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Shootings and bombings in Iraq have killed at least 15 people including 3 Iraqi soldiers in Kut and a British soldier in Basra. Around Baghdad police reported finding at least 50 mutilated bodies showing signs of torture. Gunmen kidnapped 14 people from computer shops in central Baghdad.
Turkish officials say Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will ask President Bush for US help against Kurdish guerillas when the two leaders meet today at the White House. Prime Minister AG said in a news week magazine interview his country expects series cooperation from the United States and Iraq encountering Turkish Kurdish rebels. He said leaders of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK have moved from Syria to northern Iraq and that militants are taking Iraqi army weapons and explosives and using them in Turkey.
Lebanese military forces have taken up positions in border villages vacated by Israeli troops marking the first time in nearly 40 years that the Lebanese army has held positions on the Israeli border. Hundreds of Lebanese soldiers and armored C carriers and trucks and jeeps arrived in the southern border town of M and nearby villages today. A Lebanese army commander told soldiers the deployment will help the military carry out its duties and defense of his country.
South Korea’s Foreign Minister emerges as a front-runner in the contest to take over the top job at the United Nations later this year, and many South Koreans look forward to seeing one of their known and such a prestigious post. The next step in the secretary general campaign comes today when United Nations member conducts its final straw poll. VOA’s Kurd Asian reports from Seoul.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon emerged Friday as the decisive leader in the United Nations straw poll of candidates to replace the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan later this year. As in the two previous votes Ban received an overwhelming show and support among the 15 members of the Security Council who took part in the poll. It has been 30 years since an Asian helped the top UN post and there is a strong sentiment among members that the new secretary general should be from the region. But Ban says it is more than just geography that has helped him take the lead. He says that South Korea’s long time commitment to UN ideal has been a key factor in his favor, and he hopes his personal abilities have also helped to convince UN members he is the right person for the job. The next step in the secretary general campaign comes on Monday when a 4th and final straw poll will be held. A final vote of the full UN General Assembly will be held before Mr. Annan steps down on December 31st. Kurd Asian VOA news Seoul.
Two positions from the United States have won this year’s Nobel Prize from medicine for their discovery of a fundamental mechanism controlling the flowed genetic information. In Stockholm Sweden the Noble Assembly said Andrew Fire and Craig Mello won the award for the discovery of RNA interference which they published in a 1998 report.
India’s economy has recorded faster than expected growth from April to June this year as we hear from AP in New Delhi.
The Indian economy beat forecasts to grow by 8.9 percent in the first quarter of the financial year, April to June. That compared with r 8.4 percent for all of last year, the fastest in recent years. The economy strong performance came as a welcome surprise to the ruling United Progressive Alliance or UPA government. Finance Minister P Chidambaram says this is the most rapid growth achieved in recent times. Analysts say a strong showing by B the services and manufacturing sectors contributed to the economy’s rapid expansion. The manufacturing sector has been helped by huge government spending on the country’s deliberated infrastructure including roads, power generation and ports. At the same time rising middle-class incomes continued to drive demand for consumer goods. Economists say the good results from April to June show that the Indian economy is likely to maintain a growth of 8 percent or better for a forth year in a roll. AP for VOA news New Delhi.
Meanwhile here in the United States stocks are mixed in today’s early trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 8 points to 11,687, the SP500 index moved up a fraction point to 21,336, the NASDAQ composite index was down two points to 2,257.
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