Today's other stories in brief
Blackwater cited in 195 Iraq shootings
WASHINGTON - US security contractor Blackwater has been involved in at least 195 shooting incidents in Iraq since 2005 and, in eight out of 10 cases, its forces fired first, according to a leading US lawmaker.
State Department contractor Blackwater, under investigation for the shooting dead of 11 Iraqis on September 16th, will answer questions about that incident and its performance in Iraq at a congressional hearing today.
Senior State Department officials will also be questioned by the House of Representatives committee on oversight and government reform.
Committee chair Henry Waxman, a vocal critic of the Iraq war, released details from Blackwater's own reports of multiple incidents involving Iraqi casualties.
- (Reuters)
Burma regime 'devoid of ideology'
DUBLIN - Burma's ruling regime is devoid of an ideology other than that of holding on to power, the Archbishop of Dublin and Catholic primate of Ireland has said, writes John Downes.
Addressing a Mass in Dublin yesterday to mark the start of the new law term, Dr Diarmuid Martin said Burma was a clear example of the significance of virtue, moral convictions and moral training for the health of a society.
"The peaceful marchers, the dignity of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi contrast with a regime which has degenerated into brutality because of the total absence of moral convictions," he said.
Syria wants Golan Heights on agenda
LONDON - Syria will not attend a Middle East peace conference set for next month unless the Israeli- occupied Golan Heights are on the agenda, President Bashar al-Assad said in comments broadcast yesterday.
"If they don't talk about the Syrian occupied territory, no, there's no way for Syria to go there," Mr Assad told the BBC. Israel captured the Heights from Syria in the 1967 Arab- Israeli war. - (Reuters)
Murder suspect 'forced to kill'
ISTANBUL - The chief suspect in the murder of Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink told a court he was forced to carry out the killing, lawyers said yesterday, in a case seen as an important test for Ankara's bid for EU membership.
The EU opened talks on membership with Turkey in 2005 and sees the Dink case as a test for a judicial system often accused of conservative bias . - (Reuters)
Belgian on racist murder charge
BRUSSELS - A Belgian far- right sympathiser has become the first person in Belgium to be tried on a new charge of murder with racist intent.
Hans Van Themsche (19) is accused of murdering a two- year-old white girl and her black nanny and attempting to kill a Turkish woman in May 2006. - (Reuters)