what was an unambiguous statement of Teheran's long-established policy. They expressed the hope that Iran would "clarify" - meaning soften - its position. That was followed by feverish diplomatic activities, mainly by the United Nations' Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to persuade Teheran to tone down Ahmadinejad's remarks. (Annan was forced to cancel a planned visit to Teheran after the Iranians told him they would not allow any conciliatory phrases...

One group wants to end illegal immigration. The other rejects what it calls the armed uprising that the first group has begun. They clashed Saturday in the shadow of the Capitol, and three people were arrested. Still, it turns out, they agree on one thing: The system is broken. "This isn't about hatred. This isn't about racism. We stand against a broken system that has failed all of us," said Tim Donnelly, leader of the Minuteman Corps of California, one branch of a group that organizes armed citizen patrols of America's border with Mexico. Donnelly's group held a rally on...

All those polling numbers about ballot initiatives got you feeling dazed and confused? You're not alone. With the conflicting numbers shown in recent public opinion polls, many voters must be wondering just what is going on. Check out one poll on Proposition 76, a state spending-cap proposal, and it appears that 58 percent of voters support the initiative while 36 percent oppose it. Check out another poll and it appears that just the opposite is true, with 19 percent saying they support the measure and 65 percent saying they oppose it. Another recent poll shows similar numbers, with 63 percent...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Miffed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will snub George W. Bush when the US president begins a visit to California amid a clash over fundraising for their Republican Party. The movie-star state governor, a moderate in Bush's conservative party, late Wednesday expressed irritation that the president apparently ignored his plea to delay the fundraising trip and said he would not take the time to meet Bush. The cash clash brings to the surface long-standing tensions between the two men as Schwarzenegger moves to raise crucial funds for himself ahead of a special election next month on which he...

US forces clash with Mahdi Army By Adrian Blomfield in Basra (Filed: 26/09/2005) American troops and the Mahdi Army militia of Moqtada al-Sadr clashed in the slums of Baghdad yesterday, raising fears for the future of a year-long US truce with the fiery Shia cleric's gunmen. The fighting came as insurgent attacks took the lives of at least 31 people, including 13 commandos from the elite Wolf Brigade, the Iraqi army's showcase anti-terrorism unit, killed when a suicide bomber rammed into their convoy in the south-east of the capital. Mahdi Army gunmen opened fire on US forces that entered their...

09:09 Arab-language newspaper: Iran-U.S forces clash in southern Iraq (Haaretz)

BATON ROUGE, La. – Chillin' on the levee by the Mississippi River on a sunny Monday morning, Nutty and Slim Nine and Doughboy, Jr., admitted that they are already homesick for New Orleans. "This ain't like the city, where everybody got a nickname that everybody knows you by," said Nutty, 18, whose tattooed nickname was spelled out in two-inch high block letters between his right shoulder and elbow. "I'm trying to get back home — back to the N.O." "I don't like the curfew here," said Doughboy, Jr., 16. "And I don't like the police. They make grown people stay...

FARMINGVILLE, N.Y. (AP) - This middle-class Long Island community an hour from New York City and 2,000 miles from the Mexican border has become an unlikely flashpoint in the national debate over illegal immigration, with Hispanics beaten, harassed and evicted in recent weeks. For more than a decade, immigrants from Mexico or Central America have been drawn to Long Island by the prospect of jobs. Many stand on street corners in Farmingville, waiting for contractors, landscapers and others to offer them a day's work at about $10 an hour. Then at night they go back to their illegally overcrowded single-family...

GURGAON: At least 700 people, including a DSP and a constable, were reportedly injured in a clash between the police and the employees of the Honda Motorcycles & Scooter India Pvt Ltd this Monday in Gurgaon. The workers were protesting against the retrenchment of 50 workers and termination of the services of four others from the Manesar factory. The clash was the culmination of a month-long standoff between employees and the company. The protestors had set fire to three police vehicles. Police say that the protestors had violated Section 144. A section of the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road has been blocked. Television...

[The Enumclaw case, for those of you who don't know, refers to a man who died from having sex with a horse; an investigation by the sheriff's office found a farm which was a haven for bestiality perverts] The Enumclaw case highlights two increasingly important ideological debates. The first, and seemingly the more minor of the two (for the time being) is within the animal rights movement, and centers around whether animals should be treated as identical to humans. On the one side, stands PETA and Peter Singer, a founder of the animal rights movement. On the other stands the...

Clashes Feared Over MacArthur Statue in Incheon Fears of a violent clash mounted Friday after progressive civic groups wanting a statue of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur in Incheon pulled down and conservative groups determined to protect it to the very end announced simultaneous Sunday demonstrations in the city’s Freedom Park. One pro-unification civic group told police it will hold a rally in front of the MacArthur statue from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. The gathering, which it expects to attract 100 people, will call for the expulsion of the U.S. military and the toppling of the statue....

Clashes between Iranian students and police are reported to have occured at the University of Tehran, following a protest by the students asking for the release of Iranian dissident and journalist Akbar Ganji, who has been in prison since 2000. Ganji's has been on a hunger strike in a Tehran jail for the past month and his health condition is deteriorating. According to the Iranian student news agency ISNA, the university students asked for the liberation of other political detainees as well. The clashes occured when a dozen policemen, in their attempt to stop the protest, clashed with the students....

Tony Blair and President Jacques Chirac of France were heading for a clash on free trade and global warming at the G8 summit tonight after flying half-way across the world in their bitter contest to host the 2012 Olympics.The Queen will hold a welcoming dinner at Gleneagles, in Perthshire, for leaders of the world's most industrialised countries. But the mood could be soured by the International Olympic Committee's choice of city to hold the Games in seven years' time: London, Paris, New York, Moscow or Madrid. Yesterday the Prime Minister flew from Singapore, where the committee was meeting, to prepare...

DAMASCUS: Syrian forces captured two "terrorists" and a security officer was killed in a dawn clash with extremists who included former bodyguards of Saddam Hussein, official media said. The gun battle on Mount Qassioun overlooking the Syrian capital was the second such fire fight with extremists in recent days and comes amid intense U.S. pressure on Syria to stop militants slipping over its border into Iraq. "The clash took place early yesterday on Mount Qassioun with a group of people wanted for terrorist crimes, some of whom were former bodyguards of Saddam Hussein," the former Iraqi president, the SANA agency...