Monthly archives for December, 2008
Written by Egypt snubs criticism, defends Gaza stance
Egypt has justified its stance on the Gaza strip in the wake of Israel’s devastating four-day onslaught on the Palestinian territory.
Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, brushed aside international criticism over Cairo’s complicity with Israel in closing its border with the coastal strip — which has obstructed the delivery of world emergency aid to the besieged people of Gaza.
“Egypt is big and strong and no one outside it can move anything inside it. Egypt moves when the Egyptian people and the Egyptian leadership ask it to,” said Aboul Gheit after Iran and Lebanon urged the Egyptian people to secure the opening of the Rafah border crossing for the arrival of the required humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Israel has intensified its deadliest-ever air offensive upon the Gaza strip, targeting Schools, a television station as well as a mosque, and sending more tanks and artillery toward the Gaza border in what is seen as a possible ground invasion.
Israeli Drones, Warplanes Loom Over Southern Lebanon
With the world’s attention focused on the Israeli military’s killings in the Gaza Strip (over 300 as this article is written), comparisons are already being drawn between this war and Israel’s 2006 military adventure into Lebanon. Hard feelings remain between the two nations after that war ended in the deaths of over 1,000 Lebanese civilians. Growing Israeli activity in that area is now raising fears that the new war may well extend beyond the Gaza Strip and into Lebanon as well.
Reports abound of Israeli drones flying overhead across southern Lebanon, and Israeli warplanes have set off sonic booms in the area. And though they did little to contest Israel’s last invasion, the Lebanese military have canceled leave of all of its soldiers and raised its level of alert.
Mystery surrounds Gaza port condition
Israel may have bombed the Gaza seaport amid Iranian plans to send a ship to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged coastal strip.
It seems that the Gaza seaport was the latest target of Israeli attacks, Press TV’s Gaza correspondent, Yousef al-Helou, reported after explosions were heard near the port on Monday.
It is no longer clear whether aid ships will be able to dock at the port as Tel Aviv had also bombed the area late Sunday.
The news comes as Iran plans to send a ship loaded with fuel, medicine and food from the port city of Bandar Abbas in coordination with the Red Cross and the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. The ship is expected to set sail later on Monday and will have a group of Iranian medical assistants onboard.
Iran’s Red Crescent Society (IRCS) had already been making preparations to send USD100,000 worth of emergency aid to Gaza in the wake of the Israeli-imposed siege on the strip.
World protests Israeli massacre in Gaza
Israel keeps pounding Gaza on the third day of its aerial campaign as the world continues to protest the deadly blitz that has killed over 310 people.
Demonstrators marched in protest against the airstrikes in several cities around the world.
About 8,000 people demonstrated in Egypt in the southern city of Assiut, while rallies in the capital Cairo and the port city of Alexandria drew around 4,000 each, a security official said.
In Turkey, thousands of people joined demonstrations in about a dozen cities, while in Syria, protesters burned Israeli and American flags as thousands demonstrated in central Damascus.
Also on Monday, thousands poured to the streets of the Iranian capital, Tehran, calling for an end to the massacre of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
British MP Andy Burnham plans to work with Obama administration to establish international rules for websites From correspondents in London
THE ratings used for films could be applied to websites in a bid to better police the internet and protect children from harmful and offensive material, Britain’s minister for culture has said. Andy Burnham told Britain’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper the government was planning to negotiate with the administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to draw up new international rules for English language websites.
“The more we seek international solutions to this stuff – the UK and the U.S. working together – the more that an international norm will set an industry norm,” the newspaper reports the Culture Secretary as saying.
..
“If you look back at the people who created the internet they talked very deliberately about creating a space that governments couldn’t reach,” Burnham told The Daily Telegraph. “I think we are having to revisit that stuff seriously now.”
He said some content should not be available to be viewed.
Palestinians in Canada condemn Israeli attacks in Gaza, urge Ottawa to send aid
TORONTO – Palestinian-Canadians mourning the deaths of more than 200 people Saturday in Gaza are urging Ottawa to send aid in the wake of Israeli air strikes targeting security compounds that have also wounded hundreds of others.
One community leader who represents about 12,000 Palestinian-Canadians in the Mississauga, Ont., area is calling the strikes “genocide … a Hanukkah gift from the Israeli government.”
“We have many of our community members, their background is from Gaza, and we cannot talk to them because they’re still waiting to hear if they lost family members or not,” said Farid Ayad, president of Palestine House.
Egypt opens Rafah crossing to Gazans
Egypt has opened its Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip after Israeli massive strikes on the besieged strip killed at least 200 people.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak condemned the attacks and gave instructions for the Rafah terminal to be opened to allow the treatment of the wounded in Egyptian hospitals, the state news agency Mena reported on Saturday.
“Egypt condemns the Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip and blames Israel, as an occupying force, for the victims and the wounded,” Mubarak said in a statement.
According to the news agency, the crossing had been opened and dozens of wounded had already passed through the border crossing.
Iran urges action to Israeli Gaza raids
Iran’s president has called for an immediate end to the violence in the Gaza Strip and called for a proper response to the Israeli raids.
In a telephone conversation with his Syrian and Qatari counterparts on Saturday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the Israeli raids, which have left at least 210 people dead.
Syria has common borders with Israel. Qatar holds the presidency of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), which consists of the Arab Persian Gulf littoral states.
The Saturday onslaught in northern Gaza came after a six-month Egypt-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas expired on December 19.
Israel says Gaza incursion to go on
Israel’s defense minister says the Gaza operation will go on for “as long as necessary”, snubbing international calls for an end to the onslaught.
“The operation will go on and be intensified as long as necessary,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said at a televised news conference on Saturday.
He made the remarks after waves of Israeli aircraft swooped over the Gaza Strip, killing more than 210 Palestinians. The center of Gaza City became a scene of chaotic horror, where dozens of mutilated bodies were laid out on the pavement, the New York Times reported.
The death toll is expected to rise because of the ongoing Israeli raids.
“There is a time for cease-fires and a time to fight, and now is the time to fight,” Barak said. “For months the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and security forces have been preparing for the operation that began today.”
Gaza residents told Press TV that the Israeli gunboats have approached the coastal strip and the helicopters are still seen flying over the coastal region.
US police could get ‘pain beam’ weapons
The research arm of the US Department of Justice is working on two portable non-lethal weapons that inflict pain from a distance using beams of laser light or microwaves, with the intention of putting them into the hands of police to subdue suspects.
The two devices under development by the civilian National Institute of Justice both build on knowledge gained from the Pentagon’s controversial Active Denial System (ADS) – first demonstrated in public last year, which uses a 2-metre beam of short microwaves to heat up the outer layer of a person’s skin and cause pain.
US Forces Will Have to Get Iraqi Court Approval for Raids
In less than a week, the United Nations Mandate for Iraq will expire, and US forces in the nation will be bound by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) agreed to by the Iraqi government and the Bush Administration earlier this year.
The new rules will be a major change for US forces used to being able to go wherever they want and do whatever they want. In theory, all operations will be done in tandem with the Iraqi government, raids will require warrants from an Iraqi court, and detentions will likewise only be allowed with an Iraqi warrant, and only for a short time until the detainee is transferred to Iraqi custody.
Int’l report warns of al-Qaeda US attack
Al-Qaeda will focus on US targets vulnerable to huge economic losses and casualties over the next five years, says a new intelligence report.
The internal Homeland Security Threat Assessment for the years 2008-2013 obtained by AP also said that instability in the Middle East and Africa would cause the terrorism threat to the US over the next five years.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Bush administration vowed to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who has reportedly taken responsibility for the deadly attacks on US soils.
The assessment added that chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks are considered the most dangerous threats that could be carried out against the US. However, those threats are also the most unlikely because it is so difficult for al-Qaeda and similar groups to acquire the materials needed to carry out such plots.
