A rocket fired from the Gaza strip on Thursday one hour after EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton entered the territory has killed a migrant worker of Thai origin in Israel's Negev region. Over 100 rockets have been fired from Gaza over the past year, Israeli media say.
AFP - Palestinian militants fired a rocket into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing a Thai agricultural worker, while the European Union's foreign affairs chief was visiting the Hamas-controlled enclave. The EU's top diplomat, Briton Catherine Ashton, had crossed into the Gaza Strip from Israel about an hour before the attack, the first deadly strike from the territory since the end in January 2009 of Israel's Gaza war. An unknown Gaza group, Ansar al-Sunna, claimed responsibility for the attack, launched a day before the international Quartet of Middle East peace mediators was to meet in Moscow to discuss ways to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks.
AFP - Palestinian militants fired a rocket into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing a Thai agricultural worker, while the European Union's foreign affairs chief was visiting the Hamas-controlled enclave.
The EU's top diplomat, Briton Catherine Ashton, had crossed into the Gaza Strip from Israel about an hour before the attack, the first deadly strike from the territory since the end in January 2009 of Israel's Gaza war.
An unknown Gaza group, Ansar al-Sunna, claimed responsibility for the attack, launched a day before the international Quartet of Middle East peace mediators was to meet in Moscow to discuss ways to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks.
On her first tour of the Middle East, European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton visited Israel and the West Bank, as Palestinian rioters took to the streets in protests against Israeli settlement expansion plans. Deutsche Welle Israel correspondent Irris Makler explains what this means for EU-Israel relations and the EU's role in the peace process.
EP chief Buzek has hit out against Cuba's arrest of 30 people from the Damas de Blanco opposition group. "I urge the Cuban government to stop harassing people who protest for freedom," he said, noting that the EP has waited 5 years to hand the movement a prize, as its members cannot leave Cuba.
Nunavut, a region in north Canada, has voted to ban European alcohol in the northern Canadian territory in symbolic retaliation for an EU ban on seal products, AFP reported. However, the motion is unlikely to become law. The EU in July last year adopted a ban on seal products.
AFP - An American woman who called herself "JihadJane" pleaded not guilty Thursday in a Philadelphia court to recruiting terrorists. Pennsylvania resident Colleen LaRose, 46, is charged with "conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists," among other charges. She allegedly sought both male and female recruits, raised money and agreed to murder a Swedish cartoonist, pledging "only death will stop me," the indictment charges.
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania woman who called herself "Jihad Jane" pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to kill in a foreign country. Colleen LaRose appeared in federal court in Philadelphia accused of plotting with others over the Internet to kill a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed in a way that was offensive to Muslims, and of wanting to become a martyr to Islam.
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania woman who called herself "Jihad Jane" pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to kill in a foreign country.
Colleen LaRose appeared in federal court in Philadelphia accused of plotting with others over the Internet to kill a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed in a way that was offensive to Muslims, and of wanting to become a martyr to Islam.
REUTERS - President Barack Obama picked up support for healthcare reform on Wednesday from a prominent liberal and a group of Catholic nuns, who broke with bishops on the issue of abortion and urged passage of the overhaul. Representative Dennis Kucinich, one of the most liberal members of Congress and a supporter of nationalized healthcare, became the first Democrat in the House of Representatives to switch from "no" to "yes" on the overhaul as it neared a likely final vote on Sunday. "This is a defining moment for whether or not we'll have any opportunity to move off square one on healthcare," Kucinich said in announcing his switch two days after Obama lobbied him on an Air Force One flight to Kucinich's home state of Ohio.
REUTERS - President Barack Obama picked up support for healthcare reform on Wednesday from a prominent liberal and a group of Catholic nuns, who broke with bishops on the issue of abortion and urged passage of the overhaul.
Representative Dennis Kucinich, one of the most liberal members of Congress and a supporter of nationalized healthcare, became the first Democrat in the House of Representatives to switch from "no" to "yes" on the overhaul as it neared a likely final vote on Sunday.
"This is a defining moment for whether or not we'll have any opportunity to move off square one on healthcare," Kucinich said in announcing his switch two days after Obama lobbied him on an Air Force One flight to Kucinich's home state of Ohio.
REUTERS - Russia said on Thursday it would start up the reactor it is building at Iran's first atomic power plant in mid-2010, prompting immediate criticism from visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the startup, but Clinton said such a decision would be "premature" without Iranian assurances on its nuclear programme, which the West fears is aimed at producing atomic weapons. Russia agreed to build the 1,000 megawatt reactor at Bushehr, on the Persian Gulf, 15 years ago, but delays have haunted the $1 billion project and diplomats say Moscow has used it as a lever in relations with Tehran. "We continue work on developing atomic energy capacity both at home and abroad," Putin told a meeting on nuclear energy in the southern Russian city of Volgodonsk. "The start-up of the first reactor of the Bushehr atomic power station is planned for this summer," he said.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki retained his narrow lead over secularist challenger Iyad Allawi Thursday as Iraq neared a final preliminary count of votes cast in a March 7 parliamentary election. The tight race between the Shi'ite prime minister and Allawi, who was dominating largely Sunni provinces, was expected to lead to weeks or months of tense negotiations to form a new government as Iraq emerges from years of sectarian conflict.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki retained his narrow lead over secularist challenger Iyad Allawi Thursday as Iraq neared a final preliminary count of votes cast in a March 7 parliamentary election.
The tight race between the Shi'ite prime minister and Allawi, who was dominating largely Sunni provinces, was expected to lead to weeks or months of tense negotiations to form a new government as Iraq emerges from years of sectarian conflict.
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan will nominate a new ministerial team by early next week, and is likely to reappoint around half the cabinet he has just sacked, presidency sources said Thursday. Fast appointment of the ministers could do much to alleviate uncertainty in Africa's most populous nation after Jonathan dismissed the entire cabinet Wednesday, aiming to consolidate his authority a month after assuming executive powers.
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan will nominate a new ministerial team by early next week, and is likely to reappoint around half the cabinet he has just sacked, presidency sources said Thursday.
Fast appointment of the ministers could do much to alleviate uncertainty in Africa's most populous nation after Jonathan dismissed the entire cabinet Wednesday, aiming to consolidate his authority a month after assuming executive powers.
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Protesters in Bangkok vowed on Thursday to prolong a mass anti-government rally to force Thailand's government to call elections, despite doubts the mainly rural movement had what it takes to sustain the rally. On their fifth day on Bangkok's streets, the red-shirted protesters called for a "class war" and threatened to make life unbearable for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva after splashing blood on the gates of his home and office, forcing him to sleep in a military base and preventing him from attending parliament.
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Protesters in Bangkok vowed on Thursday to prolong a mass anti-government rally to force Thailand's government to call elections, despite doubts the mainly rural movement had what it takes to sustain the rally.
On their fifth day on Bangkok's streets, the red-shirted protesters called for a "class war" and threatened to make life unbearable for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva after splashing blood on the gates of his home and office, forcing him to sleep in a military base and preventing him from attending parliament.
