ECN 10/24/07

Turkish Troops Bomb Suspected Rebel Positions in Iraq
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked positions of Kurdish rebels along the rugged Iraqi-Turkish border on Wednesday, the country's official Anatolia news agency reported.
Several F-16 warplanes loaded with bombs took off from an air base in southeastern city of Diyarbakir, private Dogan news agency and local reporters said.
U.S.-made Cobra and Super Cobra attack helicopters chased Kurdish rebels some 3 miles into Iraqi territory on Sunday but returned to their bases in Turkey after a rebel ambush killed 12 soldiers near the border, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
President of Iraqi Kurdish region urges end to rebellion
by Abdel Hamid Zebari Wed Oct 24, 8:51 AM ET
ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) - The president of Iraq's northern Kurdish region on Wednesday urged the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to end its more than two-decade armed struggle against Turkey.
The call from Massud Barzani came after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on the PKK, calling it a "bad terrorist organisation."

The two above stories are really just one data point but they are from different views. Terrorism is becoming more and more unstylish. The PKK has always been widely accepted by the Kurds as a means to an end but looks like it is not as accepted anymore.

Photographs Said to Show Israeli Target Inside Syria
By Robin Wright and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, October 24, 2007; Page A01
Independent experts have pinpointed what they believe to be the Euphrates River site in Syria that was bombed by Israel last month, and satellite imagery of the area shows buildings under construction roughly similar in design to a North Korean reactor capable of producing nuclear material for one bomb a year, the experts say.
Photographs of the site taken before the secret Sept. 6 airstrike depict an isolated compound that includes a tall, boxy structure similar to the type of building used to house a gas-graphite reactor. They also show what could have been a pumping station used to supply cooling water for a reactor, say experts David Albright and Paul Brannan of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).


Bush to warn Cuba on plan for transition
By Ginger Thompson
Published: October 24, 2007
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush is planning to issue a stern warning Wednesday that the United States will not accept a political transition in Cuba in which power changes from one Castro brother to another, rather than to the Cuban people.

The last time the US made such a statement was concerning Iraq.

Germans Reject EU Fast-Track Immigration Scheme
Politicians in Germany have voiced their opposition to a Blue Card fast-track migration scheme for the EU. But the country's business leaders say the economy desperately needs more workers to meet the growing skills shortages.
The European Commission may want to introduce a unified "Blue Card" system to attract highly-skilled immigrants to the European Union, but the biggest economy in the 27-member bloc is saying it's not interested.