Alitalia's board will hold an emergency meeting as Italy's national carrier edges closer to bankruptcy after Air France-KLM broke off talks to buy it. The meeting will be held later Thursday. Italy's Stock Exchange says it suspended the company's shares after Air France-KLM quit talks with Italian unions and Alitalia's chairman Maurizio Prato resigned. The Franco-Dutch carrier had said new proposals by unions would not allow it to quickly return Alitalia to profitability. Air France-KLM's offer values the airline at $216 million and is conditional on union approval.

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An airstrike destroyed a house in the southern city of Basra, killing a militant, the U.S. military said Thursday. Iraqi police said six civilians were among the dead. The attack comes as the Iraqi government apparently shifts gears in its offensive against Shiite militias, staging more targeted raids instead of attacking the gunmen head-on after a week of fierce clashes that spread to Baghdad and other southern cities. The U.S.-led coalition directed "aerial fires" against enemy forces fighting Iraqi troops Wednesday near the militia stronghold of Qibla in Basra, said Lt. David Russell, a military spokesman. That district that has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the offensive that began March 25.

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The Iraqi military says a suicide bomber has attacked a checkpoint near Mosul, killing seven people and wounding 12. The U.S. military confirms the Wednesday night attack but puts the toll at five dead and 19 wounded. The blast occurred in the Addayah area about 20 miles west of Mosul while Iraqi soldiers were checking vehicles. The dead include a woman and a 5-year-old child. Mosul is believed to be the last major urban center where al-Qaida maintains a substantial presence.

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Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Wednesday he wanted direct talks between his military alliance in Afghanistan and the new government in Pakistan. With rows over troop numbers and deployments, and worries over the state of the porous Afghan-Pak border, Scheffer also dropped a broad hint he would soon head to Islamabad himself.
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Any action by Nato forces in the tribal areas of Pakistan will be considered an assault on Pakistan, said spokesman of Foreign Office, Muhammad Sadiq at the weekly briefing while commenting on the statement of the US CIA chief.
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The Taliban has said two attacks on Dutch forces in Afghanistan were in retaliation for an anti-Islamic film by a Dutch politician, the SITE Intelligence Group said on Tuesday. In a communique posted on Web sites used by militants dated April 1, the Taliban said its Shura Council Leadership announced reprisal operations against Dutch forces because "one of the members of the Dutch parliament produced a film that hurts Islam, and he published it with bad intentions".
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Government troops Wednesday captured a strip of land from Tamil Tigers after heavy fighting across the island's north left 42 rebels and a soldier dead, the defence ministry said. Security forces killed the guerrillas from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in separate clashes in the Mannar, Weli Oya and Jaffna district since Tuesday evening, the ministry said.
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Amir Jamat-i-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmed Wednesday called for restoration of the Constitution to its original shape as it appeared on October 12, 1999 position.
“This will remove all hurdles in restoration of judges,” he said while addressing the members and workers JI here at Al-Markaz Islami Sangota. He said it is essential to enforce Shariah in Malakand Division for establishment of peace there.
“We should say goodbye to the policies that continue to put our country under US slavery,” Qazi Hussain said.
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The NWFP police department Wednesday issued notification regarding the promotion of over 150 police personnel.
Police sources said three-member committee comprising SP headquarters, SP traffic and SP cantonment was constituted for the promotion of lower head constable posted in NWFP including Peshawar. In the light of committee’s decision, at least 186 lower head constables have been promoted to head constable.
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Pakistan’s renowned nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan hoped that the new government would free him from his house arrest and he would have freedom of expression very soon. Talking to a US-based news agency by phone, he said he accepted the allegation of smuggling the nuclear arms in the larger national interest. Dr Abdul Qadeer said former Premier Nawaz Sharif and other leaders supported him in past; however, the new leadership said nothing about his detention and freedom of expression.
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Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri launched a blistering attack on the United Nations Wednesday calling it the enemy of Islam and Muslims in an online audio file. "The United Nations is an enemy of Islam and Muslims: it is the one which codified and legitimized the setting up of the state of Israel and its taking over of the Muslims' lands," Zawahiri said.
"We haven't killed the innocents, not in Baghdad, nor in Morocco, nor in Algeria, nor anywhere else," Zawahiri said in the audio lasting one hour and 43 minutes, which marked his third public message this year. Read the rest of this entry »

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The PPP and MQM leaders announced that they were willing to forgive and forget the ill will of the past and start anew to foster peace and democracy in Sindh and Pakistan. In a stirring address outside MQM headquarters Nine-Zero, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, after being accorded a rousing welcome earlier, promised a brighter future for the coming generations of the province and the nation. Prior to Zardari’s speech, Altaf Hussain, in his address, said that the two parties had started a new journey together.
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Britain has said that it would work towards calling early meeting of Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group to end Pakistan's suspension from the councils of Commonwealth. British Foreign Minister David Miliband stated this in a telephonic conversation with his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Miliband expressed confidence that Pakistan, as an important regional country would continue to play leading role in the region.
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One of the Democratic presidential candidates has a pastor who opposed both Iraq wars, supports same-sex marriage, opposes the death penalty, and has been a passionate critic of American foreign policy. The clergyman isn't the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama's spiritual leader who has become a household name and a campaign issue for his fiery rhetoric, but the Reverend Edward Matthews, a little-known Arkansas preacher who is the closest Senator Clinton has to a pastor of her own.

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Hillary Clinton told a gathering of Pennsylvania labor unions yesterday that a building binge to repair American infrastructure could create 3 million jobs over 10 years, linking her political travails to the nation's economic malaise with a declaration that "we're on the comeback trail as a country."Clinton identified herself with the activism of Mother Jones, but found her greatest kinship with Philadelphia's most tired cliché. She entered the hotel ballroom to a live-band rendition of the "Rocky" theme - which Republican John McCain used at rallies during his January comeback - and cited the movie pugilist as a political role model.

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