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Israeli jets pound targets in Gaza as hostilities escalate
Ukraine rebel chief calls for truce as Donetsk surrounded
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Eight killed in Pak as supporters of radical cleric clash with police
84 riots: Cong opposes appeal by US Sikh group
Sharif regrets Pak's bad ties with India
Nawaz Sharif
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Israeli jets pound targets in Gaza as hostilities escalate
Gaza/Jerusalem, August 9 The Israeli military said it struck 33 sites, including terror activity sites, command and control centres and weapon storage facilities, even as dozens of rockets hit southern Israel. Five Palestinians were killed, including three whose bodies were pulled from the wreckage of a mosque, Gaza health officials said. Reports said senior Hamas official Moaaz Zaid was also killed in Israeli air strikes today. Over 1,960 people have died since violence erupted in Gaza in early July. More than 1,900 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed. Sixty-seven people have died on the Israeli side, including three civilians. Israel renewed strikes on Gaza soon after the three-day ceasefire lapsed yesterday, saying it was in response to rocket fire by Hamas, which controls Gaza. Residents of southern Israel woke up early morning to the piercing sound of code red rocket alerts, as a barrage of rockets from Gaza targeted their neighborhoods. Hamas vowed today that there would be no concessions to Israel. "There will be no going back, the resistance will continue," Hamas spokesman Fawzy Barhum said in a statement. "The occupier's intransigence will get it nowhere and we will make no concessions on the demands of our people," he said. — PTI GCC for united stand against Israel
* The Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Saturday called for a united stand to show solidarity with the Palestinians against the Israeli atrocities *
The GCC is a political and economic alliance of six Middle Eastern countries -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman *
The GCC was established in Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh in 1981 |
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Ukraine rebel chief calls for truce as Donetsk surrounded
Kiev, August 9
Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, called for a truce to stop the city becoming a new "Stalingrad" but swore to fight on to the end if the offer was rejected.
"We are ready for a ceasefire in order to avert the humanitarian catastrophe growing," Zakharchenko said in a statement posted on a rebel website.
He pledged though that insurgent fighters stood ready to defend Donetsk to the death if the Ukrainian army attempted to push into the city.
"The fight will be for every street, for every house, for every metre of our land," Zakharchenko, who took over as premier on Thursday, said. Ukraine's forces are camped out around the million-strong industrial hub and have said that they are gearing up to retake the city.
Deadly shelling has increasingly pounded the deserted centre and suburbs over the past week, with an ever growing flood of residents scrambling to flee the violence.
Meanwhile Kiev's Western allies have warned that Russia could be preparing to invade Ukraine under the guise of a humanitarian mission after some 20,000 troops along the border.
Russia denied Ukrainian allegations that it tried to send armoured "humanitarian" convoy across the border yesterday. — AFP
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Eight killed in Pak as supporters of radical cleric clash with police Lahore, August 9 Qadri's Pakistan Awami Tahreek party (PAT) has claimed that eight of its workers including a woman died in clashes with police while the Punjab government says an Elite Force commando and one supporter of Qadri were killed in the clashes across the province. "I only confirm one death of a PAT worker. A police commando also died during clashes," Punjab Law Minister Rana Mashhood told PTI. Earlier, Punjab police had confirmed the death of four people in the clashes. Fighting between security forces and supporters of Qadri, who has vowed to lead a "revolution" against the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, began yesterday and continued today as police blocked roads to Lahore to stop the religious leader's planned rally against the government. Qadri has said that his group will hold a "Martyrs' Day" tomorrow in protest against the killing of 14 of his activists in a police attack at his party headquarters on June 17. — PTI Long march: PM Sharif willing to reach out to Imran
Islamabad: Claiming that PTI chairman Imran Khan had told Jamat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq that he was willing to call off August 14 long march call if recounting was done on 10 seats in last year's polls, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said he was be open to discuss this and any other reasonable demand with Khan. Addressing an all-party conference on national security here, Sharif, however, ruled out talks with "rabble rousers" like cleric Tahrul Qadri saying nobody would be allowed to derail democracy in the country for personal agenda. Sharif's claim was, however, refuted by PTI information secretary Shirin Mazari's saying Khan did not make any such offer. TNS |
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’ 84 riots: Cong opposes appeal by US Sikh group
New York, August 9 Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra, on behalf of the Congress, filed opposition yesterday in federal court to the appeal by Sikh for Justice (SFJ). The SFJ had in May challenged the dismissal of the 1984 rights violation case against the Congress saying that the case “concerns” the US and it has “institutional standing” to seek judgment on behalf of the Sikh community. Batra said US federal judge Robert Sweet was right to dismiss SFJ’s case in April since the rights group is no victim and neither does it represents the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He argued that US courts must “honour India’s sovereignty in a matter that arose 30 years ago in India by and between Indians,” and so it must be dealt with in India alone. Batra said the Indian National Congress, as a legal corporate entity and not a natural living breathing person, is incapable of extra-judicial killings or torture. — PTI
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Sharif regrets Pak's bad ties with India Islamabad, August 9 Addressing the National Security Conference here, which was attended by ministers, chief ministers, political leaders of all major parties, army chief Gen Raheel Sharif and other senior civil and military officials, including ISI chief Lt-Gen Zaheerul Islam, Sharif noted with dissatisfaction that his country was not having good ties with neighbours. The Prime Minister mentioned India by saying that it was time for having good relations with it. He hoped that the planned meeting of the foreign secretaries would help move the ties forward. Sharif also said Pakistan wanted to improve ties with Afghanistan and hoped that the new leadership in that country would cooperate with him. —PTI
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Naypyidaw (Myanmar) Tokyo Aden beijing
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Israeli jets today carried out over 30 air strikes on Gaza, killing five Palestinians, as Hamas fired several rockets into Israel, vowing to continue its resistance in the month-long conflict that has claimed about 2,000 lives.
A top rebel chief in east Ukraine today called for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds after admitting government forces had surrounded the main insurgent stronghold of
Donetsk.
Eight people were killed in continuing clashes today between supporters of influential Pakistani cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri and security forces with over 1,000 injured across Punjab province, the Canada-based religious leader's party claimed.
Islamabad, August 9
