The New Nation - Internet Edition

Gaza hospital overwhelmed by dead, wounded

AP, Gaza City

Wailing in grief, Salah Samouni banged his head against a wall inside the hospital morgue where the bodies of his three young nephews lay on the floor Monday.

After 10 days of a relentless Israeli assault, Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, is overwhelmed. Bodies were crowded two to a morgue drawer, and some - like 3-year-old Issa, 4-year-old Mohammed and 5-year-old Ahmad - were on the floor.

Shifa's shabby halls echoed Monday with the sounds of people screaming and the wail of ambulance sirens. Many of the wounded were being treated in hallways by harried doctors and nurses running on little sleep. The hospital was powered by emergency generators after shelling damaged power lines.

Since Israel began a ground offensive Saturday, most of the dead and wounded arriving at Shifa are civilians, as Israel's offensive shifts from airstrikes to artillery shelling and fighting close to densely populated areas.

Israel says it is targeting only the Hamas militants who control Gaza in an attempt to halt seven years of rocket fire at Israeli communities. But the 550 Palestinians who have been killed include at least 200 civilians, according to Dr. Moaiya Hassanein of the Gaza Health Ministry.

On Monday, 20 children between the ages of 2 and 15 were killed, he said. Since the military offensive began Dec. 27, three Israeli civilians and two soldiers have been killed.

Nurse Ahmad Abdul Salam, 34, red-eyed and smelling of sweat, his clothes stained with blood, said he couldn't sleep. "When my shift ends, I help my colleagues. These are our brothers and friends who are being harmed," he said.

The hospital's most gruesome scene was in its morgue, where blood pooled on the floor and refrigerators meant to hold 35 bodies were crammed with 70, laid side-by-side in drawers.

Lying on a gray mat on the floor, the three Samouni brothers appeared baby-faced and almost as though they were asleep, except for a large bandage wrapped around Issa's head.

The children's father was also killed in what relatives said was an Israeli strike on a house in eastern Gaza City where the family had fled to escape fighting nearby.

Relatives wept Monday and one man screamed for help for other family members he said were buried under the rubble of the house. "For God's sake, rescue them!" he pleaded.

No militants were seen at Shifa. Israel says its forces have killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen, but Hamas has not listed its casualties and it is unclear where militants are being treated or where their bodies were taken.

Shifa has been powered by generators since power completely cut out in Gaza City three days ago. Israel has not replenished Gaza's power station with industrial fuel since fighting began, and airstrikes have badly damaged power lines.

U.N. health official Mahmoud Daher said the generators were meant only as an emergency backup and he feared they would break down with the constant use, imperiling some 70 people hooked up to lifesaving equipment.

Throughout the day, exhausted medics rushed in with the wounded and the bodies of the dead.

World fears grow over Gaza 'humanitarian crisis’

AFP, Moscow

World leaders hardened their rhetoric and expressed mounting concern about the impact on civilians of the fighting in Gaza Monday, as Israel rejected diplomatic efforts to bring it to an end.

As the Israeli offensive marked its 10th day, European diplomats were in the Middle East seeking a truce while Arab states prepared their own new draft resolution for a durable end to the conflict. From the West Bank, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would tell Israel the "violence must halt" in Gaza, while blasting the Hamas militant group that controls the strip for acting in an "irresponsible and unforgivable way".

But in Washington, outgoing President George W. Bush laid the blame squarely on Hamas. "I can understand Israel's desire to protect itself and that the situation now taking place in Gaza was caused by Hamas," he said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for an immediate ceasefire during a telephone conversation with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, the Kremlin said. And in Dubai, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told pan-Arab al-Jazeera news channel that in its blockade of Gaza, "Israel (was) the one which provoked and incited, not Hamas."

The fresh expressions of alarm came as Gaza medical services put the latest Palestinian death toll from the Israeli offense at 555, with 50 Palestinians including 12 children killed on Monday.

Japanese PM rejects calls for resignation

AP, Tokyo

Increasingly unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso rejected calls Tuesday for his resignation, insisting he needs to steer the world's second-largest economy out of recession.

Aso's support now stands at just 20 percent amid growing public frustration over his handling of the sluggish economy, but he said the nation must be patient.

"I am confident that the ruling party and I can implement effective measures to boost the economy," said Aso, who is president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Air India sacks 10 air hostesses for being overweight

Reuters, New Delhi

State-run carrier Air India sacked 10 air hostesses for being "exceptionally overweight", a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The staff had been grounded for years and were sacked after a medical board declared them unfit for duty. The airline says they were given ample opportunity to shed weight.

Vietnam girl tests positive for bird flu

AFP, Hanoi

A Vietnamese girl has tested positive for bird flu, health officials said Tuesday, in the first reported human case of the deadly virus in the Southeast Asian country since early last year.

The eight-year-old girl from northern Thanh Hoa province fell ill with serious pneumonia on December 27 after eating poultry and was admitted to a provincial hospital on January 2, said health officials.

Young pro-India leader sworn in as Kashmir CM

AFP, Jammu

A young pro-India Muslim was Monday sworn in as the new chief minister of revolt-hit Kashmir after elections that attracted a higher turnout than many politicians and voters expected.

Omar Abdullah, the 38-year-old leader of the National Conference, took the oath of office at a tightly guarded auditorium in Jammu, the state's winter capital.

Despite a boycott call by separatists and Islamic rebels, more than 60 percent of voters took part in the polls, which came after a period of direct federal rule.

Kashmir is divided into Indian- and Pakistani-controlled zones and has been the trigger for two wars between the South Asian rivals since their independence from Britain in 1947.

Abdullah was backed by India's ruling Congress party for the top job, after polls in the troubled Muslim-majority region produced no single party strong enough to form the government on its own.

UN Council to weigh new call for effective Gaza truce

AFP, United Nations

The UN Security Council was to meet again Tuesday to weigh an Arab call for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict in the Gaza Strip and for protection of Palestinian civilians, diplomats said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the 15-member body this month, was to chair Tuesday's meeting, scheduled for 5 pm (2200 GMT), according to France's UN Ambassador to the UN Jean-Maurice Ripert said. A Western diplomat said France was working with Arab states to finalize a draft resolution that would call for an immediate ceasefire, specifically an end to the Israeli military assault as well as to rocket firing into Israel by Gaza-based militants. The text would also urge the lifting of the Israeli siege of Gaza to allow humanitarian access to the beleaguered Palestinian population, protection of Palestinian civilians, a resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and a mechanism to monitor the truce and the protection of civilians, diplomats said.

India PM says Pakistan whipping up war hysteria

Reuters, New Delhi

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday that Pakistan was whipping up war hysteria, and that the Mumbai attacks must have had support from some of its nuclear-armed neighbor's official agencies.

The prime minister's comments were the latest in almost daily government criticism of Pakistan, in a sign that New Delhi has become increasingly frustrated at what it sees as Islamabad's slowness at identifying and arresting the attack's planners.

India blames Pakistan militants for the coordinated strikes in November by 10 gunmen that killed 179 people and have revived tension between two nations that have fought three wars since 1947.

"The more fragile a government, the more it tends to act in an irresponsible fashion," Singh told a security conference. "Pakistan's responses to our various demarches on terrorist attacks is an example."

Obama picks Leon Panetta as CIA head

AFP, Washington

US president-elect Barack Obama has chosen former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to head the Central Intelligence Agency, a Democratic Party official told AFP.

In turning to a political heavyweight with no direct background in intelligence, Obama appeared to be opting for someone who would bring fresh eyes and credibility to an agency battered by controversy over its conduct of the war on terrorism.

"Here is a guy who will be very credible with the Democrats in Congress and here's someone who brings not only an outsider's perspective but knows how the White House works," said James Lewis, an intelligence expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.