The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Israel warns Gazans to flee as military campaign intensifies Gaza/Jerusalem, July 16 Israel today stepped up its offensive in Gaza, asking 100,000 Palestinians to flee their homes and threatening ground operations, as the death toll in the airstrikes climbed to 208 with tensions escalating following failed Egyptian cease-fire efforts. Thousands of people have fled their homes amid the bombardments, taking refuge in UN buildings, some of which have been damaged by the Israeli bombardments. The Israeli Defense Forces said today that it warned residents of three areas in Gaza to vacate their homes because of its plans to carry out airstrikes on Hamas and other terrorist groups. The IDF said it used recorded messages, text messages and leaflets to alert the populations in Beit Lahyia, Shuja'iya and Zeitoun, places where it said "a high volume of rocket fire at Israel has originated." Israel's security cabinet has approved plans to destroy Hamas's network of tunnels in Gaza, army radio said. The cabinet also discussed the possibility of a limited ground incursion which would not initially involve entering towns, it said. "Israel has no option but to continue the operation and intensify it," former national security adviser Giora Eiland told army radio. "The main dilemma is over a ground operation...It looks like we're rolling in that direction, since air strikes have their limitations," he said. Hamas' rockets continued to fizz over the border, and Israeli airstrikes kept slamming into buildings in Gaza as the death toll climbed higher. The number of Palestinians killed in Gaza in nine days of of Operation Protective Edge reached 208 —most of them civilians, according to the United Nations — with at least 1,550 wounded, Palestinian health authorities said. — PTI Israel to deploy 3 new Iron Dome interceptors * Israel has found funding for three new Iron Dome rocket interception batteries, an Israeli official said on Tuesday, a week into its conflict with Palestinians in Gaza. * Israel had seven Iron Domes set up to shoot down missiles when cross-border fighting with Hamas-led militants surged on July 8, and has since brought two more into service
	special to the tribune Baghdad a far cry from other war-stricken cities Shyam Bhatia in Baghdad On the surface, Baghdad is a fairly typical capital in West Asia. The streets are crowded and there are frequent traffic jams. The police, sporting US-style haircuts, operate from black and white booths shaped-like peaked helmets, bars are open and so are restaurants serving Um Ali and other local delicacies. This is seemingly a far cry from other war-stricken cities such as Beirut or Kabul where the Americans have also been and gone. Dig a little deeper, however, and the picture gets more complex. Baghdad is actually divided into green and red zones. The green zone nestling behind barbed wire and high concrete walls is a home to VIPs, including ministers and MPs, as well as such key embassies as the US. Western diplomats live sheltered lives in the green zone, occasionally popping out of their homes and offices to visit restaurants such as Dojo, originally set up as a dough nut bar, but now serving red-hot chicken tikka under the watchful eye of Hyderabad-born chef Vivekananda. Getting to Dojo is an experience like no other because it involved negotiating three checkpoints crammed with armed soldiers. Those without a special entry pass have to be accompanied by someone who has one, such as the Dojo manager, and all passports and/or identity documents have to be surrendered, only to be retrieved when leaving the zone. To every first-time visitor, Vivekananda explains with a glint in his eye how his brand of southern Indian cuisine differs from the more mild variety preferred by weak-kneed Indians from the North. He has been in Baghdad for three years and has a remarkable story to tell of his own personal survival. Two years ago when he woke up in the morning and went to wash his face, he heard the exchange of gunfire. When he returned, he found a bullet embedded in the middle of his pillow, exactly where he had been lying only five minutes earlier. He deems himself more fortunate than those ordinary Iraqis and foreign diplomats unable to secure access to the green zone and having to cope with their red zone’s daily bombings and targeted killings. Red zone-based foreign diplomats, who are only permitted to move around with armed escorts front and back, are in particular deemed high value targets. In recent years, Polish, Japanese and Russian diplomats have been killed and several embassies have been attacked by car bombs. “It attracts global attention,” said a diplomat who has been in Baghdad for many years. “The higher the value of the target, the more widely the message is spread. If a diplomat is targeted, it shows the country is not safe.” Burdens for Baghdadis The average Iraqi living in Baghdad has all kinds of daily burdens to bear, including a nightly curfew, a severe housing shortage that encourages joint family living and regular power breakdowns. Electricity is only available for two hours a day and those who have the cash rely on street generators provided by entrepreneurs who demand payment per Ampere unit. It is widely assumed as well that a high number of cancer cases, especially outside the capital, is the result of water and soil contamination caused by the uranium-tipped artillery used by Western military forces. Helping hands Given the trying circumstance of daily living, it is a miracle that so many Baghdadis still offer to help each other and foreign visitors in many different ways, whether by offering to share their evening Ramadan meal or pointing out street directions. Safia Suhail, a former MP, says Baghdad has changed in fundamental ways since 2003. Sunnis and Shias living in mixed city neighbourhoods used to reflect the diversity of the country. But many Sunnis have now left with the city divided between predominantly Sunni or predominantly Shia areas. Daily tensions are high.
	Russia set to ‘reopen’ Soviet-era spy post in Cuba Moscow, July 16 Russia has quietly reached a provisional agreement with Cuba on reopening a big Soviet-era base on the Caribbean island from which it spied on the United States, a Russian security source said on Wednesday. The proposed move comes as US-Russian relations have reached a post-Cold War low in a dispute over policy towards Ukraine. Confirming a report in the daily Kommersant newspaper which said the deal was agreed in principle during a visit to Cuba last week by President Vladimir Putin, the source told Reuters: "A framework agreement has been agreed." At the height of the Cold War, the base at Lourdes, just south of the capital Havana, had up to 3,000 personnel and was the biggest centre Moscow operated abroad for gathering intelligence from radio signals. The base, 250 km from the US coast, was also used to provide communications for Russian ships. Government and Kremlin officials did not immediately comment. The base was closed in 2001 to cut costs. Discussions about reopening it began several years ago and intensified this year, Kommersant said, as relations with the United States deteriorated over the crisis in Ukraine. Since the crisis worsened in February, the United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia and Moscow has been trying to bolster ties with other countries, including in Asia and Latin America, to ensure Russia is not isolated. Kommersant gave no financial details about the agreement but noted Russia had agreed before Putin's visit to forgive 90 percent of Cuba's $32 billion Soviet-era debt. Putin, who is attending a summit of the BRICS emerging market powers in Brazil, also visited Argentina last week. While visiting Cuba, the Russian leader pledged to help revive its former Cold War-era ally's offshore oil exploration. In Argentina, he signed a trade deal intended to increase Russia's influence in the region. Russian defence experts said reopening the base on Cuba would be a logical move for Russia, increasing its ability to gather intelligence by intercepting signals "quite significantly". "One needs to remember that Russia's technical intelligence abilities are very weak. This will help," said Ivan Konovalov, head of the Moscow-based Center for Strategic Trends Studies. He estimated that Moscow had received at least 50 percent of all radio-intercepted intelligence on the United States through Lourdes during the Cold War. Sergey Ermakov, head of the Regional Security Section at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, said the Cuba move was designed to show other countries is will support them. — Reuters Revival of the Cold War? * The proposed move comes as US-Russian relations have reached a post-Cold War low in a dispute over policy towards Ukraine * At the height of the Cold War, the base at Lourdes, south of the capital Havana, was the biggest centre Moscow operated abroad for gathering intelligence from radio signals. * The base, 250 km from the US coast, was also used to provide communications for Russian ships. The base was closed in 2001 to cut costs. * The base at Lourdes was created in 1964, after the Cuban missile crisis, to gather intelligence on the US * The missile crisis in 1962 is widely regarded as the moment in the Cold War when the US and the Soviet Union came closest to a nuclear confrontation
	Typhoon shuts Manila, kills 13 Manila, July 16 The first typhoon of the Philippines' brutal rainy season shut down the nation's capital today, killing at least 13 persons across the country and cutting power for millions. Ferocious winds from Typhoon Rammasun tore roofs off houses, overturned cars and ripped down electricity lines in the megacity of Manila, as well as remote fishing villages hundreds of kilometres away. "I thought I was going to die. I went out to look for gasoline in case we needed to evacuate, but it was a mistake," said tricycle driver Pedro Rojas, 35, as he nursed a cut head while sheltering at a town hall on the outskirts of Manila. "My tricycle rolled over twice after I slammed into sheets of rain. It was like hitting a wall... huge tin roofings were flying everywhere." Falling trees, poles and walls killed at least 13 people across the northern parts of the Philippines that Rammasun swept over with wind gusts approaching 200 kilometres an hour, authorities said. The national disaster management council reported seven fatalities, while local authorities confirmed the six others to AFP. One of those was a rescue worker who died in the capital when a government building collapsed on him, while falling trees killed two elderly people in rural areas of a province neighbouring Manila. Rammasun, which in Thai means "God of Thunder", tore in from the Pacific Ocean with wind gusts of about 250 kilometres an hour and smashed into poor fishing communities in the east of the archipelago yesterday night. It weakened slightly as it cut across the main island of Luzon and exited into the South China Sea today afternoon. Weather forecasters warned it may pick up strength again as it tracks towards southern China. — AFP
	China ends oil exploration in South China Sea Beijing, July 16 China has ended its oil exploration in contested waters claimed by Vietnam after two and half month-long drilling operations which resulted in a tense standoff between the two nations in the South China Sea. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the drilling operation by the HYSY 981 rig off a Xisha island also known as Paracel Islands in the South China Sea has been completed. Quoting China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and China Oilfield Services Limited, ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the Chinese companies began the drilling operation off Zhongjian Island, one of the Xisha Islands on May 2. Work was completed on July 15 as scheduled, Hong said adding that the companies will analyse and assess the geological data collected and decide on the next step. He said Xisha Islands are inherent territory of China and that the operation was conducted in indisputable inshore waters off Xisha, which completely falls within China's sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction. "China strongly opposes Vietnam's irrational disruptions and has taken necessary security measures to ensure the operation," Hong said in a statement. — PTI Maritime dispute * Ties between Communist neighbours China and Vietnam nose dived after Beijing moved the rig along with flotilla boats to guarding it to assert its control. * Vietnam resisted it pressing dozens of naval and fishing boats which collided with Chinese boats. The clashes sparked anti-China riots in Vietnam in which two Chinese were killed. * As the situation became serious, China evacuated over 7,000 Chinese workers back to the country. * Vietnam along with Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei contests China's claims of sovereignty over all most of all the South China Sea citing historic evidence.