Tel Aviv, June 02: Israel on Wednesday released and deported more than 600 foreign activists whose accounts of a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla contradicted Israeli reports that its soldiers acted in self-defence.
As a new standoff with another aid ship loomed, British Prime Minister David Cameron took a tough stand against Monday’s pre-dawn Israeli raid, which killed nine activists on the flotilla, terming it “completely unacceptable.”
Havana, June 02: Cuban ex-president Fidel Castro in an article out Wednesday described Israel’s interception of aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip as “Nazi fascist fury.”
He said the Israeli commandos that boarded the ships fired “frenetically” into the aid workers, killing at least nine.
He also wrote that it was unlikely that US President Barack Obama would be re-elected without first letting the US military or Israel launch a nuclear attack on Iran.
Castro, 83 convalescing away from government since 2006, writes regular columns for Cuban media commenting on world events.
Kampala, June 02: Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip was responsible for the deadly raid on a foreign aid flotilla and should be lifted, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.
“Had Israelis heeded to my call and to the call of the international community by lifting the blockade of Gaza, this tragic incident would not have happened,” the UN chief said.
At least nine activists were killed on Monday when Israeli navy commandos stormed a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, sparking international outrage and plunging the Jewish state into a diplomatic crisis.
Stockholm, June 02: Top Swedish author Henning Mankell condemned Israel’s “brutality” in attacking an aid fleet heading for Gaza, when he returned to Sweden from taking part in the operation, a press report said.
“What will happen next year when we come back with hundreds of boats? Will they fire a nuclear bomb,” the author of the Wallander crime series told the TT news agency when he returned to Gothenburg airport on Tuesday night.
Beit Hanun, June 02: One day after Israel’s bloody raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, Hazem Juha returned to the fields of rubble along the territory’s border with Israel where he collects the detritus of years of conflict.
“I am trained as an electrician but there has been no construction in Gaza for three years and my family needs money to live,” he said, while gathering scrap metal and breaking down concrete chunks in the scorching heat.
He can make 12 dollars (10 euros) for each half ton of scrap, which will be used in the limited rebuilding efforts following the 2008-2009 Gaza war.
Paris, June 02: A movement demanding autonomy for Algeria’s Kabylia region said Wednesday it had set up a government-in-exile in France to challenge the national leaders in Algiers.
“We are setting up our provisional government so that we no longer undergo the injustice, contempt, domination, frustration and discrimination that we have endured since 1962,” said the movement’s leader, Ferhat Mehenni.
Baghdad, June 02: The alarming spread of illegal squatter settlements has aid groups fearful of a looming social crisis, one which a senior United Nations official considers “the greatest humanitarian problem facing Iraq”.
Recent reports from two international agencies found that of Iraq’s 1.5 million internally displaced people, or IDPs, at least 500,000 have been forced to dwell in squalid squatter camps without access to health care or public services.
Washington, June 02: Assuring the US of India’s commitment to a nuclear liability regime, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna has invited American companies to invest in India and make a robust partnership with two-way trade in advanced technology products.
“The government is committed to put in place a nuclear liability regime. We look forward to US companies investing in India,” Krishna said.
Muscat, June 02: Authorities were evacuating the Omani island of Masirah on Wednesday over fears that Cyclone Phet might hit the country’s east coast on the Arabian Sea, a civil defence official said.
The official said civil defence units had been put on alert for the cyclone, which could hit by Thursday afternoon.
Oman Air and the country’s air force were evacuating the residents of Masirah.
Cyclone Phet was still more than 300 kilometres (186 miles) away from Masirah and moving at 10 kilometres (six miles) per hour, the weather authority said
Israel, June 02: With most Israelis assuming a new Middle East war is just around the corner, settler leaders are trying to prove to their compatriots that some 120 illegal Jewish colonies in the West Bank will provide an indispensable safe haven in time of emergency.
The settlements have drawn up plans to accommodate as many as half a million Israelis forced to flee areas inside the country’s recognised borders if they come under rocket fire in wartime.
Nicosia, June 02: Amnesty International condemned the reported execution of 18 people in Libya, many of them foreigners, the rights group said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, as the ultimate form of cruel and inhuman punishment and a violation of the right to life,” Amnesty said.
“In the case of Libya, we fear that death sentences are handed down after proceedings which fail to satisfy international standards for fair trial,” Amnesty added.
Sanaa, June 02: A fragile ceasefire between the army and Houthi-led rebels in northern Yemen has been put under renewed strain following the deaths of three government followers in clashes with the rebels that left a dozen others injured, local witnesses from the Bani Awair area of Saada Governorate said.
“Both sides used small and medium-sized weapons in the fighting that broke out after Houthis tried to take control of a village in the area [in Bani Awair] to set up a training camp for their followers,” Mohamed Shayea, a Bani Awair resident, told IRIN on 31 May.
Panaji, June 02: Goa Police Wednesday transferred to the Crime Branch the investigation into the mysterious death of Tourism Minister Mickky Pacheco’s alleged paramour in Chennai.
Pacheco has, however, said that he was a victim of a witch-hunt by Goa Police and demanded a judicial probe into Nadia Torrado’s death by poisoning and similar judicial enquiries into several other scams in which “kin of political bigwigs are involved”.
In a pressnote, the police department here Wednesday stated that the Nadia case had been transferred to the Crime Branch for “professional investigation”.
Abu Dhabi, June 02: US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told an aviation conference in Abu Dhabi Tuesday that concerns over privacy should not hamper cooperation on airport security.
“I want to stress, I am respectful and cognizant of the privacy concerns,” she told participants in the Regional Civil Aviation Security Conference, referring to protests against a US drive to use full body X-ray scans at airports.
“Respect for privacy is a value we share. But all countries have unique legal traditions, cultural differences, and political realities.
Muscat, June 02: “When a road accident happens, many are reasons behind it and every single factor counts. A fatal vehicle crash could be the result of a combination of all. For instance, if the person occupying the driving seat is not alert or not in a state of equanimity before venturing out, chances for an accident are high. If the person’s vehicle is faulty and the road is bad, the possibility of a mishap triples. Any one or all of them are variable factors that have to be taken into consideration when an accident happens”.
Tehran, June 02: Iran is falling out of love with the cheque, partly because a vast and rising number bounce every year.
Figures from the Central Bank of Iran show that in the year to March 2010 only 47 million cheques were written compared to 63 million in the same period of the previous year and 79 million in 2007-2008.
But the proportion of cheques bouncing has been rising over the same period to about 10.7 per cent – more than one in ten – in the latest year, from 7.7 per cent in the previous year and around five per cent in the years up to 2007.
Batala, June 02: A one-and-half-year old girl fell into a 200 feet deep, two feet wide borewell near Batala town in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district Wednesday. Rescue operations by Indian Army officials to save the child were on in full swing, police said.
Indian Army officials, who reached the spot at Dhira village at around 2 p.m., are being assisted by the local police in this rescue operation.
According to police, Dilrajpreet Kaur accidentally fell into the borewell while playing in the courtyard of her uncle’s house.
Istanbul, June 02: When Turkish director Semih Kaplanoðlu’s film Honey won the Golden Bear award in the 2010 Berlin Film Festival this February, international film critics turned their attention to Turkish cinema.
Honey is the final part of Kaplanoðlu’s trilogy, which narrates three stages of the life of a man in reverse chronological order. Alluding to religious myths and rituals, the three films address universal issues concerning human existence, such as the meaning of life and death, the loss of a loved one and faith and destiny.
Lucknow, June 02: Four policemen in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur district were suspended Wednesday after they were caught in a sting operation accepting money from family members of a man arrested in a robbery case, an official said.
“The four suspended are an inspector, a sub-inspector and two constables,” Superintendent of Police Krishna Mohan told reporters in Shahjahanpur, some 150 km from here.
New Delhi, June 02: With Trinamool Congress notching up an impressive win in West Bengal civic polls, the Congress today said fighting local bodies elections separately would have no impact on their tie-up at state and national levels.
“Parties fight local bodies polls separately and that does not influence their tie-ups at state or central levels.
Our alliance with the Trinamool Congress at both these levels will continue.
Kishtwar(J-K), Jun 02: Rescue teams today recovered two bodies and also evacuated 60 people trapped in heavy snow in remote area of Wadwan of Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said here.
The district administration which had deputed police and civil teams in the far-flung areas recovered two dead bodies from Gurvas Nala in Wadwan belt of the hilly district around 1630 hours, they said.
New Delhi, Jun 02: Suspended IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi said the series of allegations levelled on him by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Chairman Giles Clarke was “motivated” and stemmed from the “past history of disagreement and discord” between them.
It was on the basis of Clarke’s e-mail that BCCI slapped a second show cause notice on Modi and the suspended IPL boss, in his reply, said the ECB chief’s allegations were motivated.
New Delhi, June 02: Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal is scheduled to meet US Secretary for State Hillary Clinton Wednesday, an official statement said.
Before meeting Clinton, Sibal will meet US Education Secretary Arne Duncan to discuss cooperation between the two countries in the field of education.
The minister is accompanying External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna for the first India-US strategic dialogue that starts Wednesday.
Mumbai, June 02: Prices of standard gold touched to Rs 18,800-level for the first time in the history of the Bombay bullion market here today in early trade on sustained stockists as well as jewellers demand amidst rise in global market.
Hectic local and stockists buying in view of marriage season coupled with rising trend in overseas markets boosted the gold prices to some extent, a dealer said.
Standard gold (99.5 purity) advanced further by Rs 50 per ten gram to resume at 18,800 as against the overnight closing level of Rs 18,750.
New Delhi, June 02: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is leaving tonight for South Korea to attend the two-day G-20 ministerial which is expected to discuss the ongoing European financial crisis and other issues.