Last updated 22/12/10
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WikiLeaks: British trained Bangladesh's controversial paramilitary
M&C News
photo: AP / Pavel Rahman
Berlin - Britain trained a controversial paramilitary in Bangladesh, which has been repeatedly accused of large-scale human rights abuses, leaked United States diplomatic cables show.
The cables, published by WikiLeaks, also show that Western governments were aware of the human rights abuses.


'The British have been training RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) for 18 months in areas such as investigative interviewing techniques and rules of engagement,' wrote James F Moriarty, the US ambassador to Dhaka, in a confidential cable from May 2009...READ MORE



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Deadly earthquake hits Iran
Al Jazeera
photo: AP / Abdolhosein Rezvani
At least seven people are dead and three villages destroyed in the quake that jolted a vast region in the south east.
An earthquake in southeast Iran has killed at least seven people and destroyed homes, a regional governor has said. The quake struck late on Monday in a mountainous region and was given a 6.3 magnitude by the US Geological Survey. Kerman province is said to be the worst affected area. "Seven people have been killed and hundreds have been injured...READ MORE



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Has Bangladesh Befallen Captive
News From Bangladesh
File Photo : mochila.com
The rule of Bangladesh, a country of 150 million people, has pretty much turned into family affairs. The center of power now clearly revolves around two prominent families..
Bangladesh is facing serious crises in crucial areas such as, severe gas and electricity shortage (which continues to threaten daily life and investment), rising inflation, unemployment, rampant corruption, political murder, campus riot, law and order deterioration, and climate change effect. Instead of collaborating or working to address these critical issues, the ladies of the land persist on grappling for things like establishing or reestablishing whose predecessor were more relevant...READ MORE



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Anger rises as travel havoc snarls Britain, Europe
The Guardian
photo: AP / Kirsty Wigglesworth
GREGORY KATZ Associated Press= LONDON (AP) — Frustrated travelers in Europe expressed fury Monday at transportation officials' inability to clear snow and ice from planes, runways and high-speed train tracks, failings that have caused holiday travel chaos and fears that many will not get home in time for Christmas. The continent's worst bottleneck...READ MORE



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Russia Warns Senate Not to Amend Arms Control Treaty
The New York Times
photo: AP / Geert Vanden Wijngaert
WASHINGTON — Russia warned the United States Senate on Monday not to rewrite the new arms control treaty being debated Capitol Hill as American lawmakers clashed about the politics of ratification in the waning days of the congressional session. Republican critics of the treaty, known as New Start, offered more amendments to the...READ MORE



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Pope Says Sex Scandal Has Hit Unimaginable Dimension 
The New York Times2010-12-20photo: AP / Alessandra Tarantino, pool
ROME — Pope Benedict XVI said on Monday that the Catholic Church must reflect on the failures in its message that allowed for the sexual abuse scandal and that the church must find a way to help victims and not ordain potential pedophiles. “We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that transpired. We must ask ourselves what went wrong in our message, in our entire way of being Christians, so that such a thing could have occurred,” the pope told the Vatican hierarchy in a pointed Christmas message. Benedict said that that in 2010, abuse cases had reached an “unimaginable... READ MORE


OTHERSTORIES
>Snow, Ice Ground Flights Across Europe
>N Korea raises military alert
>Boat sinks in Surma, 35 dead
>Wikileaks cables on Bangladesh reveal truth behind Minus 2, DGFI's role in forming IDP

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