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International

Gustav drenches Haiti, may hit U. S. Gulf Coast as a hurricane

By Jonathan M. Katz - ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 08/28/08 6:55 AM

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Gustav stalled offshore Wednesday and poured more misery onto Haiti after landslides and flooding killed 23 people. Oil workers began leaving their rigs, and New Orleans drew up evacuation plans as forecasters warned that the storm could plow into the U. S. Gulf Coast as a major hurricane.

West tells Russia to ‘change course’ of Georgia policy

By Jim Heintz - ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 08/28/08 6:55 AM

TBILISI, Georgia — Western leaders warned Russia on Wednesday to “change course,” hoping to keep the Georgia conflict, which already threatens a key nuclear pact and could even raise U. S. chicken prices, from blossoming into a new cold war.

Troops repel attack on fort by Taliban

Updated: 08/28/08 6:55 AM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani troops drove off a Taliban attack on a fort and pounded another band of militants holed up in a health center, officials said Wednesday as fighting spread in the tribal belt along the Afghan border.

U. S. preparing to hand over Anbar security

By Robert Burns - ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 08/28/08 6:55 AM

WASHINGTON — Conditions in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, where a brutal insurgency once ruled, have improved so dramatically that the United States is handing over responsibility for security in the Sunni stronghold to Iraq within days. Troops freed up in Iraq could shift to Afghanistan.

Body of aid worker found in Afghanistan

By M. Karim Faiez and Laura King - LOS ANGELES TIMES
Updated: 08/28/08 6:55 AM

KABUL, Afghanistan — The bullet-riddled body of an abducted Japanese aid worker was recovered Wednesday, the latest grim symbol of insurgents’ apparent determination to drive outside humanitarian groups from Afghanistan.

Ferris wheel designs sought for Baghdad

Updated: 08/28/08 6:55 AM

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq is calling on companies to submit designs to build a giant Ferris wheel in Baghdad — the latest in a string of lavish proposals painting the capital as a leisure-friendly city.

Dalai Lama, fatigued, cancels 2 global trips

Updated: 08/28/08 6:55 AM

DHARMSALA, India (AP) — The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was suffering from exhaustion and has canceled two planned international trips to undergo medical tests, his office said Wednesday.

737’s passengers, crew freed after hijacking

Updated: 08/28/08 6:55 AM

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Two Sudanese men, armed with handguns and the threat of explosives, stormed the cockpit of a Boeing 737, taking control just minutes into the flight. Passengers said that the hijackers remained calm but that the people aboard still spent a night in fear.

As Gustav hits Haiti, fears raise oil prices

By Jonathan M. Katz - ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 08/27/08 6:50 AM

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hurricane Gustav dumped torrential rains across southern Haiti on Tuesday, killing at least one man and threatening crops amid protests over high food prices. Oil prices rose on fears the storm could batter oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hijackers seize plane in wartorn Darfur

By Khaled El-Deeb and Mohamed Osman - ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 08/27/08 6:50 AM

TRIPOLI, Libya — Hijackers in Sudan’s wartorn Darfur region seized a jetliner carrying nearly 100 people, including local Darfur officials, and forced it to land at a World War II-era airfield in the heart of the Sahara in neighboring Libya, officials said.

Russia recognizes two breakaway regions

By Douglas Birch - ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 08/27/08 6:50 AM

MOSCOW — Russia stunned the West on Tuesday by recognizing the independence claims of two Georgian breakaway regions, and U. S. warships plied the waters off Georgia in a gambit the Kremlin saw as gunboat diplomacy.

U. S. diplomat eludes assassination attempt

By Riaz Khan - ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 08/27/08 6:50 AM

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A U. S. diplomat narrowly escaped an attempt on her life Tuesday when two men with AK-47s jumped in front of her armored vehicle and sprayed it with bullets, staging a brazen attack that raised fears other foreigners could be targeted.

Afghans seek to regulate U. S. force

By Fisnik Abrashi - ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 08/27/08 6:50 AM

KABUL, Afghanistan — In a stark warning to U. S. forces, the Afghan government said it will try to regulate the presence of U. S. troops and their use of airstrikes, while the U. N. on Tuesday announced that “convincing evidence” exists that an American-led operation killed 90 civilians.

Suicide bomber kills 28 in Iraq

By Ned Parker - LOS ANGELES TIMES
Updated: 08/27/08 6:50 AM

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber attacked recruits waiting outside a police station Tuesday in Iraq’s restive Diyala province, killing 28 people and wounding 45 others, according to witnesses and Interior Ministry officials.

Protesters intrude into premier’s office

Updated: 08/27/08 6:50 AM

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Thousands of anti-government demonstrators pushed into the Thai prime minister’s office compound Tuesday and tens of thousands rallied outside in the latest protest aimed at deposing a prime minister they accuse of close ties to his disgraced predecessor.

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