Gaza desperately short of food after Israel destroys farmland:
Officials warn of 'destruction of all means of life' after the three-week conflict leaves agriculture in the region in ruins
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/01/gaza-food-crisis ===
Gaza: What an Aid Worker Saw, Then and Now:
As fears rise of renewed violence in Gaza, Elena Qleibo, a French-Costa Rican aid worker from Oxfam, gives IPS a first-hand account of surviving Israel's three-week bombardment of Gaza.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45637 ===
Int'l Criminal Court at The Hague Considers 'War Crimes' Charges:
A prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at The Hague has announced he intends to consider petitions by Arab groups charging Israel with war crimes in response to the counterterrorism Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129724 ===
Israel state prosecutor to meet officials at center of Spanish war crimes probe:
State Prosecutor Moshe Lador was to Monday summon the seven senior Israeli defense officials who were named as defendants in a war crimes trial that will be heard by a Spanish court.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060872.html ===
Hamas denies reports of a truce with Israel - Summary:
"As we said before, we want the siege to be lifted on our people in Gaza. Then we can talk about an agreement," Hamdan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur
tinyurl.com/awkdpw ===
Hamas calls on Palestinian resistance to keep fighting Israelis:
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mishal, addressing a gathering at Tehran University Monday, called for continuing resistance against the Israeli occupation, and said all means should be used to liberate Palestine and Jerusalem.
tinyurl.com/b94orp ===
Abbas: Hamas must accept my authority:
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that he will not hold reconciliation talks with the rival Hamas group unless it accepts his authority, lowering chances the two sides will work out their differences any time soon.
tinyurl.com/atuo25 ===
Hamas: We're in no hurry to talk with Abbas:
Hamas will not push for Palestinian reconciliation talks if President Mahmoud Abbas insists on the supremacy of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Islamist group said Monday.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060885.html ===
Iran tells Hamas: Be ready for fresh Israeli attacks:
Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal meets with Iranian President Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran; say 'the Islamic resistance should be prepared for any possible situation'
tinyurl.com/dj48ae ===
Barak suggests tunnel connecting between Gaza, West Bank:
Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday proposed the construction of a 48-kilometer long tunnel that would connect the northern Gaza Strip with the southern West Bank, thus enabling freedom of movement between the two disjointed Palestinian territories.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060869.html ===
Obama has begun discreet talks with Iran, Syria:
Even before winning the November 4 election, Obama unofficially used what experts call "track two" discussions to approach America's two foes in the region.
tinyurl.com/dkzlws ===
IAEA chief: There's enough time to confront threat of a nuclear Iran :
ElBaradei tells CNN Tehran won't achieve nuclear capability within next two years, may engage in talks.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060919.html ===
'You Cannot Treat Iran Like a Donkey':
lBaradei: Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the IAEA, says there is now a chance for real dialogue between Tehran and the West.
www.newsweek.com/id/182525/output/print ===
Somali officials say AU force kills 18 civilians:
Somali officials and an eyewitness say African Union peacekeepers opened fire on civilian vehicles and fatally shot 18 people after an AU vehicle hit a land mine.
tinyurl.com/b3hlzu ===
US 'made things worse':
The United States has turned a blind eye to abuses by its allies in Somalia and worsened the situation there by reducing a complex conflict to a front in its "war on terror", a leading human rights group said.
tinyurl.com/d8k6e7 ===
New Somali leader feted in capital of former enemy:
African leaders on Monday feted Somalia's new moderate Islamist president at a summit in Ethiopia, which chased him from power two years ago.
tinyurl.com/dhluzy ===
Call to Try Bush:
Now that former U.S. president George W. Bush is an ordinary citizen again, many legal and human rights activists in Europe are demanding that he and high-ranking members of his government be brought before justice for crimes against humanity committed in the so-called war on terror.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45636 ===
UK: Your ISP is watching you:
Since last autumn, BT - under the "Webwise" banner - has been trialling a technology called Phorm, which dials direct into your internet service provider's network and intercepts communications between you and the websites you visit, using information about the sorts of things you are viewing to serve you targeted ads
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/02/privacy-civil-liberties ===
Mexico's Peso Stuns UBS With Biggest Drop Since 1995 :
After weakening 20 percent last year, the currency fell to a record low of 14.4484 per dollar today.
tinyurl.com/d9lger ====
China: Up to 26 million rural migrants now jobless:
The global economic crisis has taken hold deep in China's impoverished countryside, as millions of rural migrants are laid off from factory jobs and left to scratch a living from tiny landholdings - creating unsettling prospects for a government anxious to avoid social unrest.
tinyurl.com/dnbp2q ===
More banks likely to fail, Obama warns:
Mismanagement by the nation's lending institutions was so extreme that the losses sustained by banks still cannot be calculated and more are likely to fail, President Barack Obama warned.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28940067/ ===
Let banks fail, says Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz:
The Government should allow every distressed bank to go bankrupt and set up a fresh banking system under temporary state control rather than cripple the country by propping up a corrupt edifice, according to Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist.
tinyurl.com/c44727 ===
U.S. Economy: Manufacturing Shrinks Further, Spending Falls:
Manufacturing in the U.S. shrank again last month and consumer spending recorded an unprecedented sixth monthly decline in December, offering no sign the economy has hit bottom.
tinyurl.com/cj3kpl ===
World stocks fall on poor earnings, banking woes:
World markets fall as investors prepare for more bad earnings, deeper economic downturn
finance.yahoo.com/news/World-stocks-fall-on-poor-apf-14221756.html ===
Macy's to cut 7,000 jobs, slash dividend:
Joining the parade of companies laying off thousands, department-store chain Macy's Inc. said Monday it would make deep cuts in its workforce and slash its dividend by more than half.
tinyurl.com/adun4k ===
Generals Seek To Reverse Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Decision
By Gareth Porter
CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 18 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21884.htm ===
Iraq's Shocking Human Toll
About 1 Million Killed, 4.5 Million Displaced, 1-2 Million Widows, 5 Million Orphans
By John Tirman
Now that Bush is gone, perhaps the United States can honestly face the damage we have wrought and the responsibilities we must accept from it.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21888.htm ===
When Did We Stop Caring About Civilian Deaths During Wartime?
By Robert Fisk
I wonder if we are "normalising" war. It's not just that Israel has yet again got away with the killing of hundreds of children in Gaza.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21886.htm ===
Collusion, Complicity and Sheer Insanity
Gaza and the Crimes of Mubarak
By Rannie Amiri
On Dec. 25, just two days prior to the onset of the vicious aerial bombardment of Gaza, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with Mubarak in Cairo. It is understood that Egypt gave the green light for the attack in the hope that the ruling (and democratically-elected) Islamist group Hamas would be toppled and the more pliant Fatah faction, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, would supplant it.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21887.htm ===
Innocence, Morality Ravaged in Gaza
By Howard J. Gale
Israel has dropped tens of thousands of pounds of U.S.-made and/or U.S.-paid-for munitions on one of the most densely populated regions on Earth. Israel has been firing on known United Nations schools, killing dozens of civilians.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21890.htm ===
A Lesson In Propaganda, Distortion and Deception
Peres: Many Arab Country's Supported Israel Silently Against Hamas
Video
Israeli President Shimon Peres says many countries silently support the offensive in Gaza.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21881.htm ===
Black Flag
By Uri Avnery
A Spanish judge has instituted a judicial inquiry against seven Israeli political and military personalities on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The case: the 2002 dropping of a one-ton bomb on the home of Hamas leader Salah Shehade. Apart from the intended victim, 14 people, most of them children, were killed.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21883.htm ===
Obama More Deadly for Afghan Civilians than Bush (in Jan 2009)
"Change" Afghans Should Look Upon with Skepticism
By Marc W. Herold.
The New Year's first Afghan civilian killed by U.S/NATO action was a boy named Marjan (tr. Coral), killed on January 2nd. (1)The boy had allegedly wandered into a prohibited area in the Deh-Sabz district of Kabul. Marjan was walking home with friends when "international forces" gunned him down.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21891.htm ===
Obama Preserves Renditions as Rounter-Terrorism Tool
By Greg Miller
The role of the CIA's controversial prisoner-transfer program may expand, intelligence experts say.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21882.htm ===
A Bankrupt and Discredited Country
The Era of American Leadership Is Over
By Paul Craig Roberts
With another swipe at America's failed economic leadership, Putin said it is time to get rid of virtual money, false financial reports, and dubious credit ratings. Putin proposed a new reserve currency system to "replace the obsolete unipolar world concept."
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21885.htm ===
It's Not Going to Be OK
By Chris Hedges
The daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland will descend on us.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21889.htm ===
A Stealth Bomb in Obama's Stimulus Bill
The Nuclear Industry's Latest Money Grab
By HARVEY WASSERMAN
The desperate, dangerous nuclear power industry has dropped a $50 billion stealth bomb meant to irradiate the Obama Stimulus Package.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21892.htm ===
Turkey's Erdogan Walks Out Of Davos Over Israel's Attacks On Gaza
1 Minute Video
Arriving back in Istanbul, he received a hero's welcome from a huge crowd at the airport
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21876.htm ===
Over 45 Killed In Pakistan's Restive Swat Region:
Violence and security operations in the restive Swat valley in northwestern Pakistan claimed the lives of over 45 persons, including 16 militants following a fresh campaign against local Taliban militants in the picturesque region last week, media reports said.
tinyurl.com/dxbel9 ===
Pakistani Taliban rule Swat valley:
The Pakistani military claimed on Monday that they had killed 70 fighters loyal to the Taliban in Swat, in what is now an almost daily declaration of progress. But residents of the region say it is almost entirely under the control of pro-Taliban anti-government fighters.
english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/02/200922185636519955.html ===
American U.N. Official Abducted in Pakistan:
A senior United Nations official was abducted and his driver was killed Monday morning in the southwestern city of Quetta, according to United Nations and Pakistani officials.
www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/world/asia/03pstan.html?_r=1&ref=asia ===
India opposition would attack Pakistan :
India's main opposition party says it will launch surgical strikes against Pakistan if it comes to power in the parliamentary elections.
tinyurl.com/a9uqeb ===
Former ISI chief for nuke use:
Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul (Retd.) said on Sunday that Pakistan should not hesitate to use its nuclear weapons in case of war with India.
tinyurl.com/bgqz9k ===
MQM Scheme for Break-Up of Pakistan: Never in the history of any country, its government has so consistently acted against the national interest as the Zardari Administration.
tinyurl.com/dz7csm ===
Afghan blast police death toll set at 25:
At least 25 Afghan police officers died Monday when a Taliban suicide bomber dressed as a police officer attacked a local station, an Afghan official said.
tinyurl.com/c8d5m8 ===
Afghans threaten US troops over civilian deaths:
Three recent U.S. Special Forces operations killed 50 people - the vast majority civilians, Afghan officials say - raising the ire of villagers and President Hamid Karzai, who set a one-month deadline for his demand that Afghan soldiers play a bigger role in military operations.
www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/31/asia/AS-Afghan-Civilian-Deaths.php ===
U.S. cannot rebuild Afghanistan into "Jeffersonian democracy" -- Obama:
"What we can do is make sure that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for al Qaeda," the President said. "What we can do is make sure that it is not destabilizing neighboring Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons."
tinyurl.com/btgwmm ===
Pakistan key to fixing Afghan problem: UK military chief:
Peace will only come to Afghanistan if Pakistan can sort out the Taliban on its side of the border, where US strikes are not helping, the head of Britain's armed forces told The Sunday Times newspaper.
www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/Feb09/02/09.htm ===
Prosecutor looks at ways to put Israeli officers on trial for Gaza 'war crimes':
The International Criminal Court is exploring ways to prosecute Israeli commanders over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5636069.ece 
