Goal of Israel's military action is questionedIsraeli leaders found themselves under fire from all sides Thursday as the crisis over kidnapped soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit dragged into another day without any sign of a breakthrough.
"The purpose of our intended actions is not to punish the civilian Palestinian population, but to achieve the central aim right now -- to return our boy Gilad home," said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Shimon Peres, the normally dovish deputy prime minister, said Israel was justif... (more)
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Twenty More Countries Can Develop Weapons of Mass DestructionBesides five universally recognized nuclear powers (Russia, the U.S., China, Great Britain, France), plus India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, which claim to have weapons of mass destruction but which have not been recognized, another 20 countries of the world have the potential to develop weapons of mass destruction, Sergei Ivanov, Russian Defense Minister, told a press conference Friday.
Ivanov, quoted by RBC internet daily, said the situation regarding proliferation of mass... (more)
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Israel Threatens to Hit DamascusIsrael holds Khaled Mashal, the leader of Hamas' Syrian branch, responsible for the abduction of two Israeli soldiers and wants Syria to expel Palestinian leaders from the country.
Israel threatened to kill Hamas militants based in Damascus.
Al-Jazeera television said Public Security Minister Avi Dichter claimed they knew the locations of HAMAS and Islamic Jihad leaders in Syria and will not hesitate to kill them.
Justice Minister Chaim Ramon said, &l... (more)
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Israel warns: free soldier or PM diesISRAEL last night threatened to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh if Hamas militants did not release a captured Israeli soldier unharmed.
The unprecedented warning was delivered to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a letter as Israel debated a deal offered by Hamas to free Corporal Gilad Shalit.
It came as Israeli military officials readied a second invasion force for a huge offensive into Gaza.
Hamas's Gaza-based political le... (more)
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Over 1 Million Palestinians Spend Another Night in TerrorThe American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) reiterates its deep concern and condemns the ongoing crisis in Gaza, which is further exacerbating the inhumane living conditions of the Strip's 1.4 million Palestinian residents. Yesterday, an undisclosed number of Israeli troops amassed at the border of the Gaza Strip. Additionally, the Israeli Air Force missiles struck several bridges, and Gaza's only power plant, leaving nearly 65% of its residence without electricity and running water, ... (more)
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FBI and Western Union helped Israel With targeted assassinationsWASHINGTON - From the spring of 2003 until autumn 2004, the Shin Bet security service tracked down Palestinian terror cells in the West Bank thanks to information from the Western Union money transfer service, which was passed on by the FBI.
This fact was disclosed in a book published this week about America's war on terror after September 11, 2001. In "The One Percent Doctrine," author Ron Suskind connects the transfer of intelligence from the FBI to the Shin Bet with several tar... (more)
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Israel strikes new Gaza targetsIsraeli aircraft have launched a fresh wave of air strikes on Gaza, intensifying pressure on Palestinian militants to free a captured soldier.
The Palestinian interior ministry was hit, while a militant was reported killed in an air strike - the first fatality since the offensive began.
Meanwhile the UN has warned of an imminent humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
On Thursday Israel said it was postponing sending troops into northern Gaza to give diplomacy a... (more)
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Airstrikes and artillery pound GazaAn Israeli missile strike leaves the Palestinian Authority Interior Ministry in flames.
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel rounded up members of the Hamas-led Palestinian government Thursday, and warplanes fired a rocket into the Palestinian Authority's Interior Ministry building in Gaza City.
Early Friday, Palestinian and Israeli sources said offices of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party were also hit in an airstrike. Details of the attack were not immediately avai... (more)
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Gaza power plant hit by Israeli airstrike is insured by US agencyWASHINGTON -- The Palestinian power plant bombed by Israeli forces Tuesday is insured by a US government agency, and US officials say they expect American funds to be used to pay for the damage.
The destruction of the 140-megawatt reactor, the only one in the Gaza Strip, threatens to create a humanitarian disaster because the plant supplies electricity to two-thirds of Gaza's 1.3 million residents and operates pumps that provide water supplies.
But paying a claim on... (more)
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Irish MP: Israel an "abhorrent and despicable" regimeStatement issued by Aengus Ó Snodaigh Sinn Fein member in the Irish parliament and his party's spokesman on international affairs and human rights
Sinn Féin International Affairs and Human Rights spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD has described Israel as "one of the most abhorrent and despicable regimes on the planet." Questioning the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern in the Dáil today he said the kidnap by Israel of some 25 democratically electe... (more)
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Ahmadinejad Condemns West for Supporting Saddam's Chemical Attacks on IranTEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday condemned occupiers of Iraq for having assisted the former Iraqi dictator in launching chemical attacks on Iran during the 8-year Iraqi war imposed on Iran.
In a message to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the victims of Sardasht Catastrophe, when tens of innocent women, men and children were massacred by the chemical bombs dropped by the Ba'thist army in 1987, President Ahmadinejad described occupiers o... (more)
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Thousands of displaced families flee Ramadi as hospitals run out of medicine: City is threatened by massive US / Iraqi Military Attack.Doctors for Iraq has received reports that an estimated 3,250 families from the city of Ramadi have been forced to flee the city because of the threat of an imminent US/ Iraqi military attack on the city.
Ramadi is the capital of Anbar Province in the west of Iraq and is home to an estimated 500,000 people. Many thousands of people are now displaced trying to flee the city in fear of a military assault on Ramadi.
Residents described severe shortages of water and ele... (more)
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Turning to the U.N., AgainIn a little-noticed announcement in President Bush's news conference on June 14, the day he returned from Iraq, he said that he would send two personal emissaries to New York to consult with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on the political and economic future of Iraq. The next day, still with remarkably little public attention, Philip Zelikow, the counselor of the State Department, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt met with Annan and his deputy, Mark Malloch Brown, at the secretary ... (more) World government to the rescue! |
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Iran's Jews learn to live with AhmadinejadMaurice Motamed has one of the loneliest jobs in the Middle East. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his controversial Holocaust statements, the sole Jewish MP in Iran's 290-member Majlis (parliament) felt he had no option but to confront him.
"When our president spoke about the Holocaust, I considered it my duty as a Jew to speak about this issue," Mr Motamed said in his office in central Tehran. "The biggest disaster in human history is based on tens of thousands of films and documen... (more)
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Complaint filed in 32 countries against U.S. bank data miningA civil liberties group on Wednesday asked 32 national governments to block the release of confidential financial records to U.S. authorities as part of American anti-terrorist probes.
London-based watchdog Privacy International demanded a halt to the "completely unacceptable" monitoring of millions of transactions as part of a CIA-U.S. Treasury program.
The Treasury has acknowledged that since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks it has tracked millions of financi... (more)
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U.S. official lauds Israel on terrorThe U.S. attorney general praised Israel for its cooperation in fighting terrorism.
“Israel is a nation that believes, as America does, that terrorism and transnational crime is best combated through international teamwork,” Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday at Tel Aviv University. Gonzales highlighted Israel’s extradition of suspected Mafia boss Ze’ev Rosenstein to the United States, The Associated Press reported.
Rosenstein was extradited for a... (more)
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Moscow Blames U.S. for Russian Hostages Death in IraqRussia intends to keep in contact with the coalition forces to determine their level of responsibility in the death of the Russian diplomats earlier kidnapped in Iraq, Russian presidential envoy for international cooperation in fighting terrorism and transnational organized crime Anatoly Safonov quoted by Interfax has said.
“We are saying openly that it is either governmental institutions or coalition forces that are responsible for order,” Safonov told journalists in ... (more)
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Israel won't let Abbas out of Gaza StripIsrael will not allow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to leave the Gaza Strip, part of the closure clamped on the territory after the abduction of an Israeli soldier, military officials said today.
Abbas is in Gaza for talks with the ruling Islamic Hamas over a document that implicitly recognises Israel. The two sides announced an agreement today, but it was overshadowed by the fallout from the Sunday abduction.
Israel massed tanks and troops on the Gaza border ... (more)
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If we've got a missile, let's fire it into George Bush's window, say N KoreansIn a land where anti-Western propaganda is the norm, one might have expected a triumphant state broadcast - or, perhaps, a rallying denunciation of "American lies".
But last week, as North Korea created a diplomatic storm over claims that it was preparing to test fire a missile that could hit the United States, television sets in Pyongyang were tuned into a rather different drama.
Instead of giving any details of the mounting crisis, state television broadcast the f... (more)
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