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ISTANBUL: Three unidentified gunmen and a
Turkish policeman were killed in a shootout outside the US consulate
in Istanbul on Wednesday, Turkish television channels reported.
Three men, driving in a white car, opened fire at a police post
outside the consulate in the district of Istinye, a witness told NTV
television. Three other policemen were injured in the exchange of
fire, which lasted about eight minutes. The security forces returned
fire, apparently killing all three gunmen, the witness said.
--AFP
YANGON: Myanmar authorities are
making arrangements to resettle 7,000 cyclone victims out of the
remaining 10,000 temporarily accommodated in three relief camps in
Laputta, one of the hardest-hit townships in the Ayayawaddy delta
region, according to the journal Newsweek Wednesday. The 7,000
victims will be repatriated from these relief camps to their native
villages with 10-day ration and be resettled at allocated houses
under a lucky-draw system, the report said.
--Xinhua
TOYAKO, Japan: French President
Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing
Olympic Games next month despite an earlier threat to boycott over a
crackdown in Tibet, according to a statement. Sarkozy told Chinese
President Hu Jintao he would go to Beijing during a half-hour
meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Eight industrialized
nations summit in northern Japan. Sarkozy had threatened to boycott
the August 8 ceremony following a Chinese crackdown in Tibet in
March that sparked international outrage.
--AFP
WASHINGTON: The United States on
Tuesday said the withdrawal of its troops in Iraq will be based on
conditions on the ground and rejected the Iraqi demand to set a
timetable for a pullout. “The US government and the government of
Iraq are in agreement that we, the US government, we will withdraw.
But we’re looking at conditions, not calendars, here,” State
Department Spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said. Iraq said it would not
accept any security pact with the United States without troop
withdrawal date.
--Xinhua
TOYAKO, Japan: German Chancellor
Angela Merkel on Wednesday asked Chinese President Hu Jintao to push
for a successful outcome to talks between China and Tibet’s
spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. The chancellor said she hopes the
new dialogue between representatives of the Dalai Lama and the
Chinese government will develop in a successful way. China had
previously held talks with Dalai Lama representatives on Tibet’s
future, but they broke off last year.
--AFP
PHNOM PENH: The former Khmer
Rouge “First Lady” facing trial for crimes against humanity on
Wednesday lost her appeal for release from Cambodia’s UN-backed
genocide court in a verdict her lawyer called unfair. Ieng Thirith,
the regime’s former social affairs minister, is one of five top
cadres in the sights of the UN war crimes tribunal over atrocities
committed during the Khmer Rouge’s 1975 to 1979 rule.
--AFP
SOFIA: US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice expressed disappointment here Wednesday at
Russia’s reaction to Washington’s plans to install part of a
missile defense shield in eastern Europe. “I’m sorry to say it
was predictable, if disappointing,” given all the effort both she
and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates had made to ease Russian
concerns about the project, Rice said. Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev has said a deal on the missile plan signed this week
between the United States and the Czech Republic “offends us
greatly.”
--AFP
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