September 23, 2005	Friday	Sha'aban 18, 1426

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1 million flee as storm nears Texas GALVESTON (USA), Sept 22: Cars clogged Texas highways with more than a million people fleeing Hurricane Rita on Thursday as the Category 5 storm roared through the Gulf of Mexico on a potentially catastrophic course....		Kyrgyz revolution leader shot dead BISHKEK, Sept 22: A top Kyrgyz lawmaker and key figure in this ex-Soviet state’s popular revolution in March, Bayaman Erkinbayev, was shot dead outside his house late on Wednesday in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, the country’s interior minister said....
Pentagon blocks testimony over 9/11 WASHINGTON, Sept 22: The Pentagon blocked an intelligence official from testifying to Congress on Wednesday on his claim that a secret military intelligence program identified Mohammed Atta as an Al Qaeda operative a year before the Sept 11, 2001, attacks....		UN chief urges G-77 to fulfil pledges UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22: Developing countries must keep their commitments made at the World Summit in order to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to reduce poverty and disease, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a meeting of G-77 nations....
US firm’s oil platform attacked in Nigeria PORT HARCOURT (Nigeria), Sept 22: More than 100 armed militants stormed a US-operated oil production platform in Nigeria and forced it to close on Thursday in response to the arrest of an ethnic militia leader on treason charges....		Celebrities urge leaders to do more for peace UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22: Oscar wining actor Michael Douglas, primate expert Jane Goodall and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel visited the United Nations on Wednesday and called on world leaders to do more to turn words into deeds....
US calls upon China to ‘use power responsibly’ NEW YORK, Sept 22: US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick on Wednesday called upon China to take concrete steps to assure the world it will use its power responsibly and...		Schroeder, Merkel fail to narrow differences BERLIN, Sept 22: First coalition talks between Germany’s two biggest parties ended without immediate agreement on Thursday, with conservative leader Angela Merkel saying there were ‘clear differences’ between her and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder....
Safe landing on crippled nose gear LOS ANGELES, Sept 22: A JetBlue airliner with 146 people aboard made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, dragging its crippled nose gear down the runway in...		Tory leader calls for Blair’s resignation LONDON, Sept 22: Prime Minister Tony Blair should quit over the Iraq war which is a bigger disaster than Suez for Britain or Vietnam for the United States, a candidate to lead the Conservative opposition party said on Wednesday....
Iraq no more beacon of democracy: US, UK search for honourable exit DIPLOMATS in the Foreign Office are working frantically in private on what they refer to as the “exit ticket” from Iraq. In contrast to the official line that British forces will...		Attack on free speech will fuel Muslim hostility SINCE the London terror attacks in July, Tony Blair has dramatically elevated the question of “incitement” by aggressively defining it as one of the root causes of extremism....
Authoritarian system has broken apart in Egypt CAIRO: It’s hard to imagine Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as a change agent. During the 24 years he has ruled this country, he has displayed a military man’s passion for stability and a corresponding wariness of democracy....		France to pay cash for more babies PARIS: Middle-class mothers in France could be paid up to euro 1,000 a month — almost the minimum wage — to stop work for a year and have a third child...
East Europe no sure guide as EU eyes Turkey ANKARA/BRUSSELS: “Don’t treat us like tiny Slovenia or Estonia — we are Turks, we are different”. That is at least part of the message from Turkey to the EU as it prepares for the start of membership talks on Oct....		Iraqis still scarred 25 years after Gulf war BAGHDAD: Saddam Hussein can no longer force Iraqis to celebrate “victory” in the war with Iran but they are still haunted by the conflict 25 years to the day after it started....
White House counsels evacuation WASHINGTON: The White House had simple instructions on Thursday for Americans in areas expected to be hit by powerful Hurricane Rita: ‘Get out’....		Israel says it has completed pullout JERUSALEM: Israel on Thursday dismantled its last military base in a pocket of the northern West Bank where it had evacuated four small settlements, completing the final stage of a ‘disengagement’ plan....
UK Muslims moot body for mosques LONDON: British Muslim leaders called on Thursday for a council to be set up to oversee the country’s mosques and imams in a bid to combat the kind of extremism that led to the London bombings in July....		Kuwait, Iraq to discuss oilfields KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait has formed a team to work with Iraq to specify rights of the two neighbouring states in the border oilfields....