Canada needed to acquire 120 new tanks to deal with another 10 to 15 years of conflicts in Afghanistan and other countries, Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor said yesterday, amid opposition concerns that the war is escalating.

“Afghanistan and these type of engagements are the future for 10, 15 years,” Mr. O’Connor told CTV’s current affairs program Question Period.

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Beit Arabiya is the name of the home of Salim and Arabiya Shawamreh, a family of nine whose home has been demolished four times.

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BEIRUT: The opening scene is shot from a camera shouldered on a running body. An image of a dirt road jolts in the frame with each step. From somewhere off screen comes the sound of someone shouting gruffly for an ambulance. A smashed car drifts into view. The driver’s side door is open. Slumped in the front seat is a man, his chest and gut covered in blood, clearly dead. Then comes the deafening sound of an explosion. The camera jerks around to the left, searching. The place and time are set – South Lebanon in the summer of 2006.

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The National-U.S. Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC) released a report March 15 saying that U.S. merchandise exports to the Arab world are expected to increase sharply this year, “shattering” the record set in 2006.

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Montreal, 15 April 2007 — A girls’ team is being barred from competing in a Tae Kwon Do tournament taking place in Longueuil, Quebec today. The CCMM Ultimate Tae-kwon-do Club showed up at the annual Quebec regional Raymond Mourad Championship today only to be told that the girls’ team could not participate, on the grounds that their heads are covered.

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BEIRUT: Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN special representative for children and armed conflict, wrapped up her visit to Lebanon on Thursday after three days of meeting with officials and private groups to address the current situation of children in the country and the continuing effects of last summer’s war with Israel on their lives.

During her three days in Lebanon, Coomaraswamy met with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Social Affairs Minister Nayla Mouawad, Justice Minister Charles Rizk and MP Mohammad Raad of Hizbullah.

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Justice for the Victims of War Crimes! No Reconciliation Without Accountability.

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Montreal Exhibition from Photojournalist Stefan Christoff at Sablo Kafé

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No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings.
These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch

Terry Jones, the Guardian, Saturday, March 31st, 2007.

I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this – allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world – have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God’s sake, what’s wrong with putting a bag over her head? That’s what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it’s hard to breathe. Then it’s perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can’t be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.

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BEIRUT: Women from across the Middle East wrapped up a four-day Nationality Campaign conference on Thursday aimed at pressuring their governments to enable women to exercise equal citizenship and nationality rights. Participants in the event, held at the Radisson Hotel, pledged to continue lobbying their governments for their rights in accordance with their respective constitutions and the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

“We are asking for full and equal rights in citizenship among women in the Middle East, to allow them to pass on their nationality to their non-native husbands and children,” declared Lina Abu Habib, regional coordinator of the “My Nationality: A right for me and my family” campaign.

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