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It was supposed to be a public show of Iranian unity during day marking the 30-year anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by Islamic revolutionaries. But not only did anti-government demonstrators, many of them dressed in green scarves and headbands, hijack the state-sponsored event. They also managed to steal the media's attention media, much to the displeasure of the authorities, who blamed the Western media for distorting the facts. On the other hand, Iran's official media, also appeared to play fast and loose with reality. (snip) Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA, lashed out...

In November 2006, Pelosi explained the significance behind the record voter turnout that helped shift the balance of power in Washington for the first time in 12 years. “People voted for change and they voted for Democrats who will take our country in a new direction,” Pelosi said during a victory speech in San Francisco on Nov. 8, 2006. But Pelosi, who became House Speaker, never managed to exact the change she promised. She explained that she and her colleagues tried vigorously to pass legislation to end the war in Iraq. "The public doesn’t want to know about process and...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Pro-government Sunni Muslim gunmen and militiamen loyal to Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shi'ite Hezbollah battled with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the northern city of Tripoli on Monday. The violence, which broke out when Hezbollah gunmen fought pro-government forces in Beirut last week, is the worst since the end of the 1975-90 civil war in 1990. Security sources said six people were wounded when Sunni government supporters in Tripoli's Bab Tebbaneh district exchanged machine gun and grenade fire with Alawite militiamen allied to Hezbollah in the nearby Jebel Mohsen area. The fighting later gave way to the occasional...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Sectarian fighting spread through the streets of Beirut on Thursday as Shiite Hezbollah supporters and the Lebanese government's Sunni backers battled with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades shortly after Hezbollah's leader vowed to fight any attempt to disarm his men. The violence first erupted in Muslim West Beirut, where masked gunmen on street corners opened fire along Corniche Mazraa, a major thoroughfare that has become a demarcation line between the two sides. There was also fighting in the nearby Ras el-Nabeh area. There was no immediate word on casualties. The violence spread to Khandaq el-Ghamiq, a neighborhood...

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA (AFP) - UN police were forced to withdraw Monday from the Serb-populated part of this flashpoint Kosovo town after coming under attack as they stormed a court occupied by Serbs opposed to independence. Police said more than 100 people were injured as the troops met gunfire and suspected grenade blasts in the worst violence to have flared in Kosovo since its independence declaration a month ago on February 17. The clashes erupted after UN police and NATO-led KFOR (Kosovo Force) troops surrounded the courthouse in Kosovska Mitrovica for a pre-dawn raid to evict the Serb protestors. Kosovo police...

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Fresh clashes and blasts rocked Islamabad early Saturday after a Pakistani cleric besieged in a mosque in the capital vowed that he and his followers would prefer death over surrender. But in a blow to the hardline cleric, police seized control of Jamia Faridia, a separate Islamic seminary affiliated with the Red Mosque. "Police stormed into Jamia Faridia and arrested dozens of students and shifted them to an unknown place," a senior security official told AFP. Authorities feared that male students from the Faridia seminary, two miles (three kilometres) from the Red Mosque, would open another front...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese troops raided an Islamic militant hideout in a hillside cave and killed six fighters Thursday as violence spread from a Palestinian refugee camp where the military has been battling an al-Qaida-inspired group. The dawn gunbattle — a 20-minute drive from the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian camp by the northern port city of Tripoli — showed the Fatah Islam militants may have found allies among some of the region's Sunnis, ready to provide or point out hiding places. The fighting at Nahr el-Bared has become the worst internal violence since Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, and is believed to...

Bush greeted by clashes in Brazil A march against Mr Bush's visit disintegrated into violence US President George W Bush has arrived in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, as a massive march in protest at his visit turned violent. At least 20 people were hurt in clashes between demonstrators and riot police. The US president is due to meet Brazil's Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to sign an ethanol energy alliance. He will also visit Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico in a week-long tour aimed at strengthening US ties with its Latin American neighbours. Potato bombs In Sao Paulo, some...

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez calls Jesus a guiding light for his self-styled socialist revolution. But his relationship with the Roman Catholic Church is complicated and sometimes strained. Even as the leftist leader has invited Catholic priests to share their ideas on transforming Venezuela into a socialist state, he has clashed with some priests who are critical of him - and in one case declared that a Venezuelan archbishop is bound for hell. Nonetheless, Chavez says he wants the best relations with the church and has recently spoken by phone with some supportive priests during his near-daily radio broadcasts....

Clashes reported in Iranian city Clashes between armed militants and police have erupted in the south-eastern Iranian city of Zahedan, state media have reported. Police sealed off the area and exchanged fire with the attackers after a bomb went off, Irna news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying. It comes two days after a car bomb in Zahedan killed 11 Revolutionary Guards. A hardline Sunni group, Jundallah, said it carried out Wednesday's attack. Iranian officials have accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating in the Islamic republic's sensitive border areas. 'Percussion bomb' The explosion...

A tense calm is reported in the Old City of Jerusalem after clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians erupted at a contested holy site. Dozens of people were hurt when police moved in to quell violent protests against excavation work in the area. Skirmishes in other parts of the city have also been reported. The violence flared over the digging work, which protesters say threatens the foundations of the al-Aqsa mosque - Islam's third holiest site. The compound containing the mosque is also revered by Jews as the site of their biblical temples. The BBC's Tim Franks, in the Old...

Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who terrorized his opponents for 17 years after taking power in a bloody coup, died Sunday, putting an end to a decade of intensifying efforts to bring him to trial for human rights abuses blamed on his regime. He was 91. Violent clashes broke out between police and Pinochet opponents who threw rocks at cars and set up fire barricades on the city's main avenue. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. Authorities said there were a number of arrests, but no immediate reports of injuries. Supporters saw Pinochet as a Cold War...

SANTIAGO, Chile - Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who terrorized his opponents for 17 years after taking power in a bloody coup, died Sunday, putting an end to a decade of intensifying efforts to bring him to trial for human rights abuses blamed on his regime. He was 91. Violent clashes broke out between police and Pinochet opponents who threw rocks at cars and set up fire barricades on the city's main avenue. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. Authorities said there were a number of arrests, but no immediate reports of injuries. Hundreds of Pinochet supporters...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Hundreds of Iraq's tribal chiefs Saturday signed a "pact of honor," pledging to support the prime minister's national reconciliation plan on wiping out sectarian strife and terrorism tearing the country. In another boost for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's efforts, a Sunni lawmaker was released nearly two months after she was abducted in an attack that had stoked sectarian tensions and led to a boycott by the minority in parliament. At least 23 people were killed Saturday, including four members of a Shiite family in Baqouba and a female translator working for the British consulate in Basra,...

Dozens killed in Pakistan clashes Tens of thousands of soldiers face tribal militants in the mountains Pakistani troops have killed dozens of pro-Taleban militants near the border with Afghanistan, officials say. Pakistani officials said 46 militants and three soldiers were killed in the fighting, though local reports said the death toll might be 70 or above. Hundreds of people are said to have fled the clashes in North Waziristan. Tribal militants attacked army troops, apparently retaliating for an attack on a suspected al-Qaeda camp earlier in the week, which killed up to 45 people. The latest fighting started on Saturday...

22 die in clashes on Shia holy day By Imtiaz Ali in Peshawar and Thomas Coghlan in Kabul (Filed: 10/02/2006) Pakistan's attempts to curb Islamic extremism suffered a new setback yesterday when sectarian violence killed 22 people and left scores more injured on a Shia holy day. A Pakistani soldier stands guard at the site of the bomb explosion Sunni Muslim extremists were blamed for the suicide bombing of a Shia procession celebrating the festival of Ashura in Hangu in the North West Frontier Province. The attack, which left 60 per cent of the town's bazaar in ruins, provoked a...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi forces clashed with insurgents Friday near the notorious airport road and other districts of western Baghdad, arresting nearly 60 people as the sounds of a rousing song, "Where are the terrorists now?" blared from police car loudspeakers. The fiercest clashes occurred in the Jihad district along the main road to Baghdad International Airport — scene of numerous bombings and ambushes. U.S. attack helicopters roamed the skies and the rattle of automatic weapons fire echoed through the streets as motorists abandoned their vehicles and merchants shuttered their shops. Iraqi troops armed with rifles and machine guns blocked...

SAN YSIDRO, Calif. — Assaults against U.S. Border Patrol agents nearly doubled along the Mexican border over the last year as patrols cracking down on drug trafficking and migrant smuggling encountered increasing resistance ... rocks, Molotov cocktails and gunfire. At least 687 assaults against agents were reported during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up from the previous year's total of 354 and the highest since the agency began tracking assaults across the Southwest border in the late 1990s, according to Border Patrol officials. Most assaults occurred near urban smuggling havens such as Nogales, Ariz., and Tijuana, but cross-border...

The young Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr called on his followers Thursday to end clashes with rival Shiite groups after a night of deadly street battles, and appealed for calm at a time of national political duress. "I ask the believers to preserve the blood of Muslims and return to their families," Mr. Sadr said at a news conference in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. "Iraq is experiencing a critical phase now during which it needs cooperation." In a separate development, the Iraqi police on Thursday discovered 36 decomposing bodies in Kut, southeast of Baghdad, an official at the Interior...

One of the adolescent things about liberals is that they won’t accept consequences of their actions, but will hold adults, Conservatives, to answer. This is becoming more obvious every year. The Minuteman Movement is spreading, as it should. And their mission and acceptance is becoming more obvious with every month! California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said that he would not obstruct the Movement’s arrival in California. For this he takes heat. Now, Texas Governor Rick Perry says about the same thing for the Movement’s coming to Texas. For this, he, too, is taking heat. One of the things Americans respect...

BOGOTA (AP) - Rival fans clashed at a domestic soccer match in the Colombian capital late Wednesday, killing one person and wounding 23. Edison Andres Garzon died of injuries sustained during the riots that erupted after America de Cali defeated Santa Fe 5-2 in a Colombian first division game, firefighters said. Garzon, 20, was struck in the head and his body thrown over a balcony in Bogota's El Campin stadium, Garzon's cousin, Andrea Hernandez, told local radio. Most of the wounded were treated on the spot. The violence started when up to 100 Santa Fe fans angry over the referee's...

BAGHDAD - More than 30 people died Saturday in the latest clashes between insurgents and U.S.-Iraqi forces in the north of the country, according to reports by the U.S. military in Baghdad and Arabic media sources. In the northern city of Kirkuk, a suicide car bombing in front of a police academy left 17 people dead and at least 30 wounded, witnesses and local reports said. Another 13 people died and 53 were injured when fighting broke out between insurgents and U.S. forces during a U.S. raid in the city of Talafer northwest of Mosul, the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television reported....

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Fighting between U.S. forces and Shiite insurgents in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City killed at least 10 people on Thursday, a spokesman for the militants said. Sheikh Hassan al-Athari, who heads radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office in the troubled Baghdad district, said five civilians and five militants were killed during "sporadic skirmishes" with American troops. He also said at least 20 people were injured during the skirmishes. U.S. troops have been fighting with militants loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for much of the past two weeks. In recent days, however, the U.S. offensive...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 30 people were killed and 219 wounded in fighting involving U.S. forces and Shi'ite militiamen in Iraqi cities in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. A spokesman said he did not have the identities of the victims, but said it was likely that most of them were civilians. The figure did not include casualties among foreign forces or the city of Najaf, where the fiercest fighting has taken place since last Thursday. Some of the heaviest fighting occurred in Amara, 230 miles southeast of Baghdad, where 15 people were killed and...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - National security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) clashed sharply with Democratic members of the commission on Sept. 11 on Thursday over how seriously the Bush administration treated the al Qaeda threat in the weeks before the attacks. In highly charged testimony that has taken on enormous political importance, Rice began by saying that the administration of President Bush (news - web sites) as well as several previous presidents failed to respond adequately to threats from Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda organization and other "terrorist" networks. But she insisted there was no...

Clashes resume between Afghan rival militias Amir Shah in Kabul Friday October 10, 2003 The Guardian (UK) Hundreds of rival militiamen with tanks and artillery faced off along a narrow front line in northern Afghanistan yesterday, as the government scrambled to stop what it described as the worst fighting in months. Clashes broke out on Wednesday 30 miles west of Mazar-i-Sharif and the town of Maimana between warlord Atta Mohammed's Jamiat-e-Islami faction, and fighters loyal to northern Uzbek commander Abdul Rashid Dostum. One warring side said 60 were killed, the other said it was many less. The UN said it...

Taliban surrounded as Afghan clashes go on August 30 2003 at 02:06PM By Yousuf Azimy Kabul - Afghan and American-led special forces have surrounded a group of Taliban fighters in the southern province of Zabul after another day of persistent bombardment of rebel positions, a senior official said on Saturday. As the operation to hunt down hundreds of guerrillas from the ousted Islamic regime entered its sixth day, provincial intelligence chief Khalil Hotak told reporters at least 12 rebels had been killed in Friday's action, and eight captured. "The operation is ongoing," he said from Zabul. "Enemy forces are surrounded...

Border tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan showed no sign of easing down on Saturday as troops of the two neighbors continued exchange of fire across the border,a military commander in eastern Afghanistan said. Border tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan showed no sign of easing down on Saturday as troops of the two neighbors continued exchange of fire across the border,a military commander in eastern Afghanistan said. Abdul Zahir, commander of Afghan border troops in the eastern border province of Nangarhar, said that armed clashes between the two sides lasted for about one hour near a border post in Yegobi district...

US clashes with Europe over war crimes By David Usborne in New York 11 June 2003 The United States and several European countries are once again on a collision course at the United Nations, as Washington manoeuvres to renew controversial provisions that shield its troops from prosecution for war crimes. The US is trying to keep its troops beyond the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court whenever they participate in international peace-keeping operations. The Security Council is set to vote as early as tomorrow on a US-drafted resolution that will extend for another 12 months a one-year exemption for American...

5 Killed, 40 Wounded in Mideast Clashes Sunday April 20, 2003 5:30 AM GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Dozens of Israeli tanks backed by attack helicopters pushed into the Rafah refugee camp Saturday, one of the largest military incursions into the Gaza Strip in 30 months of fighting, Palestinians said. At least five Palestinians were killed, including a 15-year-old boy, doctors said. Witnesses said at least 40 people were wounded. The incursion came as Palestinian leaders raced to meet a self-imposed deadline for a new Palestinian government - a key requirement toward unveiling a U.S.-backed peace plan. Also Saturday,...

WITH bottles and knives in their hands and hate in their hearts, a mob of violent troublemakers yesterday ambushed a student anti-war rally to lead a vicious rampage through Sydney streets. A group of young men, described by police as "Middle Eastern males", created havoc by throwing chairs, rocks, bottles, eggs and golf balls at police and media during several hours of chaos in the CBD. Police also seized two knives from protesters, one of which fell on to the ground in the midst of a scuffle. The violent spectacle began at Town Hall and resulted in two police officers...

KIGALI, Rwanda - Hundreds of civilians were killed and hundreds more were missing after Congolese rebels allied with the government seized a key town in northeastern Congo and launched a two-day campaign of murder, rape, looting and destruction, a rival rebel leader said Saturday. Thomas Lubanga, head of the Union of Congolese Patriots, or UPC, said at least 400 people were killed on Feb. 24-25 and 500 were missing after his troops were pushed from the strategic town of Bogoro during an attack by the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement, or RCD-ML, and allied Lendu tribal militiamen. Both groups...

A 12-year-old boy and his father were killed Wednesday in Gaza in a clash between supporters of Palestinian groups over who would write graffiti on a wall, witnesses and hospital officials said, according to AP. The clashes erupted in Sheikh Radwan in Gaza City as supporters from Hamas and Fatah gathered to write graffiti about the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday. Allam Jabin, 12, and his father, Issam Jabin — a policeman and a Fatah member — were killed in the fighting, hospital officials said. A Hamas supporter was wounded by shrapnel from a homemade hand grenade, the officials said. Allam...

Wednesday, 4 December, 2002, 11:01 GMT'Clashes' in northern Iraq PUK fighters have clashed with the Ansar militantsFierce fighting has erupted in northern Iraq between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Muslim militants believed to be linked to al-Qaeda, it is reported. Fighters from a group known as Ansar al-Islam (supporters of Islam) took two PUK hilltop positions near the city of Halabja, close to the Iranian border, according to the Associated Press news agency. The agency quotes a PUK commander as saying 20 of his fighters were killed or injured in the fighting. Battles between the PUK and Ansar...

Wednesday, 27 November, 2002, 14:48 GMT Haiti clashes escalate Petit-Goave demonstrators called for Aristide's removal There have been renewed clashes between anti-government protesters and supporters of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In the city of Petit-Goave, about 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince, more than 1,000 people demonstrated against Mr Aristide - his supporters pelted them with rocks. In Gonaives, some 130 km north of the capital, anti-government protesters clashed with 200 heavily-armed members of a street gang known as the Cannibal Army which is said to be loyal to the president. Aristide is accused of allowing a...

Sunday, 24 November, 2002, 22:33 GMT Fresh clashes in southern Jordan Reports from Jordan say at least one person has been killed and several others injured, during renewed clashes in the southern town of Maan. Violence erupted following a dispute between residents and police, witnesses and officials said. Anger is thundering in Maan The authorities are reported to have imposed a curfew on the town and sent in reinforcements. It is not yet known whether the latest violence is linked to fighting between Islamists and the army earlier this month, during a military operation against an Islamic group. Firefight There...