December 13, 2005	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 10, 1426

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30,000 Iraqis killed since 2003: Bush: Polls ‘won’t be perfect’ PHILADELPHIA, Dec 12: US President George Bush warned on Monday that Iraq’s elections this week ‘won’t be perfect’ and will not end the ‘insurgency’. In a rare comment by a US...		Asean asks Myanmar govt to free Suu Kyi KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12: Southeast Asia’s premier regional grouping turned on military-ruled member state Myanmar on Monday with its clearest call yet for the junta to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest....
Racial violence erupts in Sydney SYDNEY, Dec 12: Racial violence erupted for the second straight day in Sydney on Monday, with cars smashed and reports of shots fired just hours after Australian Prime Minister John Howard appealed for calm....		Protesters ready to derail WTO meeting HONG KONG, Dec 12: Top trade negotiators from nearly 150 countries kick off efforts on Tuesday to salvage troubled world trade talks, while thousands of protesters are expected to take to the street hoping they fail....
Nato not to pursue Taliban: official KABUL, Dec 12: Nato-led soldiers to deploy next year to insurgency-hit southern Afghanistan will not take over counter-terrorist operations conducted by US-led forces, a spokesman said on Monday....		Anti-Syria legislator killed in Beirut blast BEIRUT, Dec 12: A car bomb blast killed Lebanese newspaper magnate and anti-Syrian lawmaker Gebran Tueni in Beirut on Monday, a day after he returned from Paris, where he had based himself in recent months in fear of assassination....
Tension in Chinese village BEIJING, Dec 12: Nine people have been arrested as tensions in a southern Chinese village remained high on Monday following a confrontation with paramilitary forces last week that left up to 30 locals dead, residents said....		Lebanon seeks UN probe BEIRUT, Dec 12: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Monday he would ask the UN Security Council to look into the killing of an anti-Syrian member of parliament and form...
Shipbreaking kills thousands: Greenpeace NEW DELHI, Dec 12: Environmental group Greenpeace said on Monday thousands of workers involved in the shipbreaking industry are likely to have died over the past two decades due to accidents or exposure to toxic waste on the ships....		Bush slams abuse of Sunnis PHILADELPHIA, Dec 12: US President George Bush on Monday said that the torture of Sunni detainees in secret Iraqi prisons was ‘unacceptable’ and called for those responsible to be punished....
Abuse alleged in another jail WASHINGTON, Dec 12: Thirteen prisoners suffered abuse serious enough to require medical treatment while at a detention centre in Baghdad operated by interior ministry special commandos, The Washington Post said on Monday....		Czech surgeons sew back nose PRAGUE, Dec 12: Czech surgeons sewed back the nose of an 11-year-old boy after it had been bitten off by a dog and remained in its stomach for two hours, Czech papers said on Monday....
Sunnis determined not to miss the vote BAGHDAD: Their candidates have been assassinated, their party offices attacked, but hopes are mounting among Iraq’s Sunni Arab politicians that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, will not make a serious effort to disrupt next week’s national elections....		MI6, CIA sent student to Morocco for torture NEW YORK: An Ethiopian student who lived in London claims that he was brutally tortured with the involvement of British and US intelligence agencies. Binyam Mohammed, 27, says he spent nearly three years in the CIA’s network of ‘black sites’....
In Kabul, a stark gulf between wealthy few and the poor KABUL: Displayed under fluorescent lights on a spotless marble floor, the imported refrigerators, dishwashers and ovens at the new Beko store draw a steady stream of gawkers in a city where nearly everything is coated with grime....		Lebanon’s journalists in the line of fire BEIRUT: This autumn May Chidiac was hosting her Sunday morning talk show on Lebanese television, a popular fixture on the Beirut political scene. She chatted with her guest, a newspaper journalist,...
Taliban exploit drug trade to step up Afghan attacks KHANISHIN: Resurgent Taliban forces have forged an alliance with drug smugglers in the lawless Afghan province of Helmand, underscoring a worrying slide in security just months before thousands of British troops are due to take control in the spring....		Is France the bad boy of Hong Kong? PARIS: French opposition to reform the European common agricultural policy is at the bottom of the difficulties the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is expected to face in Hong Kong this week....
Development of Gaza Strip in limbo GAZA CITY: Three months since Israel left the Gaza Strip, ambitious plans to develop the impoverished Palestinian territory have been stalled by delays over shifting the rubble of former settlements, officials say....		Separation of N-facilities in advanced stage: Singh NEW DELHI: The separation of India’s civilian and military nuclear plants, key to a July deal with the United States on nuclear technology sales, is at an “advanced stage,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said....