BAGHDAD, Oct 7, 2007 (AFP) - US security contractor Blackwater was unprovoked when it opened fire on civilians in Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 people and wounding 22, an Iraqi probe into the shooting has found.

The Iraqi government would now take 'judicial measures to punish the company,' government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement on Sunday.

WASHINGTON, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Since 2005, a US Justice Department document has authorized and justified the use of violent and trauma-producing techniques in interrogations of war on terror suspects, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Citing unnamed past and present Justice Department officials, it said the legal department document was circulated in 2005 -- when Congress adopted a law banning cruel inhumane and degrading treatment.

WASHINGTON, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Since 2005, a US Justice Department document has authorized and justified the use of violent and trauma-producing techniques in interrogations of war on terror suspects, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Citing unnamed past and present Justice Department officials, said that the legal department document was circulated in 2005 -- when Congress adopted a law banning cruel inhumane and degrading treatment.

YANGON, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Thousands of protesters faced off against Myanmar's feared security forces in the country's main city Friday. But not according to state media, which insisted there were just 120.

'About 30 demonstrators in each group protested at only four locations in Yangon today,' intoned the newsreader on Myanmar's evening television bulletin.

'The security forces were used only at the places needed, in order to restore stability,' the bulletin added.

SOFIA, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - Bulgaria has to dramatically boost productivity growth if it wants to bring incomes and living standards up to European Union averages, the World Bank found in a report published on Monday.

'If productivity in Bulgaria continues to grow at 2.0 percent per year, Bulgaria will never fully converge with the EU-25 gross domestic product per capita,' wrote World Bank economist Satu Kahkonen.

WASHINGTON, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - The White House said Friday that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was 'working hard' to fight corruption but declined to say whether he had been 'adequately successful.'

'The Maliki government is working hard to try to battle corruption and I can't say that I'm in a position to say whether they're being adequately successful,' said spokesman Tony Fratto.

BAGHDAD, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - A damning report by the US embassy detailing corruption in the Iraqi government was made public on Friday, days ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and US President George W. Bush.

The draft report, posted on the IraqSlogger.com website, paints a grim picture of graft in all government departments, many of which, it says, are controlled by criminal gangs and militia.

Maliki's office, it says, has shown an 'open hostility' to allowing independent investigators to probe corruption cases.

BAGHDAD, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - A damning report by the US embassy detailing corruption in the Iraqi government was made public on Friday, days ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and US President George W. Bush.

The draft report, posted on the IraqSlogger.com website, paints a grim picture of graft in all government departments, many of which, it says, are controlled by criminal gangs and militia.

Maliki's office, it says, has shown an 'open hostility' to allowing independent investigators to probe corruption cases.

WASHINGTON, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - US security firm Blackwater, in the spotlight after a Baghdad shootout left 10 dead, has defended its actions saying the convoy it was protecting was attacked by insurgents, CNN reported Tuesday.

'Blackwater's independent contractors acted lawfully and appropriately in response to a hostile attack in Baghdad on Sunday,' said a statement from the North Carolina company, reported by CNN on its online website.

WASHINGTON, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - A US government incident report of a deadly shooting in Iraq involving the US security firm Blackwater says armed insurgents attacked a diplomatic convoy and the company's guards returned fire, US media reported Monday.

Details of the incident report published by TIME magazine's online edition differ from that offered by Iraqi witnesses and the US embassy in Baghdad, according to which an explosion led the guards to react to what they believed was a car bomb.

LONDON, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is to return to Pakistan on October 23 or 24, Britain's Sky News television said Friday, citing unidentified sources.

Bhutto has been in talks with embattled military ruler President Pervez Musharraf on a possible power-sharing deal ahead of crunch general and presidential elections in the coming months.

Her Pakistan People's Party was due to announce the date of her return in Pakistan at 1200 GMT.

A spokesman for Bhutto in London said he could not confirm the Sky news report.

WASHINGTON, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - The White House on Tuesday downplayed a US watchdog report which found the Iraqi government had failed to meet 11 out of 18 benchmarks set by the US Congress, saying it did show the whole picture.

'The GAO report takes a static view of progress in Iraq,' said White House spokesman Tony Fratto, speaking about the report by the Government Accountability Office.

WASHINGTON, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - The Iraqi government has not met 11 of 18 political and security benchmarks for progress, an independent US official auditor concluded Tuesday, opening a crucial few weeks for US war strategy.

'The Iraqi government met three, partially met four and did not meet 11 of its 18 benchmarks,' the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said.

'Overall, key legislation has not been passed, violence remains high, and it is unclear whether the Iraqi government will spend 10 billion dollars in reconstruction funds.'

WASHINGTON, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - The Pentagon often has dragged its feet or refused to spend on safer equipment for US troops in Iraq, forcing the Congress to step in, a study published in USA Today on Tuesday found.

The report came as a crucial report on the military situation is due within days in Washington.

Among many examples, the newspaper cited hesitance by US army officials to buy Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles despite eager requests from commanders in Iraq.

GENEVA, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - Asia's booming economic powerhouses of China and India are leading a fresh surge in mobile phone use with nearly 200 million new subscribers between them in the first quarter of 2007, the United Nations telecommunications agency said on Tuesday.

China added 87 million new subscribers in the period and India about 110 million, the International Telecommunications Union said in a report.

GENEVA, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - Rising productivity levels in Asia are a boon and not a threat to the world economy, as growing prosperity spurs a demand for products made elsewhere in the world, the International Labour Organisation said on Monday.

The United States remained the most productive economy in 2006 in terms of labour productivity per person, far outstripping its nearest rivals among other developed economies, the ILO said in its 'Key Indicators of the Labour Market' report.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon urgently appealled to member states Thursday to make military contributions to the crucial, joint UN-African Union peacekeeping operation in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region.

'I call on (UN) member states to urgently provide the outstanding military contributions that are critical for UNAMID (the joint UN-AU force) to fulfill its challenging mandate,' he said in a report to the Security Council.

GENEVA, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - Three quarters of the world's small arms are held by civilians, with rapid and unchecked urbanisation a key driver behind their proliferation, a Swiss academic study said on Tuesday.

Of the 875 million small arms in circulation, some 650 million or 75 percent are held by civilians, according to the study by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

The United States tops the list with 270 million small arms, which translates into roughly 90 firearms per every 100 people, the study said.

WASHINGTON, Aug 23, 2007 (AFP) - A new US intelligence estimate warned Thursday that the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will become 'more precarious' in the coming months.

'The IC (intelligence community) assesses that the Iraqi government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months because of criticism by other members of the major Shia coalition' as well as Sunni and Kurdish parties, the report said.

LONDON, Aug 7, 2007 (AFP) - An official report into two outbreaks of foot and mouth disease south of London found Tuesday there was a 'strong probability' that the virus came from a nearby research centre.

But the eagerly-awaited preliminary report did not point the finger at either the government-run Institute for Animal Health (IAH) laboratory or private vaccine company Merial which share the Pirbright, Surrey site.

JERUSALEM, Aug 7, 2007 (AFP) - Palestinians face collective punishment in the occupied West Bank under security pretexts as Israel applies an intricate system of barriers that effectively splits it into six enclaves, an Israeli human rights group said Tuesday.

In a report, B'Tselem rights group said the restrictions on Palestinian movement were 'directly related' to the presence of illegal Jewish settlements in the territory and called for their removal.

BERLIN, Aug 1, 2007 (AFP) - A video of a German engineer who has been held hostage in Afghanistan for nearly two weeks apparently pleading for his life was recorded several days ago, a report in the German media said on Wednesday.

The video was loaded onto a computer memory stick and analysis of the data revealed it dated from Saturday, the online version of Der Spiegel magazine reported.

The images broadcast by Al-Jazeera on Tuesday show the 62-year-old German, identified as Rudolf B., standing in a rocky clearing with several men pointing guns at him.

LONDON, Aug 1, 2007 (AFP) - Britain's top anti-terror police officer will be criticised in a report on the shooting of an innocent Brazilian man just weeks the July 7 London bombings, The Guardian reported Wednesday.

The report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), due for release Thursday, will single out Andy Hayman, the overall head of counter-terrorism and intelligence, for criticism.

Hayman will be accused of having been deliberately misleading in what he revealed on the day of the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes, on July 22, 2005.

AMMAN, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - Oxfam warned in a report Monday that unabated violence in Iraq is masking a humanitarian crisis that has worsened since the US-led invasion in 2003, putting at risk almost eight million Iraqis.

'While horrific violence dominates the lives of millions of ordinary people inside Iraq, another kind of crisis, also due to the impact of war, has been slowly unfolding,' said the report by international relief agency Oxfam and a coalition of Iraqi non-governmental organisations.

AMMAN, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - Almost eight million Iraqis are in need of immediate emergency aid with children the hardest hit by worsening conditions, according to a report released Monday by Oxfam and a coalition of Iraqi NGOs.

The figure includes four million people who are 'food-insecure and in dire need of different types of humanitarian assistance,' more than two million who are displaced within the country, and more than two million refugees, said the report, released in Amman.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, July 25, 2007 (AFP) - An Afghan governor and the Taliban both denied Wednesday a media report that eight of 23 South Korean hostages held in Afghanistan had been released.

South Korea`s Yonhap news agency, quoting an unidentified government official in Seoul, said the eight captives had been freed by the Islamic militant group, which has already killed one hostage.

SEOUL, July 25, 2007 (AFP) - Eight of 23 South Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan were released late Wednesday, Yonhap news agency said, quoting an unidentified government official in Seoul.

The hostages were to be moved to a safe zone and then flown back to South Korea after a medical check-up, Yonhap said. It later quoted a source as saying they were being taken to a US military base in Ghazni province.

The Afghan government meanwhile confirmed that the Taliban had killed one of their Korean captives Wednesday.