The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Israel pounds Gaza despite international peace efforts UN chief Ban Ki-moon to meet Israeli, Palestinian leaders Gaza/Jerusalem, July 22 Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, saying no ceasefire was near as top US and United Nations diplomats pursued talks on halting the fighting that has claimed more than 600 lives. US Secretary of State John Kerry held discussions in neighbouring Egypt, while U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and planned to see the Palestinian PM in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday. However, there was no let-up in the fighting around Gaza, with plumes of black smoke spiralling into the sky, and Israeli shells raining down on the coastal Palestinian enclave. Hamas, the dominant group in the Gaza Strip, and its allies fired more rockets into Israel, triggering sirens in Tel Aviv. One hit a town on the fringes of Ben-Gurion International Airport, lightly injuring two people. Israel launched its offensive on July 8 to halt missile salvoes out of Gaza by Hamas, which was angered by a crackdown on its supporters in the occupied West Bank and suffering economic hardship because of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade. "A ceasefire is not near," said Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, viewed as the most dovish member of Netanyahu's inner security cabinet. "I see no light at the end of the tunnel," she told Israel's Army Radio. Dispatched by U.S. President Barack Obama to the Middle East to seek a ceasefire, Kerry held talks on Tuesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri. Egypt was key to securing an end to a previous bout of Gaza fighting in 2012, but the country's new leadership is openly hostile to Hamas, possibly complicating the negotiations. With the conflict entering its third week, the Palestinian death toll rose to 613, including nearly 100 children and many other civilians, Gaza officials said. — Reuters Who’s who of Hamas THE POLITICAL WING Khaled Meshaal is Hamas' top political leader and often its public face. He's had the role since 2004 after Hamas' then-leader, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. A former teacher, Meshaal operates mostly from Qatar and is known as Hamas's external deal-maker THE MILITARY WING The military wing is led by Mohammed Dief, a shadowy, savvy figure who analysts say has survived multiple Israeli assassination attempts. Since Hamas took over Gaza, the armed wing, Qassam Brigades, have morphed into a military force aimed at protecting the territory. Truce call: Kerry proposes, Hamas disposes CAIRO: US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Hamas on Tuesday to seek peace negotiations with Israel in Gaza based on an Egyptian truce proposal that the Islamist militant group has rejected. After meeting President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, a country which has mediated in the Arab-Israeli conflict in the past, Kerry said he had held constructive talks in a bid to end the conflict in Gaza which has killed more than 600 people. He said he would keep working for a ceasefire in coming days.
	Gaza tunnels spell trouble for Israel NIR AM, Israel, July 22 'Residents stay in your homes! Do not go outside!' read the text message sent at dawn to the Israelis living on a kibbutz near the Gaza border, as soldiers searched the grounds for Palestinian gunmen. While the Nir Am kibbutz was under lockdown on Monday, a deadly battle ensued between the Israeli troops and a squad of Gaza militants, who had tunnelled their way across the border and emerged about a mile away from the farm community. Israel said it killed 10 gunmen in the battle. The military said some were wearing Israeli army uniform and were equipped with explosive belts. Four Israeli soldiers, including the commanding officer, died in the fight. "The threat of a mortar bomb is nothing compared to a militant force of 10 men coming into our community to carry out a massacre," said Shaike Shaked, one of the founders of a nearby Israeli africultural community, Netiv Haasara. Three days ago, Shaked said, a tunnel opening was discovered 500 metres from his home, which has been hit twice by Palestinian rockets in the past few years. The buzz of Israeli drones and non-stop Israeli artillery shells fired into Gaza sounded as his wife bounced their 18-month-old grandson on a trampoline in their front yard. Gaza's tower blocks can be seen from Netiv Haasara's, flowering gardens and the fields where Shaked grows tomatoes. Like other farming villages on the Gaza border, it has drawn youngsters seeking escape from bustling city life in pursuit of a slow quiet lifestyle in the remote, pastoral kibbutzim. But since July 8, when Israel launched an offensive aimed at destroying militants' rocket stockpiles and secret tunnel network, most of the families have abandoned border lands. — Reuters Underground Gaza Israel has dubbed the network of subterranean passages "Underground Gaza", which it says serves as Hamas command bunkers and houses rocket-launch silos Some of those cement-fortified burrows reached into Israel and since the offensive began, Palestinian gunmen have tried to cross into Israel at least four times The military says it has discovered 23 tunnels and destroyed six so far
	Jakarta Guv Joko Widodo elected Indonesian Prez Promises reforms to world’s third largest democracy Jakarta, July 22 Joko "Jokowi" Widodo was declared the winner of Indonesia's presidential election on Tuesday, bringing the promise of major reforms to the world's third largest democracy. The Elections Commission, known as KPU, said the Jakarta governor had won by just over six percentage points, with 53.15 per cent of the nearly 130 million votes cast on July 9. It was the closest and most bitterly fought election in Indonesia's history, pitting Jokowi against former general Prabowo Subianto, whose promise of strong leadership brought echoes of decades under autocratic rule. "This victory is a victory for all the people of Indonesia," the president-elect told hundreds of supporters gathered at a port on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta, chosen to emphasize his commitment to Indonesia's maritime potential. He and his vice president-elect, Jusuf Kalla, arrived by speed boat. "With humility, we ask the people...to go back to a united Indonesia," he added. In an interview with Reuters before the result was announced, Jokowi promised to simplify life for investors by beefing up the country's threadbare infrastructure, unravel near impenetrable regulations and sack ministers if they were not up to the job. His can-do approach, impatience with bureaucracy and willingness to communicate directly with ordinary people has won him a huge following in a country where close to 40 per cent of the population live below or close to the poverty line. — Reuters Meteoric rise of Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo A former furniture businessman, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has had a meteoric rise through Indonesia's political establishment. Born into poverty but now governor of Jakarta, he won over voters with a clean image and a reputation for competence in local government, in contrast to the autocracy, corruption and power politics that have weighed down the country for decades. The new President’s five-year term starts on October 20.
	Taliban attack kills four foreigners in Kabul Kabul, July 22 A Taliban suicide attacker riding a motorbike killed at least four foreigners in a compound in Kabul today, the police said, in the latest blast to rock the capital during an impasse over presidential election results. The attack hit close to the outer perimeter of Kabul airport, which was targeted last week when insurgents seized a building in the same area and fired towards the airport using automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. The Taliban opposes the election process, which is currently undergoing an audit of all eight million votes due to a dispute between the two contenders over fraud allegations. "Our initial reports show the explosion took place inside the foreigners' compound-four foreigners were killed and six were wounded," Kabul police chief Zahir Zahir told AFP. "The foreigners were exercising inside at the time." "Our teams are on the ground investigating how an attacker on a motorcycle entered the compound." The nationalities and jobs of the victims was not known, and there was no immediate comment from NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is winding down its mission after a 13-year war against the Taliban. — AFP
	Dutch recover MH17 bodies from morgue train Kharkiv (Ukraine), July 22 Dutch experts today prepared to fly out some 280 bodies recovered from downed Malaysian flight MH17, after a train carrying the remains arrived in the government-held Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Rebels controlling the crash site released the morgue train under intense international pressure, finally allowing many of the 298 crash victims' remains to begin the long journey home. The first bodies are to be flown tomorrow to the Netherlands, which had 193 citizens aboard the doomed flight and is taking the lead in investigating a disaster that has brought Ukraine's three-month conflict into horrific proximity for countries as far away as Australia and Indonesia. But that would only be the start of a complex investigation, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte warned that identification of the bodies alone could take months. A ceasefire was declared by rival sides at the impact site of the crash, but close by fighting raged on as government troops sought to wrest control of east Ukraine's industrial heartland from the separatists who launched their bid to join Russia in April. The rebels, who stand accused of bringing down the passenger aircraft, possibly with a missile supplied by Moscow, also conceded after days of obstruction to hand the plane's black boxes to be handed to investigators. Their concessions came as European foreign ministers met in Brussels to weigh possible new sanctions against Russia for its perceived support of the insurgency rocking ex-Soviet Ukraine. But national interests risk dividing the bloc, with Britain's push for an arms embargo putting France, which has a 1.2 billion-euro deal to supply warships to Russia, on the spot. After intense international focus on what world leaders denounced as a "shambolic" situation at the crash site, rebels handed over two black boxes, which record cockpit activity and flight data, to Malaysian officials. The rebels also announced a ceasefire within 10 kilometres of the impact site, hours after Kiev's pro-Western authorities said they would halt all fighting in a broader zone. The localised truce will at last allow international monitors to examine the vast area, a forensic minefield littered with poignant fragments from hundreds of destroyed lives. Elsewhere in Ukraine's east, fighting was continuing with local authorities in the besieged cities of Donetsk and Lugansk reporting 10 civilians killed in 24 hours. — AFP Putin vows to help crash probe Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin promised on Tuesday to do everything possible to influence pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and help ensure a full probe into the Malaysia Airlines crash last week. "Russia will do everything in its power for a full, comprehensive, deep and transparent investigation," Putin told a meeting of the national Security Council, according to excerpts broadcast by Russian state television.