NOW WHY WOULD THE INTERNANTIONAL (NEW WORLD)ORDER AND THE U.N WITHIN DAYS GO AFTER LIBYA.WHEN IRAN HAS GOTTIN AWAY WITH DOING THE SAME STUFF FOR YEARS.OVIOUSLY IRAN HAS NUKES OR THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER WOULD HAVE COME AGAINST IRAN YEARS AGO ALREADY.THE WORLD IS A COWARD TO NUKE IRANS SITES.ONLY ISRAEL WOULD TAKE ACTION AGAINST IRAN.WHY WOULD OBAMA NOT WANT TO LEAD A MILITARY ATTACK ON A MUSLIM COUNTRY.ITS OVIOUS HES A MUSLIM SYMPATHIZER AND WILL NOT GO AGAINST ANOTHER MUSLIM COUNTRY.HE CAN GET AWAY WITH IT BY LETTING FRANCE-THE EU LEAD IT.THEN MUSLIM COUNTRIES WILL STILL LOVE BARRY SOETORO AKA BARACK HUSEIN OBAMA.
Saturday, March 19, 2011 8:59 AM EDT Full Text of UN Resolution 1973 Authorizing Libya No-Fly Zone-The following is United Nations Resolution 1973, as passed on March 17, 2011.INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/124599/20110319/un-resolution-1973-libya-no-fly-zone-authorization.htm
The Security Council,Recalling its resolution 1970 (2011) of 26 February 2011,
Deploring the failure of the Libyan authorities to comply with resolution 1970 (2011),Expressing grave concern at the deteriorating situation, the escalation of violence, and the heavy civilian casualties,Reiterating the responsibility of the Libyan authorities to protect the Libyan population and reaffirming that parties to armed conflicts bear the primary responsibility to take all feasible steps to ensure the protection of civilians,Condemning the gross and systematic violation of human rights, including arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and summary executions,Further condemning acts of violence and intimidation committed by the Libyan authorities against journalists, media professionals and associated personnel and urging these authorities to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law as outlined in resolution 1738 (2006),Considering that the widespread and systematic attacks currently taking place in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya against the civilian population may amount to crimes against humanity,
Recalling paragraph 26 of resolution 1970 (2011) in which the Council expressed its readiness to consider taking additional appropriate measures, as necessary, to facilitate and support the return of humanitarian agencies and make available humanitarian and related assistance in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,Expressing its determination to ensure the protection of civilians and civilian populated areas and the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance and the safety of humanitarian personnel,Recalling the condemnation by the League of Arab States, the African Union and the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference of the serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that have been and are being committed in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,
Taking note of the final communiqué of the Organization of the Islamic Conference of 8 March 2011, and the communiqué of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union of 10 March 2011 which established an ad hoc High-Level Committee on Libya,
Taking note also of the decision of the Council of the League of Arab States of 12 March 2011 to call for the imposition of a no-fly zone on Libyan military aviation, and to establish safe areas in places exposed to shelling as a precautionary measure that allows the protection of the Libyan people and foreign nationals residing in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,Taking note further of the Secretary-General's call on 16 March 2011 for an immediate ceasefire,Recalling its decision to refer the situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya since 15 February 2011 to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and stressing that those responsible for or complicit in attacks targeting the civilian population, including aerial and naval attacks, must be held to account,Reiterating its concern at the plight of refugees and foreign workers forced to flee the violence in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,welcoming the response of neighbouring States, in particular Tunisia and Egypt, to address the needs of those refugees and foreign workers, and calling on the international community to support those efforts,Deploring the continuing use of mercenaries by the Libyan authorities,Considering that the establishment of a ban on all flights in the airspace of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya constitutes an important element for the protection of civilians as well as the safety of the delivery of humanitarian assistance and a decisive step for the cessation of hostilities in Libya,Expressing concern also for the safety of foreign nationals and their rights in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,Welcoming the appointment by the Secretary General of his Special Envoy to Libya, Mr. Abdul Ilah Mohamed Al-Khatib and supporting his efforts to find a sustainable and peaceful solution to the crisis in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,
Reaffirming its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,Determining that the situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security,Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,
1. Demands the immediate establishment of a ceasefire and a complete end to violence and all attacks against, and abuses of, civilians;
2. Stresses the need to intensify efforts to find a solution to the crisis which responds to the legitimate demands of the Libyan people and notes the decisions of the Secretary-General to send his Special Envoy to Libya and of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union to send its ad hoc High-Level Committee to Libya with the aim of facilitating dialogue to lead to the political reforms necessary to find a peaceful and sustainable solution;
3. Demands that the Libyan authorities comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, human rights and refugee law and take all measures to protect civilians and meet their basic needs, and to ensure the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance;
Protection of civilians
4. Authorizes Member States that have notified the Secretary-General, acting nationally or through regional organizations or arrangements, and acting in cooperation with the Secretary-General, to take all necessary measures, notwithstanding paragraph 9 of resolution 1970 (2011), to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory, and requests the Member States concerned to inform the Secretary-General immediately of the measures they take pursuant to the authorization conferred by this paragraph which shall be immediately reported to the Security Council;
5. Recognizes the important role of the League of Arab States in matters relating to the maintenance of international peace and security in the region, and bearing in mind Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, requests the Member States of the League of Arab States to cooperate with other Member States in the implementation of paragraph 4;
No-fly zone
6. Decides to establish a ban on all flights in the airspace of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in order to help protect civilians;
7. Decides further that the ban imposed by paragraph 6 shall not apply to flights whose sole purpose is humanitarian, such as delivering or facilitating the delivery of assistance, including medical supplies, food, humanitarian workers and related assistance, or evacuating foreign nationals from the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, nor shall it apply to flights authorised by paragraphs 4 or 8, nor other flights which are deemed necessary by States acting under the authorization conferred in paragraph 8 to be for the benefit of the Libyan people, and that these flights shall be coordinated with any mechanism established under paragraph 8;
8. Authorizes Member States that have notified the Secretary-General and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, acting nationally or through regional organizations or arrangements, to take all necessary measures to enforce compliance with the ban on flights imposed by paragraph 6 above, as necessary, and requests the States concerned in cooperation with the League of Arab States to coordinate closely with the Secretary General on the measures they are taking to implement this ban, including by establishing an appropriate mechanism for implementing the provisions of paragraphs 6 and 7 above,
9. Calls upon all Member States, acting nationally or through regional organizations or arrangements, to provide assistance, including any necessary overflight approvals, for the purposes of implementing paragraphs 4, 6, 7 and 8 above;
10. Requests the Member States concerned to coordinate closely with each other and the Secretary-General on the measures they are taking to implement paragraphs 4, 6, 7 and 8 above, including practical measures for the monitoring and approval of authorised humanitarian or evacuation flights;
11. Decides that the Member States concerned shall inform the Secretary-General and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States immediately of measures taken in exercise of the authority conferred by paragraph 8 above, including to supply a concept of operations;
12. Requests the Secretary-General to inform the Council immediately of any actions taken by the Member States concerned in exercise of the authority conferred by paragraph 8 above and to report to the Council within 7 days and every month thereafter on the implementation of this resolution, including information on any violations of the flight ban imposed by paragraph 6 above;
Enforcement of the arms embargo
13. Decides that paragraph 11 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall be replaced by the following paragraph : Calls upon all Member States, in particular States of the region, acting nationally or through regional organisations or arrangements, in order to ensure strict implementation of the arms embargo established by paragraphs 9 and 10 of resolution 1970 (2011), to inspect in their territory, including seaports and airports, and on the high seas, vessels and aircraft bound to or from the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, if the State concerned has information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo contains items the supply, sale, transfer or export of which is prohibited by paragraphs 9 or 10 of resolution 1970 (2011) as modified by this resolution, including the provision of armed mercenary personnel, calls upon all flag States of such vessels and aircraft to cooperate with such inspections and authorises Member States to use all measures commensurate to the specific circumstances to carry out such inspections;
14. Requests Member States which are taking action under paragraph 13 above on the high seas to coordinate closely with each other and the Secretary-General and further requests the States concerned to inform the Secretary-General and the Committee established pursuant to paragraph 24 of resolution 1970 (2011) (the Committee) immediately of measures taken in the exercise of the authority conferred by paragraph 13 above;
15. Requires any Member State whether acting nationally or through regional organisations or arrangements, when it undertakes an inspection pursuant to paragraph 13 above, to submit promptly an initial written report to the Committee containing, in particular, explanation of the grounds for the inspection, the results of such inspection, and whether or not cooperation was provided, and, if prohibited items for transfer are found, further requires such Member States to submit to the Committee, at a later stage, a subsequent written report containing relevant details on the inspection, seizure, and disposal, and relevant details of the transfer, including a description of the items, their origin and intended destination, if this information is not in the initial report;
16. Deplores the continuing flows of mercenaries into the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and calls upon all Member States to comply strictly with their obligations under paragraph 9 of resolution 1970 (2011) to prevent the provision of armed mercenary personnel to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya;
Ban on flights
17. Decides that all States shall deny permission to any aircraft registered in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya or owned or operated by Libyan nationals or companies to take off from, land in or overfly their territory unless the particular flight has been approved in advance by the Committee, or in the case of an emergency landing;
18. Decides that all States shall deny permission to any aircraft to take off from, land in or overfly their territory, if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the aircraft contains items the supply, sale, transfer, or export of which is prohibited by paragraphs 9 and 10 of resolution 1970 (2011) as modified by this resolution, including the provision of armed mercenary personnel, except in the case of an emergency landing;
Asset freeze
19. Decides that the asset freeze imposed by paragraph 17, 19, 20 and 21 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall apply to all funds, other financial assets and economic resources which are on their territories, which are owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the Libyan authorities, as designated by the Committee, or by individuals or entities acting on their behalf or at their direction, or by entities owned or controlled by them, as designated by the Committee, and decides further that all States shall ensure that any funds, financial assets or economic resources are prevented from being made available by their nationals or by any individuals or entities within their territories, to or for the benefit of the Libyan authorities, as designated by the Committee, or individuals or entities acting on their behalf or at their direction, or entities owned or controlled by them, as designated by the Committee, and directs the Committee to designate such Libyan authorities, individuals or entities within 30 days of the date of the adoption of this resolution and as appropriate thereafter;
20. Affirms its determination to ensure that assets frozen pursuant to paragraph 17 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall, at a later stage, as soon as possible be made available to and for the benefit of the people of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya;
21. Decides that all States shall require their nationals, persons subject to their jurisdiction and firms incorporated in their territory or subject to their jurisdiction to exercise vigilance when doing business with entities incorporated in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya or subject to its jurisdiction, and any individuals or entities acting on their behalf or at their direction, and entities owned or controlled by them, if the States have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that such business could contribute to violence and use of force against civilians;
Designations
22. Decides that the individuals listed in Annex I shall be subject to the travel restrictions imposed in paragraphs 15 and 16 of resolution 1970 (2011), and decides further that the individuals and entities listed in Annex II shall be subject to the asset freeze imposed in paragraphs 17, 19, 20 and 21 of resolution 1970 (2011);
23. Decides that the measures specified in paragraphs 15, 16, 17, 19, 20 and 21 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall apply also to individuals and entities determined by the Council or the Committee to have violated the provisions of resolution 1970 (2011), particularly paragraphs 9 and 10 thereof, or to have assisted others in doing so;
Panel of Experts
24. Requests the Secretary-General to create for an initial period of one year, in consultation with the Committee, a group of up to eight experts (Panel of Experts), under the direction of the Committee to carry out the following tasks:
(a) Assist the Committee in carrying out its mandate as specified in paragraph 24 of resolution 1970 (2011) and this resolution;
(b) Gather, examine and analyse information from States, relevant United Nations bodies, regional organisations and other interested parties regarding the implementation of the measures decided in resolution 1970 (2011) and this resolution, in particular incidents of non-compliance;
(c) Make recommendations on actions the Council, or the Committee or State, may consider to improve implementation of the relevant measures;
(d) Provide to the Council an interim report on its work no later than 90 days after the Panel's appointment, and a final report to the Council no later than 30 days prior to the termination of its mandate with its findings and recommendations;
25. Urges all States, relevant United Nations bodies and other interested parties, to cooperate fully with the Committee and the Panel of Experts, in particular by supplying any information at their disposal on the implementation of the measures decided in resolution 1970 (2011) and this resolution, in particular incidents of non-compliance;
26. Decides that the mandate of the Committee as set out in paragraph 24 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall also apply to the measures decided in this resolution;
27. Decides that all States, including the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, shall take the necessary measures to ensure that no claim shall lie at the instance of the Libyan authorities, or of any person or body in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, or of any person claiming through or for the benefit of any such person or body, in connection with any contract or other transaction where its performance was affected by reason of the measures taken by the Security Council in resolution 1970 (2011), this resolution and related resolutions;
28. Reaffirms its intention to keep the actions of the Libyan authorities under continuous review and underlines its readiness to review at any time the measures imposed by this resolution and resolution 1970 (2011), including by strengthening, suspending or lifting those measures, as appropriate, based on compliance by the Libyan authorities with this resolution and resolution 1970 (2011);
29. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.
Libya: United Nations Security Council proposed designations
Number Name Justification Identifiers
Annex I: Travel Ban
1QUREN SALIH QUREN AL QADHAFI
Libyan Ambassador to Chad. Has left Chad for Sabha. Involved directly in recruiting and coordinating mercenaries for the regime.
2Colonel AMID HUSAIN AL KUNI
Governor of Ghat (South Libya). Directly involved in recruiting mercenaries.
Annex II: Asset Freeze
1Dorda, Abu Zayd Umar
Position: Director, External Security Organisation
2Jabir, Major General AbuBakr Yunis
Position: Defence Minister
Title: Major General DOB: --/--/1952. POB: Jalo, Libya
3Matuq, Matuq Mohammed
Position: Secretary for Utilities
DOB: --/--/1956. POB: Khoms
4Qadhafi, Mohammed Muammar
Son of Muammar Qadhafi. Closeness of association with regime
DOB: --/--/1970. POB: Tripoli, Libya
5Qadhafi, Saadi
Commander Special Forces. Son of Muammar Qadhafi. Closeness of association with regime. Command of military units involved in repression of demonstrations
DOB: 25/05/1973. POB: Tripoli, Libya
6Qadhafi, Saif al‑Arab
Son of Muammar Qadhafi. Closeness of association with regime
DOB: --/--/1982. POB: Tripoli, Libya
7Al‑Senussi, Colonel Abdullah
Position: Director Military Intelligence
Title: Colonel DOB: --/--/1949. POB: Sudan
Entities
1Central Bank of Libya
Under control of Muammar Qadhafi and his family, and potential source of funding for his regime.
2Libyan Investment Authority
Under control of Muammar Qadhafi and his family, and potential source of funding for his regime.
a.k.a: Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company (LAFICO) Address: 1 FatehTower Office, No 99 22nd Floor,Borgaida Street, Tripoli, Libya, 1103
3Libyan Foreign Bank
Under control of Muammar Qadhafi and his family and a potential source of funding for his regime.
4Libyan Africa Investment Portfolio
Under control of Muammar Qadhafi and his family, and potential source of funding for his regime.
Address: Jamahiriya Street, LAP Building, PO Box 91330, Tripoli, Libya
5Libyan National Oil Corporation
Under control of Muammar Qadhafi and his family, and potential source of funding for his regime.
Address: Bashir Saadwi Street, Tripoli,Tarabulus, Libya
French jets sweep Libyan city besieged by Gadhafi By RYAN LUCAS and HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press - 12:50PM MAR 19,11
BENGHAZI, Libya – French fighter jets soared over a rebel-held city besieged by Moammar Gadhafi's troops on Saturday, the first mission for an international military force launched in support of the 5-week-old uprising.French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after an emergency summit in Paris that French jets were already targeting Gadhafi's forces. The 22 participants in Saturday's summit agreed to put in place all the means necessary, in particular military to make Gadhafi respect a U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday demanding a cease-fire, Sarkozy said.Gadhafi had tried to take advantage of the time lag betwen the U.N. resolution and the launch of the international operation, making a decisive strike on the Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city and the first major stronghold of the rebellion. Crashing shells shook buildings, and the sounds of battle drew closer to the city center as its residents despaired. A doctor said 27 bodies had reached hospitals by midday. By late in the day, warplanes could be heard overhead and the shelling had stopped.Our planes are blocking the air attacks on the city of Benghazi, he said, without elaborating. After the announcement, scattered cheers went up from rebels in the city.In an open letter, Gadafhi warned: You will regret it if you dare to intervene in our country.Libyan state television showed Gadhafi supporters converging on the international airport and a military garrison in Tripoli, and the airport in Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, in an apparent attempt to deter bombing.
Earlier Saturday, a plane was shot down over the outskirts of Benghazi, sending up a massive black cloud of smoke. An Associated Press reporter saw the plane go down in flames and heard the sound of artillery and crackling gunfire.Before the plane went down, journalists heard what appeared to be airstrikes from it. Rebels cheered and celebrated at the crash, though the government denied a plane had gone down — or that any towns were shelled on Saturday.The fighting galvanized the people of Benghazi, with young men collecting bottles to make gasoline bombs. Some residents dragged bed frames and metal scraps into the streets to make roadblocks. But at Jalaa hospital, where the tile floors and walls were stained with blood, the toll was clear.There are more dead than injured, said Dr. Ahmed Radwan, an Egyptian who had been there helping for three weeks.Jalaa's Dr. Gebreil Hewadi, a member of the rebel health committee, said city hospitals had received 27 bodies.At a news conference in the capital, Tripoli, the government spokesman read letters from Gadhafi to President Barack Obama and others involved in the international effort.
Libya is not yours. Libya is for the Libyans. The Security Council resolution is invalid, he said in the letter to Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.To Obama, the Libyan leader was slightly more conciliatory: If you had found them taking over American cities with armed force, tell me what you would do.In a joint statement to Gadhafi late Friday, the United States, Britain and France — backed by unspecified Arab countries — called on Gadhafi to end his troops' advance toward Benghazi and pull them out of the cities of Misrata, Ajdabiya and Zawiya. It also called for the restoration of water, electricity and gas services in all areas. It said Libyans must be able to receive humanitarian aid or the international community will make him suffer the consequences with military action.Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa said that Libyan officials had informed the U.N. and the Security Council that the government was holding to the cease-fire it had announced Friday and called for a team of foreign observers to verify that.The nation is respecting all the commitments put on it by the international community, he said, leaving the podium before answering any questions about Benghazi.In the course of the rebellion, Libya has gone from a once-promising economy with the largest proven oil reserves in Africa to a country in turmoil. The foreign workers that underpinned the oil industry have fled; production and exports have all but ground to a halt; and its currency is down 30 percent in just two weeks. The oil minister, Shukri Ghanem, held a news conference calling on foreign oil companies to send back their workers. He said the government would honor all its contracts.It is not our intention to violate any of these agreements and we hope that from their part they will honor this agreement and they will send back their workforces, he said.
Italy, which had been the main buyer for Libyan oil, offered the use of seven air and navy bases already housing U.S., NATO and Italian forces to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya. Italy's defense minister, Ignazio La Russa, said Saturday that Italy wasn't just renting out its bases for others to use but was prepared to offer moderate but determined military support. Mirage and Rafale fighter jets flew over Benghazi and could strike Gadhafi's tanks later Saturday, a senior French official told The Associated Press.The official said the jets are flying over the opposition stronghold and its surroundings. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation.British Prime Minister David Cameron said after the summit: The time for action has come, it needs to be urgent.Al-Shalchi reporter from Tripoli, Libya. Associated Press writers Ben Hubbard in Cairo; Nicole Winfield in Rome and Jamey Keaten in Paris contributed to this report.
Clinton warns Iran over meddling in Persian Gulf
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press - MAR 19,11 1:45PM
PARIS – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Iran on Saturday to stop meddling in Bahrain and other Arab states in the Persian Gulf, but also called on the kingdom's leaders not to use force against anti-government protesters.Clinton said the United States has an abiding commitment to Gulf security and that a top priority is working together with our partners on our shared concerns about Iranian behavior in the region.We share the view that Iran's activities in the Gulf, including its efforts to advance its agenda in neighboring countries, undermines peace and stability, she told reporters after an international conference on the crisis in Libya. At that meeting, she met with numerous Arab officials who complained that Iran was fomenting unrest Bahrain and elsewhere.Bahrain's Sunni minority monarchy is facing growing opposition from the Shiite-majority population and has called in security forces from neighboring Sunni states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to deal with escalating protests.Clinton said Bahrain had a sovereign right to ask for such assistance, but she said violence was not the way to deal with the situation.Security alone cannot resolve the challenges facing Bahrain, she said. Violence is not and cannot be the answer. A political process is.
She said all Bahrainis should join a national dialogue proposed by the country's crown prince and allow that process to unfold in a peaceful positive atmosphere that protects the freedom of peaceful assembly.The Gulf force underscores the deep worries about Bahrain's stability among the region's Sunni kings and sheiks. They fear any stumble by Bahrain's leaders could embolden more challenges to their own regimes and possibly open room for Shiite heavyweight Iran to make political inroads.
The U.S., which counts Bahrain as a centerpiece of its Gulf military framework, has sent top envoys to meet with the embattled monarchy and has been criticized by Shiite opposition groups for not coming to their support. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is the Pentagon's main regional counterweight to Iran's growing military powers.On Friday, officials wiped away a main symbol of the uprising. Cranes pulled down the 300-foot (90-meter) monument at the heart of a landmark square that has been occupied by protesters and the scene of deadly confrontations.Security forces overran the camp on Wednesday, setting off clashes that killed at least five people, including two policemen. At least 12 people have been killed in the monthlong revolt.
Hamas fires dozens of rockets at Israel
By IAN DEITCH, Associated Press - MAR 19,11
JERUSALEM – Palestinian militants in Gaza fired more than 50 rockets into Israel on Saturday, the heaviest barrage in two years, Israeli officials said, while Hamas police beat up reporters and confiscated their equipment.A Hamas official was killed and four civilians were wounded when Israel hit back with tank fire and air strikes, said Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia.The violence comes amid increasing calls for reconciliation between Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his bitter rivals, the Islamic militant group Hamas. Abbas is seeking U.N. recognition for a Palestinian state by the fall and is currently lobbying for votes worldwide. Hamas used force to disperse a reconciliation rally in Gaza. Some reporters were later beaten up, threatened and briefly detained.Israeli police spokesman Tamir Avtabi said Gaza militants fired 54 mortar shells at Israeli border communities within 15 minutes. He said two Israeli civilians were lightly wounded by shrapnel and residents were advised to stay at home or in bomb shelters.
Hayim Yellin, head of the Eshkol region where the mortars exploded, said they were the same type as those intercepted on a cargo ship last week loaded with weapons Israel said were sent by Iran to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he will file a complaint at the U.N. after Saturday's unusually large barrage of rockets. In a statement, Lieberman said the Palestinians primary goal is destroying Israel.Hamas acknowledged it launched some of the mortars — an unusual move as the Islamic militant group does not usually take responsibility for such attacks. Hamas fears triggering another Israeli invasion similar to a three-week operation aimed at stopping daily Palestinian shelling two years ago that killed about 1,400 Palestinians.Israeli police said the mortar barrage Saturday was the heaviest since that round of fighting.Israel holds Hamas responsible for all violence originating in Gaza, though Hamas usually blames smaller groups for rocket fire.Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said the shelling was in reaction to recent Israeli airstrikes that killed militants. He warned Israel not to test Hamas' response.Hamas ousted Fatah from Gaza in bloody street battles in 2007. Since then, Hamas controls Gaza and the Western backed secular Fatah rules the West Bank.Repeated efforts to reconcile the two rival governments have failed. Palestinians have held rallies in Gaza and the West Bank in recent days calling for the two sides to resolve their differences.
On Saturday, Hamas used force to break up a small rally, witnesses said and later beat up reporters from major international news outlets.An Associated Press Television News cameraman was nearby when he was cornered by Hamas police and beaten with sticks. He was briefly detained and released unharmed. Other cameramen also were beaten and some had their equipment confiscated by Hamas.Hamas also raided the offices of the Reuters news agency, CNN and Japanese channel NHK in Gaza. A Reuters producer was arrested by Hamas and witnesses later saw him leave hospital with a bandage wrapped around his hand.Reuters Bureau Chief Crispian Balmer said A group of armed men entered our office in Gaza and threatened our employees and confiscated a video camera after we were spotted filming a demonstration from the building. They smashed a TV in the office, they clubbed one of our guys on the arm with a metal club and they threatened to throw another one of our employees out of the window.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri spoke out against the raids in a message sent to reporters. We condemn the attack on Reuters agency in Gaza and we call on the Hamas interior ministry to investigate this incident, we emphasize our respect for the media,he said.The internal Palestinian rift makes their vision of statehood harder to achieve and hinders their ability to reach a peace agreement with Israel. Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed last year over disputes about Israeli construction in the West bank, areas Palestinians want as parts of their future state.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to deliver a major policy speech soon on peacemaking.Israel's channel 2 TV broadcast a rare interview Saturday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recorded last week. Abbas told the Israeli station that he was more determined than ever to reach a solution with Israel. Abbas said Gaza and the West Bank had to reconcile.Hamas have committed terrible crimes but they are still part of the Palestinian people,he said.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
IRAN PROTESTERS AGAINST SAUDI BUILDING
Canada says will join extensive aerial operation
– Sat Mar 19, 10:52 pm ET
PARIS (Reuters) – Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Saturday that extensive aerial operations would soon start in Libya and Canada would be part of that.Harper, speaking to reporters following talks between world powers on a coordinated intervention in Libya, said naval actions were also taking place, including a naval blockade.The parameters of our mission are clear. They are wide ranging and they do not include on-the-ground action, Harper said.It is our belief that if Mr. Gaddafi loses the capacity to enforce his will through vastly superior armed forces, he simply will not be able to sustain his grip on the country.(Reporting by Vicky Buffery; Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Iran protesters stone Saudi consulate : report
– Sat Mar 19, 11:06 am ET
TEHRAN (AFP) – Hundreds of Iranians have stoned the Saudi consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad to protest the killing of Shiites in Bahrain, a local daily reported.Nearly 700 people gathered outside the consulate on Friday in protest at the killing of Muslims in Bahrain by Saudi and Emirati military forces, the Khorasan newspaper said on it website on Saturday.The government of Bahrain, supported by troops and armoured vehicles from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has declared martial law and rounded up dissidents at gunpoint in midnight raids.Four protesters have been killed during the violent crackdown this week.Despite the heavy presence of security forces protecting the consulate, the angry protesters smashed the consulate windows and chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia and its king, Abdullah.Khorasan said police fired tear gas to disperse the angry demonstrators, who still managed to pull down the consulate's sign and hoist the Bahraini flag at the top of its gate.Elsewhere, thousands of Iranians marched in Tehran after Friday prayers in support of the revolts rocking Bahrain, Libya and Yemen.
They chanted Death to America, Death to Israel and The Saudis are committing crimes and the US supports them, according to state television.International pressure is mounting on Bahrain to exercise restraint and ensure the safety of opposition leaders arrested during a violent crackdown on month-old pro-democracy protests.
Iranian officials have severely criticised the violent crackdown , as well as the dispatch of Saudi and Emirati troops there to help confront Shiite-led protests.
Predominantly Shiite Iran has also recalled its ambassador from Bahrain, a tit-for-tat move after Manama slammed Tehran for blatant interference in the Gulf kingdom's internal affairs and recalled its envoy.
Around 50 mortars fired into Israel from Gaza: radio
– Sat Mar 19, 5:58 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Around 50 mortar shells were fired Saturday into Israel from the Gaza Strip, causing minor damage, Israeli army radio reported.Dozens of mortar shells were fired simultaneously, and 49 of them slammed into Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip, the radio report said.Israeli residents were advised to take shelter until further notice.
Saudi role in Bahrain brings regional stakes
By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press – Fri Mar 18, 1:20 pm ET
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The battle for Bahrain is no longer just on its shores.
It's now in Tehran, where the leader of Friday prayers cursed the enemy force that includes Saudi-led military reinforcements for Bahrain's embattled Sunni monarchy. It's in Iraq, with Shiites marching under banners pledging to join the fight in the Gulf kingdom.When Saudi troops and other Gulf forces moved into Bahrain this week, the conflict was suddenly pushed onto a larger stage with larger stakes — and, in the process, becoming perhaps the most complex showdown of the Arab world's season of upheaval.Tiny Bahrain — just a speck off the Saudi coast on world maps — is now an arena for some of the Middle East's most pivotal tensions: the heavyweight rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the regional fallout from Shiite anger, and Washington's efforts to influence its strategic Gulf allies to counter Iran's growing Mideast ambitions.Bahrain is several crises wrapped into one package, said Theodore Karasik, a regional affairs expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.The rebellions in Yemen and Libya also have highly important issues in the balance, including the fate of Moammar Gadhafi's eccentric regime and the U.S.-led fight against an al-Qaida offshoot in Yemen's hinterlands. But Bahrain's unrest resonates even wider.It is both a bitter domestic duel — between Sunni rulers and the majority Shiites — and a crossroads for Gulf's big three: Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States.The fast-moving events of the past week in Bahrain pushed each in different directions.
Saudi Arabia roared into action, leading a 1,500-strong Gulf force to aid Bahrain's reeling Sunni dynasty after more than a month of protests by Shiites seeking to break the royal family's 200-year-old grip on power.It was the Gulf version of a rescue mission: believing that any more advances by protesters could embolden threats to Sunni leaders around the region and allow Shiite power Iran to carve out a foothold on Saudi Arabia's doorstep.Iran strongly denounced the military intervention and pulled back its ambassador to Bahrain. Iran's ally Hezbollah in Lebanon also lobbed insults at Saudi Arabia, and Shiites in Iraq have staged a series of protest marches.U.S. officials, meanwhile, are caught in a policy bind. Washington has opposed the introduction of the Gulf military force in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. But the U.S. also is standing behind Bahrain's leaders, who say they invited the troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Whatever the U.S. says, the bottom line is that Washington still supports the Bahrain regime and cannot go too far in criticizing its key ally Saudi Arabia, said Shadi Hamid, director of research at The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.Bahrain is a bigger issue now than just Bahrain.Nicholas Burns, a former top State Department diplomat with long experience in the region, said the military deployment opened up a clear division between the Saudi royal family and the U.S. government on how to respond most effectively to the demonstrations for greater openness and freedom in the Arab world.This is a risk for the Saudis as their troop deployments could end up toughening the resolve of the protesters in Bahrain, he said.It's unclear how much the Saudi-led forces have been actively engaged in enforcing Bahrain's martial law-style rule, which was imposed by Bahrain's king on Tuesday.
Security forces flew Bahrain's red-and-white flag in the landmark Pearl Square in Manama after overrunning a protest camp. Military vehicles with Saudi markings have not been seen at main checkpoints, where forces wear black ski masks.But Shiite protesters claim to have heard the distinctive Saudi accent among security forces during clashes this week — although Bahrain's police and military include many Sunni Arabs from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere given citizenship to try to offset the Shiite population advantage. Shortly after Saudi forces entered Bahrain, a crowd of Shiite Muslims gathered outside the main state hospital in a ragtag resistance force. They carried what they could find: scraps of wood, pipes, a butter knife.Who will decide your future? cried one protester.Them or us? Now, the presence of the Saudi-led forces makes any incident in Bahrain a potential regional flashpoint that could drag in the U.S. Around the Middle East, Shiites and others are portraying Bahrain as under occupation by one of Washington's main Arab allies.In Tehran, a senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, used his nationally broadcast Friday sermon to urge Bahrain's Shiites to resist against the enemy until you die or win. Outside the prayers, protesters called Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa a killer and drew analogies to Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.One banner read: death to the House of Saud.Bahrain on Thursday lashed out at Iran for lobbying on behalf of the Gulf kingdom's Shiites, who represent about 70 percent of Bahrain's population.In Baghdad, followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marched under banners pledging to join fellow Shiites in Bahrain to fight the Saudi-led forces. Meanwhile, the highest-ranking Shiite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, suspended teachings at Shiite religious schools across Iraq to show solidarity with Bahrain's protesters.
There are real massacres that are taking place in Bahrain, Sheik Maitham al-Jamri, who said he was a Bahraini Shiite cleric, told protesters in Baghdad's Sadr City. But if they cut us to pieces and burn us 70 times, we won't stop our calls for change. If all communication means were blocked in Bahrain, the voices of the people in Iraq and Lebanon calling No, no to injustice! can be heard loudly.About 50 protesters gathered Thursday outside the Saudi Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, shouting Get out of Bahrain before a visit by the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal.Saudi's King Abdullah gave no mention of the military force in Bahrain in a three-minute speech on Saudi television Friday before the announcement of a new bonanza of jobs, cash and housing in attempts to appease reformers calling for challenges of his autocratic regime.What Saudi fears was a kind of contagion, said Toby Jones, an expert on Bahraini affairs at Rutgers University. Bahrain is seen as simply too important not to intervene. They felt that the ruling Sunni fraternity around the Gulf was vulnerable and it was time to act.Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Bushra Juhi in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Thousands in Iran march in support of Arab revolts
– Fri Mar 18, 9:21 am ET
TEHRAN (AFP) – Thousands of Iranians marched on Friday in Tehran in support of the revolts rocking Bahrain, Libya and Yemen, state television reported.Chants backing the protests of majority Shiites in Bahrain, who are challenging the Sunni dynasty's 200-year-old grip on power, dominated the demonstration which unfolded in the capital after Muslim Friday prayers.The Saudis are committing crimes and the US supports them, and Death to America chanted protesters.Death to Israel, cried others.
Slogans in support of the rebellion in Libya and protests in Yemen also rang out.
Tehran on Wednesday withdrew its ambassador from Manama in protest at the mass killing of the people of Bahrain by its government.Iran has also criticised the dispatch of Gulf troops to Bahrain to help confront the pro-democracy protests which have wracked the kingdom's capital Manama almost daily since mid-February.Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, hardline cleric and head of the powerful Guardians Council, condemned the dispatch of Saudi troops to Bahrain after pronouncing Friday prayers.It is painful that when the authorities were about to be beaten, it called for help and asked Saudi Arabia to send in reinforcements. It is against international law.He also called on Libyan rebels to pursue their struggle.You must not accept humiliation. One must fight. Die or succeed, there is no other choice, he said adding that Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi was shell-shocked.With one look at his face you can see he is shell-shocked. Today, the Libyans woke up. The no-fly zone (adopted by the UN Security Council) will help a little... We hope the Libyans will win,he said as the crowd chanted death to Kadhafi.
Gaza protesters leave UN compound
– Thu Mar 17, 6:47 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Sixteen protesters who took refuge in a UN compound in Gaza on Thursday to flee from Hamas police left the premises and called off a planned hunger strike, a UN official said.They all left. The authorities in Gaza gave assurances that they will be safe, said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).Two hours earlier, one of the demonstrators said the groups planned to stage an indefinite hunger strike to demand an end to Palestinian divisions and reconciliation between rival factions.Earlier, the protesters demonstrated outside the compound for Palestinian national unity before the gathering was violently broken up by security forces of the Islamist Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, witnesses said.They chased away dozens of demonstrators and seized the memory cards from photographers and cameramen at the scene, they said.It was not immediately clear if anyone was arrested or injured.After the 16 people took refuge inside the compound, UNRWA called on Gaza's Hamas rulers to ensure their safety.
UNRWA has appealed to the relevant authorities in Gaza to allow these 16 people safe passage from the UNRWA compound and to guarantee their safety,Gunness said in a statement.On Tuesday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the Palestinian territories to demand Hamas and the rival Fatah party which dominates the Palestinian Authority end their bitter enmity.But despite leaders of the Hamas and the West Bank-based Fatah agreeing to meet to talk, the Islamist movement which who controls Gaza has since used force to disperse several follow-up demonstrations.
UK urges Israel to return to peace talks
– Thu Mar 17, 6:33 pm ET
LONDON – Britain's foreign secretary has urged Israel's defense minister to return to peace talks with Palestinians and voiced concern about settlement construction.
William Hague says he told Defense Minister Ehud Barak — who is visiting London — that Britain is seriously concerned about Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. He said the settlements run contrary to peace.The two leaders met for talks Thursday. Hague said in a statement that they also discussed developments in Libya and Egypt, as well as the recent seizure of an arms shipment, allegedly bound from Iran to Gaza.Hague said that if the shipment did originate in Iran it would offer further evidence of its intent to disrupt regional stability.
Feds eye anti-Semitism claims at Calif. university
– Wed Mar 16, 10:23 pm ET
SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a faculty member's complaint that a series of pro-Palestinian events at a California university crossed the line into anti-Semitism and created a hostile environment for Jewish students.
The department's Office for Civil Rights notified the University of California, Santa Cruz, last week that it planned to look into allegations made by Hebrew lecturer Tammi Rossman-Benjamin dating back to 2001.The probe in no way implies that OCR has made a determination with regard to their merits, Arthur Zeidman, director of the San Francisco office, said in a letter to the instructor and campus officials.
In her June 2009 complaint, Rossman-Benjamin said administrators repeatedly failed to address concerns voiced by her and several students about academic departments and residential colleges at Santa Cruz sponsoring viciously anti-Israel speakers and film screenings with campus funds.She also alleged that some professors have used their classes to promote an anti-Israel political agenda and failed to intervene or joined in when students were verbally attacked for defending the Jewish state.The impact of the academic and university-sponsored Israel-bashing on students has been enormous, she said.There are students who have felt emotionally and intellectually harassed and intimidated, to the point they are reluctant or afraid to express a view that is not anti-Israel.Campus counsel Carole Rossi said the university will cooperate with the federal investigation.We not only look forward to fully participating in OCR's review of the matter, we are confident that the agency will determine that the allegations are unfounded, Rossi said in a written statement. Our campus is absolutely committed to the enforcement of policies that protect every individual from unlawful discrimination and harassment — and that value and support an atmosphere of personal and intellectual freedom.Kenneth Marcus, who used to direct the education department's civil rights office and now heads the anti-Semitism initiative at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco, said the department typically launches more than 1,000 investigations a year, most of them involving individual students with learning disabilities.
Investigations based on anti-Semitism bias are rare, Marcus said, in part because the Department of Education did not have regulations until 2004 allowing it to handle such cases as violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.The regulations were suspended in the last years of the Bush administration, but revived and clarified in October, he said.Investigations are very common, but this is anything but the usual case, he said about the probe in Santa Cruz.What they are investigating is the atmosphere throughout the university and raises very subtle questions about the definition of discrimination, the meaning of anti-Semitism and where the lines are between harassment and the First Amendment.UC Santa Cruz, a liberal, 16,000-student school known for idyllic setting amid coastal redwoods, counter-culture vibe and Grateful Dead memorabilia collection, is not the first public university in California where heated discussions about the Middle East have devolved into polarizing debates about academic freedom and alleged anti-Semitism.A former University of California, Berkeley, student who was co-president of the Zionist student group Tikvah sued the university in federal court earlier this month over her alleged March 2010 assault by the campus leader of Students for Justice in Palestine.The student, Jessica Felber, claims she was injured when the other student leader rammed a shopping cart into her as she was holding a placard reading, Israel Wants Peace.She claimed the confrontation was the latest episode of harassment, intimidation, incitement and violence directed at vocal supporters of Israel and to which university officials had turned a blind eye.The university has denied the allegations.
Meanwhile, tensions between Jewish and Muslim students have run high at the university system's Irvine campus for several years, and the campus chapter of Muslim Student Union was suspended for four months last year after a group of students interrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador to the United States.In 2005, the Zionist Organization of America complained to the Department of Education about Jewish students at Irvine being subjected to slurs and discrimination at events similar to those at Santa Cruz. The civil rights office concluded after a two-year investigation that although offensive to the Jewish students, the speeches, articles, marches, symbols and other events at issue were not based on the national origin of the Jewish students, but rather based on opposition to the policies of Israel.Last year, the Zionist Organization of America encouraged potential Jewish students and donors to take their money elsewhere.
Israel displays weapons haul from seized ship
– Wed Mar 16, 1:50 pm ET
ASHDOD, Israel (AFP) – Israel on Wednesday displayed a haul of weapons it discovered on a seized ship, alleging they were being smuggled from Iran to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.Soldiers laid out crate after crate of arms and ammunition on the dock of the Ashdod port, including advanced anti-ship missiles that Israel warned could change the balance of forces in the region.The Liberian-flagged Victoria was intercepted early on Tuesday by Israeli naval commandos some 200 nautical miles west of Israel's coastline.Escorted by warships, it arrived at Ashdod, just north of the Gaza Strip, early Wednesday, where troops began inspecting and unloading the shipping containers.The army said there were about 50 tonnes of weapons that had been hidden in containers holding lentils and cotton.Among the weapons discovered were tens of thousands of rounds of small-arms ammunition, 230 120-millimetre mortar bombs, more than 2,000 60-millimetre mortar bombs and six of the Chinese-made C704 anti-ship missiles.
The shipment also included two missile launchers and an advanced radar system to track targets and guide the missiles.Israel said the missiles represented an alarming escalation in attempts to arm militant groups in Gaza.The weaponry would have bolstered terrorist infrastructure at sea and on shore and directly threatened the Israeli navy and civilian vessels at the port of Ashdod, the army said in a statement.On Tuesday, the deputy commander of the Israeli navy, Rear Admiral Rani Ben-Yehuda, said the missiles had a range of 35 kilometres (22 miles).Anything within its range, of course, will find itself in danger, he said.During Israel's 2006 war with Lebanon's Hezbollah, guerrillas hit an Israeli warship off Beirut with an Iranian-made missile based on Chinese technology, killing four crewmen.Israel accused arch-foe Iran of trying to send the weapons to Gaza.These deadly weapons come from Iran. They were sent via Syria and were making their way to terror groups in Gaza,said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he inspected the weapons at the port.
This is the axis of terror we have to deal with and in the end we will break it, he said.However, Iran denied any connection to the incident.The Zionist regime is a regime blended with lies, producing lies and disseminating lies. We reject all such false news, the official IRNA news agency quoted Iranian army chief Ataollah Salehi as saying.Israel has frequently accused Iran and Syria of smuggling weapons to Gaza's Hamas rulers as well as to the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. In November 2009, Israel said its navy had intercepted a ship carrying hundreds of tonnes of arms from Iran to Hezbollah in a raid dozens of miles off the Israeli coast.The shipment was among the largest ever seized by Israel, dwarfing the 50 tonnes of weapons found aboard the Karine A seized in 2002 on its way to Gaza, which dealt a major blow to relations between the Palestinians and Washington.In May 2001, the Israeli navy intercepted another boat, the Santorini, which was carrying 40 tonnes of rockets, anti-tank weaponry, mortars and automatic weapons for armed groups in Gaza.Israel maintains a strict naval blockade on Gaza to prevent the smuggling of weapons into the territory.Last year, the navy prevented a number of aid ships from reaching the coastal enclave.In one incident, they stormed a six-ship flotilla in an operation that went disastrously wrong, with the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists from Turkey.
Abbas pledges to talk unity with Hamas in Gaza
by Nasser Abu Bakr – Wed Mar 16, 1:38 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Wednesday he was ready to go to Gaza this week for talks with Hamas about ending the split and forming a interim government.Abbas, leader of the secular Fatah movement, said he was ready to go to Gaza tomorrow for talks with the enclave's Islamist rulers about ending the bitter split that has poisoned relations within the Palestinian national movement.I am ready to go to Gaza tomorrow to end the division and form a government of independent national figures to start preparing for presidential, legislative and (Palestinian) National Council elections within six months, he said in a speech to members of the PLO Central Council.Pressed to clarify Abbas's comments, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the aim was to meet Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya with a view to forming an interim government of neutral, national figures in what was understood to mean independent politicians not directly affiliated with Hamas or Fatah.This interim government's main task will be preparing for presidential and legislative elections, and elections to the Palestinian National Council within six months, he told AFP.The president said he is ready to delay the formation of a new Palestinian government to allow for the success of this initiative, Abu Rudeina said.
At the start of a two-day meeting of the PLO Central Council, a legislative body in which Fatah holds the majority, Abbas urged Haniya to make arrangements for the visit, which he said would happen in the next few days so the two could turn the page on this black and shameful division.United Nations special envoy to the region Robert Serry welcomed the move, saying he hoped Abbas would make the visit to Gaza soon.I think it is very important that the leaders respond to the clear wish of the people to reunite. Unity is overdue and vital for Palestinian legitimate aspirations, he said in a statement.The Palestinian leader's remarks came a day after Haniya invited him to Gaza for immediate talks to end the division, and were welcomed by the Islamists.Hamas welcomes Abbas's acceptance of the Haniya initiative, Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP. We will start preparing for the visit.The exchange between the two leaders came a day after tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza and the West Bank to demand that the two factions end their long-running rivalry.Amid the protest, Haniya held an emergency cabinet meeting after which he made a televised appeal to Abbas.I invite the president, brother Abu Mazen (Abbas), and Fatah to an immediate meeting here in Gaza or in any location which we agree upon, to start national dialogue in order to achieve reconciliation,he said.
Abbas, who like Haniya expressed support for the protesters' call for unity, urged that Hamas not waste this historical opportunity to end the division, and to stand united against threats that severely damage our cause.On Tuesday, the Palestinian leader had reiterated his call for national elections as a way to end the split.I am with the people and in favour of going back to the people to put an end to the divisions through presidential and parliamentary elections, he said.Hamas had previously rejected such appeals, saying it would not participate without first securing some form of reconciliation with the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank. Prime minister Salam Fayyad is trying to form a new government ahead of a fresh round of presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections which officials want to hold by September at the latest.In Wednesday's speech, Abbas reiterated his position that he would not stand for president in the elections.I said it repeatedly and I say it again -- I will not nominate myself to run, he said.Hamas and Fatah have been at loggerheads since the early 1990s. Tensions boiled over in 2007, when the enmity erupted into bloodshed that saw the Islamists kick their secular rivals out of Gaza.Since then, the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has been effectively cut off from the West Bank, which is under the control of Fatah.Repeated attempts at reconciliation between the groups have led nowhere, and the collapse of the Egyptian regime of Hosni Mubarak, which played a key role in reconciliation efforts, has created new uncertainty.
Uruguay recognizes Palestine statehood
– Wed Mar 16, 12:06 am ET
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – Uruguay has joined a string of South American nations in recognizing an independent Palestinian state.A Foreign Ministry statement says Uruguay has communicated its decision to the Palestinian Authority.However the statement does not explicitly say whether the country recognizes Palestine's borders predating the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza.Foreign Ministry officials declined Tuesday to clarify the matter.More than a half-dozen countries in South America have recognized Palestine recently, though in different ways.Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay recognized the pre-1967 borders.Chile and Peru said the issue must be worked out between Israelis and Palestinians.
EU recognition of Palestinian state a 'possibility': France
– Tue Mar 15, 5:56 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – European Union recognition of a Palestinian state is a possibility that should be kept in mind, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Tuesday amid growing disquiet over stalled peace talks.There's no point recognising the Palestinian state on our own. It must be done together, Juppe told the parliamentary foreign affairs committee of an eventual recognition by EU countries.Personally we're not there yet, I think that it's a possibility that should be kept in mind, he said.The Israeli foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on Juppe's remarks.
Faced with a lack of progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a number of countries have upgraded the status of Palestinian delegations, most recently Denmark on March 9.Britain previously made the same move, following in the footsteps of fellow European Union members France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.Norway, which is not a member of the EU, had in December also upgraded the Palestinian delegation to mission and handed its chief the title of head of mission and the rank of ambassador.
Many Latin American countries have also recently recognised the Palestinian state.
Israel has come under increasing pressure in recent months over stalled direct peace talks, which grounded to a halt shortly after being relaunched by Washington in September 2010 over the issue of settlement construction in the Palestinian territories.The stalemate and Israel's continued settlement construction have angered many in the international community, resulting in near universal support for a UN Security Council's anti-settlement resolution that was vetoed by the US.
Representatives from the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia are set to meet in Paris at the end of March in an attempt to relaunch the peace process.
Israeli navy intercepts Egypt-bound ship with arms
By ARON HELLER, Associated Press – Tue Mar 15, 3:20 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel said Tuesday it seized a cargo ship loaded with weapons sent by Iran to Palestinian militants in Gaza, including sophisticated land-to-sea missiles that officials said could change the balance of power in the area.The takeover in the Mediterranean Sea was the latest in a series of Israeli naval raids meant to counter the growing influence of Iran, which Israel accuses of supplying rockets and other arms to Israel's bitterest enemies.The navy's deputy commander, Brig. Gen. Rani Ben-Yehudah, said investigators had found between two and four Chinese-made C-704 missiles, which land-based forces can use to attack ships.Ben-Yehudah said Iran is known to possess these weapons, the shipment included instruction manuals in Farsi and there were other clues that explicitly showed Iranian involvement.The military released a photo of a booklet with the words technical missile identification document written in Farsi on the cover. It identified the system as a C-704 Nasr missile, provided a serial number and date of issue in the Persian calendar.Such weaponry could impede Israel's ability to enforce its naval blockade of Gaza, which it imposed after Hamas took power in 2007. The captured ship, the Victoria, was being towed into Israel, and further details on its contents were expected to be released after it reached port late Tuesday.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the arms included the beginnings of an advanced system the Gaza militants currently do not possess and could affect Israel's ability to act along Gaza's coast.We will take out the gear and show it to the world, a world that is quick to blame Israel when it fights to protect its citizens. It is important that the world see what we are up against, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Israel has long contended that Iran and Syria provide arms and other support to Hamas militants in Gaza and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.Hamas has been racing to rearm since suffering heavy losses in an Israeli military offensive two years ago. Israeli military officials say Hamas has recovered, in part because of direct assistance from Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. Israel says Hamas now possesses rockets that can strike much of Israel, as well as advanced anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.Israel imposed the naval blockade after Hamas, a group that has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks, violently seized power of Gaza four years ago. It says the measure is needed to prevent the militant group from importing arms.To get around the blockade, Israel says Hamas routinely has arms shipments delivered to Egypt, and then smuggled across the largely lawless Sinai peninsula into neighboring Gaza through a vast network of tunnels under the 9-mile (15-kilometer) border.
Netanyahu said he ordered the naval takeover overnight after receiving intelligence about the shipment. The only certain thing is the source of the weaponry was Iran, and there was a Syrian relay station as well, he said.The military said the Victoria initially departed from the Syrian port of Latakia before proceeding to Mercin in Turkey. It was headed for the port of Alexandria in Egypt when it was intercepted, some 200 miles (320 kilometers) off Israel's Mediterranean coast.Images the military released showed mortars and other arms among stacks of munition boxes. It also released video footage showing an Israeli commander informing the Victoria's captain that the ship was suspected of carrying arms. The captain immediately gave the go-ahead for troops to board for inspection. Additional video showed the commandos ascending a ladder to the deck.Israel said there were no signs that Turkey or Egypt were involved in the arms shipment.Turkey confirmed it was not involved and said many ships stop in its ports for refueling, loading or unloading materials. There was no immediate reaction from Hamas, Syria or Iran.The Victoria is German-owned, operated by a French shipping company and was sailing under a Liberian flag, the Israeli military said. German, French and Liberian authorities were notified of the seizure. Although the ship was intercepted outside of Israel's territorial waters, maritime law entitles Israel to search any merchant vessel it has reason to believe is carrying contraband to support Hamas, said Benjamin David, a former high-ranking officer in the military's legal department. The operation was reminiscent of the November 2009 Israeli takeover of the Iranian Francop vessel off the coast of Cyprus. Israel captured hundreds of tons of rockets, missiles, mortars, grenades and anti-tank weapons on board which it said were headed to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.In 2001 and 2002, Israel seized ships carrying tons of weapons it said were intended for Palestinian militants.Israel's announcement that Turkey was not involved in the arms shipment appeared to be an effort to defuse any potential tensions with its former Mideast ally.Last May, Israeli commandoes raided a Turkish ship trying to break a naval blockade of Gaza and killed nine pro-Palestinian activists on board. Each side claims it acted in self-defense.
Settlers protest as army hunts killers near Nablus
– Tue Mar 15, 1:44 am ET
NABLUS, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Israeli settlers stoned Palestinian homes in a West Bank village where troops hunted those behind a grisly attack on a settler family, Palestinian officials said.Palestinian security officials said hundreds of settlers, some masked, had rallied on the eastern edge of Awarta village, near Nablus, with some hurling stones at houses there.One Palestinian was injured when a number of settlers broke into his property and beat him, witnesses inside the village told AFP.It was not clear whether Israeli soldiers operating inside the village had intervened.An army spokesman said the settlers had a permit to demonstrate and he was unaware of any violent incident there. By late evening the village was quiet, the Israeli military and Palestinians told AFP.The village was under curfew for the third consecutive day on Monday as troops scoured buildings in a search for the killers of five members of the Israeli settler family, including a baby.They were stabbed as they slept on Friday at the nearby Itamar settlement.
The perpetrators broke into the family home and in a frenzied attack killed five members of the Fogel family -- three-month-old Hadas, four-year-old Elad, Yoav, 11, and their parents Udi and Ruthie.The culprits are widely believed to be Palestinian, although details of the manhunt have been placed under a court gag order.The direction that's being examined, in general, is a terrorist attack, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.Amnesty International on Monday repeated its condemnation of the murders while calling on Israel to prevent settler reprisals against Palestinians.Since Saturday morning, Israeli settlers have reportedly used stones, Molotov cocktails, guns, clubs and knives to attack Palestinians in vehicles and in their homes in villages and towns across the West Bank, Amnesty said.Settlers have also burned fields, cars and property. The Israeli security forces must act to prevent reprisals against Palestinian civilians by armed Israeli settlers and bring those responsible to justice, it added.Elsewhere in the West Bank on Monday around 200 settlers from Kedumim which lies five kilometres (three miles) west of Nablus demonstrated on the main road leading north, hurling stones at passing Palestinian cars.To the east of Nablus, witnesses reported seeing settlers throwing stones from their parked cars at passing traffic.Settlers reported stones thrown by Palestinians at Israeli traffic near Nablus and close to Shiloh settlement, near Ramallah. No casualties were reported in any of the incidents.Overnight, settlers torched two Palestinian cars just north of El-Bireh, also near Ramallah, residents said. They said the two vehicles, which were set alight before dawn near Beit El settlement, were totally gutted.Both the army and the police are on alert, fearing a wave of revenge attacks in response to the killings, pictures of which were widely circulated by the settler leadership.
This act was abominable, inhuman and immoral, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told Israeli public radio on Monday. He said Palestinian security forces had joined with Israel to hunt the killer or killers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Abbas's remarks, but said that such strong condemnations also need to be made in the Arab press.Britain meanwhile joined international condemnation of Israel's announcement it had approved 400 more settler homes on the West Bank, a decision taken 24 hours after Itamar murders.We have consistently made clear, including at the UN with France and Germany, that settlements are illegal, an obstacle to peace and a threat to a two-state solution, said a Foreign Office spokesman.British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Saturday condemned the Itamar killings as an act of incomprehensible cruelty and brutality.
Israeli settlers want more building after murders
By ARON HELLER, Associated Press – Mon Mar 14, 1:51 pm ET
ITAMAR, West Bank – Shocked members of this hard-line Jewish settlement, reeling from a devastating knife attack that killed five members of a family in their sleep, on Monday said the bloodshed only strengthens their resolve to stay put and urged the government to respond with a new wave of West Bank construction.Friday night's attack has drawn new attention to Itamar, an isolated settlement deep inside the West Bank that has poor relations with its Arab neighbors. A young couple and three of their children, including a 4-year-old boy and his 3-month-old sister, were killed in the grisly attack.As Israeli forces continued their search for the killers in neighboring Palestinian villages, Itamar residents said they would stand firm. Settlers often refer to themselves as the first line of defense against Arab aggression and say Arab terrorism is trying to drive Jews out of land promised to them in the Bible.This is our land and it will always be the Jewish homeland, said Moshe Goldschmidt, the New York-born head of the town council. The future of Israel lies with its biblical assets. Itamar is the backbone ... No one will break our spirit.A sign at the entrance to the settlement, referring to past attacks, reads:26 years, 22 dead — the youth of Itamar will not break.The issue of Jewish settlements is at the heart of the current impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. The Palestinians say there is no point in talking peace while Israel builds new homes in Jewish communities on land the Palestinians claim for a future state.
In response to the attack, Israel defiantly announced new plans to build up to 500 new homes in settlements located in major blocs next to Israel. Israel expects to keep these blocs, home to the vast majority of Israel's 300,000 West Bank settlers, under any future peace deal.In contrast, Itamar, an Orthodox Jewish community of some 1,000 residents south of the Palestinian city of Nablus, is not included in most Israeli plans. Itamar's residents are commonly seen by other Israelis as fanatically religious, sometimes violent and dismissive of the state's laws, professing to follow only the law of God.Residents and settler leaders criticized the government's latest building plan as grossly insufficient. It is insult to us and an insult to the dead, said David Haivri, a settler leader.Itamar residents accuse the government of imposing an unofficial slowdown on construction to ease international criticism. They also bristle at occasional government attempts to remove some of the dozens of unauthorized hilltop settlement points.A banner on a fence in front of Itamar one home declared: The state destroys towns, the Arabs kill Jews. Many said they feel abandoned.Construction is the answer, said Nili Afarsimon, a 20-year-old mother of an infant. If we expand and build, it will tell the Arabs that this is our land, and they will know their place.
– Sat Mar 19, 10:52 pm ET
PARIS (Reuters) – Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Saturday that extensive aerial operations would soon start in Libya and Canada would be part of that.Harper, speaking to reporters following talks between world powers on a coordinated intervention in Libya, said naval actions were also taking place, including a naval blockade.The parameters of our mission are clear. They are wide ranging and they do not include on-the-ground action, Harper said.It is our belief that if Mr. Gaddafi loses the capacity to enforce his will through vastly superior armed forces, he simply will not be able to sustain his grip on the country.(Reporting by Vicky Buffery; Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Iran protesters stone Saudi consulate : report
– Sat Mar 19, 11:06 am ET
TEHRAN (AFP) – Hundreds of Iranians have stoned the Saudi consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad to protest the killing of Shiites in Bahrain, a local daily reported.Nearly 700 people gathered outside the consulate on Friday in protest at the killing of Muslims in Bahrain by Saudi and Emirati military forces, the Khorasan newspaper said on it website on Saturday.The government of Bahrain, supported by troops and armoured vehicles from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has declared martial law and rounded up dissidents at gunpoint in midnight raids.Four protesters have been killed during the violent crackdown this week.Despite the heavy presence of security forces protecting the consulate, the angry protesters smashed the consulate windows and chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia and its king, Abdullah.Khorasan said police fired tear gas to disperse the angry demonstrators, who still managed to pull down the consulate's sign and hoist the Bahraini flag at the top of its gate.Elsewhere, thousands of Iranians marched in Tehran after Friday prayers in support of the revolts rocking Bahrain, Libya and Yemen.
They chanted Death to America, Death to Israel and The Saudis are committing crimes and the US supports them, according to state television.International pressure is mounting on Bahrain to exercise restraint and ensure the safety of opposition leaders arrested during a violent crackdown on month-old pro-democracy protests.
Iranian officials have severely criticised the violent crackdown , as well as the dispatch of Saudi and Emirati troops there to help confront Shiite-led protests.
Predominantly Shiite Iran has also recalled its ambassador from Bahrain, a tit-for-tat move after Manama slammed Tehran for blatant interference in the Gulf kingdom's internal affairs and recalled its envoy.
Around 50 mortars fired into Israel from Gaza: radio
– Sat Mar 19, 5:58 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Around 50 mortar shells were fired Saturday into Israel from the Gaza Strip, causing minor damage, Israeli army radio reported.Dozens of mortar shells were fired simultaneously, and 49 of them slammed into Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip, the radio report said.Israeli residents were advised to take shelter until further notice.
Saudi role in Bahrain brings regional stakes
By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press – Fri Mar 18, 1:20 pm ET
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The battle for Bahrain is no longer just on its shores.
It's now in Tehran, where the leader of Friday prayers cursed the enemy force that includes Saudi-led military reinforcements for Bahrain's embattled Sunni monarchy. It's in Iraq, with Shiites marching under banners pledging to join the fight in the Gulf kingdom.When Saudi troops and other Gulf forces moved into Bahrain this week, the conflict was suddenly pushed onto a larger stage with larger stakes — and, in the process, becoming perhaps the most complex showdown of the Arab world's season of upheaval.Tiny Bahrain — just a speck off the Saudi coast on world maps — is now an arena for some of the Middle East's most pivotal tensions: the heavyweight rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the regional fallout from Shiite anger, and Washington's efforts to influence its strategic Gulf allies to counter Iran's growing Mideast ambitions.Bahrain is several crises wrapped into one package, said Theodore Karasik, a regional affairs expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.The rebellions in Yemen and Libya also have highly important issues in the balance, including the fate of Moammar Gadhafi's eccentric regime and the U.S.-led fight against an al-Qaida offshoot in Yemen's hinterlands. But Bahrain's unrest resonates even wider.It is both a bitter domestic duel — between Sunni rulers and the majority Shiites — and a crossroads for Gulf's big three: Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States.The fast-moving events of the past week in Bahrain pushed each in different directions.
Saudi Arabia roared into action, leading a 1,500-strong Gulf force to aid Bahrain's reeling Sunni dynasty after more than a month of protests by Shiites seeking to break the royal family's 200-year-old grip on power.It was the Gulf version of a rescue mission: believing that any more advances by protesters could embolden threats to Sunni leaders around the region and allow Shiite power Iran to carve out a foothold on Saudi Arabia's doorstep.Iran strongly denounced the military intervention and pulled back its ambassador to Bahrain. Iran's ally Hezbollah in Lebanon also lobbed insults at Saudi Arabia, and Shiites in Iraq have staged a series of protest marches.U.S. officials, meanwhile, are caught in a policy bind. Washington has opposed the introduction of the Gulf military force in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. But the U.S. also is standing behind Bahrain's leaders, who say they invited the troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Whatever the U.S. says, the bottom line is that Washington still supports the Bahrain regime and cannot go too far in criticizing its key ally Saudi Arabia, said Shadi Hamid, director of research at The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.Bahrain is a bigger issue now than just Bahrain.Nicholas Burns, a former top State Department diplomat with long experience in the region, said the military deployment opened up a clear division between the Saudi royal family and the U.S. government on how to respond most effectively to the demonstrations for greater openness and freedom in the Arab world.This is a risk for the Saudis as their troop deployments could end up toughening the resolve of the protesters in Bahrain, he said.It's unclear how much the Saudi-led forces have been actively engaged in enforcing Bahrain's martial law-style rule, which was imposed by Bahrain's king on Tuesday.
Security forces flew Bahrain's red-and-white flag in the landmark Pearl Square in Manama after overrunning a protest camp. Military vehicles with Saudi markings have not been seen at main checkpoints, where forces wear black ski masks.But Shiite protesters claim to have heard the distinctive Saudi accent among security forces during clashes this week — although Bahrain's police and military include many Sunni Arabs from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere given citizenship to try to offset the Shiite population advantage. Shortly after Saudi forces entered Bahrain, a crowd of Shiite Muslims gathered outside the main state hospital in a ragtag resistance force. They carried what they could find: scraps of wood, pipes, a butter knife.Who will decide your future? cried one protester.Them or us? Now, the presence of the Saudi-led forces makes any incident in Bahrain a potential regional flashpoint that could drag in the U.S. Around the Middle East, Shiites and others are portraying Bahrain as under occupation by one of Washington's main Arab allies.In Tehran, a senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, used his nationally broadcast Friday sermon to urge Bahrain's Shiites to resist against the enemy until you die or win. Outside the prayers, protesters called Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa a killer and drew analogies to Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.One banner read: death to the House of Saud.Bahrain on Thursday lashed out at Iran for lobbying on behalf of the Gulf kingdom's Shiites, who represent about 70 percent of Bahrain's population.In Baghdad, followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marched under banners pledging to join fellow Shiites in Bahrain to fight the Saudi-led forces. Meanwhile, the highest-ranking Shiite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, suspended teachings at Shiite religious schools across Iraq to show solidarity with Bahrain's protesters.
There are real massacres that are taking place in Bahrain, Sheik Maitham al-Jamri, who said he was a Bahraini Shiite cleric, told protesters in Baghdad's Sadr City. But if they cut us to pieces and burn us 70 times, we won't stop our calls for change. If all communication means were blocked in Bahrain, the voices of the people in Iraq and Lebanon calling No, no to injustice! can be heard loudly.About 50 protesters gathered Thursday outside the Saudi Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, shouting Get out of Bahrain before a visit by the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal.Saudi's King Abdullah gave no mention of the military force in Bahrain in a three-minute speech on Saudi television Friday before the announcement of a new bonanza of jobs, cash and housing in attempts to appease reformers calling for challenges of his autocratic regime.What Saudi fears was a kind of contagion, said Toby Jones, an expert on Bahraini affairs at Rutgers University. Bahrain is seen as simply too important not to intervene. They felt that the ruling Sunni fraternity around the Gulf was vulnerable and it was time to act.Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Bushra Juhi in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Thousands in Iran march in support of Arab revolts
– Fri Mar 18, 9:21 am ET
TEHRAN (AFP) – Thousands of Iranians marched on Friday in Tehran in support of the revolts rocking Bahrain, Libya and Yemen, state television reported.Chants backing the protests of majority Shiites in Bahrain, who are challenging the Sunni dynasty's 200-year-old grip on power, dominated the demonstration which unfolded in the capital after Muslim Friday prayers.The Saudis are committing crimes and the US supports them, and Death to America chanted protesters.Death to Israel, cried others.
Slogans in support of the rebellion in Libya and protests in Yemen also rang out.
Tehran on Wednesday withdrew its ambassador from Manama in protest at the mass killing of the people of Bahrain by its government.Iran has also criticised the dispatch of Gulf troops to Bahrain to help confront the pro-democracy protests which have wracked the kingdom's capital Manama almost daily since mid-February.Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, hardline cleric and head of the powerful Guardians Council, condemned the dispatch of Saudi troops to Bahrain after pronouncing Friday prayers.It is painful that when the authorities were about to be beaten, it called for help and asked Saudi Arabia to send in reinforcements. It is against international law.He also called on Libyan rebels to pursue their struggle.You must not accept humiliation. One must fight. Die or succeed, there is no other choice, he said adding that Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi was shell-shocked.With one look at his face you can see he is shell-shocked. Today, the Libyans woke up. The no-fly zone (adopted by the UN Security Council) will help a little... We hope the Libyans will win,he said as the crowd chanted death to Kadhafi.
Gaza protesters leave UN compound
– Thu Mar 17, 6:47 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Sixteen protesters who took refuge in a UN compound in Gaza on Thursday to flee from Hamas police left the premises and called off a planned hunger strike, a UN official said.They all left. The authorities in Gaza gave assurances that they will be safe, said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).Two hours earlier, one of the demonstrators said the groups planned to stage an indefinite hunger strike to demand an end to Palestinian divisions and reconciliation between rival factions.Earlier, the protesters demonstrated outside the compound for Palestinian national unity before the gathering was violently broken up by security forces of the Islamist Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, witnesses said.They chased away dozens of demonstrators and seized the memory cards from photographers and cameramen at the scene, they said.It was not immediately clear if anyone was arrested or injured.After the 16 people took refuge inside the compound, UNRWA called on Gaza's Hamas rulers to ensure their safety.
UNRWA has appealed to the relevant authorities in Gaza to allow these 16 people safe passage from the UNRWA compound and to guarantee their safety,Gunness said in a statement.On Tuesday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the Palestinian territories to demand Hamas and the rival Fatah party which dominates the Palestinian Authority end their bitter enmity.But despite leaders of the Hamas and the West Bank-based Fatah agreeing to meet to talk, the Islamist movement which who controls Gaza has since used force to disperse several follow-up demonstrations.
UK urges Israel to return to peace talks
– Thu Mar 17, 6:33 pm ET
LONDON – Britain's foreign secretary has urged Israel's defense minister to return to peace talks with Palestinians and voiced concern about settlement construction.
William Hague says he told Defense Minister Ehud Barak — who is visiting London — that Britain is seriously concerned about Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. He said the settlements run contrary to peace.The two leaders met for talks Thursday. Hague said in a statement that they also discussed developments in Libya and Egypt, as well as the recent seizure of an arms shipment, allegedly bound from Iran to Gaza.Hague said that if the shipment did originate in Iran it would offer further evidence of its intent to disrupt regional stability.
Feds eye anti-Semitism claims at Calif. university
– Wed Mar 16, 10:23 pm ET
SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a faculty member's complaint that a series of pro-Palestinian events at a California university crossed the line into anti-Semitism and created a hostile environment for Jewish students.
The department's Office for Civil Rights notified the University of California, Santa Cruz, last week that it planned to look into allegations made by Hebrew lecturer Tammi Rossman-Benjamin dating back to 2001.The probe in no way implies that OCR has made a determination with regard to their merits, Arthur Zeidman, director of the San Francisco office, said in a letter to the instructor and campus officials.
In her June 2009 complaint, Rossman-Benjamin said administrators repeatedly failed to address concerns voiced by her and several students about academic departments and residential colleges at Santa Cruz sponsoring viciously anti-Israel speakers and film screenings with campus funds.She also alleged that some professors have used their classes to promote an anti-Israel political agenda and failed to intervene or joined in when students were verbally attacked for defending the Jewish state.The impact of the academic and university-sponsored Israel-bashing on students has been enormous, she said.There are students who have felt emotionally and intellectually harassed and intimidated, to the point they are reluctant or afraid to express a view that is not anti-Israel.Campus counsel Carole Rossi said the university will cooperate with the federal investigation.We not only look forward to fully participating in OCR's review of the matter, we are confident that the agency will determine that the allegations are unfounded, Rossi said in a written statement. Our campus is absolutely committed to the enforcement of policies that protect every individual from unlawful discrimination and harassment — and that value and support an atmosphere of personal and intellectual freedom.Kenneth Marcus, who used to direct the education department's civil rights office and now heads the anti-Semitism initiative at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco, said the department typically launches more than 1,000 investigations a year, most of them involving individual students with learning disabilities.
Investigations based on anti-Semitism bias are rare, Marcus said, in part because the Department of Education did not have regulations until 2004 allowing it to handle such cases as violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.The regulations were suspended in the last years of the Bush administration, but revived and clarified in October, he said.Investigations are very common, but this is anything but the usual case, he said about the probe in Santa Cruz.What they are investigating is the atmosphere throughout the university and raises very subtle questions about the definition of discrimination, the meaning of anti-Semitism and where the lines are between harassment and the First Amendment.UC Santa Cruz, a liberal, 16,000-student school known for idyllic setting amid coastal redwoods, counter-culture vibe and Grateful Dead memorabilia collection, is not the first public university in California where heated discussions about the Middle East have devolved into polarizing debates about academic freedom and alleged anti-Semitism.A former University of California, Berkeley, student who was co-president of the Zionist student group Tikvah sued the university in federal court earlier this month over her alleged March 2010 assault by the campus leader of Students for Justice in Palestine.The student, Jessica Felber, claims she was injured when the other student leader rammed a shopping cart into her as she was holding a placard reading, Israel Wants Peace.She claimed the confrontation was the latest episode of harassment, intimidation, incitement and violence directed at vocal supporters of Israel and to which university officials had turned a blind eye.The university has denied the allegations.
Meanwhile, tensions between Jewish and Muslim students have run high at the university system's Irvine campus for several years, and the campus chapter of Muslim Student Union was suspended for four months last year after a group of students interrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador to the United States.In 2005, the Zionist Organization of America complained to the Department of Education about Jewish students at Irvine being subjected to slurs and discrimination at events similar to those at Santa Cruz. The civil rights office concluded after a two-year investigation that although offensive to the Jewish students, the speeches, articles, marches, symbols and other events at issue were not based on the national origin of the Jewish students, but rather based on opposition to the policies of Israel.Last year, the Zionist Organization of America encouraged potential Jewish students and donors to take their money elsewhere.
Israel displays weapons haul from seized ship
– Wed Mar 16, 1:50 pm ET
ASHDOD, Israel (AFP) – Israel on Wednesday displayed a haul of weapons it discovered on a seized ship, alleging they were being smuggled from Iran to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.Soldiers laid out crate after crate of arms and ammunition on the dock of the Ashdod port, including advanced anti-ship missiles that Israel warned could change the balance of forces in the region.The Liberian-flagged Victoria was intercepted early on Tuesday by Israeli naval commandos some 200 nautical miles west of Israel's coastline.Escorted by warships, it arrived at Ashdod, just north of the Gaza Strip, early Wednesday, where troops began inspecting and unloading the shipping containers.The army said there were about 50 tonnes of weapons that had been hidden in containers holding lentils and cotton.Among the weapons discovered were tens of thousands of rounds of small-arms ammunition, 230 120-millimetre mortar bombs, more than 2,000 60-millimetre mortar bombs and six of the Chinese-made C704 anti-ship missiles.
The shipment also included two missile launchers and an advanced radar system to track targets and guide the missiles.Israel said the missiles represented an alarming escalation in attempts to arm militant groups in Gaza.The weaponry would have bolstered terrorist infrastructure at sea and on shore and directly threatened the Israeli navy and civilian vessels at the port of Ashdod, the army said in a statement.On Tuesday, the deputy commander of the Israeli navy, Rear Admiral Rani Ben-Yehuda, said the missiles had a range of 35 kilometres (22 miles).Anything within its range, of course, will find itself in danger, he said.During Israel's 2006 war with Lebanon's Hezbollah, guerrillas hit an Israeli warship off Beirut with an Iranian-made missile based on Chinese technology, killing four crewmen.Israel accused arch-foe Iran of trying to send the weapons to Gaza.These deadly weapons come from Iran. They were sent via Syria and were making their way to terror groups in Gaza,said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he inspected the weapons at the port.
This is the axis of terror we have to deal with and in the end we will break it, he said.However, Iran denied any connection to the incident.The Zionist regime is a regime blended with lies, producing lies and disseminating lies. We reject all such false news, the official IRNA news agency quoted Iranian army chief Ataollah Salehi as saying.Israel has frequently accused Iran and Syria of smuggling weapons to Gaza's Hamas rulers as well as to the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. In November 2009, Israel said its navy had intercepted a ship carrying hundreds of tonnes of arms from Iran to Hezbollah in a raid dozens of miles off the Israeli coast.The shipment was among the largest ever seized by Israel, dwarfing the 50 tonnes of weapons found aboard the Karine A seized in 2002 on its way to Gaza, which dealt a major blow to relations between the Palestinians and Washington.In May 2001, the Israeli navy intercepted another boat, the Santorini, which was carrying 40 tonnes of rockets, anti-tank weaponry, mortars and automatic weapons for armed groups in Gaza.Israel maintains a strict naval blockade on Gaza to prevent the smuggling of weapons into the territory.Last year, the navy prevented a number of aid ships from reaching the coastal enclave.In one incident, they stormed a six-ship flotilla in an operation that went disastrously wrong, with the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists from Turkey.
Abbas pledges to talk unity with Hamas in Gaza
by Nasser Abu Bakr – Wed Mar 16, 1:38 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Wednesday he was ready to go to Gaza this week for talks with Hamas about ending the split and forming a interim government.Abbas, leader of the secular Fatah movement, said he was ready to go to Gaza tomorrow for talks with the enclave's Islamist rulers about ending the bitter split that has poisoned relations within the Palestinian national movement.I am ready to go to Gaza tomorrow to end the division and form a government of independent national figures to start preparing for presidential, legislative and (Palestinian) National Council elections within six months, he said in a speech to members of the PLO Central Council.Pressed to clarify Abbas's comments, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the aim was to meet Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya with a view to forming an interim government of neutral, national figures in what was understood to mean independent politicians not directly affiliated with Hamas or Fatah.This interim government's main task will be preparing for presidential and legislative elections, and elections to the Palestinian National Council within six months, he told AFP.The president said he is ready to delay the formation of a new Palestinian government to allow for the success of this initiative, Abu Rudeina said.
At the start of a two-day meeting of the PLO Central Council, a legislative body in which Fatah holds the majority, Abbas urged Haniya to make arrangements for the visit, which he said would happen in the next few days so the two could turn the page on this black and shameful division.United Nations special envoy to the region Robert Serry welcomed the move, saying he hoped Abbas would make the visit to Gaza soon.I think it is very important that the leaders respond to the clear wish of the people to reunite. Unity is overdue and vital for Palestinian legitimate aspirations, he said in a statement.The Palestinian leader's remarks came a day after Haniya invited him to Gaza for immediate talks to end the division, and were welcomed by the Islamists.Hamas welcomes Abbas's acceptance of the Haniya initiative, Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP. We will start preparing for the visit.The exchange between the two leaders came a day after tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza and the West Bank to demand that the two factions end their long-running rivalry.Amid the protest, Haniya held an emergency cabinet meeting after which he made a televised appeal to Abbas.I invite the president, brother Abu Mazen (Abbas), and Fatah to an immediate meeting here in Gaza or in any location which we agree upon, to start national dialogue in order to achieve reconciliation,he said.
Abbas, who like Haniya expressed support for the protesters' call for unity, urged that Hamas not waste this historical opportunity to end the division, and to stand united against threats that severely damage our cause.On Tuesday, the Palestinian leader had reiterated his call for national elections as a way to end the split.I am with the people and in favour of going back to the people to put an end to the divisions through presidential and parliamentary elections, he said.Hamas had previously rejected such appeals, saying it would not participate without first securing some form of reconciliation with the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank. Prime minister Salam Fayyad is trying to form a new government ahead of a fresh round of presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections which officials want to hold by September at the latest.In Wednesday's speech, Abbas reiterated his position that he would not stand for president in the elections.I said it repeatedly and I say it again -- I will not nominate myself to run, he said.Hamas and Fatah have been at loggerheads since the early 1990s. Tensions boiled over in 2007, when the enmity erupted into bloodshed that saw the Islamists kick their secular rivals out of Gaza.Since then, the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has been effectively cut off from the West Bank, which is under the control of Fatah.Repeated attempts at reconciliation between the groups have led nowhere, and the collapse of the Egyptian regime of Hosni Mubarak, which played a key role in reconciliation efforts, has created new uncertainty.
Uruguay recognizes Palestine statehood
– Wed Mar 16, 12:06 am ET
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – Uruguay has joined a string of South American nations in recognizing an independent Palestinian state.A Foreign Ministry statement says Uruguay has communicated its decision to the Palestinian Authority.However the statement does not explicitly say whether the country recognizes Palestine's borders predating the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza.Foreign Ministry officials declined Tuesday to clarify the matter.More than a half-dozen countries in South America have recognized Palestine recently, though in different ways.Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay recognized the pre-1967 borders.Chile and Peru said the issue must be worked out between Israelis and Palestinians.
EU recognition of Palestinian state a 'possibility': France
– Tue Mar 15, 5:56 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – European Union recognition of a Palestinian state is a possibility that should be kept in mind, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Tuesday amid growing disquiet over stalled peace talks.There's no point recognising the Palestinian state on our own. It must be done together, Juppe told the parliamentary foreign affairs committee of an eventual recognition by EU countries.Personally we're not there yet, I think that it's a possibility that should be kept in mind, he said.The Israeli foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on Juppe's remarks.
Faced with a lack of progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a number of countries have upgraded the status of Palestinian delegations, most recently Denmark on March 9.Britain previously made the same move, following in the footsteps of fellow European Union members France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.Norway, which is not a member of the EU, had in December also upgraded the Palestinian delegation to mission and handed its chief the title of head of mission and the rank of ambassador.
Many Latin American countries have also recently recognised the Palestinian state.
Israel has come under increasing pressure in recent months over stalled direct peace talks, which grounded to a halt shortly after being relaunched by Washington in September 2010 over the issue of settlement construction in the Palestinian territories.The stalemate and Israel's continued settlement construction have angered many in the international community, resulting in near universal support for a UN Security Council's anti-settlement resolution that was vetoed by the US.
Representatives from the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia are set to meet in Paris at the end of March in an attempt to relaunch the peace process.
Israeli navy intercepts Egypt-bound ship with arms
By ARON HELLER, Associated Press – Tue Mar 15, 3:20 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel said Tuesday it seized a cargo ship loaded with weapons sent by Iran to Palestinian militants in Gaza, including sophisticated land-to-sea missiles that officials said could change the balance of power in the area.The takeover in the Mediterranean Sea was the latest in a series of Israeli naval raids meant to counter the growing influence of Iran, which Israel accuses of supplying rockets and other arms to Israel's bitterest enemies.The navy's deputy commander, Brig. Gen. Rani Ben-Yehudah, said investigators had found between two and four Chinese-made C-704 missiles, which land-based forces can use to attack ships.Ben-Yehudah said Iran is known to possess these weapons, the shipment included instruction manuals in Farsi and there were other clues that explicitly showed Iranian involvement.The military released a photo of a booklet with the words technical missile identification document written in Farsi on the cover. It identified the system as a C-704 Nasr missile, provided a serial number and date of issue in the Persian calendar.Such weaponry could impede Israel's ability to enforce its naval blockade of Gaza, which it imposed after Hamas took power in 2007. The captured ship, the Victoria, was being towed into Israel, and further details on its contents were expected to be released after it reached port late Tuesday.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the arms included the beginnings of an advanced system the Gaza militants currently do not possess and could affect Israel's ability to act along Gaza's coast.We will take out the gear and show it to the world, a world that is quick to blame Israel when it fights to protect its citizens. It is important that the world see what we are up against, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Israel has long contended that Iran and Syria provide arms and other support to Hamas militants in Gaza and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.Hamas has been racing to rearm since suffering heavy losses in an Israeli military offensive two years ago. Israeli military officials say Hamas has recovered, in part because of direct assistance from Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. Israel says Hamas now possesses rockets that can strike much of Israel, as well as advanced anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.Israel imposed the naval blockade after Hamas, a group that has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks, violently seized power of Gaza four years ago. It says the measure is needed to prevent the militant group from importing arms.To get around the blockade, Israel says Hamas routinely has arms shipments delivered to Egypt, and then smuggled across the largely lawless Sinai peninsula into neighboring Gaza through a vast network of tunnels under the 9-mile (15-kilometer) border.
Netanyahu said he ordered the naval takeover overnight after receiving intelligence about the shipment. The only certain thing is the source of the weaponry was Iran, and there was a Syrian relay station as well, he said.The military said the Victoria initially departed from the Syrian port of Latakia before proceeding to Mercin in Turkey. It was headed for the port of Alexandria in Egypt when it was intercepted, some 200 miles (320 kilometers) off Israel's Mediterranean coast.Images the military released showed mortars and other arms among stacks of munition boxes. It also released video footage showing an Israeli commander informing the Victoria's captain that the ship was suspected of carrying arms. The captain immediately gave the go-ahead for troops to board for inspection. Additional video showed the commandos ascending a ladder to the deck.Israel said there were no signs that Turkey or Egypt were involved in the arms shipment.Turkey confirmed it was not involved and said many ships stop in its ports for refueling, loading or unloading materials. There was no immediate reaction from Hamas, Syria or Iran.The Victoria is German-owned, operated by a French shipping company and was sailing under a Liberian flag, the Israeli military said. German, French and Liberian authorities were notified of the seizure. Although the ship was intercepted outside of Israel's territorial waters, maritime law entitles Israel to search any merchant vessel it has reason to believe is carrying contraband to support Hamas, said Benjamin David, a former high-ranking officer in the military's legal department. The operation was reminiscent of the November 2009 Israeli takeover of the Iranian Francop vessel off the coast of Cyprus. Israel captured hundreds of tons of rockets, missiles, mortars, grenades and anti-tank weapons on board which it said were headed to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.In 2001 and 2002, Israel seized ships carrying tons of weapons it said were intended for Palestinian militants.Israel's announcement that Turkey was not involved in the arms shipment appeared to be an effort to defuse any potential tensions with its former Mideast ally.Last May, Israeli commandoes raided a Turkish ship trying to break a naval blockade of Gaza and killed nine pro-Palestinian activists on board. Each side claims it acted in self-defense.
Settlers protest as army hunts killers near Nablus
– Tue Mar 15, 1:44 am ET
NABLUS, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Israeli settlers stoned Palestinian homes in a West Bank village where troops hunted those behind a grisly attack on a settler family, Palestinian officials said.Palestinian security officials said hundreds of settlers, some masked, had rallied on the eastern edge of Awarta village, near Nablus, with some hurling stones at houses there.One Palestinian was injured when a number of settlers broke into his property and beat him, witnesses inside the village told AFP.It was not clear whether Israeli soldiers operating inside the village had intervened.An army spokesman said the settlers had a permit to demonstrate and he was unaware of any violent incident there. By late evening the village was quiet, the Israeli military and Palestinians told AFP.The village was under curfew for the third consecutive day on Monday as troops scoured buildings in a search for the killers of five members of the Israeli settler family, including a baby.They were stabbed as they slept on Friday at the nearby Itamar settlement.
The perpetrators broke into the family home and in a frenzied attack killed five members of the Fogel family -- three-month-old Hadas, four-year-old Elad, Yoav, 11, and their parents Udi and Ruthie.The culprits are widely believed to be Palestinian, although details of the manhunt have been placed under a court gag order.The direction that's being examined, in general, is a terrorist attack, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.Amnesty International on Monday repeated its condemnation of the murders while calling on Israel to prevent settler reprisals against Palestinians.Since Saturday morning, Israeli settlers have reportedly used stones, Molotov cocktails, guns, clubs and knives to attack Palestinians in vehicles and in their homes in villages and towns across the West Bank, Amnesty said.Settlers have also burned fields, cars and property. The Israeli security forces must act to prevent reprisals against Palestinian civilians by armed Israeli settlers and bring those responsible to justice, it added.Elsewhere in the West Bank on Monday around 200 settlers from Kedumim which lies five kilometres (three miles) west of Nablus demonstrated on the main road leading north, hurling stones at passing Palestinian cars.To the east of Nablus, witnesses reported seeing settlers throwing stones from their parked cars at passing traffic.Settlers reported stones thrown by Palestinians at Israeli traffic near Nablus and close to Shiloh settlement, near Ramallah. No casualties were reported in any of the incidents.Overnight, settlers torched two Palestinian cars just north of El-Bireh, also near Ramallah, residents said. They said the two vehicles, which were set alight before dawn near Beit El settlement, were totally gutted.Both the army and the police are on alert, fearing a wave of revenge attacks in response to the killings, pictures of which were widely circulated by the settler leadership.
This act was abominable, inhuman and immoral, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told Israeli public radio on Monday. He said Palestinian security forces had joined with Israel to hunt the killer or killers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Abbas's remarks, but said that such strong condemnations also need to be made in the Arab press.Britain meanwhile joined international condemnation of Israel's announcement it had approved 400 more settler homes on the West Bank, a decision taken 24 hours after Itamar murders.We have consistently made clear, including at the UN with France and Germany, that settlements are illegal, an obstacle to peace and a threat to a two-state solution, said a Foreign Office spokesman.British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Saturday condemned the Itamar killings as an act of incomprehensible cruelty and brutality.
Israeli settlers want more building after murders
By ARON HELLER, Associated Press – Mon Mar 14, 1:51 pm ET
ITAMAR, West Bank – Shocked members of this hard-line Jewish settlement, reeling from a devastating knife attack that killed five members of a family in their sleep, on Monday said the bloodshed only strengthens their resolve to stay put and urged the government to respond with a new wave of West Bank construction.Friday night's attack has drawn new attention to Itamar, an isolated settlement deep inside the West Bank that has poor relations with its Arab neighbors. A young couple and three of their children, including a 4-year-old boy and his 3-month-old sister, were killed in the grisly attack.As Israeli forces continued their search for the killers in neighboring Palestinian villages, Itamar residents said they would stand firm. Settlers often refer to themselves as the first line of defense against Arab aggression and say Arab terrorism is trying to drive Jews out of land promised to them in the Bible.This is our land and it will always be the Jewish homeland, said Moshe Goldschmidt, the New York-born head of the town council. The future of Israel lies with its biblical assets. Itamar is the backbone ... No one will break our spirit.A sign at the entrance to the settlement, referring to past attacks, reads:26 years, 22 dead — the youth of Itamar will not break.The issue of Jewish settlements is at the heart of the current impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. The Palestinians say there is no point in talking peace while Israel builds new homes in Jewish communities on land the Palestinians claim for a future state.
In response to the attack, Israel defiantly announced new plans to build up to 500 new homes in settlements located in major blocs next to Israel. Israel expects to keep these blocs, home to the vast majority of Israel's 300,000 West Bank settlers, under any future peace deal.In contrast, Itamar, an Orthodox Jewish community of some 1,000 residents south of the Palestinian city of Nablus, is not included in most Israeli plans. Itamar's residents are commonly seen by other Israelis as fanatically religious, sometimes violent and dismissive of the state's laws, professing to follow only the law of God.Residents and settler leaders criticized the government's latest building plan as grossly insufficient. It is insult to us and an insult to the dead, said David Haivri, a settler leader.Itamar residents accuse the government of imposing an unofficial slowdown on construction to ease international criticism. They also bristle at occasional government attempts to remove some of the dozens of unauthorized hilltop settlement points.A banner on a fence in front of Itamar one home declared: The state destroys towns, the Arabs kill Jews. Many said they feel abandoned.Construction is the answer, said Nili Afarsimon, a 20-year-old mother of an infant. If we expand and build, it will tell the Arabs that this is our land, and they will know their place.
Monday, March 14, 2011
OLMERT TO BE CHARGED IN PROPERTY SCANDAL
Olmert to be charged in Israel property scandal
MAR 14,11 11:00AM
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli prosecutors will file charges against 18 people, including former premier Ehud Olmert, for allegedly taking bribes in a massive property scandal, the justice ministry said on Monday.The allegations stem from Olmert's tenure as Jerusalem mayor and will add to the woes of the former premier, who is already on trial on three unrelated counts of fraud and bribery.From the evidence, it appears that a long list of public servants at the Jerusalem municipality apparently received bribes to promote the Holyland project and the interests of its developers, a ministry statement said.It named Olmert, and his successor Uri Lupolianski along with several senior city hall officials, prominent businessmen and property developers.The investigation centres on a scandal involving bribes from developers building a grandiose residential project in Jerusalem called the Holyland complex.Last year, prosecutors named Olmert as a key suspect in the Holyland affair in which he is suspected of having taken bribes totalling some 1.5 million shekels ($422,000, 30,000 euros).The bribes were allegedly given during construction of the massive complex in the 1990s. He has been questioned three times by police and has denied all the charges.
The justice ministry said all the suspects had been informed of the intention to file charges against them, but would be given a hearing first.Olmert resigned under pressure in September 2008 after police recommended he be indicted in the other cases.He is accused of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talanski and of multiple-billing for foreign trips.Olmert has also been charged with cronyism in connection with an investment centre which he oversaw when he was trade and industry minister between 2003 and 2006.All the charges relate to a period before Olmert became premier in 2006.
Hundreds pour in for Gaza unity rally
MAR 14,11
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – A crowd of at least 1,500 young Palestinians streamed into central Gaza City to rally for national unity on Monday, a day ahead of schedule.The activists marched to the Square of the Unknown Soldier, and chanted The people want to end the division, in reference to the bitter split between Gaza's Hamas rulers and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.We are starting our sit-in now, organiser Ahmad Arar told AFP.Banners and placards were everywhere, some reading: Abbas, Haniya -- we want national unity! in an address to president Mahmud Abbas and Hamas premier Ismail Haniya.Others read: We won't go home until the end of the division.Many brought tents and mattresses, while others were setting up water stations, with the intention of remaining in the square overnight until the official start of the demonstration on Tuesday.The March 15 demonstrations are scheduled to take place simultaneously in Ramallah and Gaza City in a campaign put together on Facebook by a loose coalition of young activists, who say they have no political affiliation.
Similar protests are also planned outside Palestinian delegations overseas, in a move inspired by the recent wave of uprisings in the Arab world, which brought down the regimes of Egypt and Tunisia.As more and more people arrived at the sit-in, there was a party-like atmosphere in the square, with youngsters waving flags, singing national songs and chanting slogans.Huge loud speakers blasted tunes from a popular Lebanese singer as young people stood around chatting or put up tents, some lounging on mattresses.Some activists said the decision to start the mass protests a day early was taken for fear the Hamas-run security forces would close off the square or block roads in a bid to prevent the planned rallies.But Samah al-Rawah, another of the March 15 organisers, said the decision to start early came after the Hamas interior ministry refused to give them a permit to protest on March 15, saying another group had already applied to hold a protest that day.Organisers believe the permit was handed to a Hamas organisation which is trying to coopt the March 15 movement, which goes by the name: The National Campaign for an End to Division.
So we have started now because we don't want any other Palestinian faction to steal this event. We will sleep here because we don't want anyone else to take over the square, Rawah said.Earlier on Monday, Haniya had ordered the interior ministry to let the rallies go ahead without interruption, his office said in a statement.The premier, it said, supports all the efforts by the young people and the factions which aims to end the division and protecting the... national unity of our people.
Haniya ordered the ministry to ensure the security forces "created an atmosphere which would let these public events succeed.Since the outbreak of massive protests in Egypt, Hamas security forces have clamped down on numerous demonstrations. Last week, they detained 11 unity protesters and interrogated those believed to be behind the Facebook campaign.
Settlement killings inhuman, Abbas tells Israel
– Mon Mar 14, 6:58 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday the killing of a Jewish settler couple and three of their children was inhuman, telling Israel he was determined to help catch those responsible.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had complained that Abbas's administration insufficiently condemned the attack and even encouraged such bloodshed through incitement in official Palestinian forums.This was inhuman and immoral. We deplore this incident, without a doubt. It is an abomination, Abbas told Israel Radio.I can't imagine a four-month-old child murdered, he said, speaking in Arabic. Children, of all things ... Any person who has a sense of humanity would be pained and driven to tears by such sights.Friday night's knife rampage in a home in Itamar settlement, which Israel blamed on Palestinians still at large, ruptured the relative quiet of the occupied West Bank and underscored the stalemate between Abbas and Netanyahu over prospects for peace.
Netanyahu said on Sunday that alarming incitement in Palestinian schools, mosques and media had prepared the ground for the Itamar attack.Abbas rejected the allegation, saying his Palestinian Authority was the only place in the Arab and Muslim world where the government set weekly guidelines for mosque sermons.If it (a sermon) is incitement, it is stopped. If it is not incitement, they can go ahead, he said.The Palestinians, with international support, have pursued a law-and-order drive in the West Bank, which they want back as part of their future state. They see Israeli settlements as an obstacle and insist building stops before peace talks resume.Netanyahu has rejected that demand and responded to the Itamar attack by approving hundreds of new settler homes.Abbas said he had telephoned Netanyahu to offer condolences as well as help from in solving the Itamar attack.Had we had advance intelligence, we would have prevented this, he said.We want to know who did this. We hope to get results and identify the perpetrator and bring him to justice.
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Louise Ireland)
US criticizes Israeli settlement construction plan By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press – Mon Mar 14, 6:20 am ET
JERUSALEM – The U.S. Embassy said Monday it was deeply concerned by Israel's plans to build hundreds of new homes in the West Bank following a deadly attack on a settler family, calling Israeli settlements illegitimate and an obstacle to peacemaking.In a rare interview to the Israeli media, the Palestinian president reached out to the Israeli public, decrying the weekend attack in the settlement of Itamar as despicable, immoral and inhuman. But he rejected the Israeli suggestion that his government was indirectly to blame.While the country was still reeling from the gruesome attack, in which two parents and three young children were fatally stabbed as they slept, the Israeli government announced Sunday that it had approved the construction of between 400 and 500 new homes in major West Bank settlement blocs.They murder, we build, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday during a condolence call to the grieving family. Palestinian militants are presumed to have carried out the assault.The plans for new construction infuriated Palestinians, and together with the attack, drove prospects for renewed peacemaking even further out of reach. A Netanyahu aide said the Israeli government informed the U.S. — which has been toiling with little success to break the negotiations deadlock — of the decision.
We're deeply concerned by continuing Israeli actions on settlements in the West Bank, the statement from the U.S. Embassy said.As we said before, we view these settlements as illegitimate and as running counter to efforts to resume direct negotiations.Just last month, the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction. The U.S. said it agreed with the wider world about the illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity but thought Israelis and Palestinians should resolve key conflicts between them and the council wasn't the proper venue for the dispute. The council's 14 other members voted in favor of the resolution.A senior Israeli official responded to the U.S. criticism by reasserting Israel's expectation that the major settlement blocs, where most of the 300,000 West Bank settlers live, will remain in Israeli hands under any final peace accord.An additional 200,000 settlers live in east Jerusalem, captured along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want both territories, along with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, for their future state. They say all settlements are illegitimate.Early Monday, the Israeli army pressed forward with its search for the attacker in Awarta, a Palestinian village next to Itamar. Residents said soldiers using loudspeakers ordered men between the ages of 18 and 40 to report to a village school for questioning.Village resident Mashour Awad said dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people from a nearby neighborhood were taken to the school, and that no one put up any resistance. I've seen people from that neighborhood going because they fear the soldiers may come to their homes and they could face worse. They prefer to go,he said.
Jewish settlers bent on retaliation, meanwhile, threw rocks at cars driving on a main road linking the Palestinian cities of Nablus and Ramallah and set several cars on fire outside of Ramallah and in the town of Qalqiliya, Palestinian officials said.
Disputes over settlement construction have driven peacemaking into a virtual standstill for the past two years. Palestinians refuse to negotiate until Israel halts all building on occupied territories. Israel says negotiations should not be held hostage to conditions and note that previous rounds of talks took place while construction proceeded.Israeli officials had accused Abbas of only tepidly condemning the carnage in the settlement of Itamar. And they suggested his government was indirectly to blame, calling it the product of incitement against Israel.Responding to the Israeli pressure, Abbas spoke to state-run Israel Radio on Monday, harshly condemning the violence and saying his government would have prevented the assault if it had had advance knowledge. He said he would not allow violence to expand.But Abbas disputed Israel's allegations that Palestinian clerics preach incitement, saying his government hands out a uniform sermon to be delivered by all. He also called for a joint Israeli-Palestinian-U.S. team to examine claims of incitement in Palestinian textbooks.Israel has long contended that Palestinian textbooks and official media preach hatred toward Israel and that the killers of Israelis are often glorified.On Sunday, a group of activists from Abbas' Fatah movement dedicated a square in the West Bank city of Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, a female militant who carried out a 1978 bus attack that killed 37 Israelis. Aides to Abbas said they tried to stop the ceremony and the move was not officially sanctioned. Still, Israel has not produced evidence that incitement contributed to the killings.The military has taken some 20 people into custody in connection with the attacks but has provided no further details. Abbas said Palestinian security officials were working with Israel to find the assailant.
Mideast Quartet, Canada condemn West Bank killings
– Sun Mar 13, 5:30 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The international Quartet on the Middle East and Canada on Saturday strongly condemned the murder of an Israeli family in the West Bank and said its perpetrators should be brought to justice.The Quartet condemns in the strongest possible terms the violent murder of an Israeli family of five, including three young children, in the West Bank today, the group, which includes the United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States, said in a joint statement.
Attacks on any civilians are completely unacceptable in any circumstance, the statement said.The Quartet calls on those responsible to be brought to justice and welcomes the strong condemnation of this attack by... the Palestinian leadership.
Five members of an Israeli family were murdered in their beds in a West Bank settlement in an attack blamed on Palestinians, sparking a huge manhunt and international condemnation on Saturday.Media reports said a baby girl of three months, two children aged three and 11, and their parents Ehud and Ruth Vogel were all stabbed to death in the Friday night attack in Itamar near the Palestinian town of Nablus.Army radio said two other children had been spared and a third, a girl of 10, had arrived home late and alerted neighbours that something was wrong.The Quartet in its statement also emphasized the need to expedite efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian and comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.The diplomatic grouping has sought to push the Israelis and Palestinians into renewing some kind of peace negotiations, which ran aground last September over an intractable dispute about Jewish settlements.In Canada, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said: The brutal killing of the five Israelis, including children, cannot be justified.Our sympathies are with the victims? families and friends and the people of Israel, Cannon said in a statement.These heinous acts of terror cannot be tolerated. The murderer must be held accountable, and we hope the Palestinian Authority will cooperate fully in the investigation.
Yemen clashes and Bahrain chaos as protests deepen
By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press – Sun Mar 13, 4:45 pm ET
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Yemeni police firing from rooftops wounded more than 100 in a protesters' camp Sunday and anti-government demonstrators paralyzed Bahrain's capital as unrest deepened in two of Washington's most critical allies in the region.The ruler of Oman, another key Western partner, shifted some lawmaking powers to officials outside the royal family in what an analyst called a historic change.Meanwhile, Saudi authorities tolerated 200 activists demanding the release of detainees in defiance of stern warnings of crackdowns on pro-democracy rallies.The range of responses — from attacks to appeasement — underscored the different gambits at play. Some regimes are looking to battle their way out while others turn to rapid reforms in a bid to quell dissent inspired by groundswell for change across the Arab world.Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has increasingly turned to confrontation after protesters rebuffed his offer to bow out with elections in 2013.
Near Sanaa University, an encampment of demonstrators came under twin attacks: police firing from rooftop positions, and a ground assault by security forces and government backers armed with clubs and knives. Mohammad al-Abahi, a doctor in charge of a makeshift hospital near the university, said more than 100 people were injured, including 20 from tear gas inhalation.In the southern Aden province, it was the protesters on the offensive — storming a police station and seizing weapons after police fled, witnesses said.Yemen — hit by a wave of protests since mid-February — is considered by Washington to be a vital front-line ally against one of the world's most active al-Qaida branches. But the U.S. patience for Saleh's tactics appears to be wearing thin.Bahrain's showdown also has reached the one-month mark with no end in sight. There are now fears the tiny kingdom could be stumbling toward open sectarian conflict between the ruling minority Sunnis and Shiites, who account for 70 percent of the nation's 525,000 people.The mostly Shiite protesters first took to the streets to air their allegations of widespread discrimination. But the calls have been growing to topple the entire ruling monarchy after attacks and crackdowns by security forces in the strategic nation, which hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.Protesters displayed their power with a new and disruptive strategy — blocking the main highway into the financial district in the capital Manama, one of the Gulf's investment and banking centers. Riot police firing tear gas eventually cleared the barricades, but traffic was snarled for miles (kilometers) and morning commuters were enraged.
Bahrain is no longer stable, growled Sawsan Mohammed, 30, who works in the financial district.In some neighborhoods, vigilantes set up checkpoints to try to keep outsiders from entering. Some Shiite protesters claimed that pro-government gangs were roaming some areas armed with clubs and other weapons.At Bahrain University, clashes broke out between protesters and government backers. Two protesters sustained serious head injures and hundreds looked for medical help, mostly with breathing problems from tear gas, hospital officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.In Pearl Square — a landmark site occupied by demonstrators — security forces surrounded the tent compound, shooting tear gas in the largest effort to disrupt the protesters since a crackdown last month left four dead.Police withdrew after activists stood their ground and chanted Peaceful! peaceful! The turmoil came a day after a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who urged Bahrain's leaders to make quick progress toward reforms. Washington and its Gulf Arab allies worry that Shiite powerhouse Iran could use instability in Bahrain as a foothold to expand its influence in the region.In Oman — a close ally of both the U.S. and Iran — the ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said issued a decree saying he would hand legislative and regulatory powers within 30 days to two current advisory councils, one elected and another appointed by the sultan.
The move reflects the scramble to head off possible wider unrest in the strategically important nation. Oman and Iran share control of the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, which carries 40 percent of the world's oil tanker traffic. Just hours before the announcement, suspected arsonists burned a government office and the home of a clan leader in Ebri, about 210 miles (350 kilometers) northwest of the capital Muscat. No injuries were reported, but military units boosted their presence in the area.The sultan has made sweeping Cabinet shake-ups and promises for thousands of new civil service posts since demonstrations began late last month. But the latest plan introduces the most fundamental changes about how the country is governed.An Oman-based political analyst, Saeed Awad bin Bagoer, described the sultan's plan to transfer powers to the council as an historic political reform.In the Saudi capital Riyadh, more than 200 people were allowed to protest outside the Interior Ministry to demand the release of detainees held on security and terrorism-related charges.The rally was held despite a ban on demonstrations and threats for harsh crackdowns on any challenge to the pro-Western monarchy. It was not clear whether it was a bid by Saudi authorities to allow limited demonstrations or if the protesters could face punishment later.Moroccan police broke up an unauthorized protest in Casablanca by several hundred people, including many supporters of Morocco's best-known Islamist movement, the Justice and Spirituality movement.An Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press that about 50 protesters were arrested and four officers injured.King Mohammed VI said Wednesday that Morocco will revise its constitution for the first time in 15 years — part of steps to build greater democracy.Associated Press writers Ahmed Al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen; Reem Khalifa in Manama, Bahrain, and Saeed Al-Nahdy in Muscat, Oman, contributed to this report.
Israel buries stabbed family, vows more settlements
by Hazel Ward – Sun Mar 13, 3:26 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli family of five, including a baby, stabbed to death in a weekend attack on a settlement, were buried on Sunday as the government vowed to build hundreds more settler homes.As the hunt for the killers continued, at least 20,000 mourners packed into the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem, the hillside graveyard echoing with sounds of grief and the angry diatribes of political and religious leaders.This was a barbaric act that only animals are capable of, said Rafi Ben-Basat, one mourner who knew the family who are widely believed to have been murdered by Palestinian attackers.You savage Arabs, lacking humanity, will not break us! vowed settler leader Gershon Masika as the bodies of the three children and their parents were lowered into the ground.The attackers broke into the family home in Itamar settlement near Nablus on Friday night, and in a frenzied stabbing attack killed five members of the Fogel family -- three-month-old Hadas, four-year-old Elad, Yoav, 11, and their parents Udi and Ruthie.Grisly pictures released by the settler leadership on Sunday showed the victims lying on blood-spattered beds, each with multiple stab wounds.Israeli police went on high alert and the army said troops had been ordered to be vigilant for any attempted revenge attacks.
As soldiers continued their search, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ministers had approved construction of several hundred housing units within the settlement blocs of Gush Etzion, Maale Adumim, Ariel and Kiryat Sefer.The decision won a nod from the Yesha settlers' council but was furiously denounced by the Palestinians.This decision by the government is a small step in the right direction, a Yesha statement said, but added: It is deeply troubling that it requires the murder of children in the arms of their parents to achieve such an objective.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat condemned the move, telling AFP the Palestinian Authority strongly condemns the decision of the Israeli government to speed up and increase the building of settlements.Nabil Abu Rudeina, President Mahmud Abbas's spokesman, said in a statement: The decision taken to build new settlements is a mistake and unacceptable. It will destroy everything and will lead to big problems.
Late on Sunday, Netanyahu paid a condolence visit to the families of the victims, telling them that they (the Palestinians) shoot and we build.They say the Land of Israel is built on suffering, but who could have thought the suffering would be so great? Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.The decision to build new settler homes was taken 24 hours after the bloodshed, which sparked a wave of international revulsion from the White House to Ramallah.The Middle East peace Quartet also issued a statement condemning in the strongest possible terms the violent murder of an Israeli family of five, including three young children, in the West Bank.After the funeral, hundreds of settlers blocked dozens of road junctions in Israel and the West Bank in protest at the killings, police said.Hundreds of demonstrators are at different junctions all across the country, with an emphasis on Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem,said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.He said police were responding to prevent disturbances, but taking into consideration the sensitivities following the funeral.Beyond the protests, fears of revenge attacks did not materialise immediately, with Palestinian witnesses and security sources reporting only a series of minor confrontations.Several vehicles were damaged by stone throwing and one house suffered minor damage after being set on fire.Troops quickly arrived and sent the settlers away from the villages.Troops kept up their hunt for the perpetrators, imposing a curfew for a second day on Awarta village immediately west of Itamar, with Defence Minister Ehud Barak saying he was confident the killers would be caught.As defence minister I am certain that the iron fist of the Israeli army and the Shin Bet will swiftly descend upon the murderers. They will be caught and accounts will be settled with them, he said.The security of Israel -- its future and its borders -- will be determined by us, and not by murderous terror.
Thousands in Beirut demand Hezbollah disarm By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press – Sun Mar 13, 1:02 pm ET
BEIRUT – Tens of thousands of supporters of Lebanon's pro-Western opposition thronged downtown Beirut on Sunday, demanding that the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah give up its weapons.The rally was a potent show of support for Lebanon's toppled prime minister Saad Hariri, who moved into the opposition after Hezbollah and its allies forced his government to collapse in January.We want to place the weapons at the disposal of the state because it is the state that unites us all and it is the army that protects us all, Hariri said, shouting over the crowd as they cheered and waved Lebanon's national flag.Hariri has taken a far stronger public stance against Hezbollah in recent weeks than he did during his 14 months as prime minister, suggesting that the country's political deadlock is far from over.Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a member of Hezbollah's political bureau, said the group will not respond to Sunday's gathering.But a slew of billboards has popped up in Beirut lately, saying Israel also wants Hezbollah disarmed — a clear message that Hezbollah sees its weapons as a necessary safeguard against its enemies.Hariri accuses the militant group, which is backed by Syria and Iran, of using its weapons for intimidation and political leverage.
Sunday's rally heightens growing tensions in Lebanon over a U.N. tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri.The Hague-based court is widely expected to accuse Hezbollah members of involvement in the killing in indictments issued two months ago but which remain sealed. Hezbollah vehemently denies having anything to do with the killing, and its ministers walked out of Saad Hariri's government when he refused to cut ties with the tribunal.Hezbollah and its allies then secured enough support in parliament to name Najib Mikati as their pick for prime minister. Mikati has emphasized that he will not do the bidding of any one side in Lebanon's fractious politics, but he is still struggling to form a Cabinet.Opponents of Hezbollah — which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization — say having an Iranian proxy at the helm of Lebanon's government would lead to international isolation.Hezbollah's weapons are a longstanding and contentious political issue in Lebanon.Hezbollah was the only Lebanese faction allowed to keep its weapons under the agreement that ended the 1975-1990 civil war, on the grounds that it needed arms to fight any potential threat from Israel.Today, the arsenal far outweighs that of the national army and public sentiment on the weapons is mixed. The Lebanese applaud Hezbollah's ability to confront Israel, but many accuse the group of leading the country into violent conflict.In 2006, many Lebanese complained that Hezbollah had dragged the whole country into war with Israel. Two years later, 80 people died in clashes as Hezbollah resisted government attempts to dismantle its private phone network.
Sunday's rally also paid tribute to Rafik Hariri, whose assassination changed the course of Lebanese history by sparking a massive protest movement in 2005 that that became known as the Cedar Revolution.The movement ushered in the end of Syria's 30-year military domination if Lebanon.The five-time prime minister had close ties with Western leaders as well as Syria and was credited with helping rebuild Lebanon's capital after the civil war. In the last few months before his assassination, however, he had tried to limit Damascus' influence over Lebanon, and many accused Syria of involvement in his killing.Syria denies those accusations.
A look at political unrest in the Middle East
The Associated Press – Sun Mar 13, 12:09 pm ET
A look at anti-government protests, political unrest and key developments in the Middle East on Sunday:
LIBYA:Troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi shell the oil town of Brega in eastern Libya, pounding pockets of resistance during their swift advance on the country's poorly equipped and loosely organized rebels. Libyan state television reports that government troops retake Brega, but the report could not immediately be verified.
YEMEN:Police on rooftops fire live bullets and tear gas at protesters, injuring more than 100 people who were camping near Sanaa University, the latest in weeks of demonstrations calling for the Yemeni president to step down.Wielding clubs and knives, police and government supporters also attack protesters on the ground.
BAHRAIN:Thousands of anti-government demonstrators cut off Bahrain's financial center and drive back police trying to push them from the capital's central square. For the tiny island kingdom it is the most disruptive protests since calls for more freedom erupted a month ago.Demonstrators also clash with security forces and government supporters on the campus of the main university in the Gulf country, the home of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.
SAUDI ARABIA:More than 200 protest outside the Interior Ministry to demand the release of detainees in the largest demonstration in the capital since the regional outbreak of pro-democracy unrest. Saudi authorities ban demonstrations and are increasingly determined to prevent the wave of unrest sweeping across the Middle East from spreading to the oil-rich Kingdom.
LEBANON:Tens of thousands of Lebanese fill a central Beirut square to mark the 2005 protests that ended Syria's 30-year domination of the country. They also demand that the militant group Hezbollah, seen as a proxy of Syria, give up its weapons.
OMAN: Oman's ruler grants lawmaking powers to officials outside the royal family in the boldest reforms yet aimed at quelling protests for jobs and a greater public role in politics. The decree by Sultan Qaboos bin Said reflects the scramble to appease demonstrators and head off possible wider unrest in the strategically important nation, which shares control of the Gulf waterway that carries 40 percent of the world's oil tanker traffic.
TUNISIA:Authorities order a curfew in a central mining town amid simmering unrest following a bout of deadly clashes between police and protesters. It's the latest sign of Tunisia's struggle to restore stability after a revolution that deposed an autocratic leader and sparked uprisings in the Arab world.
MAR 14,11 11:00AM
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli prosecutors will file charges against 18 people, including former premier Ehud Olmert, for allegedly taking bribes in a massive property scandal, the justice ministry said on Monday.The allegations stem from Olmert's tenure as Jerusalem mayor and will add to the woes of the former premier, who is already on trial on three unrelated counts of fraud and bribery.From the evidence, it appears that a long list of public servants at the Jerusalem municipality apparently received bribes to promote the Holyland project and the interests of its developers, a ministry statement said.It named Olmert, and his successor Uri Lupolianski along with several senior city hall officials, prominent businessmen and property developers.The investigation centres on a scandal involving bribes from developers building a grandiose residential project in Jerusalem called the Holyland complex.Last year, prosecutors named Olmert as a key suspect in the Holyland affair in which he is suspected of having taken bribes totalling some 1.5 million shekels ($422,000, 30,000 euros).The bribes were allegedly given during construction of the massive complex in the 1990s. He has been questioned three times by police and has denied all the charges.
The justice ministry said all the suspects had been informed of the intention to file charges against them, but would be given a hearing first.Olmert resigned under pressure in September 2008 after police recommended he be indicted in the other cases.He is accused of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talanski and of multiple-billing for foreign trips.Olmert has also been charged with cronyism in connection with an investment centre which he oversaw when he was trade and industry minister between 2003 and 2006.All the charges relate to a period before Olmert became premier in 2006.
Hundreds pour in for Gaza unity rally
MAR 14,11
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – A crowd of at least 1,500 young Palestinians streamed into central Gaza City to rally for national unity on Monday, a day ahead of schedule.The activists marched to the Square of the Unknown Soldier, and chanted The people want to end the division, in reference to the bitter split between Gaza's Hamas rulers and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.We are starting our sit-in now, organiser Ahmad Arar told AFP.Banners and placards were everywhere, some reading: Abbas, Haniya -- we want national unity! in an address to president Mahmud Abbas and Hamas premier Ismail Haniya.Others read: We won't go home until the end of the division.Many brought tents and mattresses, while others were setting up water stations, with the intention of remaining in the square overnight until the official start of the demonstration on Tuesday.The March 15 demonstrations are scheduled to take place simultaneously in Ramallah and Gaza City in a campaign put together on Facebook by a loose coalition of young activists, who say they have no political affiliation.
Similar protests are also planned outside Palestinian delegations overseas, in a move inspired by the recent wave of uprisings in the Arab world, which brought down the regimes of Egypt and Tunisia.As more and more people arrived at the sit-in, there was a party-like atmosphere in the square, with youngsters waving flags, singing national songs and chanting slogans.Huge loud speakers blasted tunes from a popular Lebanese singer as young people stood around chatting or put up tents, some lounging on mattresses.Some activists said the decision to start the mass protests a day early was taken for fear the Hamas-run security forces would close off the square or block roads in a bid to prevent the planned rallies.But Samah al-Rawah, another of the March 15 organisers, said the decision to start early came after the Hamas interior ministry refused to give them a permit to protest on March 15, saying another group had already applied to hold a protest that day.Organisers believe the permit was handed to a Hamas organisation which is trying to coopt the March 15 movement, which goes by the name: The National Campaign for an End to Division.
So we have started now because we don't want any other Palestinian faction to steal this event. We will sleep here because we don't want anyone else to take over the square, Rawah said.Earlier on Monday, Haniya had ordered the interior ministry to let the rallies go ahead without interruption, his office said in a statement.The premier, it said, supports all the efforts by the young people and the factions which aims to end the division and protecting the... national unity of our people.
Haniya ordered the ministry to ensure the security forces "created an atmosphere which would let these public events succeed.Since the outbreak of massive protests in Egypt, Hamas security forces have clamped down on numerous demonstrations. Last week, they detained 11 unity protesters and interrogated those believed to be behind the Facebook campaign.
Settlement killings inhuman, Abbas tells Israel
– Mon Mar 14, 6:58 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday the killing of a Jewish settler couple and three of their children was inhuman, telling Israel he was determined to help catch those responsible.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had complained that Abbas's administration insufficiently condemned the attack and even encouraged such bloodshed through incitement in official Palestinian forums.This was inhuman and immoral. We deplore this incident, without a doubt. It is an abomination, Abbas told Israel Radio.I can't imagine a four-month-old child murdered, he said, speaking in Arabic. Children, of all things ... Any person who has a sense of humanity would be pained and driven to tears by such sights.Friday night's knife rampage in a home in Itamar settlement, which Israel blamed on Palestinians still at large, ruptured the relative quiet of the occupied West Bank and underscored the stalemate between Abbas and Netanyahu over prospects for peace.
Netanyahu said on Sunday that alarming incitement in Palestinian schools, mosques and media had prepared the ground for the Itamar attack.Abbas rejected the allegation, saying his Palestinian Authority was the only place in the Arab and Muslim world where the government set weekly guidelines for mosque sermons.If it (a sermon) is incitement, it is stopped. If it is not incitement, they can go ahead, he said.The Palestinians, with international support, have pursued a law-and-order drive in the West Bank, which they want back as part of their future state. They see Israeli settlements as an obstacle and insist building stops before peace talks resume.Netanyahu has rejected that demand and responded to the Itamar attack by approving hundreds of new settler homes.Abbas said he had telephoned Netanyahu to offer condolences as well as help from in solving the Itamar attack.Had we had advance intelligence, we would have prevented this, he said.We want to know who did this. We hope to get results and identify the perpetrator and bring him to justice.
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Louise Ireland)
US criticizes Israeli settlement construction plan By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press – Mon Mar 14, 6:20 am ET
JERUSALEM – The U.S. Embassy said Monday it was deeply concerned by Israel's plans to build hundreds of new homes in the West Bank following a deadly attack on a settler family, calling Israeli settlements illegitimate and an obstacle to peacemaking.In a rare interview to the Israeli media, the Palestinian president reached out to the Israeli public, decrying the weekend attack in the settlement of Itamar as despicable, immoral and inhuman. But he rejected the Israeli suggestion that his government was indirectly to blame.While the country was still reeling from the gruesome attack, in which two parents and three young children were fatally stabbed as they slept, the Israeli government announced Sunday that it had approved the construction of between 400 and 500 new homes in major West Bank settlement blocs.They murder, we build, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday during a condolence call to the grieving family. Palestinian militants are presumed to have carried out the assault.The plans for new construction infuriated Palestinians, and together with the attack, drove prospects for renewed peacemaking even further out of reach. A Netanyahu aide said the Israeli government informed the U.S. — which has been toiling with little success to break the negotiations deadlock — of the decision.
We're deeply concerned by continuing Israeli actions on settlements in the West Bank, the statement from the U.S. Embassy said.As we said before, we view these settlements as illegitimate and as running counter to efforts to resume direct negotiations.Just last month, the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction. The U.S. said it agreed with the wider world about the illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity but thought Israelis and Palestinians should resolve key conflicts between them and the council wasn't the proper venue for the dispute. The council's 14 other members voted in favor of the resolution.A senior Israeli official responded to the U.S. criticism by reasserting Israel's expectation that the major settlement blocs, where most of the 300,000 West Bank settlers live, will remain in Israeli hands under any final peace accord.An additional 200,000 settlers live in east Jerusalem, captured along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want both territories, along with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, for their future state. They say all settlements are illegitimate.Early Monday, the Israeli army pressed forward with its search for the attacker in Awarta, a Palestinian village next to Itamar. Residents said soldiers using loudspeakers ordered men between the ages of 18 and 40 to report to a village school for questioning.Village resident Mashour Awad said dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people from a nearby neighborhood were taken to the school, and that no one put up any resistance. I've seen people from that neighborhood going because they fear the soldiers may come to their homes and they could face worse. They prefer to go,he said.
Jewish settlers bent on retaliation, meanwhile, threw rocks at cars driving on a main road linking the Palestinian cities of Nablus and Ramallah and set several cars on fire outside of Ramallah and in the town of Qalqiliya, Palestinian officials said.
Disputes over settlement construction have driven peacemaking into a virtual standstill for the past two years. Palestinians refuse to negotiate until Israel halts all building on occupied territories. Israel says negotiations should not be held hostage to conditions and note that previous rounds of talks took place while construction proceeded.Israeli officials had accused Abbas of only tepidly condemning the carnage in the settlement of Itamar. And they suggested his government was indirectly to blame, calling it the product of incitement against Israel.Responding to the Israeli pressure, Abbas spoke to state-run Israel Radio on Monday, harshly condemning the violence and saying his government would have prevented the assault if it had had advance knowledge. He said he would not allow violence to expand.But Abbas disputed Israel's allegations that Palestinian clerics preach incitement, saying his government hands out a uniform sermon to be delivered by all. He also called for a joint Israeli-Palestinian-U.S. team to examine claims of incitement in Palestinian textbooks.Israel has long contended that Palestinian textbooks and official media preach hatred toward Israel and that the killers of Israelis are often glorified.On Sunday, a group of activists from Abbas' Fatah movement dedicated a square in the West Bank city of Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, a female militant who carried out a 1978 bus attack that killed 37 Israelis. Aides to Abbas said they tried to stop the ceremony and the move was not officially sanctioned. Still, Israel has not produced evidence that incitement contributed to the killings.The military has taken some 20 people into custody in connection with the attacks but has provided no further details. Abbas said Palestinian security officials were working with Israel to find the assailant.
Mideast Quartet, Canada condemn West Bank killings
– Sun Mar 13, 5:30 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The international Quartet on the Middle East and Canada on Saturday strongly condemned the murder of an Israeli family in the West Bank and said its perpetrators should be brought to justice.The Quartet condemns in the strongest possible terms the violent murder of an Israeli family of five, including three young children, in the West Bank today, the group, which includes the United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States, said in a joint statement.
Attacks on any civilians are completely unacceptable in any circumstance, the statement said.The Quartet calls on those responsible to be brought to justice and welcomes the strong condemnation of this attack by... the Palestinian leadership.
Five members of an Israeli family were murdered in their beds in a West Bank settlement in an attack blamed on Palestinians, sparking a huge manhunt and international condemnation on Saturday.Media reports said a baby girl of three months, two children aged three and 11, and their parents Ehud and Ruth Vogel were all stabbed to death in the Friday night attack in Itamar near the Palestinian town of Nablus.Army radio said two other children had been spared and a third, a girl of 10, had arrived home late and alerted neighbours that something was wrong.The Quartet in its statement also emphasized the need to expedite efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian and comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.The diplomatic grouping has sought to push the Israelis and Palestinians into renewing some kind of peace negotiations, which ran aground last September over an intractable dispute about Jewish settlements.In Canada, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said: The brutal killing of the five Israelis, including children, cannot be justified.Our sympathies are with the victims? families and friends and the people of Israel, Cannon said in a statement.These heinous acts of terror cannot be tolerated. The murderer must be held accountable, and we hope the Palestinian Authority will cooperate fully in the investigation.
Yemen clashes and Bahrain chaos as protests deepen
By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press – Sun Mar 13, 4:45 pm ET
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Yemeni police firing from rooftops wounded more than 100 in a protesters' camp Sunday and anti-government demonstrators paralyzed Bahrain's capital as unrest deepened in two of Washington's most critical allies in the region.The ruler of Oman, another key Western partner, shifted some lawmaking powers to officials outside the royal family in what an analyst called a historic change.Meanwhile, Saudi authorities tolerated 200 activists demanding the release of detainees in defiance of stern warnings of crackdowns on pro-democracy rallies.The range of responses — from attacks to appeasement — underscored the different gambits at play. Some regimes are looking to battle their way out while others turn to rapid reforms in a bid to quell dissent inspired by groundswell for change across the Arab world.Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has increasingly turned to confrontation after protesters rebuffed his offer to bow out with elections in 2013.
Near Sanaa University, an encampment of demonstrators came under twin attacks: police firing from rooftop positions, and a ground assault by security forces and government backers armed with clubs and knives. Mohammad al-Abahi, a doctor in charge of a makeshift hospital near the university, said more than 100 people were injured, including 20 from tear gas inhalation.In the southern Aden province, it was the protesters on the offensive — storming a police station and seizing weapons after police fled, witnesses said.Yemen — hit by a wave of protests since mid-February — is considered by Washington to be a vital front-line ally against one of the world's most active al-Qaida branches. But the U.S. patience for Saleh's tactics appears to be wearing thin.Bahrain's showdown also has reached the one-month mark with no end in sight. There are now fears the tiny kingdom could be stumbling toward open sectarian conflict between the ruling minority Sunnis and Shiites, who account for 70 percent of the nation's 525,000 people.The mostly Shiite protesters first took to the streets to air their allegations of widespread discrimination. But the calls have been growing to topple the entire ruling monarchy after attacks and crackdowns by security forces in the strategic nation, which hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.Protesters displayed their power with a new and disruptive strategy — blocking the main highway into the financial district in the capital Manama, one of the Gulf's investment and banking centers. Riot police firing tear gas eventually cleared the barricades, but traffic was snarled for miles (kilometers) and morning commuters were enraged.
Bahrain is no longer stable, growled Sawsan Mohammed, 30, who works in the financial district.In some neighborhoods, vigilantes set up checkpoints to try to keep outsiders from entering. Some Shiite protesters claimed that pro-government gangs were roaming some areas armed with clubs and other weapons.At Bahrain University, clashes broke out between protesters and government backers. Two protesters sustained serious head injures and hundreds looked for medical help, mostly with breathing problems from tear gas, hospital officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.In Pearl Square — a landmark site occupied by demonstrators — security forces surrounded the tent compound, shooting tear gas in the largest effort to disrupt the protesters since a crackdown last month left four dead.Police withdrew after activists stood their ground and chanted Peaceful! peaceful! The turmoil came a day after a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who urged Bahrain's leaders to make quick progress toward reforms. Washington and its Gulf Arab allies worry that Shiite powerhouse Iran could use instability in Bahrain as a foothold to expand its influence in the region.In Oman — a close ally of both the U.S. and Iran — the ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said issued a decree saying he would hand legislative and regulatory powers within 30 days to two current advisory councils, one elected and another appointed by the sultan.
The move reflects the scramble to head off possible wider unrest in the strategically important nation. Oman and Iran share control of the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, which carries 40 percent of the world's oil tanker traffic. Just hours before the announcement, suspected arsonists burned a government office and the home of a clan leader in Ebri, about 210 miles (350 kilometers) northwest of the capital Muscat. No injuries were reported, but military units boosted their presence in the area.The sultan has made sweeping Cabinet shake-ups and promises for thousands of new civil service posts since demonstrations began late last month. But the latest plan introduces the most fundamental changes about how the country is governed.An Oman-based political analyst, Saeed Awad bin Bagoer, described the sultan's plan to transfer powers to the council as an historic political reform.In the Saudi capital Riyadh, more than 200 people were allowed to protest outside the Interior Ministry to demand the release of detainees held on security and terrorism-related charges.The rally was held despite a ban on demonstrations and threats for harsh crackdowns on any challenge to the pro-Western monarchy. It was not clear whether it was a bid by Saudi authorities to allow limited demonstrations or if the protesters could face punishment later.Moroccan police broke up an unauthorized protest in Casablanca by several hundred people, including many supporters of Morocco's best-known Islamist movement, the Justice and Spirituality movement.An Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press that about 50 protesters were arrested and four officers injured.King Mohammed VI said Wednesday that Morocco will revise its constitution for the first time in 15 years — part of steps to build greater democracy.Associated Press writers Ahmed Al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen; Reem Khalifa in Manama, Bahrain, and Saeed Al-Nahdy in Muscat, Oman, contributed to this report.
Israel buries stabbed family, vows more settlements
by Hazel Ward – Sun Mar 13, 3:26 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli family of five, including a baby, stabbed to death in a weekend attack on a settlement, were buried on Sunday as the government vowed to build hundreds more settler homes.As the hunt for the killers continued, at least 20,000 mourners packed into the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem, the hillside graveyard echoing with sounds of grief and the angry diatribes of political and religious leaders.This was a barbaric act that only animals are capable of, said Rafi Ben-Basat, one mourner who knew the family who are widely believed to have been murdered by Palestinian attackers.You savage Arabs, lacking humanity, will not break us! vowed settler leader Gershon Masika as the bodies of the three children and their parents were lowered into the ground.The attackers broke into the family home in Itamar settlement near Nablus on Friday night, and in a frenzied stabbing attack killed five members of the Fogel family -- three-month-old Hadas, four-year-old Elad, Yoav, 11, and their parents Udi and Ruthie.Grisly pictures released by the settler leadership on Sunday showed the victims lying on blood-spattered beds, each with multiple stab wounds.Israeli police went on high alert and the army said troops had been ordered to be vigilant for any attempted revenge attacks.
As soldiers continued their search, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ministers had approved construction of several hundred housing units within the settlement blocs of Gush Etzion, Maale Adumim, Ariel and Kiryat Sefer.The decision won a nod from the Yesha settlers' council but was furiously denounced by the Palestinians.This decision by the government is a small step in the right direction, a Yesha statement said, but added: It is deeply troubling that it requires the murder of children in the arms of their parents to achieve such an objective.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat condemned the move, telling AFP the Palestinian Authority strongly condemns the decision of the Israeli government to speed up and increase the building of settlements.Nabil Abu Rudeina, President Mahmud Abbas's spokesman, said in a statement: The decision taken to build new settlements is a mistake and unacceptable. It will destroy everything and will lead to big problems.
Late on Sunday, Netanyahu paid a condolence visit to the families of the victims, telling them that they (the Palestinians) shoot and we build.They say the Land of Israel is built on suffering, but who could have thought the suffering would be so great? Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.The decision to build new settler homes was taken 24 hours after the bloodshed, which sparked a wave of international revulsion from the White House to Ramallah.The Middle East peace Quartet also issued a statement condemning in the strongest possible terms the violent murder of an Israeli family of five, including three young children, in the West Bank.After the funeral, hundreds of settlers blocked dozens of road junctions in Israel and the West Bank in protest at the killings, police said.Hundreds of demonstrators are at different junctions all across the country, with an emphasis on Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem,said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.He said police were responding to prevent disturbances, but taking into consideration the sensitivities following the funeral.Beyond the protests, fears of revenge attacks did not materialise immediately, with Palestinian witnesses and security sources reporting only a series of minor confrontations.Several vehicles were damaged by stone throwing and one house suffered minor damage after being set on fire.Troops quickly arrived and sent the settlers away from the villages.Troops kept up their hunt for the perpetrators, imposing a curfew for a second day on Awarta village immediately west of Itamar, with Defence Minister Ehud Barak saying he was confident the killers would be caught.As defence minister I am certain that the iron fist of the Israeli army and the Shin Bet will swiftly descend upon the murderers. They will be caught and accounts will be settled with them, he said.The security of Israel -- its future and its borders -- will be determined by us, and not by murderous terror.
Thousands in Beirut demand Hezbollah disarm By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press – Sun Mar 13, 1:02 pm ET
BEIRUT – Tens of thousands of supporters of Lebanon's pro-Western opposition thronged downtown Beirut on Sunday, demanding that the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah give up its weapons.The rally was a potent show of support for Lebanon's toppled prime minister Saad Hariri, who moved into the opposition after Hezbollah and its allies forced his government to collapse in January.We want to place the weapons at the disposal of the state because it is the state that unites us all and it is the army that protects us all, Hariri said, shouting over the crowd as they cheered and waved Lebanon's national flag.Hariri has taken a far stronger public stance against Hezbollah in recent weeks than he did during his 14 months as prime minister, suggesting that the country's political deadlock is far from over.Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a member of Hezbollah's political bureau, said the group will not respond to Sunday's gathering.But a slew of billboards has popped up in Beirut lately, saying Israel also wants Hezbollah disarmed — a clear message that Hezbollah sees its weapons as a necessary safeguard against its enemies.Hariri accuses the militant group, which is backed by Syria and Iran, of using its weapons for intimidation and political leverage.
Sunday's rally heightens growing tensions in Lebanon over a U.N. tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri.The Hague-based court is widely expected to accuse Hezbollah members of involvement in the killing in indictments issued two months ago but which remain sealed. Hezbollah vehemently denies having anything to do with the killing, and its ministers walked out of Saad Hariri's government when he refused to cut ties with the tribunal.Hezbollah and its allies then secured enough support in parliament to name Najib Mikati as their pick for prime minister. Mikati has emphasized that he will not do the bidding of any one side in Lebanon's fractious politics, but he is still struggling to form a Cabinet.Opponents of Hezbollah — which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization — say having an Iranian proxy at the helm of Lebanon's government would lead to international isolation.Hezbollah's weapons are a longstanding and contentious political issue in Lebanon.Hezbollah was the only Lebanese faction allowed to keep its weapons under the agreement that ended the 1975-1990 civil war, on the grounds that it needed arms to fight any potential threat from Israel.Today, the arsenal far outweighs that of the national army and public sentiment on the weapons is mixed. The Lebanese applaud Hezbollah's ability to confront Israel, but many accuse the group of leading the country into violent conflict.In 2006, many Lebanese complained that Hezbollah had dragged the whole country into war with Israel. Two years later, 80 people died in clashes as Hezbollah resisted government attempts to dismantle its private phone network.
Sunday's rally also paid tribute to Rafik Hariri, whose assassination changed the course of Lebanese history by sparking a massive protest movement in 2005 that that became known as the Cedar Revolution.The movement ushered in the end of Syria's 30-year military domination if Lebanon.The five-time prime minister had close ties with Western leaders as well as Syria and was credited with helping rebuild Lebanon's capital after the civil war. In the last few months before his assassination, however, he had tried to limit Damascus' influence over Lebanon, and many accused Syria of involvement in his killing.Syria denies those accusations.
A look at political unrest in the Middle East
The Associated Press – Sun Mar 13, 12:09 pm ET
A look at anti-government protests, political unrest and key developments in the Middle East on Sunday:
LIBYA:Troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi shell the oil town of Brega in eastern Libya, pounding pockets of resistance during their swift advance on the country's poorly equipped and loosely organized rebels. Libyan state television reports that government troops retake Brega, but the report could not immediately be verified.
YEMEN:Police on rooftops fire live bullets and tear gas at protesters, injuring more than 100 people who were camping near Sanaa University, the latest in weeks of demonstrations calling for the Yemeni president to step down.Wielding clubs and knives, police and government supporters also attack protesters on the ground.
BAHRAIN:Thousands of anti-government demonstrators cut off Bahrain's financial center and drive back police trying to push them from the capital's central square. For the tiny island kingdom it is the most disruptive protests since calls for more freedom erupted a month ago.Demonstrators also clash with security forces and government supporters on the campus of the main university in the Gulf country, the home of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.
SAUDI ARABIA:More than 200 protest outside the Interior Ministry to demand the release of detainees in the largest demonstration in the capital since the regional outbreak of pro-democracy unrest. Saudi authorities ban demonstrations and are increasingly determined to prevent the wave of unrest sweeping across the Middle East from spreading to the oil-rich Kingdom.
LEBANON:Tens of thousands of Lebanese fill a central Beirut square to mark the 2005 protests that ended Syria's 30-year domination of the country. They also demand that the militant group Hezbollah, seen as a proxy of Syria, give up its weapons.
OMAN: Oman's ruler grants lawmaking powers to officials outside the royal family in the boldest reforms yet aimed at quelling protests for jobs and a greater public role in politics. The decree by Sultan Qaboos bin Said reflects the scramble to appease demonstrators and head off possible wider unrest in the strategically important nation, which shares control of the Gulf waterway that carries 40 percent of the world's oil tanker traffic.
TUNISIA:Authorities order a curfew in a central mining town amid simmering unrest following a bout of deadly clashes between police and protesters. It's the latest sign of Tunisia's struggle to restore stability after a revolution that deposed an autocratic leader and sparked uprisings in the Arab world.
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