The New Nation - Internet Edition

Israel destroys Hamas homes, flattens mosque

AP, Gaza City

Israel destroyed the homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives and bombed one of its mosques on Friday, the seventh day of a blistering offensive in Gaza and the day after a deadly strike killed a prominent Hamas figure.

In what appeared to be a new Israeli tactic, the military called at least some of the houses ahead of time to warn inhabitants of an impending attack. In some cases, it also fired a sound bomb to warn away civilians before flattening the homes with powerful missiles, Palestinians and Israeli defense officials said.

Israel launched the aerial campaign last Saturday in a bid to halt weeks of intensifying Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza. The offensive has dealt a heavy blow to Hamas, but has failed to halt the rocket fire. New attacks Friday struck apartment buildings in a southern Israeli city. No serious injuries were reported.

After destroying Hamas' security compounds, Israel has turned its attention to the group's leadership.

In airstrike after airstrike early Friday, Israeli warplanes hit some 20 houses believed to belong to Hamas militants and members of other armed groups, Palestinians said.

They said the Israelis either warned nearby residents by phone or fired a warning missile to reduce civilian casualties. Israeli planes also dropped leaflets east of Gaza giving a confidential phone number and e-mail address for people to report locations of rocket squads. Residents stepped over the leaflets.

Israel used similar tactics during its 2006 war in Lebanon.

Most of the targeted homes Friday belonged to activist leaders and appeared to be empty at the time, but one man was killed in a strike that flattened a building in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

More than 400 Gazans have been killed and some 1,700 have been wounded in the Israeli campaign, Gaza health officials said. The number of combatants and civilians killed is unclear, but Hamas has said around half of the dead are members of its security forces and the U.N. has said more than 60 are civilians, 34 of them children.

Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have also died in the rocket attacks, which have reached deeper into Israel than ever before, bringing an eighth of Israel's population of 7 million within rocket range. The mosque destroyed Friday was known as a Hamas stronghold, and the army said it was used to store weapons. Hamas has boasted that more than 100 of the mosque's worshippers have been killed in the past on missions against Israelis.

It also was identified with Nizar Rayan, the Hamas militant leader killed Thursday when Israel dropped a one-ton bomb on his home. The explosion killed 20 people, including all four of Rayan's wives and 10 of his children.

The strike on Rayan's home obliterated the four-story apartment building and peeled off the walls of others around it, carving out a vast field of rubble.

Rayan, 49, ranked among Hamas' top five decision-makers. A professor of Islamic law, he was known for his close ties to the group's military wing and was respected in Gaza for donning combat fatigues and personally participating in clashes against Israeli forces. He sent one of his sons on an October 2001 suicide mission that killed two Israeli settlers in Gaza.

Israel's military said the homes of Hamas leaders are being used to store missiles and other weapons, and the hit on Rayan's house triggered secondary explosions from the stockpile there.

Israeli defense officials said the military had called Rayan's home and fired a warning missile before destroying the building. That was impossible to confirm. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss military tactics.

Israel has targeted Hamas leaders many times in the past, but halted the practice during a six-month truce that expired last month.

Most of Hamas' leaders went into hiding at the start of Israel's offensive. Rayan, however, was known for openly defying Israel and in the past had led crowds to the homes of wanted Hamas figures - as if daring Israel to strike and risk the lives of civilians.

The offensive has not halted rocket fire at Israel, and a barrage landed in the city of Ashkelon early Friday. Two rockets hit apartment buildings, lightly wounding one man, police said. Sirens warning Israelis to take cover when military radar picks up an incoming rocket have helped reduce casualties in recent days.

The military said aircraft destroyed the three rocket launchers used to fire at Ashkelon.

Israel has been building up artillery, armor and infantry on Gaza's border in an indication the punishing air assault could expand with a ground incursion. At the same time, international pressure is building for a cease-fire that would block more fighting.

Israel appears to be offering an opening for the intense diplomatic efforts, saying it would consider a halt to the fighting if international monitors were brought in to track compliance with any truce with Hamas.

Concerned about protests, Israeli police said they would step up security and restrict access to Friday prayers at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque. Devout Muslims attend large, communal prayers on Fridays.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said thousands of police would be deployed throughout the city, and that only Palestinian men over the age of 50, along with women of all ages, would be permitted to enter. He also said that police were in contact with Muslim leaders to ensure things remain quiet.

The army also imposed a closure on the West Bank, barring nearly all of the area's more than 2 million Palestinians from entering Israel.

Sri Lankan troops march into rebel headquarters

Reuters, Colombo

Sri Lankan troops fought their way into the Tamil Tigers' de facto capital of Kilinochchi and the entire town will soon be under government control, an official said on Friday, in what would be a major blow for the rebels.

The Sri Lankan military has had a series of recent battlefield victories against the Tigers and vowed to end their more than 25-year separatist war.

"(The) fall of Kilinochchi soon will be a reality," said defence ministry spokesman and government minister Keheliya Rambukwella.

Sources from President Mahinda Rajapaksa's office told Reuters that troops had entered Kilinochchi from two locations and that fighting with rebels was going on. Military sources said an announcement was expected soon from Rajapaksa.

"Troops are inside the town and they are mopping up things here and there," said a military source who asked not to be identified.

State media said the military had surrounded Kilinochchi and that many rebels had fled.

In a special media briefing Lakshman Hulugalla, director general of the Media Centre for National Security, said "Kilinochchi will be captured within few hours time".

Sri Lankan stocks rose around 5 percent on the news and the rupee steadied.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had no immediate comment.

Defence analysts said the fall of Kilinochchi would be a bitter blow for the LTTE.

"This is a major defeat for the LTTE. The fall of Kilinochchi means the LTTE will have their only territory in Mullaitivu," said Iqbal Athas, a defence analyst with Jane's Defence, referring to a rebel stronghold in the northeast.

"I would not say this is the end of the war, but it may be the beginning of the shrinking of major LTTE dominated areas."

Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, a political analyst, said Kilinochchi was significant for the LTTE's political and administrative activities.

"The capture indicates very clearly that the LTTE's attempt to build up a quasi-state has now collapsed," he said.

Exactly a year ago, Rajapaksa's government formally scrapped an increasingly tattered six-year truce brokered by Norway, saying the rebels were using it as cover to regroup and re-arm.

The military developments powered the island nation's stock market higher. At 0750 GMT, the Colombo All-Share index was up 4.9 percent. The market fell 40.8 percent last year on economic and war worries.

"With the news of Kilinochchi's fall, sentiment just got a boost," said Geeth Balasuriya, assistant research manager at HNB Stockbrokers.

Currency dealers said speculation of an imminent military victory arrested the rapid slide of the Sri Lankan rupee.

The rupee, which hit an all-time low on Monday had been expected to hit 115.00 per dollar on Friday, dealers said. But at 0718 GMT was trading around 113.50/70 level, Reuters data showed.

Gaza faces 'alarming’ humanitarian situation: UN

AP, United Nations

Gaza's 1.5 million residents are facing an "alarming" humanitarian situation under constant Israeli bombardment, with the main power plant shut down, overcrowded hospitals struggling to cope and very limited food supplies, U.N. officials said.

The power plant shut down on Tuesday because Israel has blocked fuel delivery through the main pipeline since Dec. 26, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said Wednesday. This has forced hospitals to use generators, which have limited fuel supplies, and left many of the 650,000 people in central and northern Gaza with power cuts of 16 hours a day or more, he said.

"The situation remains alarming," Holmes said. "Hospitals are obviously still struggling very much to cope with the number of casualties. We have continued to get some medical supplies in and to help them cope, but this remains difficult and fragile."

Karen Abu Zayd, commissioner of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which helps Palestinian refugees, told reporters by video link from Gaza that the agency has not distributed any food for two weeks because of the shortage of supplies and the Israeli bombardment.

"I think that means that 20,000 people a day have been without food that they expect - and probably is the bulk of what they get," she said. "So people are doing pretty badly. Everyone we know is sharing whatever they have, not just with their families but with their neighbors."

"We haven't seen widespread hunger. We do see for the very first time t people going through the rubbish dumps looking for things, people begging, which is quite a new phenomenon as well," she said.

Holmes said the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel was open, with 55 trucks of food and medical supplies and five ambulances getting into Gaza on Tuesday, and about 60 trucks on Wednesday. That compares to 125 truckloads a day in October 2008 and 475 truckloads a day in May 2007, just before Hamas took control of Gaza, he said.

Some medical supplies, ambulances and generators also got into Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, he said.

In Crawford, Texas, President George W. Bush's spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters that officials are seeing "a good flow" of medical and food supplies into Gaza.

Abu Zayd stressed that her U.N. agency needs 100 trucks of flour a day to meet the needs of refugees. But she said Israel has closed down the Karni crossing, the main gateway for cargo into Gaza where it is normally delivered, for security reasons.

She said UNRWA was told by the Israeli humanitarian coordinator that all other crossings aren't open because "there is intelligence about serious preparations for security operations."

3 militants killed in US strike in Pakistan

AP, Dera Ismail Khan

A suspected U.S. missile strike killed three Pakistan militants close to the Afghan border Friday, officials and witnesses said, the latest in a barrage of such attacks in the al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold.

Stepped-up strikes by U.S. unmanned planes since last August have killed scores of militants but angered Pakistani leaders, who say they undercut public support for their anti-terror campaign.

The attack Friday in South Waziristan was the second in as many days in the region, a semiautonomous district where the central government and its security forces have little control.

Villager Yar Mohammed said the missile hit an abandoned school in the village of Medan. Two intelligence officials said at least three unidentified Pakistan militants were killed in the strike and two others were wounded.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Shop owner Ameer Mohammed Khan said Taliban surrounded the area after the attack and shifted the dead and the injured to an undisclosed location.

Pakistani military officials were not immediately available for comment. Washington usually does not confirm such strikes, which are seen as a sign of frustration there with Islamabad's unwillingness or inability to crack down on militants.

There have been more than 30 strikes in the Afghan border region since last August. Islamabad insists it is cracking down on extremists, pointing to a campaign in the border area of Bajur that has left more than 1,000 suspected militants dead.

Two soldiers, militant killed in Kashmir unrest

AFP, Srinagar

Two soldiers and a Muslim militant have been killed in a shootout in Indian Kashmir, the first violence since state elections in the Muslim-majority region, the army said Friday.

The fighting erupted late Thursday in the southern district of Poonch after Indian troops, acting on a tip-off, carried out a search operation of a densely forested area.

"As we closed in, the militants opened fire killing two of our soldiers," an army officer told AFP, asking not to be named.

He said one militant was killed in the return of fire. The violence was the first since the completion of seven-stage state elections on December 24. Despite a boycott call by separatists and militants more than 60 percent of voters took part.

The regional pro-India National Conference and India's ruling Congress party decided to form the government after polls produced a fractured legislature.

A Muslim insurgency in Indian Kashmir has claimed at least 47,000 lives in the past two decades.

20,000 more US troops on way to Afghanistan

AP, Kandahar

The U.S. is preparing to pour at least 20,000 extra troops into southern Afghanistan to cope with a Taliban insurgency that is fiercer than NATO leaders expected.

The new troops will augment the 12,500 NATO soldiers - mainly British, Canadian and Dutch - in what amounts to an Afghan version of the surge in Iraq.

New construction at Kandahar Air Field foreshadows the upcoming infusion of American power. Runways and housing are being built, along with two new U.S. outposts in Taliban-held regions of Kandahar province.

And in the past month the south has been the focus of visiting U.S. and other dignitaries - Sen. John McCain, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. congressional delegations and leaders from NATO headquarters in Europe.

For the first time since NATO took over the country in 2006, an experienced U.S. general, Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, is assigned to the south.

He says U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, NATO's commander in Afghanistan, has made the objectives clear in calling the situation in the south a stalemate and asking for more troops, on top of the 32,000 Americans already in Afghanistan.

"By introducing more U.S. capability in here we have the potential to change the game," Nicholson said.

The Army Corps of Engineers will spend up to $1.3 billion in new construction for troop placements in southern Afghanistan, said the corps commander in Afghanistan, Col. Thomas O'Donovan.

Violence in Afghanistan has spiked in the last two years, and Taliban militants now control wide swaths of countryside. Military officials say they have enough troops to win battles but not to hold territory, and they hope the influx of troops, plus the continued growth of the Afghan army, will change that.

U.S. officials hope to add at least three new brigades of ground forces in the southern region, along with assets from an aviation brigade, surveillance and intelligence forces, engineers, military police and Special Forces. In addition, a separate brigade of new troops is deploying to two provinces surrounding Kabul.

Czech Republic takes over EU presidency

AP, Prague

The Czech Republic took over the rotating European Union presidency Thursday, with the bloc aiming to see its new governance treaty approved in 2009.

At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, authorities illuminated central Prague's giant metronome know as the "Time Machine" in the Czech colors of red, white and blue and the EU blue flag with yellow stars.

President Vaclav Klaus - the most outspoken Czech critic of the treaty - said the EU presidency would give the country a chance "to influence the activity of this important organization."

"It is in our interest to succeed in this role," Klaus said in his New Year's Day speech to the nation.

But Klaus is known as the country's most prominent Euro-skeptic, and in the past he has said that "a well-functioning, bureaucratic EU is not my goal." He has opposed the so-called Lisbon Treaty because, he says, it is undemocratic and would limit nations' sovereignty.

And during Czech presidency of the bloc, Klaus has vowed not to fly the EU flag over Prague Castle because, he said, the country "is not an EU province."

The last EU presidency under France featured efforts to tackle Europe's economic woes, and the next six months of Czech leadership will also involve dealing with the global financial crisis and overseeing implementation of a new $258 billion European economic stimulus package.

Rice to visit China from Jan 7-8

AFP, Beijing

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit China on January 7 and 8, the foreign ministry said here Friday, in her last scheduled trip before the Bush administration leaves office.

The announcement came as China and the United States marked 30 years of diplomatic relations, with US President George W. Bush exchanging congratulatory messages with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

"US Secretary of State Rice will visit China January 7-8 to attend activities related to the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-US ties," a statement on the ministry's website said.

Rice had earlier told AFP she planned to visit China shortly after the New Year to mark the anniversary, saying she thought it was "important" to do so, but the exact dates had not been released.

The United States switched its diplomatic recognition to communist-ruled China on January 1, 1979, ending decades of US support for Taiwan's Nationalist government, Beijing's rival since the civil war that ended in 1949.

However, with the Bush administration making way for President-elect Barack Obama's on January 20, Rice indicated earlier that little else of substance appeared likely to emerge from her visit to China.

"We are looking at what else I might do on that trip" besides the anniversary activities, she had said.

Friday's statement from Beijing said Rice and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi would "exchange opinions on bilateral ties and issues of mutual concern," giving no details.

The United States and China, an emerging world power, often meet to discuss North Korea's nuclear disarmament, Iran's nuclear ambitions, international terrorism, human rights and other issues.

Last month China chaired talks with the United States, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia that failed to agree with North Korea on ways of determining whether the reclusive Stalinist state was telling the truth about its atomic weapons.

That failure left a new impasse in the six-party negotiations aimed at scrapping Pyongyang's nuclear weapons under a landmark 2007 agreement.

Obama to meet with lawmakers, former presidents

AP, Chicago

President-elect Barack Obama will meet with congressional leaders to discuss his economic stimulus plan and other legislative issues soon after his arrival in Washington in the coming days.

Obama and his family planned to fly to Washington on Sunday after their holiday vacation in Hawaii and a stopover in Chicago.

The president-elect was to meet with congressional leaders Monday, according to a senior Democratic congressional aide. Obama will meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then join with them in a meeting with GOP leaders, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he had not been authorized to discuss the plans.

Obama was also scheduled to talk with President George W. Bush and former presidents at the White House on Wednesday.

Obama, his wife Michelle, and their children left his native Hawaii on Thursday after a 12-day vacation and flew to Chicago, arriving early Friday. The Obamas planned to go to Washington on Sunday so 7-year-old Sasha and 10-year-old Malia can start school on Monday.

The Obamas aren't set to move into the president-elect's traditional Washington quarters until Jan. 15. In the interim, the first family-in-waiting will stay at the historic Hay-Adams Hotel near the White House.

The Obamas kept a low profile while vacationing on the island of Oahu. Aside from daily trips to the gym and golf courses, the president-elect seldom left his vacation retreat, a rented $9 million home near Honolulu. When he did venture out, it usually was to grab some shave ice, a local treat, go to the zoo or take some other child-friendly excursion.

Michelle Obama similarly remained out of sight, other than the occasional trip to the gym. She did not join Obama and the girls when they went to an aquatic park or to the zoo, nor when he visited the nearby Marine base on Christmas Day.

While on vacation, Obama tried to take advantage of his last break before being sworn in as the nation's 44th president on Jan. 20.

Taiwan echos China’s call for end to hostilities

AFP, Taipei

Taiwan on Thursday reacted positively to Chinese President Hu Jintao's call for a truce with the island, in a further sign of rapidly improving ties between the formerly bitter foes.

"We're pleased to see cross-Strait ties developing on the axis of 'peaceful development,' under which the two sides can negotiate, launch exchanges and benefit each other," Taiwan's presidential office spokesman Wang Yu-chi said in a statement. By calling a truce, the two sides "can terminate hostilities, further understanding of each other and bolster cooperation," he said. The statement came a day after Hu called for military cooperation between the two sides in an address marking the 30th anniversary of a message from China to "compatriots in Taiwan" calling for peaceful reunification.

In his statement Thursday, Wang urged Beijing to take note of the differing views of Taiwan's people as its pro-China government pushes for detente.

Closer engagement with China "is the mainstream opinion here and has won comprehensive support from international community, but Taiwan is a democratic society whose people harbour different views towards the future of Taiwant which we should respect," he said.

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the end of a civil war in 1949 but Beijing considers the island part of its territory and is determined to get it back, by force if necessary.

But relations have improved dramatically since Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang party took office last May.

The two sides last month launched historic direct daily flights, postal and shipping services, in a move expected to boost trade ties.

Thai police say cause of club fire still unclear

Reuters, Bangkok

The cause of a fire in a Bangkok nightclub that killed 59 New Year revelers is still not clear so it is premature to file criminal charges, Thai police said on Friday.

More than 200 people were also injured in the fire, which broke out in the early hours of Thursday in the Santika nightclub, popular with both foreigners and high-society Thais.

"We can't charge anybody right now because things are still unclear," Deputy National Police Chief Chongrak Chutanont told a news conference.

"The only charge we could lay against the club owner is allowing teenagers aged below 18 to enter," he said.

Police also have to check with the Commerce Ministry to identify the real owner of the nightclub but that will not be possible until January 5, when Thai government offices and businesses reopen after the long year-end holiday.

"We need to find out in the club's registration record who holds the biggest share, then we'll lay charges against the right person," said police Superintendant Suthin Suppuang.

Witnesses and local media have said the fire was caused by fireworks or by an electrical fault. Police have denied speculation it was the result of an arson attack as the club held its farewell party on New Year's Eve due to its lease expiring.

One Singaporean man, identified as Teo Sze Siong, was among the dead, and several foreign clubbers were treated in hospital.

More than 100 people were still hospitalized on Friday. Some 32 were seriously injured, including two Americans and one Briton, an official at an emergency center said.

Dozens of bodies wrapped in white cotton sheets were moved from the club to the police headquarters, many of them charred beyond recognition.

"Sixteen dead bodies are still unclaimed and need to be identified by DNA test," a police official said.

Voting starts in key Ghana constituency

AFP, Nkawsaw

Voting began Friday in a remote farming region of Ghana in an election that will determine the outcome of the presidential vote of a country seen as a model of democracy in west Africa.

Polling stations in the region bordering Ivory Coast were set to close at 5:00 pm (1700 GMT), despite a move by Ghana's ruling New Patriotic Front (NPP) party to stop the election from taking place in Tain.

An AFP photographer said agents of the ruling party were absent from polling stations.

Tain, which measures the equivalent of just 40 miles (65 kilometres) up and across, is the last of Ghana's 230 constituencies to vote.

Problems with distributing ballot papers had halted Taun's participation in a runoff poll on December 28.

Partial election results from 229 constituencies have shown opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate John Atta-Mills holding a thin lead of around 23,000 votes over ruling party rival Nana Akufo-Addo.

Akufo-Addo won the first round of voting on December 7, but not with enough votes to make him the outright winner.

On Thursday, the ruling party had sought an injunction to stop the electoral commission from announcing poll results before investigating what the NPP alleged were irregularities in Sunday's vote in an opposition stronghold.

It then also sought a court order to prevent the election from taking place in Tain on Friday.

Stakes have been high in the race to choose the man who will be governing the former British colony, known as the Gold Coast before independence in 1957, when it starts pumping oil in 2010.

The election has been the country's fifth since the return to multi-party democracy in 1992 -- to succeed John Kufuor, one of Africa's most respected leaders who has to stand down after two terms.