Jerusalem, June 03: The Israeli military’s YouTube site is using ‘pirated’ footage confiscated from journalists on board a Turkish vessel in a bid to defend its botched flotilla raid, a press body charged on Thursday.

“The Foreign Press Association (FPA) strongly condemns the use of photos and video material shot by foreign journalists, now being put out by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) spokesman’s office as ‘captured material’,” a statement from the organisation said.

Jerusalem, June 03: Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla has put huge pressure on Tel Aviv to lift its blockade of the Palestinian enclave, but analysts say there will unlikely be more than humanitarian gestures.

The bungled operation, in which nine passengers were killed, brought an international chorus of outrage and intensified calls for Israel to end its vice-like siege, tightened in 2007 when the democratically elected resistance Hamas movement seized power.

Istanbul, June 03: Hundreds of Turkish activists from the Gaza aid flotilla attacked by Israeli commandos returned home to a heroes’ welcome Thursday and their leaders accused Israel of carrying out indiscriminate killings.

Organisers of the aid fleet also said the toll of nine dead given by Israel was too low. Facing major protests over Monday’s raid, Israel meanwhile rejected a UN Human Rights Council move to set up an international inquiry into the raid.

Almere, June 03: Muslims reeling from an apparent surge of anti-Islam sentiment fear next week’s Dutch election will fuel mutual suspicion and pit neighbour against neighbour.

It was in here in Almere, where a third of the population is of immigrant origin, that Geert Wilders led his far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) to its first local election victory in March.

The result stunned a nation famed for its tolerance, and the after-effects linger on ahead of general elections next Wednesday.

Mogadishu, June 03: At least 21 Somali civilians were killed Thursday and 59 wounded in fierce Mogadishu clashes pitting government forces backed by African Union troops against Islamist insurgents, medics said.

The fighting broke out when newly-trained government forces backed by the soldiers of the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) apparently launched a major offensive to recapture key Mogadishu neighbourhoods.

Muscat, June 03: Heavy rains hit Oman’s east coast on Thursday as cyclone Phet approached the sultanate pushing up from the Arabian Sea and authorities raised the alert level to orange.

The cyclone, rated at a factor of 3.5 on a scale of five, was moving northwestwardly at a speed of eight kilometres (five miles) an hour. Winds were blowing at a 180 kilometres (112 miles) an hour.

Hotels along the east coast of the sultanate have been evacuated, the ministry of tourism said, and the residents of Masirah island were airlifted to safer areas.

Muscat, June 03: Heavy rains hit Oman’s east coast on Thursday as cyclone Phet approached the sultanate pushing up from the Arabian Sea and authorities raised the alert level to orange.

The cyclone, rated at a factor of 3.5 on a scale of five, was moving northwestwardly at a speed of eight kilometres (five miles) an hour. Winds were blowing at a 180 kilometres (112 miles) an hour.

Hotels along the east coast of the sultanate have been evacuated, the ministry of tourism said, and the residents of Masirah island were airlifted to safer areas.

Mogadishu, June 03: At least 21 Somali civilians were killed Thursday and 59 wounded in fierce Mogadishu clashes pitting government forces backed by African Union troops against Islamist insurgents, medics said.

The fighting broke out when newly-trained government forces backed by the soldiers of the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) apparently launched a major offensive to recapture key Mogadishu neighbourhoods.

Ankara, June 03: Iraqi Kurd leader Massud Barzani arrived in Turkey Wednesday on a five-day official visit, just days after Turkish Kurdish rebels killed six soldiers in a rocket attack on a naval base.

On his first visit to Turkey as regional president, Barzani, who heads northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, is to hold talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Berlin, June 03: President Horst Koehler’s shock resignation this week came after mainstream media jumped on comments about Germany’s overseas role that they would have missed if it hadn’t been for bloggers.

Koehler, whose job was largely ceremonial but who spoke as a kind of moral arbiter, was on his way back from visiting German troops in Afghanistan when he gave an apparently innocuous interview to a German radio station.

Turkey, June 03: Turkey’s ties with Israel suffered “irreparable” damage and “will never be the same” after the deadly raid on aid ships bound for Gaza, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said today.

“From now on, Turkish-Israeli ties will never be the same. This incident has left an irreparable and deep scar” on
relations, he said in televised remarks.

Gul added that Monday’s attack by Israeli forces, in which eight Turks and a US national of Turkish origin were
killed, “is not an issue that can be forgotten or be covered up.”