Today's News..

1. The senior Taliban commander in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, where the group is holding 21 Korean captives, told CBS News that the militants are "satisfied" with negotiations, and were not planning to kill any more of the hostages imminently..

2. Korea and the U.S. yesterday agreed to rule out any militant operations to rescue 21 Korean hostages in Afghanistan..

3. The government has suspended quarantine inspections of all U.S. beef imports following the discovery of vertebral columns in recent shipments, which are designated as "specified risk material" that could potentially cause mad cow disease..

4. An interstate bridge suddenly broke into huge sections and collapsed into the Mississippi River Wednesday evening, pitching dozens of cars into the water..

5. Korean Air and British Airways have each agreed to plead guilty and pay separate criminal fines of US$300 million for their role in conspiracies to fix the prices of passenger and cargo flights..


Record number of women in Turkish parliament..

48 women are elected as new members of parliament in Turkey's general elections last week. The number is exactly double of the previous 24. The largest group of female deputies, 31, came from the ranks of the Islamic rooted Justice and Development Party(AKP), which won a landslide victory with 47% of all votes.. The AKP party lured to its ranks women with liberal views and distinguished professional careers to refute accusations before the elections that it was seeking to increase the role of Islam in politics and public life. The low number of women in parliament has long embarrased Turkey, which prides itself in having obtained full suffrage as early as 1934, well before European countries as France, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland..



Soccer- much more than a game in Iraq..

Amid bomb blasts Iraqis still celebrate their Asian Cup championship proving their desire for unity. Thousands of Iraqis including troops and cops welcomed the victory with volleys of automatic gunfire into the sky. Iraq's national soccer had accomplished a 'historical achievement', because they had succeeded in uniting Iraqis to support one team.. At a time when sectarian tensions between Shiites and Sunnis have worsened in the Iraqi government and on the streets, the soccer team has been credited with helping unite Iraq..
A famous soccer coach once said 'some people believe that soccer is a matter of life and death. I am very disapponinted with that attitude, it is much, much more important than that!' which is totally true in Iraq today..


From Morning Special..