September 22, 2005	Thursday	Sha'aban 17, 1426

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Israel disregards US plea over Hamas JERUSALEM, Sept 21: Israel reiterated threats on Wednesday to hamper January’s Palestinian election if Hamas stands despite being urged by Washington to cooperate in organizing the polls....		Tehran, Tel Aviv clash at UN UNITED NATIONS, Sept 21: Israel and Iran clashed at the UN General Assembly here on Tuesday, accusing each other of threatening Middle East and world peace with their respective nuclear programmes....
China, Russia warn West against confrontation: Iran’s referral to UN VIENNA, Sept 21: China and Russia warned the United States and European Union on Wednesday against escalating the nuclear standoff with Iran, potentially blocking a Western drive to haul Tehran before the UN Security Council....		US policy handing over Iraq to Iran: Riyadh NEW YORK, Sept 21: Washington’s policy in Iraq is widening sectarian divisions to the point of effectively handing the country to Iran, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal said on Tuesday....
US tells Taiwan to reverse defence cut WASHINGTON, Sept 21: A senior Pentagon official bluntly warned Taiwan it must invest in its own defences against a growing threat from China if it expects the United States to come to its aid in a crisis....		S. Korea to develop combat robots SEOUL, Sept 21: South Korea on Wednesday announced it was developing highly sophisticated combat robots that could complement the roles of human soldiers on battlefields....
Greens soften stand on talks with Merkel BERLIN, Sept 21: Germany’s Greens have agreed to hold talks on forming a new government with Angela Merkel’s conservatives after a leading member of Merkel’s party called a link with the environmentalist group ‘a realistic option’....		Storm forces US to pass ISS control to Russia HOUSTON, Sept 21: The US space agency on Wednesday decided to close Houston’s Johnson Space Centre due to the threat posed by Hurricane Rita, handing over control of the International Space Station (ISS) to Russia....
EU agrees to hold talks with Turkey BRUSSELS, Sept 21: The European Union formally agreed a hotly-contested declaration on Turkey on Wednesday, a spokesman said, voicing confidence that entry talks will start with Ankara on October 3 despite a lingering problem....		600m Muslim children live in poverty: UN UNITED NATIONS, Sept 21: A United Nations press release on Wednesday said action is urgently needed to tackle a range of problems facing over 600 million children in the Islamic world, from poverty and disease to education and protection....
Katrina death toll tops 1,000 BATON ROUGE, Sept 21: The death toll from Hurricane Katrina climbed to 1,037 after Louisiana officials on Wednesday raised the number of fatalities to 799. There were 219 dead in Mississippi and 19 each in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.—Reurers...		Phone numbers net $90,000 at Qatar auction DOHA, Sept 21: Mobile phone numbers went under the hammer for up to 90,000 dollars in a charity auction organized by Qatar Telecom (Qtel), company officials said on Wednesday....
Quakes on Mars LOS ANGELES, Sept 21: The climate on Mars is showing a warming trend and recent images have shown the first evidence of seismic activity on Earth’s neighbour planet, scientists said on Tuesday....		Lankan PM agrees to act against LTTE MAHINDA Rajapakse, Sri Lanka’s prime minister and presidential candidate for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), signed an election deal last week with the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a Sinhala supremacist party under the leadership of right-wing Buddhist monks....
Hospital struggles with encephalitis outbreak GORAKHPUR: Malti collapses on the filthy hospital floor and wails: “Oh my son, you have just left us! Oh my child, why have you left us?” She shrieks through her sobs...		Female fuel attendants pump up business in India NEW DELHI: Curly-haired Mukti Srivastava remembers the suspicion from shopkeepers when she first asked to hire their young daughters. Now, the 32-year-old manager of a New Delhi service station almost completely...
Mentally ill in Kashmir paint despair on canvas SRINAGAR: When art therapist Arshad Hussain gave a patient at occupied Kashmir’s lone psychiatric hospital a canvas, the painting she produced was graphic and disturbing. Twenty-four-year-old Hanifa Akhter, who saw her...		Forecasts help farmers survive drought NEW DELHI: India’s farm-dependent economy has made it through the crucial monsoon season despite poor rains in key growing areas by relying on short-term sophisticated rain forecasts, a weather official said....
Tigers start recruitment drive in Jaffna JAFFNA: With the presidential campaign of the ruling Peoples’ Alliance candidate, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse kicking off on Tuesday on anti LTTE lines, highly informed sources in Jaffna confirmed that the...		Low-caste chained for two years NEW DELHI: A low-caste Hindu man in India has been chained to the verandah of his house for more than two years after fellow villagers declared him insane, The Times of India newspaper reported....