Saturday, Dec 27th
Last update09:19:08 AM GMT
International Glance
Four American teenagers, all children of U.S. military personnel, have been arrested on charges of attempted murder after a woman was knocked off her motorbike with rope strung across two poles, Japanese police said.
They are accused of causing a severe head injury to a 23-year-old restaurant employee by stringing a rope between poles across a road.
Venezuela arrested the brother of one of President Hugo Chavez's senior ministers on Saturday, the latest move in a clean-up of the financial system that has closed banks and pointed to corruption close to the government.
The arrest of the banker, whose brother Jesse Chacon has worked with Chavez for nearly twenty years and is now science minister, shows the president clamping down on a new class of businessmen made rich by their connections to the government.
The Global Peace Index Rankings have been released. Vision of Humanity has published them, and nothing there is surprising. The least peaceful nation is Iraq, followed by Afghanistan, Somalia and in the fourth position: Israel. Not surprising, as on many of the parametres used to measure peace. quite specifically respect for human rights, they fall short again and again. 144 countries were ranked in 2009.
A television network covering southern Africa recently aired a report, after an extensive undercover investigation, that revealed an elaborate Israeli secret service operation is being carried out at Johannesburg International Airport.
The interior ministry confirmed the new construction, amid reports that Mr Netanyahu had turned down a direct request from Washington's envoy, George Mitchell, to halt the programme.
The Israelis claim that the settlement, Gilo, is now part of Jerusalem, which it has always said would not be included in any freeze that might be agreed to facilitate talks.
Gilo already houses 40,000 Israelis.
Army spokesman Major Murad Khan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into security forces' headquarters located in Madyan area of restive Swat valley in North West Frontier Province. Six soldiers were also injured in the bombing, he added.
Earlier, thousands of people protested the killing of three civilians allegedly by army shelling.
The demonstration started after a mortar round hit a house in the Allah Abad area of Swat district, leaving a women and her two children dead, local journalist Nisar Ali Khan said.
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Federal prosecutors Thursday moved to seize U.S. assets allegedly held by the government of Iran, including a mosque and school in the Potomac area, land in Prince William County and a 36-story Manhattan office building.
The U.S. attorney in Manhattan filed a civil complaint in federal court seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets of the Alavi Foundation and another alleged front company. The complaint also targets mosques in California, New York and Texas.
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