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Wednesday, August 19, 2009 GAZA: Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum on Monday dismissed President Mahmoud Abbas’ call for unity talks on Sunday during Fatah Central Committee and Revolutionary Council meeting. "Abbas’ comments about dialogue are meaningless when the Palestinian Authority’s security forces continue to detain Hamas supporters in the West Bank," Barhoum said.Earlier on Sunday, President Mahmoud Abbas said that unity talks between Fatah and Hamas would continue despite an apparent scheduling conflict. A session of the Palestinian National Council is scheduled for the next day. Barhoum said that Abbas should lay the ground for a successful dialogue, reiterating Hamas' stance that an agreement be signed on 25 August rather than indefinitely into the future. Barhoum also called on Egyptian mediators to try and push past obstacles impeding a successful dialogue, and secure the release of all political detainees held in the West Bank. With regard to the newly elected ...

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 MIAMI: Hurricane Bill was upgraded to a major Category Three hurricane Tuesday as its sustained winds increased to near 125 miles (205 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center said. A hurricane hunter plane that flew into the Atlantic storm indicated "that Bill has strengthened and maximum sustained winds have increased to near 125 MPH," the center said in an advisory. That made Bill "a Category 3 Hurricane on the Saffir/Simpson hurricane scale," it said.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 LOS ANGELES: Michael Jackson will be buried on August 29, the day the King of Pop would have turned 51, his family said in a statement on Tuesday. The private ceremony -- more than two months after his June 25 death from heart failure -- will take place in Los Angeles and "will be limited to family and close friends" the statement said. "Michael Jackson will be laid to rest at Holly Terrace in the Grand Mausoleum at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale (California) on Saturday, August 29, 2009, at 10:00 am (1700 GMT)." The announcement came as investigators said they were still weeks away from reaching a conclusion explaining how Jackson died, a US reported. Authorities are investigating whether prescription drugs played a role in the death of Jackson, 50, and have focused on the role played by his personal physician Conrad Murray.Murray was present at the time Jackson died and reportedly has admitted prescribing powerful anesth...

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 SANAA: Yemeni security forces have killed a rebel leader in renewed clashes in the north of the country, in which dozens of troops and rebels also died, government sources said on Monday.Hussein Kamza, who led rebels in the northern Amran province loyal to Abdul-Malik al-Houthi of the Houthi tribal group, was killed during fighting on Sunday, a government official said.Clashes continued on Monday, mainly in Saada province in the north of the country, where al-Houthi has his headquarters, officials said. Saada is also where the rebels kidnapped 15 local aid workers last week, according to the province's governor. Fighting between Yemeni troops backed by fighter aircraft and rebels has killed dozens on both sides since the government launched a wide offensive against the rebels earlier this month after weeks of skirmishes.Yemen on Thursday announced conditions for a ceasefire to end its offensive, but the rebels rejected the truce offer and denied holding any...

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 SANAA: Yemeni security forces have killed a rebel leader in renewed clashes in the north of the country, in which dozens of troops and rebels also died, government sources said on Monday.Hussein Kamza, who led rebels in the northern Amran province loyal to Abdul-Malik al-Houthi of the Houthi tribal group, was killed during fighting on Sunday, a government official said.Clashes continued on Monday, mainly in Saada province in the north of the country, where al-Houthi has his headquarters, officials said. Saada is also where the rebels kidnapped 15 local aid workers last week, according to the province's governor. Fighting between Yemeni troops backed by fighter aircraft and rebels has killed dozens on both sides since the government launched a wide offensive against the rebels earlier this month after weeks of skirmishes.Yemen on Thursday announced conditions for a ceasefire to end its offensive, but the rebels rejected the truce offer and denied holding any...

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 TOKYO: Political leaders took to the streets Tuesday as campaigning kicked off in one of the most hotly contested elections Japan has seen in more than a decade, a race in which the party that has ruled the country for most of the past 55 years is considered a distant underdog.The elections for the lower house of parliament, to be held Aug. 30, will be a big test of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and could cost them control over the government and lead to the selection of opposition chief Yukio Hatoyama as Japan's next prime minister.The Liberal Democrats have governed Japan alone or in a coalition arrangement for all of the past 55 years, except for a 10-month respite in the early 1990s."We will press ahead," Prime Minister Taro Aso said in his kickoff speech before a swarm of voters who braved the summer sun in a Tokyo neighborhood. "We are not finished with our efforts to see economic recovery. Recovery is our foremost priori...

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 KABUL: A suicide car bomb in the Afghan capital Tuesday killed seven Afghan civilians and some NATO troops, and wounded more than 50 people in an attack two days before elections, officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast and a volley of rockets fired into the heavily secured capital, one of which an official said struck the outskirts of the compound of President Hamid Karzai but caused no damage. The latest attacks come two days after a deadly suicide car bombing outside the main NATO base in Kabul and follow repeated Taliban threats of new assaults in a bid to sabotage presidential and provincial council elections on Thursday. The explosion was near a US military base on a key road leading east out of Kabul, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said. "There have been some ISAF soldiers killed and several wounded," an ISAF press officer said. On the Afghan casualties, public health ministry spokesman Ahmad Fari...

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 KABUL: A Taliban rocket struck the grounds of Afghanistan's presidential palace on Tuesday, just two days before incumbent Hamid Karzai seeks re-election in tense polls that could go to a second round.Polls show Karzai likely to win Thursday's vote, but not with the outright majority required to avoid a second round. He is relying on the last-minute support of former guerrilla chieftains in a bid to tip the balance.His main rival Abdullah, an urbane eye doctor, has run an energetic campaign, seeking to garner support from beyond his base in the mainly ethnic-Tajik north.Several small rockets were fired overnight and a police source said one caused some damage inside the sprawling, fortified presidential palace compound in central Kabul, while a second hit the capital's police headquarters. Neither caused any casualties.Militants who have vowed to disrupt Thursday's election have fired rockets at the capital twice this month as well as detonated ...

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 PESHAWAR: Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of America's most-wanted men, has urged his compatriots to rise up against the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.In a statement, Hekmatyar calls for an Afghan uprising in a competitive spirit with Iraq.Afghans "like Iraqi mujahedeen, will choose the way of uprising against the occupiers," said the statement.Hekmatyar heads Hezb-e-Islami (search), an Islamic guerrilla faction that fought invading Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. He has reportedly joined forces with the Taliban against the U.S.-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 OHIO: Gilles Simon of France advanced to the second round of the Cincinnati Masters with a 6-3 6-2 victory over American Wayne Odesnik. OhioSimon, the ninth seed, was the highest-ranked player in action on Monday as the top eight seeds all received byes. France's Gael Monfils, the 13th seed, lost 6-4 6-7 7-6 to Croat Ivo Karlovic. World number six Juan Martin del Potro has withdrawn because of fatigue having lost to Andy Murray on Sunday in the final of the Montreal Masters. After taking the first set thanks to one break, Karlovic led 5-4 in the second-set tiebreak, with two serves to come, but Monfils reeled off three superb points in a row to force a decider. The Frenchman saved three break points in the fourth game of the third set but Karlovic played a better tie-break to move through to a clash with another Frenchman, Paul-Henri Mathieu, a 6-7 7-5 6-3 winner over German Mischa Zverev. Simon will now play Russian Igor Andreev, who beat Nicolas Kiefer of...