Israel Gaza raids kill 14, Arabs urge policy review

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed 14 Palestinians on Saturday and destroyed the Hamas government headquarters, prompting Arab leaders to call for a review of their entire policy on the Middle East peace process.

Medics said 44 Gazans have been killed and more than 390 wounded since Israel launched its aerial campaign on Wednesday afternoon, with at least eight militants among the 14 people killed on Saturday.

As the toll rose, sirens sounded in Tel Aviv for a third day, sending people scuttling for cover a day after a rocket hit the sea near the city centre, AFP correspondents said.

Israeli officials said one rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system while a second hit somewhere in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. The attack was claimed by Hamas' armed wing.

Nine people in Israel were injured by militant rocket fire.

Warplanes carried out 180 air strikes on Gaza overnight, Israeli television reported, with attacks levelling the headquarters of the Hamas government.

In Egypt, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel would be held to account for the children killed.

"Everyone must know that sooner or later there will be a holding to account for the massacre of these innocent children killed inhumanely in Gaza," he said in a speech in Cairo.

So far, six children have been killed, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said.

Both Turkey and Egypt have publicly shrugged off US bids to get them to exert pressure on the Islamist Hamas into ending rocket fire, instead blaming the Jewish state for the violence.

Arab foreign ministers at an emergency meeting in Cairo roundly denounced Israel's Gaza campaign and demanded a review of what they called their futile diplomacy towards the Jewish state.

Member states should "reconsider all past Arab initiatives on the peace process and review their stance on the process as a whole," said Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.

In 2002, Arab states offered Israel diplomatic recognition in return for its withdrawal from all occupied territory and an equitable settlement of the Palestinian refugee question, a cornerstone of Arab diplomacy ever since.

Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal was also in Cairo on Saturday to meet Egypt's intelligence chief, Erdogan and Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, a senior Hamas official said.

US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said both President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree that de-escalation is preferable, provided that Hamas ceases firing on Israel.

"We believe that the precipitating factor for the conflict was the rocket fire coming out of Gaza," Rhodes told reporters aboard Air Force One.

"We believe that Israel has a right to defend itself, and they'll make their own decisions about the tactics that they use in that regard."

Since the start of Operation Pillar of Defence, the Israeli army says militants have fired more than 600 rockets over the border, of which 430 hit and 245 were intercepted by Iron Dome missiles.

Over the same period, three Israelis have been killed and 18 injured, including 10 soldiers, with the army saying the air force had hit more than 950 targets in Gaza.

The Israeli military in a statement on Saturday said the air force had targeted "a senior Hamas operative in charge of the terror organisation's smuggling operations.. and the senior member of Hamas' air defence unit, Mohammed Kaleb."

Four Israeli soldiers and five civilians were hurt in separate rocket attacks on Saturday, police and the army said. Hamas claimed the attack on the soldiers, while Islamic Jihad said it fired rockets which injured civilians in Ashdod.

Multiple Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Saturday killed 14 people, including at least eight militants.

Late on Friday, the military sealed off all main roads around Gaza in the latest sign it was poised to launch its first ground offensive on the territory since its 22-day campaign over New Year 2009.

Israeli ministers approved the call-up of as many as 75,000 reservists on Friday after Hamas militants said they fired a rocket at Jerusalem, and another hit the sea off Tel Aviv, causing panic but no casualties.

Meanwhile, online activist group Anonymous said it had downed the websites of dozens of Israeli state agencies and the Bank of Jerusalem in protest over the deadly air assault on Gaza.

- AFP/de

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His network cut across party lines

NEW DELHI: It is said that every contract or business Ponty Chadha eyed became his — and much before the charade of auctions was played out.

Ponty was known for his ability to turn the free-flowing liquor from his vends into a viscous glue that bound him to politicians across ideologies and parties. And make him flourish.

No wonder, on the cusp of winning power in Uttar Pradesh this March, the first family of the Samajwadi Party didn't hesitate to show up at the same ill-fated Chhatarpur farmhouse hours after Akhilesh Yadav had barely come off the microphone promising to end Chadha's illegalities under Mayawati. Not just them, former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh too never shied away from acknowledging his ties with the liquor baron.

Politicians of all hues, bureaucrats of all dispensations, brokers of all shapes bowed to this master of the liquor trade — and as years went by, of much more.

Only someone confident of his ability to negotiate the Mulayam-Mayawati political minefield of UP would have risked investments of that scale in the state.

The story of how Ponty lost an arm as a young man in Bareilly speaks volumes about his obsessiveness.

He was flying kites with a metal string which got entangled with a live electric wire. But Ponty didn't let go. He rolled back the string while trying to untangle the kite from the main power line. The continuing electric shock from the live wire forced an amputation.

Target-obsessed

The incident showed his obsession with the target on hand. Very early in his career, Ponty realized that political patronage was the key to success in business. And decided he would cultivate politicians better than anyone else.

So, the man who made it big under Mulayam Singh Yadav also went on to capture liquor business under his arch-rival Mayawati, and while at it, snapped up five sugar mills belonging to the state government for a song. Ponty's business had morphed into a behemoth with massive investments in liquor, sugar, malls, paper, and real estate in UP.

It's said he knew what made political leaders happy, what were their passion, love and weaknesses. "That is why he was close to both SP and BSP in UP, and both Akali Dal and Congress in Punjab," said a political researcher. Mulayam Singh Yadav gave him a foothold in UP. But that did not stop him from spreading his wings under Mayawati regime. It's said that when faced with problems in the BSP regime, he bypassed the most powerful bureaucrat of the regime, known as single-window clearance, to connect with the chief minister through a junior IAS. And went on to thrive.

In Mayawati's reign, Ponty grew his liquor business - he became the sole distributor of liquor in UP, and acquired distilleries and sugar mills. It's said despite his aversion for publicity, Ponty was known to every tippler in the state. Vends in UP charged Rs 20 above the sale price on every bottle, fully aware that consumers had no choice in the face of Ponty's monopoly. Even small change of Rs 5 and 10 was returned to buyers in the form of small packets of munchies, the brand called "khao pio". The salted mixture is also produced by Chadha bros!

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

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Israel hits Hamas buildings, shoots down Tel Aviv-bound rocket

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza, and the "Iron Dome" defense system shot down a Tel Aviv-bound rocket on Saturday as Israel geared up for a possible ground invasion.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, said Israeli missiles wrecked the office building of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - where he had met on Friday with the Egyptian prime minister - and struck a police headquarters.

Along the Tel Aviv beachfront, volleyball games came to an abrupt halt and people crouched as sirens sounded. Two interceptor rockets streaked into the sky. A flash and an explosion followed as Iron Dome, deployed only hours earlier near the city, destroyed the incoming projectile in mid-air.

With Israeli tanks and artillery positioned along the Gaza border and no end in sight to hostilities now in their fourth day, Tunisia's foreign minister travelled to the enclave in a show of Arab solidarity.

In Cairo, a presidential source said Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi would hold four-way talks with the Qatari emir, the prime minister of Turkey and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in the Egyptian capital on Saturday to discuss the Gaza crisis.

Egypt has been working to reinstate calm between Israel and Hamas after an informal ceasefire brokered by Cairo unraveled over the past few weeks. Meshaal, who lives in exile, has already held a round of talks with Egyptian security officials.

Officials in Gaza said 43 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians including eight children, had been killed since Israel began its air strikes. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.

Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday with the declared goal of deterring Hamas from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

The Israeli army said it had zeroed in on a number of government buildings during the night, including Haniyeh's office, the Hamas Interior Ministry and a police compound.

Taher al-Nono, a spokesman for the Hamas government, held a news conference near the rubble of the prime minister's office and pledged: "We will declare victory from here."

Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility for Saturday's rocket attack on Tel Aviv, the third against the city since Wednesday. It said it fired an Iranian-designed Fajr-5 at the coastal metropolis, some 70 km (43 miles) north of Gaza.

"Well that wasn't such a big deal," said one woman, who had watched the interception while clinging for protection to the trunk of a baby palm tree on a traffic island.

In the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod, a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt.

Among those killed in airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday were at least four suspected militants riding on motorcycles.

Israel's operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel's right to self-defense, along with appeals to avoid civilian casualties.

Hamas, shunned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel, says its cross-border attacks have come in response to Israeli strikes against Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

RESERVIST CALL-UP

At a late night session on Friday, Israeli cabinet ministers decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000, political sources said, in a signal Israel was edging closer to an invasion.

Around 16,000 reservists have already been called up.

Asked by reporters whether a ground operation was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: "Definitely."

"We have a plan ... it will take time. We need to have patience. It won't be a day or two," he added.

A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, favorite to win a January national election.

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-09, killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

But the Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.

"Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river," Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said as he surveyed the wreckage from a bomb-blast site in central Gaza.

One major change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, potentially narrowing Israel's manoeuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.

"DE-ESCALATION"

Netanyahu spoke late on Friday with U.S. President Barack Obama for the second time since the offensive began, the prime minister's office said in a statement.

"(Netanyahu) expressed his deep appreciation for the U.S. position that Israel has a right to defend itself and thanked him for American aid in purchasing Iron Dome batteries," the statement added.

The two leaders have had a testy relationship and have been at odds over how to curb Iran's nuclear program.

A White House official said on Saturday Obama called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to discuss how the two countries could help bring an end to the Gaza conflict.

Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, told reporters that Washington "wants the same thing as the Israelis want", an end to rocket attacks from Gaza. He said the United States is emphasizing diplomacy and "de-escalation".

In Berlin, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had spoken to Netanyahu and Egypt's Mursi, stressing to the Israeli leader that Israel had a right to self-defense and that a ceasefire must be agreed as soon as possible to avoid more bloodshed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt next week to push for an end to the fighting in Gaza, U.N. diplomats said on Friday.

The Israeli military said 492 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since the operation began. Iron Dome intercepted another 245.

In Jerusalem, targeted by a Palestinian rocket on Friday for the first time in 42 years, there was little outward sign on the Jewish Sabbath that the attack had any impact on the usually placid pace of life in the holy city.

Some families in Gaza have abandoned their homes - some of them damaged and others situated near potential Israeli targets - and packed into the houses of friends and relatives.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Douglas Hamilton in Tel Aviv, Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Jeff Mason aboard Air Force One, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; editing by Crispian Balmer)

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Swimming: Olympic champ Muffat sets 800m freestyle record

ANGERS, France: France's Olympic gold medallist Camille Muffat set a new world record in the short course women's 800m freestyle event at the French championships on Friday.

Muffat timed 8min 01.06sec, smashing the previous mark of 8:04.53 set by Italian Alessia Filippi in Rijeka, Croatia, in December 2008, a time before the ban on high-tech polyurethane swimsuits.

"My best time over the distance was 8:23," Muffat said. "Fabrice (Pellerin, her coach) threw down the gauntlet and told me I could do 8.04. I couldn't duck that!"

At the London Games this summer, the 23-year-old Muffat claimed gold in the 400m individual freestyle with a new Olympic record, as well as silver in the 200m freestyle and a bronze as part of the 4x200m freestyle team.

Her new world record follows that by her training partner Yannick Agnel in the men's 400m freestyle on Thursday.

- AFP/fa

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Followers hopeful of Tiger’s recovery

MUMBAI: After two tense days, the mood at Matoshree was slightly upbeat on Friday.

With Shiv Sena CEO Uddhav Thackeray making an announcement of improvement in his father's health late on Thursday and senior Sena leaders claiming on Friday that there was further improvement in Bal Thackeray's health, Shiv Sainiks and Bal Thackeray followers waiting outside Matoshree cheered and prayed for the speedy recovery of their leader.

Slogans of Darshan Dya, Darsha Dya Balasaheb Darshan Dya (Balasaheb make an appearance) and Hindustan ki Shaan Hai, Balasaheb Hamari Jaan Hai (Balasaheb is the nation's pride and he lives in our hearts) were heard outside the cordoned off area at Matoshree as supporters eagerly awaited every health update.

The Sena flag was hoisted as well. Hope and enthusiasm rose further after a delegation of Shiv Sena leaders, led by legislator Diwakar Raote, informed supporters that there had been an improvement in the Sena supremo's health. Raote said, "Nothing could happen to Bal Thackeray till he had the armour of Shiv Sainiks around him."

Following Uddhav's statement, the crowd had thinned on Friday.

Activists offered namaz for the leader's health in a corner outside the barricaded area around 5.30pm. Fifteen minutes later, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut addressed the media on Thackeray's health, saying his vital parameters had improved. He added that the day was not far when Bal Thackeray would make an appearance before his supporters. Later in the evening, Sena leader Manohar Joshi said, "There has been an improvement in his health, but it's slow."

"Balasaheb has always said that Sainiks were his tonic," Raut said.

Two Kolhapur teenagers—Pandurang Bongarde and Chandrakant Porlekar— made a week-long road journey to Matoshree. While Porlekar cycled his way, Bongarde jogged the distance. "We have brought blessings for Balasaheb from the Mahalaxmi temple at Kolhapur," Porlekar said. Both of them were taken inside Matoshree. Police commissioner Satyapal Singh held a meeting with Sena leaders inside Matoshree in the evening.

On Friday, many eminent visitors were seen at Matoshree, including BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu, state forest minister Patangrao Kadam and irrigation minister Sunil Tatkare, actress and MP Hema Malini, actors Jeetendra, Rakesh Roshan, Sanjay and Zayed Khan, Mukesh Khanna Pithadeesh Narendra Chari of the Shri Krishnadeo Charitable Trust at Dwarka and BJP leader Shaina NC.

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

Read More..

Petraeus Grilled Over Ambassador Rice

Disgraced former CIA director Petraeus spent almost four hours in closed door hearings before the House and Senate intelligence committees this morning to testify about what he learned first-hand about the Sept. 11 attack in the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

Democratic senators who emerged from the hearing said Petraeus' testimony supported U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice.

Rice, who could be nominated for Secretary of State by President Obama, has been accused by Republicans of trying to mislead the country by saying the attack was a spontaneous eruption rather than a failure to defend against a terrorist attack.

Click here to learn more about the timeline of the Petraeus affair.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Rice was speaking from talking points prepared by the CIA and approved by the intelligence committee.

"The key is that they were unclassified talking points at a very early stage. And I don't think she should be pilloried for this. She did what I would have done or anyone else would have done that was going on a weekend show," Feinstein said. "To say that she is unqualified to be Secretary of State I think is a mistake. And the way it keeps going it's almost as if the intent is to assassinate her character."

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said Petraeus' testimony "clarified some of the issues that were still a little cloudy" over the attacks.

Chambliss said Rice "went beyond" the talking points. "She even mentioned that under the leadership of Barack Obama we had decimated al Qaeda. Well, she knew at that time that al Qaeda was very likely responsible in part or in whole for the death of Ambassador Stevens," he said.

Karen BleierAFP/Getty Images

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Petraeus was before the House committee for about 90 minutes, and then spent more than two hours before the Senate panel, but Congressional officials made sure that no one else got speak to or even see the former four-star general.

He was brought into the House before reporters were aware of his presence and Capitol Hill police cleared out a passage way from the House to the Senate, even requiring congressional staff to stay out of the hallways and elevators.

Feinstein attributed the heightened security to a concern for Petraeus' well-being.

"The general was both eager and willing to give us his views on this and his experience on it and that is very much appreciated particularly because of the situation. We didn't want to make it any more difficult for him. And you know, you people aren't always the easiest," Feinstein said, speaking to members of the press.

The committees had been pushing to hear from Petraeus about the Benghazi attack, particularly since he
traveled to Libya and carried out his own investigation into what happened.

Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the sex scandal that forced Petraeus to abruptly resign was not a factor in the hearing, which was confined to the terror attack that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

"Ten seconds into it, that was off to the side," King said, referring to the scandal.

The congressman said that what Petraeus told the panel "will all be classified other than it was clear it did not arise from a demonstration and it was a terror attack."

King said that Petraeus maintained that he said early on that the ambush was a result of terrorism, but King added that he remembered Petraeus and the Obama administration downplaying the role of an al Qaeda affiliate in the attack in the days after Stevens was killed. The administration initially said the attack grew out of a spontaneous demonstration against a video that lampooned the Prophet Mohammed.

"That is not my recollection" of what Petraeus initially said, King said today.

The congressman suggested that pressing Petraeus was awkward at times.

"It's a lot easier when you dislike the guy," King said.

Petraeus resigned last week after disclosing an extramarital affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell.

He expressed regret for his affair during his opening statements before the Senate, but the committee was more interested in finding out what Petraeus learned from his trip to Libya in the days after the killings.

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