December 31, 2005	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 28, 1426

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Sunnis hail review of Iraq poll results BAGHDAD, Dec 30: Leaders of Iraq’s Sunni and secular communities gave a cautious welcome on Friday to a plan to bring foreign experts to Baghdad to review results of this month’s election, which they say was fraudulent....		Rocket attack on Israel shakes Lebanon govt BEIRUT, Dec 30: A rocket attack on Israel from southern Lebanon, claimed by Al Qaeda but widely blamed on Shia Hezbollah movement, has shunted Lebanon’s ruling coalition closer to possible collapse....
Russia to cut off Ukraine’s gas supply as price talks fail MOSCOW, Dec 30: Russia readied on Friday to axe natural gas supplies to Ukraine on New Year’s day as negotiations over Moscow’s demand for a four-fold price increase floundered, raising fears of disruption to deliveries across Europe....		Morales gets warm welcome in Cuba HAVANA, Dec 30: Bolivia’s Socialist president-elect, Evo Morales, was welcomed in Havana on Friday with full honours and greeted at the airport by a bouyant Cuban President Fidel Castro....
Sudan to close its embassy in Iraq KHARTOUM, Dec 30: Khart-oum is to close its embassy in Baghdad after Al Qaeda in Iraq threatened to kill five Sudanese hostages if it did not leave the strife-torn country, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday....		Record 27th storm forms in Atlantic MIAMI, Dec 30: Yet another tropical storm formed in the Atlantic on Friday, one month after the official end of the year’s record-smashing hurricane season, forecasters said....
Khaddam slams Syrian govt DUBAI, Dec 30: Former Syrian Vice President Abdulhalim Khaddam on Friday denounced the government of President Bashar al-Assad, saying it had committed many mistakes during its domination of neighbouring Lebanon....		Supporters of Cuban reforms play a waiting game ALONG THE STRAITS OF FLORIDA: On both sides of this 90-mile-wide waterway separating the United States and Cuba, the aging adversaries of the Cold War’s most enduring confrontation are exercising, eating right and trying to outlast one another....
Mugabe driving Harare deeper into crisis HARARE: Zimbabwe is likely to sink deeper into crisis in 2006 as President Robert Mugabe continues hardline policies that have gutted the economy and isolated his government, analysts say....		Fictional King Kong mirrors odd island facts JOHANNESBURG: King Kong may be a far-fetched creation of Hollywood but scientists say the big ape has some basis in biological fact: animals on islands often evolve into gigantic versions of their mainland kin....
Bush’s poll triumph reduced to ashes WASHINGTON: In his second inaugural address, George Bush four times summoned the image of fire — ‘a day of fire’, ‘we have lit a fire’, ‘fire in the minds of men’, and ‘untamed fire’....		Tides of war flooding back COLOMBO: A new tsunami is gathering force in Sri Lanka. A country which lost over 35,000 people in last year’s catastrophe is facing a disaster which could dwarf that death toll....