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US vice President Joe Biden is in Iraq to hold talks with leaders focused on bridging the country's sectarian divide ahead of a complete American military pullout in 2011.
Biden was first scheduled to meet General Ray Odierno, the top US officer in Iraq, as well as Christopher hill, Washington's ambassador to Baghdad. The trip comes just after President Barack Obama asked the vice president to oversee the US departure from Iraq and Washington's effort to promote political reconciliation in the country. Biden will also visit American troops now stationed on the outskirts of Iraqi cities, following a major pullback from urban centres that was completed on Tuesday.
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A 17-year-old was killed in the Gaza strip after being struck by a shell fired from an Israeli tank.
Palestinian witnesses said Hyam Ayash died and four other people were wounded, one of them seriously, when the tank fired a mortar towards a target near Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza strip.
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A South Korean civic group sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea, a day after the north fired short-range missiles and the two Koreas failed to come to an agreement over their joint factories.
A small group of anti-North Korea protesters gathered in inch eon. The protesters prepared ten balloons, which carried a hundred thousand leaflets and about 300 U.S. Dollars and released them towards the north. On Thursday, officials from north and South Korea failed to bring any agreements over a troubled factory park in the communist state which is one of a few legitimate sources of hard cash for Pyongyang.
The north refused to discuss releasing a South Korean worker held at the park for more than 80 days for supposedly insulting the north's communist system.
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US marines pushed deeper into Taliban strongholds after suffering the first fatality of their massive offensive, while the most senior British army officer in Afghanistan has been killed by a roadside bomb in the southern province of Helmand.
Ferried in by relays of helicopters yesterday, marines were on the ground in southern Helmand province's districts of Garmsir and Nawa, and also helped afghan forces take Khanishin. The nearly 4,000 marines are spearheading US President Barack Obama's aggressive new war plan for Afghanistan's insurgency with an emphasis on protecting the population ahead of presidential elections on august 20th. On Thursday troops quickly overran Khanishin district, where the Taliban had set up a proxy government and justice system. But they also recorded their first death in an air and land assault that is one of the biggest joint campaigns in post-Taliban Afghanistan. The commander of the operation, brigadier general Larry Nicholson, said US marines deployed in Taliban strongholds in the major assault are in a "hell of a fight". Meanwhile the defence ministry, while stating British casualties, said lieutenant colonel Rupert Thorneloe, died along with an 18-year-old trooper when a bomb exploded under his armoured vehicle near the town of Lashkar Gah on Wednesday. Thorneloe, the commanding officer of the 1st battalion welsh guards, was the highest-ranking British soldier to be killed in Afghanistan since Britain joined the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Britain has about 8,300 soldiers fighting the Taliban, mainly in the south.
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In Occupied Kashmir, dozens of protestors have been injured in clashes with Indian police at several places including Nowhatta, Rajourikadal, Maisuma, Pulwama, Shopian, Dooru and Islamabad.
People took to streets defying curfew restrictions in Sopore and Baramulla. The demonstrators in Srinagar condemned the arrest of a youth, Muhammad Aadil under the draconian public safety act. Indian police resorted to heavy Lathi charge and tear-gassing to disperse the protestors. Shutdown in Shopiyan entered the 34th day, where the troops barged into people’s houses. Addressing a gathering at Jamia Masjid in Srinagar, APHC chairman, Mirwaiz Umar farooq paid rich tributes to the youth martyred by the troops while using brute force against the protestors. He demanded immediate release of all Hurriyet leaders and repeal of black laws. On the other hand, an APHC delegation led by Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, was prevented by the occupation authorities from proceeding to Dooru in Islamabad. The illegally detained JKLF (r) leader, Muhammad Saleem Nunnaji was brought to a Tada court in Srinagar in a false case against him.
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