Israel has carried out further air strikes on Gaza, while Palestinian rockets have continued to hit Israel. This map details the latest developments on the ground.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Arab countries called an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to debate the violence in Gaza, demanding in a draft resolution an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants. The evening session adjourned without a vote being called and diplomats said negotiations would be held in coming days over the draft, which Western delegates described as unbalanced and focusing almost entirely on Israel's actions. The resolution, presented by Libya, called for "an immediate ceasefire and for its full respect by both sides." It also demanded protection for Palestinian civilians, opening border crossings into Gaza and "restoration of calm in full." It denounced "the excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by Israel" but its only mention of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel was a vague reference to "the deterioration of the situation in southern Israel." "It's going to need a lot of work," one Western diplomat said of the resolution.
A senior Hamas leader has been killed by an Israeli air strike on his home in the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials say. Nizar Rayyan, the most senior Hamas figure to be killed since 2004, had urged suicide attacks against Israel. News of the strike came on the sixth day of Israeli strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medical sources say 402 people have been killed. Israel says it is trying to prevent militants from firing rockets into southern Israel.
A senior Hamas leader has been killed by an Israeli air strike on his home in the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials say.
Nizar Rayyan, the most senior Hamas figure to be killed since 2004, had urged suicide attacks against Israel.
News of the strike came on the sixth day of Israeli strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian medical sources say 402 people have been killed. Israel says it is trying to prevent militants from firing rockets into southern Israel.
JERUSALEM, Dec 31 (IPS) - This is the most senseless of all the wars that Palestinians and Israelis have fought, says Israeli President Shimon Peres. The futility, he suggests, stems from the Hamas insistence, ever since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, on continuing to shell Israeli towns and villages."Their shooting has no point and no logic. Nobody understands what are Hamas's goals," said Peres, speaking alongside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who was briefing the President on the state of the war Tuesday evening. "The Gaza offensive will not end until our goals are reached," said Olmert in response to reports that Israeli defence officials were considering a 48-hour truce in the devastating air attacks prior to possibly launching a major ground operation. So, what are Israel's goals? There seems to be national consensus -- at least among Israeli Jews -- on the two declared objectives of the military operation: long-term ceasefire, and deterrence -- that Hamas is compelled to hold its fire. The Israeli consensus extends to another front -- there is already a 'ceasefire' with respect to the Feb. 10 Knesset (parliament) election. So much so, that the front-runner in the polls, right-wing Likud opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu, has been enlisted to front Israel's information campaign to the world. Netanyahu, even within the guise of national advocate, is positing the war targets in much starker terms than the governing centre-left coalition.
Israel has promised a "war to the bitter end." Yet history is full of examples showing that battling an organization like Hamas is almost futile. It is a lesson Israel learned just two short years ago. It was almost a century ago when the British soldier T.E. Lawrence described for posterity the World War I revolt of the Arabs against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. Lawrence helped organize the revolt, and he famously said that combating such an uprising was "like eating soup with a knife."
Israel has promised a "war to the bitter end." Yet history is full of examples showing that battling an organization like Hamas is almost futile. It is a lesson Israel learned just two short years ago.
It was almost a century ago when the British soldier T.E. Lawrence described for posterity the World War I revolt of the Arabs against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. Lawrence helped organize the revolt, and he famously said that combating such an uprising was "like eating soup with a knife."
http://www.counterpunch.com/loewenstein01012009.html
kjr63, I don't doubt you feel indignant about Israel's attack on Gaza, as I do. If so, please say so in a comment, don't use the ratings system to express your opinion.
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BAGHDAD -- Three Iraqi police officers and two others were killed in violence across Iraq on Thursday as the Iraqi government took formal control of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. In a second symbolically significant New Year's Day handover, the Iraqi government accepted security and administrative duties at the main airport in the southern city of Basra. The airport had been used by British forces since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The three police officers were killed in the northern city of Mosul on Thursday. Mosul, a city of about 1.7 million people in Nineveh Province, has been one of the most violent places in Iraq in recent months. The provincial capital, located about 250 miles north of Baghdad, is in a region contested by Sunni Arabs and Kurds, and where Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni extremist group that American intelligence agencies say is led by foreigners, has been active.
In a second symbolically significant New Year's Day handover, the Iraqi government accepted security and administrative duties at the main airport in the southern city of Basra. The airport had been used by British forces since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The three police officers were killed in the northern city of Mosul on Thursday. Mosul, a city of about 1.7 million people in Nineveh Province, has been one of the most violent places in Iraq in recent months.
The provincial capital, located about 250 miles north of Baghdad, is in a region contested by Sunni Arabs and Kurds, and where Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni extremist group that American intelligence agencies say is led by foreigners, has been active.
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Thursday celebrated the 50th anniversary of a 1959 revolution whose leader Fidel Castro transformed the island into a communist state that has survived despite long years of opposition from the nearby United States and the collapse of its Cold War benefactors. The revolution's landmark anniversary comes at a time when the era of Fidel Castro, now 82 and ailing, is winding down and uncertainty hangs over the future of the Cuba he built into an improbable world player admired for its social gains but criticized for its human rights record. A celebration that had been expected to be a major event has been subdued in a nation mired in economic problems and divided on what the revolution has wrought. President Raul Castro, who officially replaced ailing older brother Fidel Castro in February, was to speak on Thursday evening in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba from the same balcony which the elder Castro proclaimed victory after U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista fled on January 1, 1959.
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Thursday celebrated the 50th anniversary of a 1959 revolution whose leader Fidel Castro transformed the island into a communist state that has survived despite long years of opposition from the nearby United States and the collapse of its Cold War benefactors.
The revolution's landmark anniversary comes at a time when the era of Fidel Castro, now 82 and ailing, is winding down and uncertainty hangs over the future of the Cuba he built into an improbable world player admired for its social gains but criticized for its human rights record.
A celebration that had been expected to be a major event has been subdued in a nation mired in economic problems and divided on what the revolution has wrought.
President Raul Castro, who officially replaced ailing older brother Fidel Castro in February, was to speak on Thursday evening in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba from the same balcony which the elder Castro proclaimed victory after U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista fled on January 1, 1959.
HAVANA, Dec 31 (IPS) - The Cuban Revolution's 50th anniversary on Jan. 1 finds the country facing the challenge of sorting out the economy and improving living conditions, in the context of a complex international situation that may make reaching those goals particularly difficult.The 1960s stand out in this Caribbean island nation's history as the decade when major economic and social changes came thick and fast, including the agrarian reform that put land in the hands of peasant farmers, the laws slashing housing rents by 50 percent, the mass literacy campaigns and free education and health services for all. These and other radical changes effected by the Revolution showed that "it is actually possible to build a country based on social criteria," Pável Vidal, a young economist with the University of Havana's Centre for the Study of the Cuban Economy (CEEC), told IPS. The Revolution "was able, in a relatively short time, to reduce extreme poverty, raise the level of and access to education, create greater opportunities for women and significantly improve the health conditions of the population," he said. However, the younger generations do not always appreciate these achievements. "What's the good of studying engineering for free, when what I can earn from my work won't be enough to live on?" said Manuel, a 22-year-old university student who also complained about the poor public transport and the lack of freedom to travel abroad.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia ... I had heard about torture chambers under the brothels but had never seen one, so a few days ago Sina took me to the red-light district here where she once was imprisoned. A brothel had been torn down, revealing a warren of dungeons underneath. "I was in a room just like those," she said, pointing. "There must be many girls who died in those rooms." She grew distressed and added: "I'm cold and afraid. Tonight I won't sleep." "Photograph quickly," she added, and pointed to brothels lining the street. "It's not safe to stay here long." <...> Sex trafficking is truly the 21st century's version of slavery. One of the differences from 19th-century slavery is that many of these modern slaves will die of AIDS by their late 20s. Whenever I report on sex trafficking, I come away less depressed by the atrocities than inspired by the courage of modern abolitionists like Somaly and Sina. They are risking their lives to help others still locked up in the brothels, and they have the credibility and experience to lead this fight. In my next column, I'll introduce a girl that Sina is now helping to recover from mind-boggling torture in a brothel -- and Sina's own story gives hope to the girl in a way that an army of psychologists couldn't. I hope that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will recognize slavery as unfinished business on the foreign policy agenda. ...
"I was in a room just like those," she said, pointing. "There must be many girls who died in those rooms." She grew distressed and added: "I'm cold and afraid. Tonight I won't sleep."
"Photograph quickly," she added, and pointed to brothels lining the street. "It's not safe to stay here long." <...>
Sex trafficking is truly the 21st century's version of slavery. One of the differences from 19th-century slavery is that many of these modern slaves will die of AIDS by their late 20s.
Whenever I report on sex trafficking, I come away less depressed by the atrocities than inspired by the courage of modern abolitionists like Somaly and Sina. They are risking their lives to help others still locked up in the brothels, and they have the credibility and experience to lead this fight. In my next column, I'll introduce a girl that Sina is now helping to recover from mind-boggling torture in a brothel -- and Sina's own story gives hope to the girl in a way that an army of psychologists couldn't.
I hope that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will recognize slavery as unfinished business on the foreign policy agenda. ...
The incnoming President has such a bucketful of woe slopping about his own country that, if he were minded to do so, he (and his successor) could spend 100% of the next 3 or 4 presidential terms cleaning up and still not get everything that absolutely has to be done in the first term completed. And one of the things that will probably not get complete is eliminating the shodow of torture that hangs as a pall of condemnation over the USA, not because they don't want it gone but because there are too many dirty people and CIA rogue operators acting to impede any activity involved in clearup. And until they do clear that one up, they have no moral authority getting involved with similar problems in the world. In fact, they will hamper the work simply on a change of hypiocrisy by association. keep to the Fen Causeway
Iraq plans to close a camp for Iranian dissidents who used to cross into Iran to mount assassinations and sabotage - a decision that has sharpened political differences between Baghdad and Washington. Camp Ashraf, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, came under Iraqi control yesterday in a broad security handover that forms part of the US withdrawal agreement concluded late last year. Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, led a delegation of defence and interior ministry officials to the camp last weekend, warning its 2,500 male and 1,000 female inmates that "staying in Iraq is not an option". The Iraqi government said it "is keen to execute its plans to close the camp and send its inhabitants to their country or other countries in a non-forcible manner".US troops disarmed the opposition group known as the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) after the 2003 invasion. They removed hundreds of armoured vehicles donated by Saddam Hussein but kept the camp intact because some Bush administration officials allegedly saw the MEK as a potential tool for regime change in Iran. The Shia-led government in Baghdad has forged close relations with fellow Shias in Tehran and rejects such ambitions. It insisted that the US/Iraq security agreement contain a promise that Iraq would not be used for attacks on Iran or any other country
Iraq plans to close a camp for Iranian dissidents who used to cross into Iran to mount assassinations and sabotage - a decision that has sharpened political differences between Baghdad and Washington.
Camp Ashraf, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, came under Iraqi control yesterday in a broad security handover that forms part of the US withdrawal agreement concluded late last year.
Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, led a delegation of defence and interior ministry officials to the camp last weekend, warning its 2,500 male and 1,000 female inmates that "staying in Iraq is not an option". The Iraqi government said it "is keen to execute its plans to close the camp and send its inhabitants to their country or other countries in a non-forcible manner".
US troops disarmed the opposition group known as the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) after the 2003 invasion. They removed hundreds of armoured vehicles donated by Saddam Hussein but kept the camp intact because some Bush administration officials allegedly saw the MEK as a potential tool for regime change in Iran.
The Shia-led government in Baghdad has forged close relations with fellow Shias in Tehran and rejects such ambitions. It insisted that the US/Iraq security agreement contain a promise that Iraq would not be used for attacks on Iran or any other country
KABUL, Afghanistan -- When it comes to governing this violent, fractious land, everything, it seems, has its price. Want to be a provincial police chief? It will cost you $100,000.Want to drive a convoy of trucks loaded with fuel across the country? Be prepared to pay $6,000 per truck, so the police will not tip off the Taliban.Need to settle a lawsuit over the ownership of your house? About $25,000, depending on the judge."It is very shameful, but probably I will pay the bribe," Mohammed Naim, a young English teacher, said as he stood in front of the Secondary Courthouse in Kabul. His brother had been arrested a week before, and the police were demanding $4,000 for his release. "Everything is possible in this country now. Everything."Kept afloat by billions of dollars in American and other foreign aid, the government of Afghanistan is shot through with corruption and graft. From the lowliest traffic policeman to the family of President Hamid Karzai himself, the state built on the ruins of the Taliban government seven years ago now often seems to exist for little more than the enrichment of those who run it.
KABUL, Afghanistan -- When it comes to governing this violent, fractious land, everything, it seems, has its price.
Want to be a provincial police chief? It will cost you $100,000.
Want to drive a convoy of trucks loaded with fuel across the country? Be prepared to pay $6,000 per truck, so the police will not tip off the Taliban.
Need to settle a lawsuit over the ownership of your house? About $25,000, depending on the judge.
"It is very shameful, but probably I will pay the bribe," Mohammed Naim, a young English teacher, said as he stood in front of the Secondary Courthouse in Kabul. His brother had been arrested a week before, and the police were demanding $4,000 for his release. "Everything is possible in this country now. Everything."
Kept afloat by billions of dollars in American and other foreign aid, the government of Afghanistan is shot through with corruption and graft. From the lowliest traffic policeman to the family of President Hamid Karzai himself, the state built on the ruins of the Taliban government seven years ago now often seems to exist for little more than the enrichment of those who run it.
FORT CARSON, Colo. -- For the past several years, as this Army installation in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains became a busy way station for soldiers cycling in and out of Iraq, the number of servicemen implicated in violent crimes has raised alarm. Nine current or former members of Fort Carson's Fourth Brigade Combat Team have killed someone or were charged with killings in the last three years after returning from Iraq. Five of the slayings took place last year alone. In addition, charges of domestic violence, rape and sexual assault have risen sharply. Prodded by Senator Ken Salazar, Democrat of Colorado, the base commander began an investigation of the soldiers accused of homicide. An Army task force is reviewing their recruitment, medical and service records, as well as their personal histories, to determine if the military could have done something to prevent the violence. The inquiry was recently expanded to include other serious violent crimes.Now the secretary of the Army, Peter Geren, says he is considering conducting an Army-wide review of all soldiers "involved in violent crimes since returning" from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a letter sent to Mr. Salazar in December. Mr. Geren wrote that the Fort Carson task force had yet to find a specific factor underlying the killings, but that the inquiry was continuing.
FORT CARSON, Colo. -- For the past several years, as this Army installation in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains became a busy way station for soldiers cycling in and out of Iraq, the number of servicemen implicated in violent crimes has raised alarm.
Nine current or former members of Fort Carson's Fourth Brigade Combat Team have killed someone or were charged with killings in the last three years after returning from Iraq. Five of the slayings took place last year alone. In addition, charges of domestic violence, rape and sexual assault have risen sharply.
Prodded by Senator Ken Salazar, Democrat of Colorado, the base commander began an investigation of the soldiers accused of homicide. An Army task force is reviewing their recruitment, medical and service records, as well as their personal histories, to determine if the military could have done something to prevent the violence. The inquiry was recently expanded to include other serious violent crimes.
Now the secretary of the Army, Peter Geren, says he is considering conducting an Army-wide review of all soldiers "involved in violent crimes since returning" from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a letter sent to Mr. Salazar in December. Mr. Geren wrote that the Fort Carson task force had yet to find a specific factor underlying the killings, but that the inquiry was continuing.
