Nine Palestinians were killed as Israel pounded Gaza with deadly air strikes and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert defended the massive military offensive in the face of international criticism.

Despite the mounting toll, Hamas’s exiled political chief insisted the captured soldier at the heart of the worst Middle East crisis in months — and the deadliest in four years — would not be freed without a swap for Palestinian prisoners.

Israel has refused to negotiate with Hamas or free prisoners in exchange for the missing teenage corporal, pressing on regardless with its deadly offensive in which three football-playing adolescents were among the dead Monday.
news.yahoo.com

The Wahbas’ last meal
They’d all sat down to have lunch at home: The mother Fatma, her daughter Farah, 2; her son Khaled, 1; Fatma’s brother, Dr. Zakariya Ahmed; his daughter-in-law Shayma, who was nine months pregnant; and the 78-year-old grandmother. A family gathering in Khan Yunis in honor of the uncle, who’d arrived home six days earlier from Saudi Arabia.

A big boom is heard outside. Fatma hurriedly scoops up the littlest one and tries to escape into an inner room. But another boom follows immediately. This time it’s a direct hit by the second missile fired by the excellent Israel Air Force pilot, and it comes right into the dining room through the ceiling. Fatma, three months pregnant, is killed on the spot by the shrapnel that hits her spine. Her brother, Dr. Ahmed, is also killed. His daughter-in-law miscarries her child, the little girl Farah is moderately injured and the baby of the family, Khaled, is critically injured in the head. A puddle of blood collects on the floor. Only the grandmother is unhurt. It will be many minutes before the ambulance arrives. This was the last meal of the Wahba family.

‘Apartheid Israel’ worse than apartheid SA
The “apartheid Israel state” is worse than the apartheid that was conducted in South Africa, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha said on Monday.

He said Palestinians were being attacked with heavy machinery and tanks used in war, which had never happened in South Africa.

Cosatu and other organisations supporting Palestine have called on government to end diplomatic relations with Israel and establish boycotts and sanctions such as those against apartheid South Africa.

AP) NEW DELHI India’s first test-firing of a new missile designed to carry nuclear warheads across much of Asia and the Middle East was unsuccessful, the defense minister said. Although initially reported as a success by officials, the Agni III missile plunged into the Bay of Bengal short of its target, Defense Pranab Mukherjee told reporters late Sunday.

Following the failed missile launch, an Indian rocket carrying a satellite for TV broadcasts veered off course and exploded after takeoff Monday, Indian media reported.

The missile launch came as President Bush tries to push a civilian nuclear deal with India past a skeptical Congress. The deal permits India to keep making nuclear weapons, and critics say the pact could undermine the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Even though the deal does not cover missiles, the Hindu newspaper reported Monday that the top U.S. general, Peter Pace, gave Indian officials the green light to conduct the test when he visited India last month. The missile test reportedly had been delayed for two years by technical issues and fears of international condemnation.
cbs2chicago.com

India as US enforcer in Asia? I think so.

Japan Considers Strike Against N. Korea
TOKYO Jul 10, 2006 (AP)„ Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North’s missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo’s proposal for sanctions against the regime.

Japan was badly rattled by North Korea’s missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites.

“If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ƒ there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.

Japan’s constitution currently bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits Japan from maintaining a military for warfare. Tokyo has interpreted that to mean it can have armed troops to protect itself, allowing the existence of its 240,000-strong Self-Defense Forces.

In Somalia, Islamic militia fighters have attacked an enclave of a rival militia that supports warlords in the capital, Mogadishu.

Witnesses in Mogadishu, say at least 21 people were killed and more than 20 wounded were wounded Sunday as the rival militias fought with mortars, artillery and other heavy weapons.

Islamic fighters have been targeting militiamen loyal to secular warlords who lost control of Mogadishu last month.
voanews.com

TEHRAN – A former Iranian ambassador and Islamic Republic insider has provided intriguing details to Asia Times Online about US covert operations inside Iran aimed at destabilizing the country and toppling the regime – or preparing for an American attack.

“The Iranian government knows and is aware of such infiltration. It means that the Iranian government has identified them [the covert operatives] but for some reason does not want to show [this],” said the former diplomat on condition of anonymity.

Speaking in Tehran, the ex-Foreign Ministry official said the agents being used by the US “were originally Iranians and not Americans” possibly recruited in the United States or through US embassies in Dubai and Ankara. He also warned that such actions will engender “some reactions”.
atimes.com

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq will ask the United Nations to end immunity from local law for U.S. troops, the human rights minister said on Monday, as the military named five soldiers charged in a rape-murder case that has outraged Iraqis.

In an interview a week after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded a review of foreign troops’ immunity, Wigdan Michael said work on it was now under way and a request could be ready by next month to go to the U.N. Security Council, under whose mandate U.S.-led forces are in control of Iraq.

“We’re very serious about this,” she said, blaming a lack of enforcement of U.S. military law in the past for encouraging soldiers to commit crimes against Iraqi civilians, such as the alleged rape and murder of a teenager and killing of her family.

“We formed a committee last week to prepare reports and put it before the cabinet in three weeks. After that, Maliki will present it to the Security Council. We will ask them to lift the immunity,” Michael said. “If we don’t get that, then we’ll ask for an effective role in the investigations that are going on.

“The Iraqi government must have a role.”

Analysts say it is improbable the United States would ever make its troops answerable to Iraq’s chaotic judicial system.
scotsman.com

Iraq moved further towards all out sectarian civil war yesterday after Shia gunmen attacked a Sunni district in Baghdad, killing at least 42 people. Many were dragged from their cars at two fake police checkpoints and shot dead.

Masked Shia militiamen, probably from the Mehdi Army, stormed into the Sunni district of Jihad in west Baghdad in revenge for a bomb attack on a Shia mosque. Four carloads of gunmen arrived at 10am and started stopping vehicles. Those with identity cards showing they had Sunni names were shot. Bodies were dumped throughout the area.

…A savage sectarian conflict is now raging in Baghdad and nearby provinces in central Baghdad. Both the Shia and Sunni communities are turning districts in which they are a majority into bastions from which the minority is expelled.

…The US has always been opposed to Iraq becoming a Shia-dominated state, led by religious parties and closely allied to Iran. One effect of the increasing sectarian violence has been to reduce US casualties, with only nine American soldiers killed this month – which is less than half the usual rate.

Baghdad is becoming more like Beirut during the Lebanese civil war, with people being routinely slaughtered because of their identity card showing their name and place of birth. Many mixed districts are becoming either Sunni or Shia. Even a hardcore Sunni district such as Amariya in west Baghdad was once 30 per cent Shia.
independent.co.uk

Seven Questions: Covering Iraq
FOREIGN POLICY: Are Americans getting an accurate picture of whatÍs going on in Iraq?

Rod Nordland: It’s a lot worse over here [in Iraq] than is reported. The administration does a great job of managing the news. Just an example: There was a press conference here about [Abu Musab al] Zarqawi’s death, and somebody asked what role [U.S.] Special Forces played in finding Zarqawi. [The official] either denied any role or didn’t answer the question. Somebody pointed out that the president, half an hour earlier, had already acknowledged and thanked the Special Forces for their involvement. They are just not giving very much information here.

FP: The Bush administration often complains that the reporting out of Iraq is too negative, yet you say they are managing the news. What’s the real story?

RN: You can only manage the news to a certain degree. It is certainly hard to hide the fact that in the third year of this war, Iraqis are only getting electricity for about 5 to 10 percent of the day. Living conditions have gotten so much worse, violence is at an even higher tempo, and the country is on the verge of civil war. The administration has been successful to the extent that most Americans are not aware of just how dire it is and how little progress has been made. They keep talking about how the Iraqi army is doing much better and taking over responsibilities, but for the most part that’s not true.

The story of the 2006 World Cup has been the resurrection of France. After a lackluster performance in its first two games, the French team shocked the football watching world – otherwise known as “the world” – by upsetting Spain and then dethroning Brazil, the second time in three World Cups the French have knocked off the global kings of “the beautiful game.”

While hundreds of thousands of people celebrated on the Champs-Elysí©es following France’s stunning turn-around, not everyone was feeling the joy. Proud racist and leader of the ultra-right wing National Front, Jean- Marie Le Pen, could not resist defiling the moment. Le Pen decried France’s multi- ethnic team as unrepresentative of French society, saying that France “cannot recognize itself in the national side,” and “maybe the coach exaggerated the proportion of players of color and should have been a bit more careful.”

Le Pen and others of his ilk do not recognize themselves in a team whose leader is of Algerian descent – Zinedine Zidane – and whose most feared striker is black – Thierry Henry. Le Pen used to torture Algerians for the French military in the 1950s and it turns his stomach that his team reflects France’s (and Europe’s) colonial past, with players from Cameroon, Guadalupe, Senegal, Congo, Algeria, and Benin among other countries.

Le Pen’s efforts to use the pitch as a battleground for his Neanderthal views about immigration and Islam have not gone unanswered. After his latest comments, France midfielder Lilian Thuram said, “Clearly, he is unaware that there are Frenchmen who are black, Frenchmen who are white, Frenchmen who are brown. I think that reflects particularly badly on a man who has aspirations to be president of France but yet clearly doesn’t know anything about French history or society…. That’s pretty serious. He’s the type of person who’d turn on the television and see the American basketball team and wonder: ‘Hold on, there are black people playing for America? What’s going on?'”

Thuram went on to say, “When we take to the field, we do so as Frenchmen. All of us. When people were celebrating our win, they were celebrating us as Frenchmen, not black men or white men. It doesn’t matter if we’re black or not, because we’re French. I’ve just got one thing to say to Jean Marie Le Pen.
The French team are all very, very proud to be French. If he’s got a problem with us, that’s down to him but we are proud to represent this country. So Vive la France, but the true France. Not the France that he wants.”

In addition, the immensely talented Henry has started an antiracist campaign called Stand Up Speak Up. Henry pushed his sponsor Nike to produce black and white intertwined armbands that demonstrate a commitment against racism. So far, they have sold more than five million. “That’s important in making the very real point that racism is a problem for everyone, a collective ailment,” Henry said to Time Magazine. “It shows that people of all colors, even adversaries on the pitch, are banding together in this, because we’re all suffering from it together.”
zmag.org

MEXICO CITY (AFP) – As many as 400,000 people turned out to protest what they said was a fraudulent conservative victory in Mexico’s presidential election, which the leftist candidate challenged in court, organizers said.

“What we are requesting is that the votes be recounted so that our triumph be demonstrated,” said leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, insisting he would demonstrate in court the July 2 election was plagued with irregularities.

He made it clear he was taking his protest both to the courts and to the streets.

Hundreds of thousands of his supporters massed on Mexico City’s downtown Zocalo Square to protest what the outcome of the balloting that gave conservative Felipe Calderon, of the ruling National Action Party (PAN,) the narrowest victory ever in a Mexican presidential election. And the crowd continued to grow.

“It was a massive fraud, those right-winger sure know how to cheat,” said Angel Farfan, 60, as the crowd chanted “Obrador president,” and hold up banners that proclaimed: “No to bloody fraud.”
news/yahoo/com

RACISM is “the belief that one ‘racial group’ is inferior to another and the practices of the dominant group to maintain the inferior position of the dominated group. Often defined as a combination of power, prejudice and discrimination.” This is how the British Library wished to define racism on its web site.

The above definition hardly deviates from the essence of almost all definitions of the ominous concept. And indeed, the concept is being fully utilised as I write these words in the Gaza Strip, with Israel’s onslaught against the Palestinians and the international community and media’s mild, if not accommodating response to the onslaught.

The capture of Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit is a clear act of self-defence. One of America’s top and most courageous international law professors wrote to me this week: “Insist on calling Gilad Shalit a prisoner of war, for he is one.” Well, maybe according to international law and the Geneva Conventions, but not CNN, Fox News and the increasingly spineless BBC, that insist on presenting the solider (with an overt emphasis on his young age) is a victim, who was “kidnapped” by Palestinian “militants”, who are “affiliated” with the Hamas government, and that Israel is doing its outmost to free him, insisting that there can be “no negotiations with terrorists.”

If reporters stationed with the invading Israeli soldiers, amassed in and around the Gaza Strip fail to communicate these assertions themselves, then they will do all they can to ensure that they are communicated by Israeli military spokespersons or ‘experts’, both seem to convey the same ideas.

By not challenging the Israeli narrative in any meaningful way, and dumping it on hapless viewers all around the world, the uncritical media has become a tool in the hands of Israel’s war strategists and their eternal concoctions. Consider this for example, an Israeli military commander tells a BBC correspondent dispatched to the border area between Israel and Gaza, that Israel intends on opening the border for “as long as it takes” to offset the humanitarian crisis developing in Gaza. The Israeli army representative in a barefaced lie declares that the border has always been open, despite the perpetual Palestinian ‘threat’ to the state of Israel. The BBC correspondent thanks him sincerely and signs off. I, in turn, throw my remote control at the television.
khaleejtimes.com

TIKRIT, Iraq – U.S. investigators have asked Iraqi authorities to help them navigate cultural sensitivities to exhume the body of a teenager allegedly raped and murdered with her family by American soldiers, a military official said Saturday.

U.S. Maj. Mark Wright said U.S. authorities are aware that Islamic tradition has strict rules governing exhumation and could require religious leaders to become involved in the investigation.

‘You want to be aware of these cultural issues while at the same time making sure that the accused receives proper justice,’ Wright, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, told The Associated Press.
msnbc.msn.com

so glad to hear they are ‘aware.’