Sweden: Donors Pledge Over $900 Million for Lebanon

Swedish officials say donor countries meeting in Stockholm have pledged more than $900 million in emergency aid to begin rebuilding war-shattered Lebanon.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora had initially appealed to delegates from 60 governments and aid organizations for $500 million in urgent aid to help post-war recovery.

Speaking Thursday in the Swedish capital, Mr. Siniora said fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia wiped out 15 years of post-civil war redevelopment.

The meeting comes amid growing Western concerns that cash handouts from Hezbollah to Lebanese with homes destroyed or damaged in the month-long war will strengthen the guerrilla movement.

But Mr. Siniora vowed that none of the funds he sought will be distributed by Hezbollah.

He said the war, which ended earlier this month, cost his country billions of dollars in lost revenue from tourism, agriculture and industry.

Mr. Siniora also repeated warnings that Lebanon's reconstruction will be severely undermined if Israel does not lift its air, sea and land blockade of the country. Israel has said the blockade will continue until United Nations peacekeepers are in place in southern Lebanon.

The European Union said today it will contribute $54 million to help Lebanon. Most of the 25 EU member states are expected to pledge additional funds.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait previously have promised more than $1 billion in aid. The United States is donating $230 million, including 25,000 tons of wheat and training and equipment for Lebanon's military.

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IAEA: Iran Violating Security Council Order






The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency has concluded that Iran is continuing its uranium enrichment work in defiance of a Security Council demand. Council members are likely to begin talks on possible sanctions against Tehran in the next few weeks.

bIn a six-page report, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Mohamed ElBaradei bluntly says "Iran has not suspended its enrichment activities".

The report sent to the U.N. Security Council Thursday also says the agency has not been able to confirm the nature of Iran's nuclear program because of Tehran's lack of cooperation. It adds that "Iran has resumed enriching small amounts of uranium in recent days".

Washington's U.N. Ambassador John Bolton described the IAEA report as a warning signal to the international community about Iran's nuclear intentions.

"That's a red flag," said Mr. Bolton. "That says that the Iranian program contains much that should be worried about here in New York and underlies our concern that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. There's simply no other explanation for the range of Iranian behavior, which we've seen over the years other than that they're pursuing a weapons capability."

The IAEA findings place Iran in clear violation of an earlier Security Council order that set an August 31 deadline for suspending enrichment activities. It also opens the way for the Council to impose sanctions against the Tehran government.

Bolton reiterated the U.S. intention to push ahead with sanctions. But he said the Security Council would not take up the question of possible penalties until after a meeting next week between European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

John Bolton
John Bolton
"There are a range of issues that we've been considering," he added. "I don't think there'll be discussions here until after Javier Solana meets with Mr. Larijani next week in Europe, so we'll see what happens after that meeting, but the United States has been considering this for some time and we've got a lot of thoughts on it."

The deputy chief of Iran's nuclear agency, Mohammed Saeedi was quoted Thursday as saying the IAEA report had shown that U.S. allegations about Tehran's nuclear program are, in his words, baseless.

In a report carried by Iran's official news agency IRNA, Saeedi said the report had shown that what he called "America's propaganda and politically motivated claims" are based on "hallucinations of U.S. officials".

The focus of negotiations on Iran shifts to Europe next week, where U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns will meet with other diplomats from Security Council nations and Germany on the sanctions issue. They are also expected to confer with E.U. foreign policy chief Solana before and after his meeting with the Iranian nuclear negotiator Larijani.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy Thursday signaled the negotiations may be lengthy. He said that while his country deplores Iran's unsatisfactory response to the Security Council demand for an end to uranium enrichment, he remains convinced that the path of dialogue should remain open.

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Bush Launches New Campaign to Gain Support For Iraq War



President Bush is making a new push to boost public support for the war in Iraq, casting it as a crucial component of a broader battle against terror. In a speech to a veteran's group in Salt Lake City, Utah, Mr. Bush intensified a crucial election year debate on his Iraq policy.

George W. Bush
George W. Bush
The president says Iraq is part of a wider war raging between the forces of freedom and Islamic fanaticism.

"When terrorists murder at the World Trade Center, or car bombers strike in Baghdad, or hijackers plot to blow up planes over the Atlantic, or terrorist militias shoot rockets into Israeli towns, they are all pursuing the same objective: to turn back the advance of freedom," said President Bush.

He says this is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and vows America will stand firm against, what he calls, a worldwide network of radicals.

"And the unifying feature of this movement, the link that spans sectarian divisions and local differences, is the rigid conviction that free societies are a threat to their twisted view of Islam," he said.

The president spoke to the annual convention of the American Legion - one of the oldest and largest veterans' groups in the United States.

Many of these men and women served in combat roles in World War II, the Korean conflict and Vietnam. The president drew a link between the enemy they faced, and the enemy of today.

"They are successors to fascists, to Nazis, to communists, and other totalitarians of the 20th century," said Mr. Bush. "And history shows what the outcome will be."

This address to the American Legion was the first in a series of speeches the president will deliver in the days leading up to the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

White House officials say the anniversary is a good time to remind the American people of the high stakes involved in the war on terror. The reminders are also coming in the weeks before congressional elections in the United States and during a campaign in which the conflict in Iraq is a central issue.

The president has denied that this latest round of speeches on the global war on terror - the third in less than a year - is politically motivated. But in his address in Salt Lake City, he took aim at critics of his policy.

"Some politicians look at our efforts in Iraq and see a diversion from the war on terror," he said. "That would come as news to Osama Bin Laden who proclaimed that the third world war is waging in Iraq."

Mr. Bush said those who are calling for a U.S. military pull-out from Iraq are patriotic but wrong, and he warned of dire consequences should the United States withdraw. He said supporters of Saddam Hussein would join with radicals and armed groups with ties to Iran to turn Iraq into a major base of terrorist operations.

"If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities," continued President Bush. "We can decide to stop fighting the terrorists in Iraq and other parts of the world, but they will not decide to stop fighting us."

Aides say Mr. Bush will sound similar themes over the next few weeks, culminating with a speech to the U.N. General Assembly on September 19.


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Beijing magazine publishes controversial pictures

Alice Yan

A Beijing-based entertainment magazine has published controversial pictures of pop star Gillian Chung Yan-tung amid the furore in Hong Kong over whether they should be banned.

The cover of Banana Weekly's latest edition carried several photographs of the Twins pop star taken by a hidden camera and published in Easy Finder magazine in Hong Kong last week.

One Beijing magazine seller said the edition had been selling fast at his booth.

The China News Service quoted a Banana Weekly editor as saying the publication bought the copyright for the photographs from the Hong Kong magazine and did not think it was inappropriate to use them.

"We wrote the report from A Jiao's [Gillian Chung] standpoint ... There is no need to be surprised that these pictures have been published [in our magazine] - they can be found anywhere on the internet," the unnamed editor told the news service.

But Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper said Easy Finder had not sold the pictures to any other media outlet. Neither the author of the Banana Weekly story nor the publication's editor could be reached for comment yesterday.

The privacy issue has been widely debated on the internet, with some visitors expressing sympathy for Chung. But others were less concerned about the use of a hidden camera, saying it was not a big deal and "every star should give up his or her own privacy".

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Bin Laden wants to marry Whitney Houston

BEIJING, Aug. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Al-Qaeda chief and the world's most dreaded terrorist Osama bin Laden had a crush on American singer Whitney Houston and wanted to make her his wife after killing her husband Bobby Brown.

Al-Qaeda chief and the world's most dreaded terrorist Osama bin Laden had a crush on American singer Whitney Houston and wanted to make her his wife after killing her husband Bobby Brown. The suggestion is made by Sudanese poet and novelist Kola Boof, 37, who claims she was bin Laden's sex slave for four months 10 years ago.

Whitney Houston and her husband Bobby Brown
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The suggestion is made by Sudanese poet and novelist Kola Boof, 37, who claimed she was bin Laden's sex slave for four months 10 years ago.

In her autobiography Diary of a Lost Girl, excerpted in the magazine Harpers' Bazaar, she writes: "He told me Whitney Houston was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen."

Boof, who claimed bin Laden raped her and held her prisoner in a Moroccan hotel, said he could not stop talking about the songbird, even though he disapproved of music.

"He said that he had a paramount desire for Whitney Houston, and although he claimed music was evil he spoke of someday spending vast amounts of money to go to America and try to arrange a meeting with the superstar."

"It didn't seem impossible to me. He said he wanted to give Whitney Houston a mansion that he owned in a suburb of Khartoum."

"He would say how beautiful she is, what a nice smile she has, how truly Islamic she is but is just brainwashed by American culture and by her husband -- Bobby Brown."

And bin Laden had a plan to deal with that little problem -- he discussed having Brown killed, said Boof.

Boof, who once claimed she had to take her son out of a Los Angeles school after rumours surfaced that bin Laden was his father, also claimed the Al Qaeda mastermind read more than the Koran.

"In his briefcase I would come across photographs of the Star magazine, as well as copies of Playboy," she writes. Enditem

(Agencies)

Editor: Zhu Jin

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Locomotive falls into river after train-mountain crash in northern Thailand

BANGKOK, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The locomotive of a passenger train fell into the Yom river after the train derailed and crashed into a mountain in Thai northern province of Phrae on Thursday night, a local source told Xinhua.b

The accident occurred at about 8:00 p.m. local time (1300 GMT).The driver of the train and an engineman were missing after the accident, while the exact casualties were not available right now, the source said.

The Express 52 train was heading to Bangkok from northern city of Chiang Mai. After the accident, all the passenger carriages with some 100 passengers remained on the rail track and were later tolled to nearby Lam Pang station.

Thai railway authority has confirmed the accident and an official told Thai Radio FM100 that the heavy rain in the area maybe the cause of the accident.

The heavy rain on Thursday caused flooding at the site, which damaged the railt rack by landslide. Local officials have rushed to the scene but the rescue and repair operation has been delayed because of the bad weather, the official said.

Railway authority in Bangkok said the train service from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, which passes Phrae, has been closed temporarily. Enditem

Editor: Luan Shanglin

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Over a dozen trapped in Pakistan hotel collapse

A hotel has collapsed in Pakistan's popular hill resort of Murree with more than a dozen people believed trapped in the rubble, police said.

Army teams with heavy cranes have joined police and the local administration in the rescue operation, and none of the victims have been recovered so far, the local police chief, Sajid Kiyani, told AFP by telephone.

The building was a nine-storey block and the whole structure came down, "trapping some 12-14 people," he said.

Tourists coming to enjoy the scenic beauty of Murree, 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Islamabad, used the hotel, he said.

The building's owner, his wife and daughter were inside.

"His daughter trapped in the rubble called police on her mobile phone and we are in touch with her," Kiyani said.

"We are very hopeful she will be rescued soon," he added.

Two families from the central city of Multan who had hired rooms Wednesday were also in the building when it collapsed before dawn, the officer said.

The hotel was "not fully occupied" as the flow of tourists had declined because schools had reopened after the summer vacation, he said.

Police and army rescue teams are trying to remove rubble and retrieve survivors, he said.

The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear. It came in the wake of frequent heavy rains in northern areas since last month.

More than 200 people have died in monsoon rains this year, most of them in roof collapses in mountainous North West Frontier Province and central Punjab province.

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