UN urges Israel to re-open border crossings into Gaza

Palestinians celebrate after trucks carrying medical equipment donated by Jordan crossed into the Gaza Strip through the Erez border crossing January 26, 2009. Some 1,300 Palestinians, including at least 700 civilians, were killed, Palestinian medical officials said, in the offensive Israel launched in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with the declared aim of ending cross-border rocket attacks.(Ismail Zaydah/Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS-UN humanitarian chief John Holmes appealed to Israel to re-open border crossings into the besieged Gaza Strip to allow delivery of badly needed relief aid in the wake of the devastating 22-day conflict."Israel has a particular responsibility as the occupying power in this context,because of its control of Gaza's borders with Israel,to respect the relevant provisions of international humanitarian law," Holmes told the 15-member UN Security Council during a briefing on his recent visit to the region."It is therefore critical that new steps are taken immediately by the Israeli authorities to move to the sustained re-opening of crossing points," he said.He underscored the importance of improving the living conditions of Gaza's 1.5 million people to avoid further despair and undermining efforts to find a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed and another 5,300 wounded in Israel's land, sea and air assault on Gaza, which was launched on December 27 to stop Hamas firing rockets at southern Israel and ended January 18.On the Israeli side, three civilians and 10 soldiers were killed in combat and by rocket fire."Everybody stressed the urgency of reopening the crossing points," France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, who chairs the council this month, concurred. Speaking to reporters after the briefing, Holmes also said the world body planned to launch a flash appeal next Monday for "several hundred million dollars" to assist the beleaguered Gaza population."We can't really perform that operation fully, none of the (UN) agencies will be able to do that, unless the crossing points are open on a sustained basis not only for humanitarian goods but also for staff and also for commercial goods, and for example cash to enable the economy to flourish," he added.Meanwhile Karen AbuZayd, the commissioner for the UN relief agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), briefed the Security Council on the apparent systematic destruction of schools, universities, residential buildings, factories, shops and farms during the Israeli onslaught on Gaza."Every Gazan projects a sense of having stared death in the face," she said, highlighting the deep resentment felt by Gazans toward the international community for allowing the conflict to go on for so long."There is rage against the attackers for often failing top distinguish between military targets and civilians and there is also resentment against the international community for having allowed first the siege and then the war to go on for so long," she added.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090128/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaunaid_20090128002147

As in the days of Noah....

New bloodshed in Israeli-Gaza border

Hamas gives cash to Gaza's victims

After offensive, posters of dead sell well in Gaza

A Palestinian man enters the Nibras Print Shop beside a poster showing Hamas militants that were killed in Israel's recent Gaza military offensive in Gaza City, Monday, Jan. 26, 2009. The shop prints customized, full-color posters and banners commemorating the dead — a Palestinian tradition for people killed by Israel. In the wake of Israel's 22-day Gaza offensive, which killed nearly 1,300 Palestinians, the shop is one of Gaza's few businesses experiencing a postwar boom.(AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip-Some were killed when tank shells hit their homes. Others died when bombs erased their offices. Still others met their end battling Israeli troops.Now their faces are rolling off the presses at the Nibras print shop, which produces full-color posters and banners of the dead. In the wake of Israel's 22-day Gaza offensive-which killed nearly 1,300 Palestinians-it's one of the few businesses experiencing a postwar boom.Islamic Jihad fighter Mohammed Bedawi was among the so-called "martyrs" whose demise was commemorated with a custom-made poster-a tradition for anyone killed by Israel."The drone hit him," said his cousin, Abed Bedawi, 21, referring to Israel's unmanned surveillance planes, often seen in Gaza's skies. "He was laying a bomb for a tank when the drone fired a missile at him."Before the war, about 30 percent of the print shop's orders were for martyr posters, co-owner Ahmed al-Hor said; the rest were for things like shop signs and labels for products like tomato sauce, soap and baby food. Now, posters of the dead are 90 percent of his business.A steady stream of customers flowed through the print shop's simple walk-up office on a recent afternoon, all men, most bearded, some wearing military-style pants and jackets. A few admitted affiliation with Gaza's armed groups, and the vast majority of their orders commemorated fallen fighters. Bedawi unfurled his poster to reveal a large photo of his stern-looking 20-year-old cousin, ringed with silhouettes of palm trees and birds in flight. "As a farewell," the text read. In the top corner was an emblem of Islamic Jihad, a militant group Israel says is backed by Iran.Bedawi said he'd give it to his aunt to hang in her house.Others told similar stories. "They were out on a jihad mission, then came back and a missile hit them at the door of their house," said Yusuf Mustapha, who was picking up 1,000 copies of a poster showing 10 Islamic Jihad militants killed in the Zeitoun area south of Gaza City."The families of the martyrs will take them, and we'll hang them all over to decorate the neighborhood," said Mustapha.Asked where he got the $925 for the order, he just smiled and said, "from the good people." When pressed, Mustapha, 25, said that he too was an Islamic Jihad member....

By BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press Writer Ben Hubbard, Associated Press Writer

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_gaza_martyr_posters

PS:These people are messed up.These thugs are not HEROES.BUT palestinians will hang their pictures in their living rooms and throw parties in their honour.

It is very difficult to talk to people like that,because they live in an alternate reality.Their culture is a culture of DEATH and MURDER and SUICIDE.They LIVE TO KILL and DIE.

NO NEGOTIATION with HAMAS or JIHADISTS.

They are not normal.Their minds function to a very low level of almost animal instinct.They have been deprived of human dignity and guilt.They are "programmed" since childhood to kill jews and infidels and to get their way no matter what.No hope for them as long as they serve DEATH....
As in the days of Noah....

IRAN NUKE 'THIS YEAR'

Iran will have enough enriched uranium to make a single nuclear weapon later this year,the prestigious International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) predicts.
The think tank's Mark Fitzpatrick made the announcement at today's launch of its annual global review of military powers."But being able to enrich uranium is not the same as having a nuclear weapon."However, the survey reports doubts over US Intelligence estimates that Iran halted its work on nuclear weapons six years ago.This points to Tehran's continued development of long-range ballistic missiles able to reach targets in Israel and beyond.The IISS recommends a mixture of carrot and stick as the best international response.It concluded a dual policy of engagement and sanctions, testing possibilities for Iranian cooperation while adopting targeted containment strategies, is the best way to deal with Iran's nuclear programme.Foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall said: "Several think-tanks have come to the same conclusion."The intelligence agencies are more reluctant to put a time frame on it, and the report itself says having enough enriched Uranium to build the warhead is not the same as building the warhead itself."
By Geoff Meade,defence correspondent
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Nuclear-Weapon-From-Iran-Within-A-Year-Expert-Says-Country-Will-Have-Enough-Uranium-For-Warhead/Article/200901415211260
As in the days of Noah...

U.S. military secrets sold on MP3

Thrift-Shop MP3 Player Held Secret Military Files

WELLINGTON, New Zealand-A New Zealand man who bought an MP3 player from a thrift shop in Oklahoma found it held 60 U.S. military files, including names and telephone numbers for American soldiers, a media report said Tuesday.TV One News said the 60 files contained personal details of U.S. soldiers, including some who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq.A New Zealand security expert said the information should not be in the public domain, but that it did not appear likely to affect U.S. national security.The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the incident.Similar breaches occurred in Afghanistan in 2006, when U.S. investigators reportedly bought back stolen flash drives that contained sensitive military data from shops outside a main U.S. base in the Afghan city of Bagram.Chris Ogle, 29, from the northern New Zealand city of Whangarei, said he bought the music player at a thrift shop in Oklahoma, and that he found the files when he linked the $18 device to his computer, TV One News reported.The report did not say exactly where and when the device was purchased, and Ogle could not be reached by The Associated Press for comment Tuesday.The private information about troops included U.S. Social Security numbers and even which female troops were pregnant, TV One reported.Details of equipment deployed to bases in Afghanistan and a mission briefing were also found on some files, the report said, displaying names like "Bagram," a main U.S. base in Afghanistan, from the files on screen.A TV One News reporter called some of the phone numbers listed in the files and found that some of them were still active.Some of the files included a warning that the release of its contents is "prohibited by federal law."Most of the files are dated 2005 so are unlikely to compromise U.S. national security, said Peter Cozens, director of Victoria University of Wellington's Strategic Studies Department."This is just slack administrative procedures which are indeed a cause of embarrassment," Cozens said. "It's the sort of thing which ought not really to be in the public domain."Ogle told TV One News he would hand the files to U.S. officials if asked."The more I look at it, the more I see and the less I think I should be" looking, Ogle said.Janine Burns, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Wellington, told the AP, "We have nothing to add at this time."She had no response to Ogle's offer to hand over the electronic files.It's not the first time such data files have surfaced in public.In 2006, shopkeepers outside the Bagram base said they were selling flash drives with U.S. military information that had been stolen by some of the 2,000 Afghans employed as cleaners, office staff and laborers at Bagram.Included on some memory drives seen by AP at the time were the Social Security numbers of hundreds of soldiers, including four generals, and lists of troops who had completed nuclear, chemical and biological warfare training. The Los Angeles Times also reported that some drives had classified military secrets, including maps, charts and intelligence reports that appeared to detail how Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders had been using southwestern Pakistan as a planning and training base for attacks in Afghanistan.
By AP

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,483426,00.html

As in the days of Noah...

Captain Obama ... Is It Time for a Black Comic Book Superhero?

Barack Obama has appeared in at least two comic series since his arrival on the national stage.Back in September the superhero Savage Dragon took it upon himself to endorse Obama for president, and days before his inauguration, Spider-Man saved the day for the 44th president by defeating an Obama imposter.While Savage Dragon is an overly muscular green humanoid, Spider-Man is a real, live human being. And, like Superman and Batman and Captain America and Flash and Wonder Woman, the Web Crawler has a common trait among comic strip superheroes:He's white. Since their inception, there have been only a few black superheroes in comic books, and fewer still have achieved mainstream appeal.But Obama's rise to the presidency now has many people in the business of creating and marketing heroes hoping that a black superhero will finally break into mainstream pop culture.Marvel Comics, home of Spider-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man and the X-Men, is keeping up with the times. The company recently announced the untold story of the first Marvel superhero of color in the "Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel" project. The Black Panther, another Marvel mainstay, will undergo a life-altering new storyline and will be featured in an animated series.Whether any of these developments will mean more big screen time for black superheroes will be up to Marvel readers."While we're always looking to represent characters from all walks of life, at the end of the day the most important thing is crafting good stories-that's what people are going to respond to," said executive editor Tom Brevoort.That reader response, for black comic artists in particular, could carry larger sociological implications."I figure, the more you see us in a different light, the more doors that open up for African-Americans," says Jerry Craft, the award-winning creator of the Mama's Boyz comic strip, which chronicles the life of an African-American woman raising two teenage sons. The strip has been syndicated by King Features since 1995.Craft is one of three black comic-strip artists who offered FOXNews.com exclusive drawings of what they would like a black superhero to look like...

By S.E. Cupp

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,483544,00.html

As in the days of Noah....

Gates Says More Troops for Afghanistan by Summer

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the Pentagon could send two more brigades to Afghanistan by late spring and a third brigade by late summer...

Scientists Not So Sure 'Doomsday Machine' Won't Destroy World

Still worried that the Large Hadron Collider will create a black hole that will destroy the Earth when it's finally switched on this summer?Um, well, you may have a point.Three physicists have reexamined the math surrounding the creation of microscopic black holes in the Switzerland-based LHC, the world's largest particle collider, and determined that they won't simply evaporate in a millisecond as had previously been predicted. Rather, Roberto Casadio of the University of Bologna in Italy and Sergio Fabi and Benjamin Harms of the University of Alabama say mini black holes could exist for much longer-perhaps even more than a second, a relative eternity in particle colliders, where most objects decay much faster.Under such long-lived conditions, it becomes a race between how fast a black hole can decay-and how fast it can gobble up matter to grow bigger and prevent itself from decaying. Casadio, Fabi and Harms think the black hole would lose out, and pass through the Earth or out of the atmosphere before it got to be a problem."We conclude that...the growth of black holes to catastrophic size does not seem possible. Nonetheless, it remains true that the expected decay times are much longer (and possibly 1 second) than is typically predicted by other models," the three state in a brief paper posted at the scientific discussion Web site ArXiv.org.FoxNews.com can think of a few other things that didn't seem possible once-the theory of continental drift, the fact that rocks fall from the sky, the notion that the Earth revolves around the sun, the idea that scientists could be horribly wrong. We're also wondering how often the LHC might create individual black holes, since longer-lived ones have a greater chance of merging with each other, and, um, well, see ya. If the worst comes to pass, and there's now a slightly greater chance that it might, at least it might explain why we've never heard from extraterrestrial civilizations: Maybe they built Large Hadron Colliders of their own.
• Click here to read a brief synopsis of the paper at ArXiv.org blog.
• Click here to download the paper itself (it's only 8 pages) in a variety of file formats.
• Click here to find out how the Large Hadron Collider works.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,483477,00.html
As in the days of Noah....

Obama sends envoy to Mideast

Israeli soldier wounded

Deadly bombing, Israeli airstrike shake Gaza truce

In this photo released by Israel's Defense Ministry, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak talks with Israeli reserve soldiers during a training session at Tzeelim army base in southern Israel, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009. Palestinian militants detonated a bomb next to an Israeli army patrol near the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and Israeli soldiers quickly crossed the border in search of the attackers, in the first serious clash since a cease-fire went into effect more than a week ago.

(AP Photo/Ariel Hermoni, Defense Ministry,HO)

JERUSALEM – Palestinian militants detonated a bomb that killed an Israeli soldier patrolling near Gaza on Tuesday and Israel responded with an airstrike, straining the fragile cease-fire on the eve of a visit by President Barack Obama's new Mideast envoy.The violence jolted the calm that has largely prevailed since Israel ended a devastating three-week offensive in Gaza on Jan. 17. Since withdrawing its troops, Israel has threatened to retaliate hard for any violations of the truce.Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak called an urgent meeting of Israel's top defense officers after the bombing. "We will respond, but there is no point in elaborating," Barak said, shortly before the airstrike. Barak talked with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert after the meeting, but no details of the discussion were released.The Israeli military dismissed earlier reports that the explosive might have been an old land mine triggered accidentally. The military said it had determined that the bomb was activated by militants, but it would not give details.The blast also wounded three Israeli soldiers and triggered a brief battle when Israeli troops briefly crossed the border in search of the attackers.Later, Hamas said one of its militants was wounded in an Israeli airstrike.The violence-a day before the new U.S. Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, was due in Israel-underscored the difficulty Obama faces as he tries to get Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts back on track.Gazans are struggling to resume normal life after the fighting, and as international donors discuss how best to help the territory rebuild. Gaza's Hamas leader said Tuesday the group-which is boycotted as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union-would not try to claim any of the reconstruction funds, an announcement that appeared aimed at clearing the way for money to start flowing.The announcement from Ismail Haniyeh, who remains in hiding because of fears he could be assassinated by Israel, appeared directed at donors who concerned their funds could end up in Hamas' hands."Our aim now is to ease the suffering of our people and to remove the aftermath of the aggression in Gaza," the statement said. "Therefore we emphasize that we are not concerned to receive the money for rebuilding Gaza and we are not seeking that."After Tuesday's bomb blast, heavy gunfire was heard along the border in central Gaza and Israeli helicopters hovered in the air firing machine gun bursts, Palestinian witnesses said. An Israeli jet set off a loud sonic boom over Gaza City not long afterward, possibly as a warning.Hamas said an airstrike wounded one of its militants as he rode a motorcycle in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.Residents said Israeli tanks and bulldozers have also entered the area where the roadside bombing took place and were tearing up some vacant land-apparently to prevent it from being used to stage attacks. The Israeli military said the bomb targeted an Israeli patrol near the border community of Kissufim. There was no claim of responsibility.Not long after the bombing, a 27-year-old Gaza farmer was killed by Israeli gunfire along the border several miles (kilometers) away, according to Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of Gaza's Health Ministry.Two other Palestinians were wounded. The military had no comment, and it was unclear if the two incidents were related.
AP correspondent Ibrahim Barzak reported from Gaza City.
By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians;_ylt=ArcK4s.GeV5xlolZOU4AK1kUewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTE5M2lmMGJwBHBvcwM0BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDZGVhZGx5Ym9tYmlu

As in the days of Noah...

Obama tackles Gaza in tv interview

Obama urges Iran to 'unclench fist'

Obama tells Arabic network US is 'not your enemy'

CAIRO, Egypt-President Barack Obama chose an Arabic-language satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president, delivering a message Tuesday to the Muslim world that "Americans are not your enemy. "The interview taped Monday underscored Obama's commitment to repair relations with the Muslim world that have suffered under the previous administration.The president expressed an intention to engage the Middle East immediately and his new envoy to the region, former Sen. George J. Mitchell, was expected to arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for a visit that will also take him to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia."My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy,"Obama told the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel, which is privately owned by a Saudi businessman.Obama said the U.S. had made mistakes in the past but "that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."During his presidency, former President George W. Bush gave several interviews to Al-Arabiya but the wars he launched in Iraq and Afghanistan prompted a massive backlash against the U.S. in the Muslim world.Al-Arabiya has scored interviews with top U.S. officials in the past, including Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.The channel is seen by some in Washington as more balanced in its coverage than its Qatar-funded rival Al-Jazeera, which the previous White House administration complained had an anti-American bias.Obama called for a new partnership with the Muslim world "based on mutual respect and mutual interest." He talked about growing up in Indonesia, the Muslim world's most populous nation, and noted that he has Muslim relatives.The new president said he felt it was important to "get engaged right away" in the Middle East and had directed Mitchell to talk to "all the major parties involved." His administration would craft an approach after that, he said in the interview."What I told him is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating,"Obama told the interviewer.The president reiterated the U.S. commitment to Israel as an ally and to its right to defend itself.But he suggested that both Israel and the Palestinians have hard choices to make."I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people,"he said,calling for a Palestinian state that is contiguous with internal freedom of movement and can trade with neighboring countries.On Tuesday, Gaza's fragile truce was threatened when a bomb detonated by Palestinian militants exploded next to an Israeli army patrol along the border with Gaza, killing one soldier and wounding three.Obama also said that recent statements and messages issued by the al-Qaida terror network suggest they do not know how to deal with his new approach."They seem nervous,"he told the interviewer. "What that tells me is that their ideas are bankrupt."In his latest message on Jan. 14, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden said Obama had been left with a"heavy inheritance"of Bush's wars.Shortly after the election, the network's number two,Ayman al-Zawahri used a demeaning racial term for a black American who does the bidding of whites to describe Obama.The message suggested the terror network was worried Obama could undermine its rallying cry that the U.S. is an enemy oppressor.

By PAUL SCHEMM, Associated Press Writer

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_obama_mideast

As in the days of Noah...

Obama confident he can charm Iran:Newcomer president promises 'respect and a new willingness to talk'

President Obama remains confident he can make progress by communicating with Iran, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.In an ABC News interview on Jan. 11, Obama repeated his campaign promise that he plans to work with the Islamic republic directly, suggesting once again that his administration could take a "new approach," emphasizing "respect and a new willingness to talk."Obama's remarks cause seasoned Iran observers to contemplate his inexperience in foreign policy, Corsi wrote.Iran resisted eight years of Bush administration persuasion through the International Atomic Energy Agency, the European Union nations of Great Britain, Germany and France, as well as U.N. Security Council sanctions."Despite all this international pressure, Iran continues to enrich uranium," Corsi wrote. "What difference is Obama going to make?"Last Tuesday Iranian protesters burned a poster of Obama during a demonstration in support of Hamas, held in front of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran."Iran will certainly be happy to go along with Obama, as long as Obama allows it to continue enriching uranium while operating a secret nuclear weapons program," Corsi contends. "The problem is that Israel, facing general elections this February, has shown a renewed toughness dealing with Middle East terrorists that openly threaten its existence."While Obama enters office confident he can reason with Iran, the price of oil stands in the balance, Corsi contends.Now Red Alert's author, whose books "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command" have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, argues Obama bailouts plus increased tension in the Middle East are almost certain to put upward pressure on oil, beginning at the latest this spring...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86531

As in the days of Noah...

New terrorist HQ:Civilian Apartments;Hamas 'government' back in bussiness after offensive

TEL AVIV-Contrary to Israel's claims that it severely damaged the Hamas government in Gaza, the terrorist organization has resumed governing and is acting at about 85 percent capacity, according to both Hamas officials and human rights activists in Gaza.Fully functioning in Gaza are Hamas' interior ministry, court system,ministry of transportation, education, police, health services and scores of other official institutions, the Hamas officials and activists from the independent Al Mizan human rights organization said.Other sources in Gaza confirmed the Hamas government is functioning. Improvising following Israeli air raids that targeted Hamas institutions, the group recently took out dozens of apartments within civilian complexes from which it currently bases its new government infrastructure. The move could complicate Israeli efforts to target Hamas in the future.Speaking in a joint interview with WND and the Israeli Ynetnews.com website, one Hamas official said his group recently made back-up copies of government files for storage within apartment buildings.During Israel's three week offensive targeting Hamas, Israeli air strikes struck both symbolic Hamas institutions, such as government buildings, and the group's military infrastructure, including rocket caches, police stations, explosives factories, and weapons smuggling tunnels between Gaza and neighboring Egypt.Israel was thought to have severely damaged Hamas' government infrastructure in the air raids.Aside from the renewal of government institutions, the smuggling tunnels apparently are partially back in business. The Israel Defense Forces reportedly destroyed 60 to 70 percent of an estimated 600 smuggling tunnels between Gaza and neighboring Egypt.Hamas sources speaking to WND claim the actual number of tunnels is closer to 1,300.The sources claimed Hamas was working to change the method of its weapons smuggling to rely more on sea shipments and less on tunnels.Last Tuesday, the Associated Press reported from the Egypt-Gaza border that just hours after Israeli troops withdrew from the border area, the smuggling tunnels were back in business, used by locals to bring in supplies.The AP also reported hundreds of workers in southern Gaza labored to repair dozens of tunnels dug under tents or fake greenhouses.

By Aaron Klein

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87171

As in the days of Noah....

U.S. Navy intercepts Iranian arms vessel:Covert operations aim to cut Tehran's supply lines to terrorists

HERZLIYA, Israel – The U.S. Navy is conducting covert operations aimed at intercepting Iranian ships carrying weapons to rearm Hamas in the Gaza Strip, informed defense officials told WND.The setup, which has already halted a vessel carrying Iranian munitions in recent days, acts on intelligence information provided by Israel, Egypt and Cyprus, the defense officials said.The U.S. Navy refused to comment, but informed sources said the U.S. last week intercepted an Iranian-owned vessel found to be carrying weapons, including rockets, mortar and artillery shells.It is suspected the ship was attempting to reach the Egyptian Sinai area.If successful, the delivery would have represented a major escalation by providing Hamas with artillery, something the terrorist organization is not thought to possess.The ship is now docked at an Egyptian port on the Red Sea after being escorted by the U.S. Navy out of the Suez Canal, which leads to the Mediterranean, the defense officials said.Due to complicated maritime laws, the U.S. and Egypt may let the ship sail to the Mediterranean, where either Israeli or Egyptian naval units would need to decide whether to entirely halt the vessel. According to the sources, aside from patrolling the seas, the U.S. has also sent the Army's Corps of Engineers to the Egyptian Sinai desert, bringing with them advanced machinery to help Egyptian troops locate weapons smuggling tunnels that snake along the Egypt-Gaza border.Last week, WND broke the story of Egyptian troops undergoing training in Texas on the use of American military technology to uncover Hamas' weapons smuggling tunnels. A top Egyptian intelligence official told WND the Egyptian troops arrived in Texas in recent days, where they have been undergoing private courses on the use of proprietary, secretive U.S. technology that makes use of sonar and certain frequencies to locate underground tunnels along the Egypt-Gaza border.The WND story was referenced in scores of Arab-language articles this past weekend, including an article in the state-run Egyptian media, which did not deny the report.The new naval patrols and U.S. presence along the Gaza border comes in line with a memorandum of understanding signed between Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The deal aims to curb Hamas rearmament and also includes patrols of the Persian Gulf, Sudan, and neighboring states.One of Israel's main goals for its offensive was to halt Hamas' ability to smuggle weapons across the Egypt-Gaza border.Israel is negotiating an international monitoring mechanism it hopes will stop Hamas from smuggling weapons from neighboring Egypt into Gaza. But previous international monitors stationed along the Egypt-Gaza border fled their duty and repeatedly failed to stem Hamas' weapons smuggling.The monitors were stationed at the border following Israel's 2005 evacuation of the Gaza Strip.The Israel Defense Forces reportedly destroyed 60 to 70 percent of an estimated 600 smuggling tunnels between Gaza and neighboring Egypt.Hamas sources speaking to WND claim the actual number of tunnels is closer to 1,300. The sources claimed Hamas was working to change the method of its weapons smuggling to rely more on sea shipments and less on smuggling tunnels. Last Tuesday, the Associated Press reported from the Egypt-Gaza border that just hours after Israeli troops withdrew from the border area, the smuggling tunnels were back in business, used by locals to bring in supplies.The AP also reported hundreds of workers in southern Gaza labored to repair dozens of tunnels dug under tents or fake greenhouses.

By Aaron Klein

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87102

As in the days of Noah...

Two US warships escort Iranian ship carrying arms for Hamas out through Suez Canal

DEBKAfile's military sources report that a US Navy Coast Guard team this week boarded an Iranian arms ship flying a Cypriot flag in the Red Sea and found weapons in its hold.This was the first time an America warship had ever intercepted an Iranian vessel in international water. The incident activated the Memo of Understanding the former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice signed with Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni a week ago on actions to halt the flow of Iranian arms to Hamas as part of the Gaza ceasefire.The Iranian ship's captain showed the US boarding team documents recording the Syrian port of Latakia as its cargo's destination.DEBKAfile reports that both US and Israeli intelligence are certain the arms were bound for Hamas.But according to international law, the US Navy's Combined Task Force (CTF) 151, set up last week to combat piracy, was not authorized to confiscate the cargo or stop the ship because no enforcement mechanism was yet in place.After a few hours, therefore, the US force released the Iranian vessel and two warships escorted it out of Red Sea waters. The ship and its escort are due to enter the Suez Canal heading north Saturday night, Jan. 23, after being prevented from unloading its arms freight on the coast of Sinai or Gaza.Tehran has so far not reacted to the incident. DEBKAfile revealed last week that the new US task force policing the waters of the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Red Sea, under the command of Rear Adm. Terry McKnight, had been additionally assigned with intercepting Iranian ships smuggling arms for Hamas, often in conjunction with Somali pirates and Sinai Bedouin militias.Massed on the lead ship San Antonio is a helicopter detachment, a "surgical team" for dealing with small speedboats trying to hem the ship in and 14 Navy VBSS members, including two Navy boarding officers. The Coast Guard detachment is made up of eight members, all of them qualified as boarding officers.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5870

As in the days of Noah...

Obama,Oslo Reactionary

“It will be the policy of my administration to actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians,as well as between Israel and its Arab neighbors,” President Obama said last week.He also remarked: “Just as the terror of rocket fire aimed at innocent Israelis is intolerable, so, too, is a future without hope for the Palestinians.”A day earlier Obama had made his first phone call as president to President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. And on Wednesday this week, his new-old Middle East envoy George Mitchell is already due here to meet with Israeli and PA leaders.In other words,Obama means business. Yet each of his above-quoted statements has something fundamentally wrong with it.First, by saying his administration will “actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as between Israel and its Arab neighbors,”Obama is saying he has an agenda for Israel.But is it Israel’s agenda?Of course, at least out of diplomatic propriety, all of Israel’s current prime-ministerial aspirants—from Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni on the Center-Left to Binyamin Netanyahu on the Center-Right—will say that it is.They’ll say how delighted they are that Mr. Mitchell has come for a visit and that Mr. Obama is so eager to work with Israel in solving its problems.On February 10, though, Israel is holding elections, and all the polls say a Center-Right bloc led by Netanyahu will win. That will mean most Israelis have become skeptical enough about a “lasting peace” between Israel and its Palestinian and other Arab neighbors that they see “aggressively” pursuing such an outcome—certainly at this stage, with Hamas ruling Gaza and a weak, corrupt PA, its collapse to Hamas prevented only by the Israeli security forces, ruling the West Bank—as out-of-sync with reality.In other words, Obama has announced an agenda for Israel even though, for one thing, he’s not Israel’s president, and for another, it’s not Israel’s agenda. In this Obama is continuing the practice of his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, who in June 22 announced his “road map” for Israeli-Palestinian peace to which Israel later attached 14 reservations that were subsequently ignored.What gets lost in the shuffle is that Israel is supposed to be a sovereign country with the right to set its own policy. If Obama, as many expect, ends up clashing with Netanyahu, he’ll actually be clashing with an Israeli electorate that, having experienced the results of 15 years of “Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking” up to the latest rocket bombardments, supports leaders who stand for a more cautious, security-conscious approach.To this electorate-and to Israeli democracy itself-Obama’s promise to “actively and aggressively seek” an outcome that, if pursued rashly and heedlessly, can spell grave security consequences for Israel is, in effect if not in intent, an expression of contempt. Obama’s words connote that Israel is a mere instrumentality of U.S. policy, its elections meaningless, its people’s hard-earned experience irrelevant.As for Obama’s statement that “Just as the terror of rocket fire aimed at innocent Israelis is intolerable, so, too, is a future without hope for the Palestinians”—the first discordant bell it rings is that of moral equivalency...

By P. David Hornik
P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Tel Aviv. He blogs at http://pdavidhornik.typepad.com/.

To read more go to:

http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=80837100-30CE-4B52-BEBB-84ED38E5FA5C

As in the days of Noah...

Carter: If no Palestine, Israel sees 'catastrophe'...

NEW YORK-Former President Jimmy Carter says Israel will face a "catastrophe" unless it revives the Mideast peace process and establishes an independent Palestinian state.Carter pointed out in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday that Arabs will outnumber Jews in the Holy Land in the foreseeable future.He said that would leave Israel with three options: expelling many Palestinians, keeping the Palestinians but depriving them of equal voting rights, or giving them equal voting rights, which would give the Palestinians a majority.He said that with the third option, one would no longer have a Jewish state.

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090127/twl-mideast-carter-1be00ca.html

PS:Some people should just...stay at home and enjoy retirement...He still thinks he has to stick his nose in ME affairs...

As in the days of Noah...

Gaza war's outcome determined in first 4 minutes

The Israel air force demolished two key Hamas war systems in the first 4 minutes of its massive offensive on Gaza Saturday morning, Dec. 27, DEBKAfile's military sources report. The bombers destroyed six mosques in Gaza City which held the terrorists' biggest weapons arsenals and scores of "beehives" containing launchers primed for the simultaneous, automatic release of hundreds of powerful rockets against Israeli cities.These launchers were rigged for precision-targeting in Israeli town centers. They were operated by a unit of 300 special Hamas operatives trained for their mission at a Syrian military bases under the instruction of Hizballah rocket specialists.The aerial offensive knocked out 80 percent of the rockets Hamas had prepared to launch and saved Israel's southern cities. The Palestinian Islamists were left only with inferior projectiles. Therefore, 98 percent of the hundreds of missiles they managed to fire in the 22-day war missed their targets and exploded in open ground.Answering questions about the extreme destruction wrought in Gaza and the high number of casualties – more than 1,300 - Israel commanders described combat conditions as the most complicated they had ever faced: Every second apartment building was booby-trapped and every third building concealed arms caches. Weapons were concealed under children's beds and in basements. Inside of fighting out in the open, Hamas gunmen by and large avoided engaging Israeli troops, relying on these death traps.Monday, Jan. 19, the second day of the ceasefire, the second-echelon of the Hamas leadership emerged from their fortified bunkers after three weeks underground, claiming they had vanquished the Israeli enemy. The top leaders remained invisible. The homeless people picking their way through the rubble for their broken possessions were not exactly welcoming.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5864

As in the days of Noah....

Obama Does First Formal TV Interview as President with Al-Arabiya...

As special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell heads off to the region to begin work on negotiating a cease fire between Israel and the Palestinians, President Obama has sat for his first formal TV interview with the Arabic cable TV network Al-Arabiya, ABC News has learned.The interview was taped this evening and is set to air at 11 pm ET, as Mitchell is in the air and on his way to the region.Based in Dubai, Al-Arabiya estimates that it has a potential audience exceeding 23 million in the Gulf region.

By Jake Tapper

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/01/president-ob-10.html

As in the days of Noah....

Indonesians Cheer On Solar Eclipse

Jan. 26: A partial solar eclipse viewed from Manila harbor in the Philippines.AP

ANYER, Indonesia-Indonesians were among the few worldwide to witness an eclipse of the sun Monday, some cheering and banging on drums as the moon slowly crossed its path, blocking out everything but a thin, blazing rim of fire.Dozens gathered in the western coastal town of Anyer to see the spectacle, which peaked at 4:40 p.m. and lasted for about four minutes."I'm old, but I still think this is magical," said Roanna Makmur, 66, who drove several hours with eight friends to witness the sight, known as an annular eclipse, because it does not completely black out the sun."I can't help but feel the greatness of God," she said, as fellow onlookers applauded and then fell silent. "Anyone who passed up this opportunity, really missed out."Annular eclipses, which are considered far less important to astronomers than total eclipses of the sun, occur about 66 times a century and can only be viewed by people in the narrow band along its path.The difference is whether the moon completely covers the sun; in an annular eclipse, the moon is slightly further out from the Earth as it is during a total eclipse, and hence doesn't quite completely block out the sun.Aside from several regions in Indonesia-from Sumatra island in the west to Kalimantan in the east-only villagers on a tiny South Pacific island group known as the Cocos could see Monday's eclipse, said Jay Pasachoff, professor of astronomy at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.He is also a chair of the International Astronomical Union's Working Group on Eclipses.But a partial eclipse-with coverage ranging from 1 percent to 84 percent of the sun's diameter-was to visible in the southern third of Africa, in southeastern India, and Southeast Asia, as well as the western part of Australia.Hundreds turned out in Indonesia's Samarinda, the capital of East Kalimantan province, where more than 90 percent of the sun's diameter was covered. Some ignored danger warnings and looked directly at the sun. Others wore sunglasses to protect their eyes or looked at its reflection in buckets of water."We are so happy we were able to see this," said Fauziah Sulaiman, a mother of two, who was standing outside her house. "It's great for the children, especially after learning about it in school."The last total eclipse of the sun was Aug. 1, 2008, and was visible in Canada, across northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia and China.The next total eclipse will be July 22, 2009, and will be visible in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, China and some Japanese islands.

By AP

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,482833,00.html

As in the days of Noah...

US-Egyptian Red Sea ships hunt for Iranian ship carrying 60 tons of arms for Hamas

US and Egyptian warships were scouring the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea Tuesday, Jan. 20 to waylay an Iranian freighter carrying scores of heavy rockets for delivery to Hamas. DEBKAfile's exclusive sources report they were acting on intelligence that a ship loaded with an estimated 60 tons of arms to replenish Hamas' depleted war stocks had set out from the Iranian Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas on Jan. 17.Our sources reveal that the arms-smuggling vessel started its voyage as the Iran-Hedayat and changed its name in mid sea to Famagustus registered to Panama.The captain was ordered by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to unload its cargo at a smugglers cove on the southeastern coast of Sinai opposite the Gulf of Suez, to be picked up by armed Bedouin gangs and moved to El Arish in northern Sinai. From there the contraband rockets were to be slipped gradually into the Gaza Strip.The cargo consists of 50 Fajr rockets whose range is 50-75 km, scores of heavy Grad rockets, new, improved launchers whose angle of fire can be precisely adjusted, tons of high-quality explosives, submachine guns, rifles and pistols and armor-piercing missiles and shells (of types used successfully by Hizballah against Israeli tanks in 2006).The shipment, the largest Tehran has ever consigned to the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza, includes also a large number of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines, equipment for assembling roadside bombs and advanced communications and night vision gear.(The Palestinian Karin-A arms smuggling ship intercepted by Israel naval commandoes seven years ago carried 50 tons of arms for Fatah).The Iranian ship aroused suspicions when Western spy satellites and surveillance stations spotted its change of registration after entering the Sea of Oman. Closer observation identified the cargo as a huge arms shipment.
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5867
As in the days of Noah...

Hamas wartime rockets missed US anti-Iranian missile radar near Beersheba

Following orders from Tehran, the Palestinian Hamas used the cover of the 22-day Gaza conflict to aim rockets at the American Forward-Based X-band Transportable (FBX-T) anti-missile radar system lodged at Israel's big Nevatim air base east of the Negev capital Beersheba, DEBKA-Net-Weekly disclosed last week. Destruction of the FBX-T, which was installed last November to intercept incoming Iranian Shehab-3 ballistic missiles, would have crowned Hamas' offensive with success.Jan. 18, two days before joining Israel's unilateral ceasefire, Hamas tried to hit the American facility with a salvo of 3 Grad rockets. They missed their aim, landing on empty ground west of Beersheba, without triggering the city's siren.The windy conditions that day may have spoiled their aim.Our military sources reveal that the American X-band radar, which can track the path of any missile fired in the Middle East, worked hard during Operation Cast Lead, feeding the Israeli command with accurate advance information on the missiles and rockets aimed from Gaza at southern Israel and their trajectories.It also tracked the rockets fired at Nahariya and Kiryat Shemona from Lebanon and kept watch for possible missile action from Syria and Iran.But the American radar facility at Nevatim also kept Washington abreast of Israel's aerial, naval and missile activity in the course of the conflict. It was the first time the US knew what was going on in an Israel-Arab battle arena without recourse to outside electronic tracking devices.
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5875
As in the days of Noah....

Sri Lanka set for victory

The Sri Lankan government says it's about to win a decades-long civil war with the Tamil Tigers, but at what cost?

PESTILENCE WATCH:China reports 6th bird flu death...

BEIJING: A man in the southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou has been infected with bird flu and is in a critical condition in hospital, the Health Ministry said on Sunday. It is the sixth human case of bird flu to be reported in China this year. The Chinese Health Ministry said on its website (www.moh.gov.cn) the latest victim was a 29-year-old man surnamed Zhou who fell sick on Jan. 15. In recent weeks four people have died of bird flu in China. "Epidemiological tests show that the patient previously had exposure to live poultry markets," the ministry said in a brief statement. But nobody with whom he had been in close contact had shown signs of illness, it added. Even before the latest case, Chinese health officials had been urging extra vigilance this month, when the winter weather was suspected of having helped the virus spread. Other recent victims fell ill in areas where there had been no known outbreaks of H5N1 in birds. The H5N1 strain remains largely a virus among birds. Experts say there is a danger that it may evolve into a form that can be transmitted among humans, risking a pandemic in which millions could die. Including the latest case, at least 36 people have been infected in China and 24 have died from H5N1 to date.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/China_reports_6th_human_bird_flu_case/articleshow/4030218.cms
As in the days of Noah...

China's Unhappy New Year

EU takes Iranian group off terror blacklist

Iranian female protestors chant slogans during a gathering in front of the French Embassy to protest against the EU's decision to take the Iranian People's Mujahedeen opposition group off the EU's terrorist list, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2009. The group, known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, already on the U.S. and EU terrorist lists, was founded in Iran in the 1960s and fought against the Iranian government after 1979 Islamic revolution. It moved to Iraq to make a base against Iran under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

BRUSSELS, Belgium-The European Union decided Monday to remove an Iranian opposition group from the EU's terror list and lift the restrictions on its funds, a move likely to further damage relations strained over Tehran's nuclear program. The decision by the 27-nation bloc's foreign ministers means that as of Tuesday, the assets of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, or PMOI, will be unfrozen. It is the first time an organization has been "de-listed" by the EU.Shahin Gobadi, a spokesman for the group said $9 million (euro7 million) had been frozen in France alone, with "tens of millions of dollars" worth of assets also locked away in other EU countries.The group had been blacklisted as a terror organization by the EU since 2002, but waged a long legal battle in the EU's court of justice to reverse that decision. Several EU court decisions went in the group's favor, concluding the EU had failed to properly explain why it froze the assets of the Paris-based group."What we are doing today is abiding by the decision of the court, there is nothing we can do about the decision," said Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief.The People's Mujahedeen, also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, is the military wing of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which is based in Paris. The council said it is dedicated to a democratic, secular government in Iran.It was founded in Iran in the 1960s and helped followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrow U.S.-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in 1979.But the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq fell out with Khomeini, and thousands of its followers were killed, imprisoned or forced into exile. It launched a campaign of assassinations and bombings against Iran's government as a result.The PMOI has long tried to shed its terrorist tag, despite a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s-and nearly 30 years of violent struggle against Iran's Islamic establishment.The group said however, it has renounced violence in 2001 and hasn't kept any arms since 2003.Maryam Rajavi, who heads the Paris-based National Council of Resistance, the political wing of the PMOI, said Monday's decision was "a crushing defeat to Europe's policy of appeasement" with Iran."The blacklisting of the Iranian Resistance contributed to the prolongation of the rule of religious fascism in Iran," she said in a statement. "The Iranian regime did not refrain from using all political and diplomatic pressures to maintain the PMOI on the list."Rajavi said her group would now focus its attention on getting the United States to drop the PMOI from its terror list.Mohammad Safaei, a spokesman at the Iranian Embassy in Brussels, said he could not comment on the decision because it had not yet been officially relayed to Tehran.The court-mandated move is likely to complicate difficult ties with Tehran just as the EU is trying to negotiate over Iran's nuclear program. The EU and the United States fear Iran is building atomic weapons.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband appealed to Iran to return to talks with European nations and the United States over its nuclear program."During 2009 there will and should be significant focus on this issue," Miliband said.The group has been on the U.S. State Department's terror list since the mid-1990s.The group had established a camp for about 3,500 members in Iraq, which its forces used to launch cross-border attacks into Iran. After U.S.-led forces overthrew Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, American troops removed the Iranian group's weapons and confined its fighters to the camp.
By CONSTANT BRAND, Associated Press Writer

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090126/ap_on_re_eu/eu_eu_iran_opposition

As in the days of Noah...

Indonesian Muslims banned from practicing yoga

JAKARTA,Indonesia-Indonesia's top Islamic body banned Muslims from practicing yoga that contains Hindu rituals like chanting, the chairman of the group said Monday, citing concerns it would corrupt their faith.Cleric Ma'ruf Amin said the Ulema Council issued the ruling following weekend talks attended by hundreds of theological experts in Padang Panjang, a village in West Sumatra province.Though not legally binding,most devout Muslims will likely adhere to it because they consider ignoring a religious decree sinful.The ban, which follows a similar edict in neighboring Malaysia, was passed after investigators visited gyms and private yoga classes across the country to see what effect rituals like chanting mantras might have on Muslims. Clerics determined that it could weaken their faith,but yoga practitioners and some scholars sharply disagreed Monday. "They shouldn't be worrying about this," Jamilah Konny Fransiska, a yoga teacher on the northern island of Batam, said of the Islamic body. She said she knew very few people who incorporated Hindu elements with yoga."They should be focusing strictly on religious matters," she said. Amin said those who perform the ancient Indian exercise without Hindu rituals will not be affected by the ban.Indonesia is a secular country of 235 million people, 90 percent of whom are Muslim. Though most practice a moderate form of the faith, a vocal extremist fringe has gained strength, at times even influencing government policy.In recent years, yoga-a blend of physical and mental exercises aimed at integrating mind, body and spirit-has been increasingly practiced in gyms and dedicated centers around the world.In the United States, where it has become so popular that many public schools began offering it in gym classes, yoga has also come under fire. Some Christian fundamentalists and even secular parents have argued that yoga's Hindu roots conflict with Christian teachings and that using it in school might violate the separation of church and state. Egypt's highest theological body also banned yoga for Muslims in 2004. Indonesia's Ulema Council-which wrapped up its annual meeting for the issuing of fatwas late Sunday-decided to investigate the need for a yoga ban after Malaysia's top Islamic body issued its fatwa late last year.
By NINIEK KARMINI, Associated Press Writer

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090126/ap_on_re_as/as_indonesia_yoga_ban

As in the days of Noah....

PERSECUTION WATCH:Iran: Three Christians arrested, held without charges, whereabouts unknown

LOS ANGELES, January 23 (Compass Direct News) – Three Christians from two different families were arrested from their homes Wednesday morning (Jan. 21) and are being held without charges, sources told Compass. Authorities took Jamal Ghalishorani, 49, and his wife Nadereh Jamali from their home in Tehran between 7 and 8 a.m., about a half hour after arresting Hamik Khachikian, an Armenian Christian also living in Tehran. Ghalishorani and his wife are Christian converts from Islam, considered “apostasy” in Iran and potentially punishable by death....The arrests are particularly disturbing in light of the Iranian parliament’s approval last September of a new penal code calling for a mandatory death sentence for “apostates,” or those who leave Islam....

To read more go to:

http://persecuted-church.blogspot.com/

As in the days of Noah....

UN says many civilians killed in Sri Lanka clashes

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-The United Nations said Monday that "many" civilians have been killed in recent fighting in Sri Lanka's civil war and called the situation for thousands of displaced people trapped in the northern conflict zone a crisis.In recent weeks, government troops pushed the Tamil Tigers out of the de facto state they ran in the north, forced the rebels into a broad retreat and boxed them into a small patch of jungle along with hundreds of thousands of civilians. The military captured the rebels' final stronghold of Mullaittivu on Sunday and fought heavy battles with the separatists in the jungles throughout Monday.With the war zone shrinking and a huge population of civilians in the area, the situation has grown desperate in recent days, U.N. resident coordinator Neil Buhne told The Associated Press on Monday."There have been many civilians killed over the last two days," he said. "It's really a crisis now."Buhne said until recently both sides in the fighting worked hard to avoid civilian casualties."But in the current phase, with such a level of fighting and with so many people around, unless there is very, very close attention to it, it's almost inevitable," he said.Human rights groups and diplomats have expressed growing concerns about the safety of the civilians in the north in recent days.Many have accused the Tamil Tigers of preventing civilians from fleeing the war zone, while the government has said the rebels hoped to use the civilians as human shields.

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090126/ap_on_re_as/as_sri_lanka_civil_war

As in the days of Noah...

Snow falls in United Arab Emirates for only second time in recorded history...

So rare was the event that one lifelong resident said the local dialect had no word for it.According to the RAK Government, temperatures on Jebel Jais dropped to -3°C on Friday night.On Saturday, the area had reached 1°C.Major Saeed Rashid al Yamahi, a helicopter pilot and the manager of the Air Wing of RAK Police, said the snow covered an area of five kilometres and was 10cm deep.“The sight up there this morning was totally unbelievable, with the snow-capped mountain and the entire area covered with fresh, dazzling white snow,” Major al Yamahi said.“The snowfall started at 3pm Friday, and heavy snowing began at 8pm and continued till midnight, covering the entire area in a thick blanket of snow. Much of the snow was still there even when we flew back from the mountain this afternoon. It is still freezing cold up there and there are chances that it might snow again tonight.”Aisha al Hebsy, a woman in her 50s who has lived in the mountains near Jebel Jais all her life, said snowfall in the area was so unheard of the local dialect does not even have a word for it. Hail is known as bared, which literally translates as cold. “Twenty years ago we had lots of hail,” said Ms al Hebsy. “Last night was like this. At four in the morning we came out and the ground was white.”Jebel Jais was dusted in snow on Dec 28, 2004, the first snowfall in living memory for Ras al Khaimah residents.“I had flown there in 2004 when it snowed, but this time it was much bigger and the snowing lasted longer as well,” said Major al Yamahi.At the base of the mountains, residents also reported severe hail on Friday night. “We had hail. Last night was very cold, but there can only be snow on Jebel Jais because it’s the tallest,” said Fatima al Ali, 30, a resident of a village beneath the mountains.In Ras al Khaimah City, 25km from Jebel Jais, sheet lightning and thunder shook houses. Main roads from Qusaidat to Nakheel were still badly flooded on Saturday, while temperatures at the RAK International Airport fluctuated between 10 and 22°C.M Varghese, an observer at the RAK Airport Meteorological Office, told of the storms that hit the emirate on Friday night.“We had thunderstorms with rain for more than 12 hours and we had around 18mm rain,” Mr Varghese said. “The rain, along with the cold easterly winds and low-lying clouds, could have bought the temperatures further down on the mountains.”Giorgio Alessio, a meteorologist at the Dubai meteorology office, said: “In thunderstorms, the rain comes down very rapidly from higher levels, and the rain that usually forms can reach the ground in some places as snow. In the next few days the weather regime is completely different and will return to normal for the season, with a maximum temperature of 23°C or 24°C. “The night might cool down in the desert below 10°C. There is variability in the weather from year to year but it hasn’t shown a trend in getting colder or getting warmer.”The RAK Government plans to transform the 1,740m Jebel Jais into the UAE’s first outdoor ski resort, using Australian technology that will allow tourists to ski in temperatures up to 35°C.Abu Dhabi and Dubai also had heavy rain on Friday night.

By Anna Zacharias

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090125/NATIONAL/688880349/1010/enewsletter

As in the days of Noah....

Sri Lanka:Army has seized last rebel stronghold

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-Sri Lankan forces captured the Tamil Tigers' last major stronghold Sunday, confining the rebels to a narrow slice of jungle and ending their decade-long domination of the country's north.Army commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said the bloody ethnic separatist war that has plagued this Indian Ocean island nation since 1983 was nearly over.But analysts warn that it is simply shifting from a conventional fight between two armies to a guerrilla war likely to be fought among the estimated 250,000 displaced civilians reportedly trapped in the northern jungles with the rebels.In recent weeks, the Sri Lankan army drove the rebels from their administrative capital of Kilinochchi, forced them to retreat from most of the de facto state they controlled across a wide swath of the north and boxed them into a shrinking pocket of land.On Sunday afternoon, troops entered the coastal town of Mullaittivu, the last major town under the rebels' control and drove off the fighters remaining inside, the military said."The Sri Lankan army captured the Mullaittivu bastion completely today," Fonseka said in a speech broadcast Sunday evening on every major television channel.Sri Lankans across the capital, Colombo, exploded in celebration, honking their horns and lighting firecrackers, as they have for all the military's recent victories.The military made an all-out push last year into the north, where the Tamil Tigers ran an autocratic regime complete with its own police, courts and customs department.Defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella described Mullaittivu as the rebels' last bastion and main operations center.The rebels had held the town since 1996 when they overran a military camp there and killed nearly 1,000 soldiers. Rebel officials could not be reached for comment because communications to the northern war zone have been cut. However, they have in the past expressed a willingness to return to guerrilla warfare if necessary.It is impossible to verify the military's accounts because independent journalists are barred from the area.Fonseka said the 25-year-old civil war was "95 percent" over and he appealed for new recruits to join the army and help complete the job. The government's string of victories has left the rebels confined to a 115-square-mile (300-square-kilometer) area in the jungle, the military said.The rebels seek to create a separate state in the north and east for minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization at the hands of successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.A 2002 cease-fire deal fell apart amid new fighting three years ago, and the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa vowed to destroy the rebel group and end the war. Backed by record budgets, the military heavily recruited new troops and went on a spending spree for new weapons.The military captured insurgent-held territories in the east in 2007 and last year pushed deep into the rebels' northern heartland.Despite the success of the military offensive, analysts cautioned against too much optimism.Velupillai Prabhakaran, the rebels' dictatorial leader, remains at large and the ethnic tension that has fueled the conflict remains unresolved."There is still a lot of work to be done,"Sri Lanka's former army commander Gen. Jerry de Silva said."It is likely they (the rebels) will resort to guerrilla tactics, both jungle and urban," he said, adding that the jungle canopy above much of the remaining rebel territory could make it difficult for troops to rely on air support.Jehan Perera, a political analyst, said government forces could face an "enormous humanitarian and military challenge" in fighting the rebels in the midst of a large number of civilians.Human rights groups have accused the Tamil Tigers of preventing the civilians from fleeing the war zone, while the government has said the rebels hoped to use the civilians as human shields. Reports of civilian casualties in the area have grown in recent weeks.Last week, the government declared a 13.5-square-mile (35-square-kilometer) "safe zone" on the edge of the rebel-held area and called for civilians to gather there.
However, regional medical officials accused the military of firing into a village and a hospital in the "safe zone" last week, killing at least 30 people and injuring more than 100. The government denied responsibility for the attack.
Associated Press writer Krishan Francis contributed to this report.

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090125/ap_on_re_as/as_sri_lanka_civil_war

As in the days of Noah....

Israeli official: Obama envoy coming to Mideast

JERUSALEM-President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East will come to Israel Wednesday for talks on keeping alive a fragile Gaza cease-fire and reviving Mideast negotiations, an Israeli foreign ministry official said Saturday.It is the new administration's first direct move into Mideast peace efforts.George J. Mitchell(picture left) will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and senior Israeli officials, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because Washington has not officially announced the trip.Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton introduced Mitchell in his new role Thursday. His appointment is seen as signaling a renewed push under the Obama administration for a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Mitchell will also visit Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad at their headquarters in the West Bank, the official said.The official said Mitchell will discuss restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip, and ways to impose an effective arms blockade against the Hamas militants who rule Gaza and have been firing rockets into Israel for years.The arms embargo and the opening of the blockaded territory's borders are key to sustaining separate cease-fires by Israel and Hamas.In Washington, the White House and State Department declined to comment, but diplomats familiar with Mitchell's travel plans said he would visit Israel and the West Bank with possible stops in Egypt and Jordan on a tour that could last eight to 10 days.His exact itinerary is not yet settled, the diplomats said, but he will be working to secure an Israel-Hamas cease-fire, improve the humanitarian situation for Gazans and gauge prospects for continuing the peace process.The diplomats also spoke on condition of anonymity because the trip had not been formally announced.Mitchell, a retired Senate majority leader, was a key player in Northern Ireland peace talks in the 1990s and later led an international commission to investigate violence in the Middle East. His report, issued in 2001, called for a freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism.
Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090125/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_us;_ylt=AozppEvjN7bWnOB8EMyfW_ln.3QA

As in the days of Noah....