 | | | | | | | Newsletter | 09.01.2009, 17:15 UTC | | | Newsline | | | World news: international | | | | | | | | | News | | | | | Current Article | | | | Israeli forces press on with Gaza assault
Both Israel and the militant Palestinian group Hamas have dismissed a UN Security Council resolution that calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the resolution was unworkable noting that Palestinians had fired more rockets at Israel on Friday. As Israel's security cabinet decided to continue its military campaign, warplanes bombed the outskirts of Gaza City, killing seven Palestinians. Earlier, a United Nations aid agency suspended its operations in Gaza after Israeli soldiers fired on a convoy, killing a driver. The International Committee of the Red Cross is also restricting operations after one of its vehicles was hit by gunfire. At least 770 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli offensive began a fortnight ago. Ten Israeli soldiers and four civilians have been killed. |  | | UN rights chief calls for probe into Gaza violations
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for an independent probe into violations of international humanitarian law in the Gaza conflict. Navi Pillay told a special session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that UN monitors must be deployed in Israel as well as Gaza and the West Bank to document violations. She said that some reported violations in the Gaza Strip were severe and may warrant prosecutions for war crimes. The United Nations' Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs has released a report in which it accuses Israeli forces of shelling a house that they knew to be full of civilians. The report quotes witnesses who said that Israeli soldiers first evacuated more than 100 Palestinians into the house, then attacked it 24 hours later, killing about 30 people. | | | German FM to head to the Mideast for talks
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says he is heading to the Middle East for talks with both parties to the conflict. Prior to leaving, Steinmeier called Thursday's UN Security Council resolution ''an important step'' that pointed to how a lasting ceasefire could be achieved. Steinmeier said he would travel to Egypt for meetings with President Hosni Mubarak, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the city of Sharm el-Sheik on Saturday. He will also travel to Israel to meet with officials there. Earlier, Germany's minister of state for foreign affairs Gernot Erler said that the deployment of Bundeswehr troops in the Gaza Strip was possible as part of an international peacekeeping force. However, he told German television that Israel and the Palestinians must first make a formal request. | | | Russia expected to re-open gas flow after EU-brokered deal
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is set to travel to Kiev to seal an agreement meant to persuade Russia to re-open the flow of natural gas to European Union countries. Topolanek, whose country holds the EU's presidency, is hoping to finalise the deployment of European Union monitors who are to ensure that a gas pipeline though Ukraine is not tampered with. The deal was agreed during telephone conversations between Topolanek and both Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Russia cut off the flow of gas earlier this week after accusing Ukraine of siphoning off gas bound for Europe. Ukraine has denied this. The crisis was sparked by a dispute over the price Ukraine pays for Russian gas. This comes during a week when much of Europe has been experiencing sub-zero temperatures. | | | Obama introduces intelligence team
US President-elect Barack Obama has nominated Leon Panetta to head the CIA and Dennis Blair as national intelligence director. The introduction of Panetta and Blair comes four days after their names were leaked to reporters. There was surprise in Washington over the choice of Panetta for the CIA post. The former White House chief of staff has no direct intelligence experience. Blair is a former head of US Pacific Command who was credited with fighting terrorism in southeast Asia after the September 11, 2001, attacks. | | | US unemployment hits 16-year high
The US Labor Department says unemployment has hit a sixteen-year high after the economy shed more than half a million jobs in December. The Washington-based body said the layoffs translated into an increase 0.4 percent to an overall unemployment rate of 7.2 percent. Since the recession started in December 2007, a total of 3.6 million jobs have been lost - more than half of them in the last five months. The world's biggest economy nosedived in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis triggering a major global financial and economic shakeup. | | | Somali pirates free Saudi supertanker
Somali pirates have freed a Saudi-owned supertanker that they seized off the Kenyan coast late last year. An associate of the pirates told news agencies that they had been paid a $3 million ransom. A spokesman from the Saudi oil ministry has confirmed that the tanker was released but did not say whether a ransom had been paid. The Sirius Star and its $100 million cargo of crude oil was seized more than 800 kilometres from the Kenyan coastal city of Mombassa in November. The incident drew attention to a surge in piracy in one of the world's most important shipping lanes. Germany is among the nations that have sent warships to the region as part of a European Union flotilla to protect commercial ships. | | | Sri Lankan troops ''seize'' key rebel base
The Sri Lankan government says its troops have captured a strategic base at the gateway to the northern Jaffna peninsula, dealing a fresh blow to the Tamil Tiger rebels. President Mahinda Rajapaksa said in a televised address that troops had captured Elephant Pass, which was seized by the rebels in 2000. The capture of the base gives the government nearly full control of the peninsula and also restricts the rebels into a shrinking pocket of territory in the northeast. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been fighting one of Asia's longest insurgencies to create a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils. They have suffered a series of military defeats at the hands of the army over the past few months, prompting speculation that the insurgency which began in 1983 may be nearing its end. | | | Police discover weapons in Turkey coup probe
Turkish police say they've unearthed weapons and hand grenades near the capital Ankara in a probe into an alleged plot to topple the Islamist-rooted government. The Anatolia news agency reported that anti-tank weapons, hand grenades, bullets and explosives were found at a forest in the suburb of Golbasi. Anti-terror police dug up the area on the basis of documents seized from Ibrahim Sahin, a former police chief who's one of 40 suspects detained on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear how Sahin is linked to Ergenekon, a group of anti-government secularists who allegedly plotted assassinations to create chaos and prompt a military coup against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). | | | | | |  | | |  Up-to-date news at DW-WORLD.DE | | | | | | |  | | | Note
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Fighting Continues in Gaza Despite UN Ceasefire Resolution
