5 U.S Security Contractors Arrested by Iraqi Forces

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi forces detained five U.S. security contractors in connection with the killing of a fellow American contractor last month in Baghdad's Green Zone, an Iraqi government spokesman said on Sunday.
Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said the five men were being held at an Iraqi police station in the capital's heavily-fortified central district while a joint Iraqi-U.S. committee investigated.
The detainees could become the first Americans to face local justice since a bilateral security pact came into force at the start of this year making U.S. contractors subject to Iraqi law.
"There are no formal charges against them so far, but they were detained because of the murder of the contractor last month," .
Citing an unnamed Iraqi official involved in the investigation,The men had been detained on Friday in a pre-dawn raid on their company's office in the Green Zone.
The murdered contractor, James Kitterman, was a 60-year-old Texan who owned a construction company operating in Iraq.Kitterman was found bound, blindfolded and stabbed to death on May 22 in the heavily-fortified district.

Berlusconi Angered by naked Photos

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has reacted angrily to the publication in Spain of photographs showing topless women and a naked man at his villa.
He has threatened to sue Spain's El Pais newspaper, calling the photos an invasion of privacy.
The photos - banned in Italy on privacy grounds - were taken from outside Mr Berlusconi's villa in Sardinia during a party for a Czech delegation.
He also faces a probe for using state aircraft to fly guests to Sardinia.
The prime minister is said to have used Italian aircraft to ferry guests to and from Villa Certosa, "almost every weekend" between the summer of 2007 and January of this year, El Pais reports.
Mr Berlusconi is being investigated for misuse of public funds, and confirmed on Thursday that he had been formally placed under investigation by prosecutors.
But he said the probe would be "swiftly shelved", insisting he was allowed to transport "people he needs" for security reasons.

Gold Output 4 Ghana Rises 9%

Ghana's gold output in the first quarter of 2009 was 675,151 ounces, up 9 percent on the first three months of last year, while higher world prices pushed cumulative mining revenue up 11 percent to $641.2 million, Chamber of Mines data showed on Saturday.

Ghana, the world's no.2 cocoa producer, is also Africa's second biggest gold miner after South Africa.

It produced 2.6 million ounces of the precious metal in 2008, when total mining revenues were $2.2 billion.

"There are prospects for increased output in the gold sub-sector this year," said Jurgen Eijgendaal, president of the chamber. "The resources are available -- the mines are putting in more and we expect production to go up."

Bauxite shipments also went up 41 percent, earning the country 49 percent more in revenue, but manganese output fell 30 percent. Gold accounted for 96 percent of Ghana's minerals revenue last year.

Many investors see gold as a safe store of value, and it has performed strongly during the global financial downturn. Gold futures rose above $980 per ounce on Friday to end the day's business close to a three-month high.