
News in Brief Published on 17/11/2006 … 
… Had she come from a place with a less volatile recent history, Adnan might make a
pair with Kate Braverman, a Californian whose novels and poetry, like Adnan's, are
feminine … 
An international film festival on human rights, which was due to open here on Wednesday,
has been postponed by the government until March 2007 in a move organizers decried as … 
… The pledge came as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government plunged into crisis
amid reports that kidnappers tortured many of the dozens of hostages seized … 
France, Spain and Italy pushed Thursday for a new Middle East peace plan, including an
international conference, in a move welcomed by the Palestinian Authority but promptly
rejected by Israel … 
… A terse statement by an Interior Ministry spokesman carried by the state SPA news
agency did not refer explicitly to the substance of the remarks … 
One of the main founders of the Syrian Baath Party, Mansour al-Atrash, has died at the age
of 80.Atrash was the son of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, who led a national … 
… "final step" in its nuclear program. "We are hearing different voices from the
United States," Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani told … 
… conference in London this week, analysts said Thursday. The two-day meeting,
which opened on Wednesday, aims to raise up to $5 billion to fight poverty in Yemen … 
… but only further chaos and confusion resulted. No clear winner emerged as both
the March 14 and March 8 coalitions claimed to have won the elections and released
conflicting figures … 