Gaza, January 8
Israeli warplanes today bombed targets across the Gaza Strip and tanks advanced on Palestinian guerrillas as the US backing for a truce proposal raised expectations of an end to the offensive.

Residents in Gaza described the overnight bombardments to the east of the city as among the heaviest of the 13-day-old offensive.

In the south of the territory a phalanx of tanks advanced closer to the town of Khan Younis, witnesses said.

Although Israel pressed on with the offensive, it said it accepted the “principles” of a European-Egyptian ceasefire proposal. The US urged Israel to study the plan.

“We believe a ceasefire is necessary,” said US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

Israel’s assault resumed after a brief pause yesterday to help Gaza’s 1.5 million persons stock up on much-needed supplies. It was the first break in the nearly two-week offensive in which medics say 658 Palestinians have been killed.

But with both George W Bush’s outgoing administration and President-elect Barack Obama speaking out on the need for peace, officials said Israel would send an envoy to Cairo to discuss how the Egyptian plan might be implemented.

That may take several days. In the meantime, Israeli military commanders appear determined to keep up the pressure on the ground, even if a decision on whether to launch a new phase by targeting militants in Gaza’s urban centres was put off.

Rice echoed Israel’s concerns that a deal must achieve its goal of stopping the Hamas Islamists, who rule Gaza from hitting Israel with rockets. “It has to be a ceasefire that will not allow a return to the status quo,” she said.

Hamas said it was looking at the Egyptian plan, brokered by France, which addresses Israel’s demand that Hamas be prevented from rearming through smuggling tunnels from Egypt and also addresses Hamas’s call for an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza. — Reuters

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to name Richard C. Holbrooke as his special envoy to India and Pakistan.

Sources told The Tribune the nomination of Holbrooke, a longtime adviser to and supporter of Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton, is expected to be announced within days.

Holbrooke brokered the 1995 Dayton peace accords, which ended the war in Bosnia. He will take up his new job at a time when tensions between India and Pakistan are at a high in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.

New Delhi, which is opposed to US mediation in the Kashmir dispute, is wary about the prospect of a special envoy overseeing the issue.

A former Clinton administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an appropriate title for new post would be “special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan” so that India's concerns are dispelled.

“But the envoy would also find himself dealing with all the other key players in the region “including India”, the former official added.

Meanwhile, a Bush Administration official told The Tribune US officials were pressing the Pakistan government to cooperate with India in the Mumbai probe. “Pakistan is open to cooperation but cites difficulties as well in its ability to identify those responsible for the attacks,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, Pakistani officials admitted the terrorist abducted after the attacks in Mumbai was a Pakistani national. The Bush administration official said, “We know the links to Mumbai go back to Pakistani soil. Pakistan now has to accept that and make some very difficult decisions.”

The appointment of a special envoy is an indicator of the importance Obama will accord to US relations with countries in South and Central Asia.

Marvin Weinbaum, a former Pakistan and Afghanistan analyst at the State Department, said the appointment of a special envoy was a good idea. “We have to convince everybody the US has a long-term interest in the region,” Weinbaum, who is currently at the Middle East Institute, said. “But you have to ensure both India and Pakistan don’t think you are meddling.”

Weinbaum predicted a large part of the special envoy’s duties will be to oversee US policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the US is waging a war on the Taliban and al Qaeda.

A Washington Post report said the appointment of Holbrooke would “put one of America's most prominent international troubleshooters in the middle of trying to resolve the thorny and interrelated problems surrounding India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

“The appointment would represent early recognition by Obama that the region poses perhaps the biggest foreign policy challenge for his incoming administration,” the Post said.

A former US ambassador to the United Nations, Holbrooke served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 1977-81. Holbrooke’s chances for the job appeared to dim earlier “because his aggressive diplomacy and bureaucratic manoeuvring had alienated some of Obama's closest advisers over the years,” the paper said. That changed when Obama picked Clinton as his secretary of state.

Clinton is expected to easily win confirmation from the Senate next week.

Bangladesh’s newly appointed foreign minister Dipu Moni on Wednesday said her government would hold talks with neighbouring countries to fight terrorism around South Asia.

New Home Minister Sahara Khatun also pledged to stamp out terrorism from Bangladesh by identifying the sources of radicalism here. This follows a statement by newly elected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who promised not to let Bangladesh territory be used by terrorists.

Moni, the country’s first woman foreign minister, a lawyer and a public health specialist, also reiterated the new government’s pledge to create a South Asian counter terrorism Joint Task Force.

“Militancy and terrorism are not limited to geographical boundaries. For that reason, we will take effective steps to fight it in consultation with our neighbouring countries as we want peace and stability in the entire region,” she said on her first day in office. However, she avoided giving any specific proposals for improving bilateral or regional relations but said the Awami League-government would dump the last BNP-led government’s ‘Look East’ policy. Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee sent a letter to Dipu Moni, felicitating her on her appointment and urging her to visit India at her earliest convenience.

Moni, one of the many new and largely inexperienced crop of ministers sworn in with new Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday, has been closely associated with the Washington-based National Democratic Institute.

Lasantha Wickramatunga, the Chief Editor of the Sunday Leader, a staunchly anti-government Sunday newspaper in Sri Lanka was shot dead on Thursday morning in a Colombo suburb as he was on his way to office.

Wickrematunga was shot at inside his car by unidentified persons riding on motorcycles on Thursday morning and succumbed to his injures in a hospital several hours later.

The killing has sent shock waves through the political establishment as well as the media fraternity and comes just two days after another private television station was attacked causing extensive damage to its property.

Opposition political parties have accused elements linked to the government for being behind the attacks. The government has denied the charges. The government said the attack on the television station was carried out by elements that were interested in discrediting the government and diverting attention away from the military successes against the Tamil Tigers.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa condemned the murder calling it a heinous crime and said he was shocked and grieved at the death of Wickramatunga, whom he said, “was a close friend of mine, whom I have known for many years as a courageous journalist.”

The government has been criticised by human rights organisations as well as international media rights groups for the growing attacks on media in the country and the lack of progress into investigations attacks on journalists as well as media institutions.

London, January 8
Like the rags-to-riches story of his film 'Slumdog Millionaire', British director Danny Boyle is trying his best to help slum children in Mumbai to overcome poverty by setting up a trust fund.

Local children, who were cast in the film which Boyle shot at various locations in Mumbai, will have access to the fund once they finish their school education.

The director said he was devastated to learn the plight of the children, many of whom were from the slums of the city. The director has made sure that the children will be put through school and they have been promised a trust fund when they complete their exams to encourage them to continue their studies.