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Showing posts with label News War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News War. Show all posts
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged Wednesday that the real motivation behind plans to send blockade-busting ships toward Gaza is to allow free flow of weapons into the Palestinian territory.

Netanyahu spoke as preparations were under way to send several ships carrying aid and pro-Palestinian activists toward Gaza, setting up potential confrontations at sea.

Gaza
On May 31, Israeli naval commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian activists in clashes aboard a Turkish ship headed for Gaza, setting off a world outcry and forcing Israel to ease its three-year-old blockade.

Israel already has warned archenemy Iran to drop its plan to send a blockade-busting ship to Gaza. The Iranian ship is one of several that activists say will head for Gaza in the next few months. One is said to be heading for Gaza from Lebanon within days.

On Wednesday, Lebanon warned that it would hold Israel responsible for any further attacks on blockade-busting ships.

Netanyahu said his government is drawing up a list of weapons and items with military uses that will not be allowed into Gaza "so that we can permit all the rest."

He said the new list will be made public "in the coming days."

Since the violent 2007 takeover of Gaza by Hamas - an Islamic militant group responsible for firing thousands of rockets at Israeli border communities - Israel has let in only limited humanitarian supplies, including basic foods and medicine.

Construction materials, which Israel maintains Hamas could use to make weapons and build bunkers, were barred, and the vast majority of Gaza's 1.5 million people could not travel. The blockade strangled the already poor territory's economy but failed to undermine Hamas, one of the blockade's main goals.

Under Israel's new policy, approved Sunday, "Anyone who wants to bring products can do so - food, toys, medicines, anything," Netanyahu said Wednesday at his Jerusalem office, where he was meeting Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann.

Israel insists that all cargo from the flotillas must be inspected at one of its ports to remove weapons, and then the aid supplies would be transferred over land to Gaza. Flotilla organizers have rejected this procedure, prompting Israel to take control of the boats at sea and bring them to Ashdod port.

The May 31 flotilla was made up of six ships, and violence erupted on only one of them. Israel says its commandos were attacked with iron bars, clubs and knives and opened fire in self-defense.
An American on a solo mission to hunt down Osama bin Laden is headed back to the United States, 10 days after authorities found him in the woods of northern Pakistan with a pistol, a sword and night-vision equipment.

Gary Faulkner, convicts here été depuis Juin 13, the Pakistan mercredi matin et quitte arrive in Denver tard dans la journée, a dit son frère Scott Faulkner.

Scott Faulkner at a dit qu'il speaks briefly mardi son frère, et on a bien indiqué être traités Pakistan. Par l'excitation dans la voix de son frère, Scott Faulkner, a dit qu'il pense que son frère est venu trouver près de Ben Laden.

Les 50 ans Gary Faulkner, of Greeley, to declare the était à des fonctionnaires de hors TUER the chef d'Al-Qaida. Transf in the ensuite été à Islamabad et son frère à l'Associated Press to declare mardi qu'il était Publié par le gouvernement pakistanais sans frais.

"On a dit qu'il pouvait pas it Attendre Reven pour la bonne vieille américaine de A," to declare Scott Faulkner.

Gary Faulkner east an out-of-travailleur de la construction de ses outils travail here vendu pour financer six voyages de ce que les parents ont demandé une mission de Rambo-type TUER de capturer ou de Ben Laden. The large beards cheveux et la longue pour tenir dans une meilleur.

Scott Faulkner to declare la semaine dernière aux journalistes que son frère n'était pas fou, déterminée à trouver juste militaires de l'homme en Amérique n'a pas réussi à capturer après près d'une decade the 9 / 11 Attentats aux États- Unis.

"Il est hors de la rules? Oui, il est. Mais est-il fou? No," dit Scott Faulkner. "It is a uniform and if the portait faisait appeler operations speciales, serait-il fou?"

Département d'Etat-words PJ Crowley doors in Washington to declare the meilleur que la famille aurait information sur le cas de Faulkner. Faulkner, deux fonctionnaires du ministère ont dit in de signer une typos renonciation permettant au gouvernement de discuter de son cas au public.
Israel's navy killed four Palestinian militants in diver suits off the coast of Gaza early Monday in the first violence at sea since a deadly raid against an international flotilla last week killed nine pro-Palestinian activists and set off an international storm of criticism against Israel.

In Istanbul, a 20-member Asian security group kicked off a summit with Turkey seeking to condemn Israel for last Monday's raid.

Israel, along with Egypt, has been enforcing a blockade of Gaza since 2007, when the Islamic militant Hamas seized the territory. Israel hoped it would weaken Hamas, prevent the entry of weapons and press for the release of an Israeli soldier captured in 2006, but the objectives have not been achieved.

The blockade has been highlighted with the Israeli interception of the Gaza-bound ships and has prompted growing calls for Israel to lift or at least ease it.

In Monday's incident, a naval force spotted Palestinians in diving suits in the waters off Gaza and opened fire, the military said. It said its forces prevented an attack on Israeli targets, but did not provide any further details.

In a text message sent to reporters in Gaza, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - a violent offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction - said the four men killed were members of its marine unit who were training in Gaza's waters.

The message said more details would be available at a press conference later Monday.

Four bodies were retrieved and taken to a hospital in central Gaza, said Moawiya Hassanain, a Palestinian health official. The Palestinian naval police said two people were still missing.

Also Monday, Palestinian officials said Israel fired a missile at Palestinian militants near the Gaza border, wounding one. The military said it targeted a group of militants preparing to fire rockets at Israel. The military said 10 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza in the past three weeks.

"The bloody escalation today is a desperate attempt by the occupation government to divert the world attention away from the massacre committed against the flotilla," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters in Gaza.

A week after the raid, its fallout continued to reverberate around the world.

Turkey, most important ally of Israel in the Muslim world, has said it will reduce military and trade ties with Israel and shelved discussions of energy projects. It has also threatened to break ties unless Israel apologizes for the raid last week.

Israel's government has been frantically trying to counter the wave of harsh international condemnation that has left the Jewish state isolated and at odds with some of its closest allies.

Israel has sought to portray the nine killed activists - eight Turks and a 19-year-old boy who held dual Turkish-U.S. citizenship - as terrorists, saying they prepared for the fight before boarding the flotilla. The military Monday released the names of five of the activists it said have long ties to terror organizations.

The army also said that Gaza's Hamas rulers were preventing the transfer of clothing, blankets and medical equipment from the flotilla that Israel was trying to provide.

Israel has also come under heavy pressure to agree to an international investigation of the raid on the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in the flotilla.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a proposal by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon for an international commission to investigate the raid, but officials said Netanyahu was open to a probe that would look into the actions of the activists as well.

Late Sunday, Netanyahu's office released a statement saying he discussed the international criticism with world leaders, including Vice President Joe Biden, the president of France and the premier of Canada. Netanyahu told them any country would act in self defense if it were targeted by thousands of rockets as Israel has been by Gaza militants.

Netanyahu told his Cabinet earlier Sunday that "dozens of thugs" from "an extremist, terrorism-supporting" organization had readied themselves for the arrival of the naval commandos. He said they organized and boarded the ship separately from the other activists with a clear hostile intent.

Videos released by the military have shown a crowd of men attacking several naval commandos as they landed on a ship from a helicopter, beating the soldiers with clubs and other objects and hurling one soldier overboard.

On Saturday, Israel commandeered another aid ship without incident. All 19 activists, including a Nobel Peace laureate, and crew were deported Sunday.

Israel and the West consider Hamas a terror group responsible for firing thousands of rockets at Israel and carrying out hundreds of attacks, including suicide bombings. Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist, and Egypt fears the influence of Hamas radicals on its own Islamists.
Tens of thousands took to the streets as mass protests swept Turkey today after Israeli commandos stormed a Turkish aid ship, killing more than ten people.

Riot police prevented enraged protesters from storming the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul before thousands gathered for an impromptu rally at the city’s main Taksim Square, which became a sea of Palestinian flags.

Demonstrators chanted slogans including “Killer Israel will pay the price” and “God is Great” and “We are all Palestinians now” as Israeli flags were cut apart and burnt. Angry scenes continued around the city until the evening.

The Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, condemned the shootings on the aid flotilla, which was sailing for Gaza in defiance of Israel’s three-year blockade of the territory, as “state terrorism”

“This action, totally contrary to the principles of international law, is inhumane state terrorism,” Mr Erdogan told reporters in Chile, where he cut short a tour of Latin America to return to Turkey. “I’d like to address those who supported this operation, ‘You support bloodshed and we support peace, humanity and law’.”

Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel and cancelled joint military exercises with the Jewish state.

The Foreign Ministry said that the attack would have “irredeemable consequences” for Turkish-Israeli bilateral relations.

“Whatever Israel’s reasons are, it is impossible to accept such an action against civilians carrying out peaceful activities. Israel will have to put up with the consequences of this violation of the international law.”

Protestors at the Istanbul demonstrations espressed solidarity with the Palestinian people and demanded action from the Government.

Bilal Abdulazizoglu, 60, a retired trader, told The Times that his nephew was on the flotilla but had sent him a text message saying that he was safe.

He said that the boats held “innocent people who couldn’t defend themselves”.

“I hate what Israel has done, not only now, but what they’ve done before,” he said. “Since 1946 Israel has taken the Palestinian people’s land and they have been torturing them in different ways ever since.

“I’m expecting a physical response to this from the Government. We did not attack them. They attacked us. Turkey must get those ships back.”

Asalet Arslan, 27, an urban planner, said: “I realise anger doesn’t solve any problems but I’m annoyed that the UN isn’t intervening in this situation. If it was another country attacking the ships then the UN would intervene.

“This is a big attack on us. It will really affect things very badly. Whether they’re Muslim, secular or atheist, people in Turkey hate Israel now.”

The shootings on the Blue Marmara, the largest ship in the flotilla, which was sailing under a Turkish flag and carrying about 400 Turkish citizens has shocked the country.

Soli Ozel, Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Bilgi University in Istanbul, told The Times that there was no comparable incident since the 1920s in which Turkish civilians have been killed by foreign military forces.

“At the end of the day Turkish citizens have been killed by Israeli gunfire and that’s as serious as you can get,” he said. “It’s extraordinary as can be seen by the mass demonstrations in every city in the country.”

For years Turkey and Israel have been close political and military allies, and Israel has been a key supplier of arms to Turkey. The country is also the single most popular foreign destination for Israeli tourists.

Since Mr Erdogan came to power as the head of the AK Party, which has roots in political Islam, ties between the two nations have started to sour.

Last year the Prime Minister stormed off stage at the Davos World Economic Forum after a heated argument with President Peres of Israel in which he criticised the Israeli offensive in Gaza in 2008.

Turkish commentators believe that the latest incident could mark a watershed in relations between the two countries.

Yigit Bulut, editor-in-chief of the Haberturk TV station, said: “This morning Turkey was forced to take sides in a thousand-year-old struggle. Turkey has always stayed away from this struggle.”
Iran first started refining small batches of uranium to 20 percent purity in February, saying it wanted to produce fuel for a medical research reactor.

This raised Western suspicion because that takes enrichment closer to the 90 percent purity needed to make atomic weapons. Iran is also thought to lack the capability to make the special fuel assemblies needed for the medical research reactor.


Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful uses only. Yet, major world powers have recently backed a draft U.N. sanctions resolution against its atomic work.

The nine-page International Atomic Energy Agency report said Iran has added a second set of 164 centrifuges -- nuclear enrichment machines -- to help refine uranium to 20 percent purity. The report said they were not yet operational.

At the time of the previous report in February, Iran had only one set of centrifuges installed for the work.

The Islamic Republic has told the agency that the extra machines will support the enrichment work by allowing material to be re-fed into the machines.

But analysts say they could be configured to expand the production, a move which would ring alarm bells in the West.

"Iran continues to broaden and deepen its enrichment capabilities," said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security.

Tehran has granted a months-old IAEA request to allow better oversight of the higher enrichment. The agency has said however that should have been in place as soon as it started to ensure the material was not being diverted for military uses.

Under a new agreement between Iran and the IAEA, inspectors have been able to improve camera angles, keep track of nuclear material and equipment by putting it under agency seal as well as conduct inspections at short notice.

"This is good enough for when the cascades are eventually interconnected," said a senior official familiar with the Iran investigation. "In this case the (inspections) regime is very tough."

FUEL OFFERS

Iran said it started higher enrichment because it was frustrated over stalled talks with major powers over a plan to provide it with fuel for the research reactor which produces isotopes for cancer treatment.

Under the IAEA-backed plan, brokered in October, Iran would ship 1.2 tons of its low-enriched uranium stockpile abroad in return for the fuel. Earlier this month Turkey and Brazil came up with a similar plan, which Iran said it backed.

But the new IAEA report showed Iran's low-enriched uranium stockpile had grown to 2.4 tons, meaning that if the 1.2 tons was shipped out now it would still leave Iran with enough material for a nuclear weapon if enriched to higher levels.

"Based on this report Washington is going to feel justified in downplaying the Brazilian-Turkish-Iranian deal and focusing on sanctions instead," Albright said.

The report said Iran had slightly increased the number of centrifuges enriching uranium to lower levels at Natanz to 3,936, the first expansion in around a year. The number installed but not enriching had fallen slightly to 8,610.

(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Dubai; editing by Maria Golovnina)
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, killing nine passengers in a botched raid that provoked international outrage and a diplomatic crisis.

Dozens of activists and six Israeli soldiers were wounded in the bloody predawn confrontation in international waters. The violent takeover dealt yet another blow to Israel's international image, already tarnished by war crimes accusations in Gaza and its 3-year-old blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu canceled a much-anticipated meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday in a sign of just how gravely Israel viewed the uproar. In Canada, Netanyahu announced he was rushing home but said he had called the American president and agreed to meet again.

President Barack Obama voiced "deep regret" over the raid and "expressed the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances" surrounding the incident.

The activists were headed to Gaza to draw attention to the blockade, which Israel and Egypt imposed after the militant Hamas group seized the territory of 1.5 million Palestinians in 2007.

There were conflicting accounts of what happened early Monday, with activists claiming the Israelis opened fire without provocation and Israel insisting its forces fired in self defense.

Speaking alongside the Canadian prime minister, Netanyahu expressed "regret" for the loss of life but said the soldiers had no choice. "Our soldiers had to defend themselves, defend their lives, or they would have been killed," he said.

Israel said it opened fire after its commandos were attacked by knives, clubs and live fire from two pistols wrested from soldiers after they rappelled from a helicopter at about 4 a.m. to board one of the vessels.

Night-vision footage released by the military showed soldiers dropping from a helicopter one by one and being grabbed by a mob of men wielding sticks on the lead boat, the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara. The soldiers succumbed to the assailants and fell to the deck, where the men continued to beat them and dump one of them from the top deck.

A commando who spoke to reporters on a naval vessel off the coast, identified only as "A," said he and his comrades were taken off guard by a group of Arabic-speaking men when they landed on the deck.

Some soldiers were stripped of their helmets and equipment and thrown from the top deck to the lower deck, and some had even jumped overboard to save themselves, the commando said. At one point one of the activists seized one of the soldiers' weapons and opened fire, the commando said.

Communications to the ships were cut shortly after the raid began, and activists were kept away from reporters after their boats were towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

Helicopters evacuated the wounded to Israeli hospitals, officials said. Five ships had reached port by early evening and some 136 activists had been removed without serious incident, the military said.

Sixteen were jailed for refusing to identify themselves, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Israel had said activists would be given the choice to be deported or imprisoned.

Israeli officials said the death toll was nine with 30 wounded, after earlier saying 10 people were killed. It said the final tally was reached after bringing all six boats in the flotilla under control.

A high-ranking naval official displayed a box confiscated from the boat containing switchblades, slingshots, metal balls and metal bats. Most of the dead were Turkish, he said.

In a sign the soldiers didn't anticipate such fierce resistance, two commandos told The Associated Press that the primary weapons were guns that fired paintballs - a nonlethal weapon that can be used to subdue crowds. They said they resorted to lethal handgun fire after they were assaulted.

Turkey's NTV network showed activists beating one commando with sticks as he landed on one of the boats. Dr. Arnon Afek, deputy director of Chaim Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv, said two commandos were brought in with gunshot wounds. Another had serious head wounds from an unspecified blow, Afek added.

Activists, however, painted a completely different picture, saying the commandos stormed the ships after ordering them to stop in international waters, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from Gaza's coast.

A reporter with the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, who was sailing on the Turkish ship leading the flotilla, said the Israelis fired at the vessel before boarding it, wounding the captain.

"These savages are killing people here, please help," a Turkish television reporter said.

The broadcast ended with a voice shouting in Hebrew, "Everybody shut up!"

At Barzilai hospital in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, a few activists trickled in under military escort. "They hit me," said a Greek man, whose right arm was in a sling, calling the Israelis "pirates." He did not give his name and later was escorted away with a neck brace.

At a news conference in Tel Aviv, Israel's military chief of staff and navy commander said the violence was centered on the lead boat, which was carrying 600 of the 700 activists. Troops took over the five other boats without incident, military chief Gabi Ashkenazi said.

Reaction was swift and harsh, with a massive protest in Turkey, Israel's longtime Muslim ally, which unofficially supported the mission. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of "state terrorism," and the government said it was recalling its ambassador and called off military exercises with the Jewish state.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting later Monday, while the Arab League planned to meet Tuesday in Cairo.

Robin Churchill, a professor of international law at the University of Dundee in Scotland, said the Israeli commandos boarded the ship outside of Israel's territorial waters.

"As far as I can see, there is no legal basis for boarding these ships," Churchill said.

Many of the activists were from Europe.

The European Union deplored what it called excessive use of force and called for the Gaza blockade to be lifted immediately, calling it "politically unacceptable."

Israeli security forces were on alert across the country. Protesters gathered at two universities and burned tires and threw rocks in Israel's largest Arab city, but no injuries were reported.

Organizers said two prominent activists, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, 85, did not join the flotilla as planned.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Israeli "massacre," declared three days of mourning across the West Bank.

Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the rival Hamas government in Gaza, condemned the "brutal" Israeli attack and called on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to intervene.

In Uganda, Ban condemned the deaths and called for a "thorough" investigation.

Before the ships set sail from waters off Cyprus on Sunday, Israel had urged the flotilla not to try to breach the blockade and offered to transfer some of the cargo to Gaza from an Israeli port, following a security inspection.

Organizers included the IHH, an Islamic humanitarian group that is based in Istanbul but operates in several other countries. Israel outlawed the group in 2008 because of its ties to Hamas.

The flotilla of three cargo ships and three passenger ships carrying 10,000 tons of aid and 700 activists was carrying items that Israel bars from reaching Gaza, like cement and other building materials.

Israel has allowed ships through five times, but has blocked them from entering Gaza waters since a three-week military offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers in January 2009.
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's prime minister has called off a planned visit to the White House to deal with a crisis over a botched naval raid that killed 10 pro-Palestinian activists.

Netanyahu, who is in Canada, was set to travel to Washington to meet with President Barack Obama on Tuesday. But his office says he decided to return home early after Monday's commando raid.

The commandos intercepted a flotilla of activists trying to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip. The deadly crackdown has drawn widespread international condemnations.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 10 passengers in a predawn raid that set off worldwide condemnation and a diplomatic crisis.

Israel said its commandos were attacked by knives, clubs and live fire from two pistols wrested from soldiers after they rappelled from a helicopter to board one of the vessels.

Dozens of activists and at least 10 Israeli soldiers were wounded in the bloody confrontation in international waters.

Reaction was swift and harsh, with a massive protest breaking out in Turkey, Israel's longtime Muslim ally, which unofficially supported the mission. Ankara announced it would recall its ambassador and call off military exercises with the Jewish state.

The bloody showdown came at a sensitive time in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to meet Tuesday with President Barack Obama to discuss the next round in U.S.-led indirect negotiations. From Toronto, Netanyahu spoke by telephone with top Israeli officials and expressed his "full backing" for the military, according to a statement from the army.

The White House said in a written statement that the United States "deeply regrets" the loss of life and injuries and was working to understand the circumstances surrounding this "tragedy."

The activists were headed to Gaza on a mission meant to draw attention to the blockade, which Israel and Egypt imposed after the militant Hamas group seized the territory of 1.5 million Palestinians in 2007.

There were conflicting accounts of what happened early Monday, with activists claiming the Israelis fired first and Israel insisting its forces fired in self defense. Communications to the ships were cut off shortly after the raid began.

An Israeli commando who spoke to reporters on a naval vessel off the coast, and who was identified only by the first letter of his name, "A," said he and his comrades were surprised by a group of Arabic-speaking men when they rapelled onto the deck.

He said some of the soldiers, taken off guard, were stripped of their helmets and equipment and thrown from the top deck to the lower deck, and that some had even jumped overboard to save themselves. At one point one of the passengers seized one of the soldiers' weapons and opened fire.

A high-ranking naval official displayed a box confiscated from the boat containing switchblades, slingshots, metal balls and metal bats. "We prepared (the soldiers) to deal with peace activists, not to fight," he said. Most of the 10 dead were Turkish, he added.

A Turkish website showed video of pandemonium on board one of the ships, with activists in orange life jackets running around as some tried to help an activist apparently unconscious on the deck. The site also showed video of an Israeli helicopter flying overhead and Israeli warships nearby.

Turkey's NTV showed activists beating one Israeli soldier with sticks as he rappelled from a helicopter onto one of the boats.

Activists said Israeli naval commandos stormed the ships after ordering them to stop in international waters, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from Gaza's coast.

An Al-Jazeera reporter on one of the Turkish ships said the Israelis fired at the vessel before boarding it. The pan-Arab satellite channel reported by telephone from the Turkish ship leading the flotilla that Israeli navy forces fired at the ship and boarded it, wounding the captain.

"These savages are killing people here, please help," a Turkish television reporter said.

The broadcast ended with a voice shouting in Hebrew, "Everybody shut up!"

In a news conference in Tel Aviv, Israel's military chief of staff and navy commander said the troops were able to take over the five other boats without incident and all of the violence was centered on the boat carrying most of the flotilla's passengers, the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara.

Troops were attacked, said Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, and an unspecified number of troops were helicoptered to hospital suffering from gunshots, knife wounds and blows.

"To me it is clear without a doubt, judging by what I saw and what I heard in the first reports from the soldiers, that in light of the danger to human life this violence required the use of weapons, and in my opinion the soldiers acted as they should have in this situation," Ashkenazi said.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed regret for the loss of life, but called IHH, a Turkish group organizing the sea convoy, a violent organization "operating under cover of humanitarian activity."

The ships were being towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod, and wounded were evacuated by helicopter to Israeli hospitals, officials said. Two ships had reached port by midday.

Many of the passengers were from European countries.

The European Union deplored what it called excessive use of force and demanded an investigation by Israel. The EU said the blockade of Gaza, now in its fourth year, is "politically unacceptable," and called for an immediate, sustained opening of crossings into the Hamas-controlled territory, according to a statement by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Turkey called on the U.N. Security Council to convene in an emergency session about Israel.

Thousands marched in protest in Istanbul, some setting Israeli flags on fire after trying to storm the Israeli consulate. Israel quickly advised to its citizens to avoid travel to Turkey. In neighboring Jordan, hundreds demonstrated in the capital Amman to protest the Israeli action and demand that their government breaks diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

Israeli security forces were on alert across the country for possible protests.

There were no details on the identities of the casualties, or on the conditions of some of the more prominent people on board, including 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, European legislators and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, 85.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Israeli "aggression," declared three days of mourning across the West Bank and called on the U.N. Security Council and Arab League to hold emergency sessions on the incident.

Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the rival Hamas government in Gaza, condemned the "brutal" Israeli attack and called on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to intervene.

In Uganda, Ban condemned the deaths of the activists and called for a "thorough" investigation. "Israel must provide an explanation," he said.

The activists were headed to Gaza on a mission meant to draw attention to a 3-year-old Israeli blockade of the coastal territory. Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, violently seized the territory. Critics say the blockade has unfairly hurt Gaza's 1.5 million people.

Before the ships set sail from waters off the east Mediterranean island of Cyprus on Sunday, Israel had urged the flotilla not to try to breach the blockade and offered to transfer some of the cargo to Gaza from an Israeli port, following a security inspection.

The violent takeover threatened to deal yet another blow to Israel's international image, already tarnished by war crimes accusations in Gaza and its blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory.

Organizers included people affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group that often sends international activists into battle zones, and the IHH.

The Turkish group is an Islamic humanitarian group that is based in Istanbul but operates in several other countries. Israel recently arrested the IHH's West Bank operative, but said his arrest was not related to the planned aid mission.

Hasan Naiboglu, the Turkish maritime affairs undersecretary, told the Anatolia news agency that Israel had jammed communications with the ships. He accused Israel of violating international law by carrying out the raid in international waters.

Turkey had unofficially supported the aid mission and has been vocally critical of Israeli military operations against Palestinians in Gaza.

The flotilla of three cargo ships and three passenger ships carrying 10,000 tons of aid and 700 activists was carrying items that Israel bars from reaching Gaza, like cement and other building materials.

This is the ninth time that the Free Gaza movement has tried to ship in humanitarian aid to Gaza since August 2008.

Israel has allowed ships through five times, but has blocked them from entering Gaza waters since a three-week military offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers in January 2009.

The latest flotilla was the largest to date.
 TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's prime minister told his Chinese counterpart Monday that he strongly supports Seoul's plans to bring North Korea before the U.N. Security Council for sanctions or condemnation for the alleged sinking of a South Korean warship, an official said.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said North Korea should be punished over the warship sinking in accordance with international law, said Osamu Sakashita, a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office.

During a weekend summit between South Korea, China and Japan on South Korea's Jeju island, Wen didn't appear ready to support possible action in the U.N. Security Council against North Korea, China's longtime ally. But his closing remarks Sunday seemed to signal that Beijing was becoming more engaged in the crisis.

China's backing would be key because it wields veto power at the Security Council as a permanent member.

South Korea has taken punitive measures against the North since a team of international investigators said this month that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine tore apart and sank the warship Cheonan on March 26, killing 46 sailors. North Korea vehemently denies attacking the ship and has warned the South is risking war by attempting to punish it.

In their bilateral meeting Monday in Tokyo, Hatoyama urged China to exercise self-restraint regarding activities by the Chinese navy in waters off Okinawa, Sakashita said.

In April, Chinese ships were spotted in international waters off Okinawa, and in another incident that month a Chinese helicopter also came within 300 feet (90 meters) of a Japanese military monitoring vessel in the vicinity of a Chinese naval exercise.

The two leaders agreed to set up a hot line to avert marine friction, and said they would launch talks aimed at forming a pact over gas exploration in the East China Sea, he said.

Wen turned his focus to the economy in a speech held later at the Japanese Business Federation, better known as Keidanren.

He warned that the global economy faces risks that could lead to another downturn. Unemployment remains high in the U.S., and sovereign debt concerns could derail Europe, he said in his lunchtime remarks.

"The global economy is recovering, but the process is slow," he said. "There are a number of uncertainties and forces that could destabilize the situation."

Meanwhile, China's economy is headed toward another year of strong, steady growth, Wen said.

In 2009, China's gross domestic product expanded 8.7 percent and is expected to surpass Japan's economy in size sometime this year. Wen played down the significance of the looming milestone for China, which is the world's most populous country. Japan's per capita GDP of $40,000 a year remains far ahead of China's per capital figure of $3,700.

Wen also noted the huge income disparities that remain in China between urban and rural, east and west.

"Our development goal is to become a middle-income economy," he said. "That will take decades. To become an advanced economy will take more than 100 years."

On Sunday, Keidanren and its counterparts in China and South Korea released a joint statement calling for greater trilateral trade and investment, as well as greater cooperation in environment and energy.

Before his meeting with Hatoyama, Wen jogged at a Tokyo park, practiced "tai-chi," greeted Japanese joggers, and played a bit of baseball with university students.
JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli military says more than 10 pro-Palestinian activists have been killed after attacking naval commandos who were halting an aid flotilla heading toward the blockaded Gaza Strip.

The army says the soldiers were attacked with knives and clubs as they boarded the six vessels Monday.

It says the violence turned deadly after one of the activists grabbed a weapon from one of the commandos. The weapon discharged, though it wasn't clear whether the activist fired it or if it went off accidentally.

The army says dozens of people were wounded, both soldiers and activists.

Israeli Arab groups say a prominent activist is among the wounded.

Israeli police say they have heightened security around the country.
 KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- NATO launched airstrikes Monday against Taliban insurgents who had forced government forces to abandon a district in eastern Afghanistan. The NATO commander, meanwhile, said there is "clear evidence" that some Afghan militants have trained in Iran.

NATO reported its 50th death this month, according to a tally by The Associated Press - a service member killed Sunday by a makeshift bomb in the south - as U.S. commanders prepared to mark Memorial Day when America remembers the dead from all its wars.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph T. Breasseale said the latest service member killed was not an American, though an American was killed in a separate incident on Sunday.

May is already the deadliest month this year for U.S. troops with 33 deaths - two more than in February when American, NATO and Afghan forces seized the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in Helmand province. The month also brought the 1,000th U.S. military death in the Afghan war since it began in 2001.

U.S. and NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal told reporters in the capital on Sunday that Iran - Afghanistan's western neighbor - has generally assisted the Afghan government in fighting the insurgent group.

"There is, however, clear evidence of Iranian activity - in some cases providing weaponry and training to the Taliban - that is inappropriate," he said. McChrystal said NATO forces are working to stop both the training and the weapons trafficking.

Last month, McChrystal said there were indications that Taliban were training in Iran, but not many and not in a way that suggested it was part of an Iranian government policy. He did not give details on how many people have trained in Iran at Sunday's news conference.

Early Monday, NATO aircraft fired guided munitions on Taliban positions at Barg-e-Matal district in Nuristan, a province in the mountainous region on the Pakistani border. No casualty figures were given.

Government forces last week abandoned the district's main town after a major assault by Taliban militants, many of them coming in from Pakistan, Afghan officials said.

Taliban strength grew in the Nuristan area after U.S. troops abandoned an outpost where eight American soldiers were killed in a fierce attack last October.

Further south, NATO said a civilian contractor's helicopter crash-landed Sunday in Paktia province, killing one civilian on the ground and slightly injuring three crew members. NATO said the cause of the hard landing was being investigated, but there were no reports of insurgent involvement.

McChrystal was attending Memorial Day ceremonies at the main U.S. military base, Bagram Air Field, on Monday. Ceremonies included the unveiling of a construction beam from the World Trade Center destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was donated by an American nonprofit group supporting U.S. forces overseas.

The Taliban have spread out beyond their heartland in the south in recent years to increasingly launch attacks countrywide.

In the north, insurgents detonated a remote-controlled bomb Sunday as a police convoy passed by, killing seven officers in a province previously considered to be relatively safe, said deputy provincial Gov. Shams-ul Rahman.

The attack was the deadliest of a half-dozen separate incidents across the country.

In nearby Kunduz province, militants attacked a police checkpoint in Ali Abad district, triggering a gunbattle that killed three insurgents and wounded seven others, the Interior Ministry said.

Eight Afghan police were wounded Sunday by a suicide bomber who struck a checkpoint on the outskirts of Khost City southeast of Kabul, officials said.

The AP's casualty figures are based on Defense Department reports of deaths as a direct result of the Afghan conflict, including personnel assigned to units in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Uzbekistan. Non-U.S. deaths are based on statements by governments that have contributed forces to the coalition.
 WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. military is developing plans for a unilateral attack on the Pakistani Taliban in the event of a successful terrorist strike in the United States that can be traced to them, The Washington Post reports.

Planning for a retaliatory attack was spurred by ties between alleged Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad and elements of the Pakistani Taliban, the Post said in an article posted on its website Friday night, quoting unidentified senior military officials.

The military would focus on air and missile strikes but also could use small teams of U.S. Special Operations troops currently along the border with Afghanistan, the Post said.

Airstrikes could damage the militants' ability to launch new attacks but also might damage U.S.-Pakistani relations.

The CIA already conducts unmanned drone strikes in the country's tribal regions. Officials told the Post that a U.S. military response would be considered only if a terrorist attacks persuaded President Barack Obama that the CIA campaign is ineffective.

A senior U.S. official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Pakistan already has been told that it has only weeks to show real progress in a crackdown against the Taliban.

The U.S. has put Pakistan "on a clock" to launch a new intelligence and counterterrorist offensive against the group, which the White House alleges was behind the Times Square bombing attempt, according to the official.

U.S. officials also have said the U.S. reserves the right to strike in the tribal areas in pursuit of Osama bin Laden and other high-value targets.

At the same, the Obama administration is working to improve ties with Pakistani intelligence officials to head off attacks by militant groups, the Post reported.

Officials quoted by the Post and the AP requested anonymity because of the sensitivity surrounding U.S. military and intelligence activities in Pakistan.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) -- Leaders of Pakistan's minority Ahmadi sect demanded better government protection Saturday as they buried many of the 93 sect members killed by Islamist militants at two of the group's mosques.

The request could test the government's willingness to take on hard-line Islamists whose influence is behind decades of state-sanctioned discrimination against the Ahmadis in the Sunni Muslim-majority country.

The attacks occurred minutes apart Friday in two neighborhoods in the eastern city of Lahore. Two teams of gunmen, including some in suicide vests, stormed the mosques and sprayed bullets at worshippers while holding off police.

Thirteen people died overnight at hospitals, raising the death toll to 93, said Raja Ghalab Ahmad, a local sect leader. Dozens were hurt. Waseem Sayed, a U.S.-based Ahmadi spokesman, said it was the worst attack in the group's 121-year history.

Local TV channels reported that the Pakistani Taliban, or their Punjab province branch, had claimed responsibility.

Ahmad called on the government to take action against the militant group, which also has attacked security, government and foreign targets throughout the country in recent years.

"Are we not the citizens of Pakistan?" he asked at the site of the attacks in the Garhi Shahu section of Lahore. "We do have the right to be protected, but unfortunately we were not given this protection."

Ahmadis are reviled as heretics by mainstream Muslims for their belief that their sect's founder was a savior foretold by the Quran, Islam's holy book. Many Muslims say Ahmadis are defying the basic tenet of Islam that says Muhammad is the final prophet, but Ahmadis argue their leader was the savior rather than a prophet.

Under pressure from Islamists, Pakistan in the 1970s declared Ahmadis a non-Muslim minority. Ahmadis are prohibited from calling themselves Muslims or engaging in practices such as reciting Islamic prayers.

Mourners on Saturday began burying the victims of the attacks at a sprawling graveyard in Rabwa, a headquarters of the Ahmadi sect 90 miles (150 kilometers) northwest of Lahore. Hundreds of men, women and children wept near bodies covered with white sheets and lined up in an open area for the funeral.

In a sign of the sensitivity surrounding the group, several Pakistani leaders who condemned the attacks did not refer specifically to the Ahmadis in their statements. TV channels and newspapers avoided the word "mosque" in describing the attacked sites, preferring "places of worship."

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the federal government had alerted Punjab province's administration about threats to the Ahmadi community, and that the latest warning was sent Wednesday.

Officials in Lahore, the provincial capital, said they were investigating Friday's assaults.

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- The Israeli military says its aircraft fired missiles at a metal workshop and a militants' tunnel in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Hamas security officials said Saturday that nine missiles were fired, but that no one was hurt.

The military says the tunnel targeted late Friday was dug with the intention of smuggling militants from Gaza into Israel. Metal workshops are part of Gaza's small homegrown weapons industry, which makes crude rockets that are fired at Israeli border towns.

Hamas says the workshop targeted Friday was destroyed.

The airstrikes came a day after a rocket fired from Gaza hit near an Israeli town and armed men tried unsuccessfully to rush across the border with Israel.


By: AP







SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Top military commanders gathered in Seoul on Saturday to discuss how to counter North Korean provocations, as leaders of South Korea, China, and Japan headed to the southern island of Jeju for a summit amid tensions over the sinking of a warship blamed on Pyongyang.

International pressure is mounting on North Korea over the sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 South Korean sailors in late March in one of the South's worst military disasters since the 1950-53 Korean War. A multinational team of investigators said last week that evidence proved a North Korean torpedo sank the warship.

North Korea has denied responsibility, and has warned that any retaliation or punishment would mean war.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who has pledged to take North Korea to the U.N. Security Council, sought backing from key permanent member China, the North's main ally.

Laying out the investigation results, Lee urged Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during talks Friday to play an "active role" in convincing North Korea to admit its wrongdoing, the presidential Blue House said.

Wen told Lee that his country "will defend no one" responsible for the sinking, Lee's office said.

Beijing will determine its stance after examining the investigation results, Wen told Lee, according to a briefing by presidential adviser Lee Dong-kwan.

The three-way summit on Jeju Island is to focus on economic issues such as a proposed free-trade agreement.

However, South Korean officials said the ship sinking would be at the top of the agenda at the two-day talks, which end Sunday.

The South Korean president announced a slate of punitive measures against the North, including cutting trade, resuming anti-North Korean propaganda broadcasts across the border and launching large-scale naval exercises. U.S.-South Korean military drills are to follow in the coming months.

On Saturday, some 20 military commanders met to discuss responses to the ship sinking, a Defense Ministry official said.

"They discussed how to cope with different types of North Korean military provocations and strengthen defense readiness against the North," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the meeting with the media.

South Korea's military reported no unusual moves by North Korean troops in the last week, he said.

Japan, giving its backing to Seoul, also instituted new sanctions on North Korea.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama paid his respects to the dead sailors Saturday during a visit to the National Cemetery in Daejeon, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Seoul, before continuing onto Jeju.

North Korea has accused Seoul of fabricating evidence in the ship sinking.

"The South Korean puppet regime's faked sinking of the Cheonan has created a very serious situation on the Korean peninsula, pushing it toward the brink of war," Maj. Gen. Pak Rim Su, director of the powerful National Defense Commission's policy department, said at a rare news conference covered by broadcaster APTN in Pyongyang.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- After 15 years, Arab nations finally won agreement from the United States and the other nuclear powers to take the first step toward banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. Now, the next move is Israel's.
Although the U.S. joined the 188 other member nations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty on Friday in giving a green light to a conference in 2012 "on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction," senior U.S. officials appeared to backtrack afterward, setting several conditions for the talks to go ahead.

Taking the toughest line, U.S. National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones said in a statement Friday night that the United States has "serious reservations" about the 2012 conference and believes Mideast peace and full compliance by all countries in the region to their arms control and nonproliferation obligations "are essential precursors." The compliance demand appeared to be aimed at Iran, which the U.S. believes is pursuing a nuclear weapons program despite Tehran's claims its only goal is nuclear power.

Jones also strongly defended longtime U.S. ally Israel, which was singled out for not being a member of the NPT. He said the United States "deplores" the naming of Israel which puts prospects for the 2012 conference "in doubt." As a co-sponsor of the conference, Jones said the United States will ensure that it will only takes place "if and when all countries feel confident that they can attend."


The Arab proposal for a WMD-free zone - to pressure Israel to give up its undeclared arsenal of perhaps 80 nuclear warheads - was endorsed by the 1995 NPT conference but never acted on. At this month's NPT review, a conference to begin talks on a nuclear-free Mideast was considered by many delegates as "the make-or-break issue," and agreement on the 2012 meeting was widely welcomed after the 28-page final declaration was approved by consensus.

But the U.S. reaction raised questions and doubts about whether Israel, Iran and other countries in the Mideast will even hold a meeting in two years.

Several delegates suggested that earlier comments by U.S. Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher and President Barack Obama's coordinator for weapons of mass destruction, Gary Samore, warning about the difficulties of holding a conference and persuading Israel to attend may have been sparked by the upcoming visit of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on Tuesday.

Egypt's U.N. Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, speaking for the 118-nation Nonaligned Movement of mainly developing countries, said that during the negotiations there was "a little bit of disagreement" on mentioning Israel.

But he said NAM members thought that since the document issued at the end of the 2000 NPT review conference mentioned the need for Israel to join the treaty and subject its nuclear capabilities to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards there was "no going back on that commitment" and Israel had to be mentioned in the 2010 document as well.

A Mideast conference on nuclear issues would put Israel and Iran, which has called for the destruction of the Jewish state, at the same table. But Abdelaziz told reporters the two countries already sat down at the same table at a meeting in Cairo last December.

"So there is nothing that could prevent any two adversaries to sit at the table and negotiate, and we hope that this is the spirit that everybody is going to be doing," he said.

Iran had loomed as a potential spoiler that would block consensus at this conference, and Iran and Syria dissented loudly on various points in the final hours, but no objections were raised in the concluding session.

Facing possible new U.N. sanctions because of its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment and enter negotiations on its nuclear program, the Iranians had sought to turn the spotlight instead on the big nuclear powers, demanding the final document call for speedier disarmament moves.

Iran's chief delegate Ali Asghar Soltanieh lamented that the deadline of 2025 sought by NAM for complete disarmament was not included in the final document. Nonetheless, Soltanieh called "the limited measures" in the agreement "a step forward."

While Israel was named, the final document did not single Iran out as a member nation that has been found to be in noncompliance with U.N. nuclear safeguards agreements.

Jones, the U.S. National Security Adviser, said the failure of the resolution to mention Iran, "which poses the greatest threat of nuclear proliferation in the region and to the integrity of the NPT, is also deplorable." Earlier, Tauscher had also criticized Iran for doing "nothing to enhance the international community's confidence in it by its performance in this review conference."

Iran's Soltanieh said the Americans should "think twice" before making such statements. "This was not the right reaction to a positive response, positive measure by our delegation joining the consensus," he said.

According to the final document, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the co-sponsors of the 1995 Mideast resolution - the U.S., Russia and Britain - will now appoint a "facilitator" to conduct consultations in preparation for the 2012 conference.

Jones said the United States "will insist that the conference operate only by consensus by the regional countries" and that any further discussions or actions also be decided on this basis.

Britain's chief negotiator, Ambassador John Duncan, said Friday's decision is the start of a process and dialogue on a WMD-free zone in the Mideast.

"So it would be surprising if Israel was able to agree today to come to the proposed conference before that dialogue has taken place," he said. "But the clear goal of this decision is to have all the countries of the region involved."

Under the 1970 nonproliferation treaty, nations without nuclear weapons committed not to acquire them; those with them committed to move toward their elimination; and all endorsed everyone's right to develop peaceful nuclear energy.

The last NPT conference, in 2005, failed to adopt a consensus declaration. In sharp contrast, a final declaration was not only adopted this year but for the first time it laid out complex action plans for all three of the treaty's "pillars" - nonproliferation, disarmament and peaceful nuclear energy.

Under its action plan, the five recognized nuclear-weapon states - the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China - commit to speed up arms reductions, take other steps to diminish the importance of atomic weapons, and report back on progress by 2014. The plan also has 24 steps to promote nonproliferation including making the treaty universal to include Israel, Pakistan India and North Korea, to encourage tighter inspections and controls on nuclear trade to prevent development of secret weapons programs.
Military tension on the Korean peninsula rose Thursday after North Korea threatened to attack any South Korean ships entering its waters and Seoul held anti-submarine drills in response to the March sinking of a navy vessel blamed on Pyongyang.

Separately, the chief U.S. military commander in South Korea criticized the North over the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in which 46 sailors died, telling the communist country to stop its aggressive actions.

North Korean reaction was swift. The military declared it would scrap accords with the South designed to prevent armed clashes at their maritime border, including the cutting of a military hot line, and warned of "prompt physical strikes" if any South Korean ships enter what the North says are its waters in a disputed area off the west coast of the peninsula.

A multinational team of investigators said May 20 that a North Korean torpedo sank the 1,200-ton ship. Seoul announced punitive measures, including slashing trade and resuming anti-Pyongyang propaganda over radio and loudspeakers aimed at the North. North Korea has denied attacking the ship, which sank near disputed western waters where the Koreas have fought three bloody sea battles since 1999.

"The facts and evidence laid out by the joint international investigation team are very compelling. That is why I have asked the Security Council to fulfill their responsibility to keep peace and stability ... to take the necessary measures, keeping in mind the gravity of this situation," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said as he opened a conference in Brazil meant to help find solutions to global conflicts.

Inter-Korean political and economic ties have been steadily deteriorating since the February 2008 inauguration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who vowed a tougher line on the North and its nuclear program. The sinking of the Cheonan has returned military tensions - and the prospect of armed conflict - to the forefront.

Off the west coast, 10 South Korean warships, including a 3,500-ton destroyer, fired artillery and other guns and dropped anti-submarine bombs during a one-day exercise to boost readiness, the navy said.

South Korea also is planning two major military drills with the U.S. by July in a display of force intended to deter aggression by North Korea, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Gen. Walter Sharp, chief of the 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea, said the United States, South Korea and other members of the U.N. Command "call on North Korea to cease all acts of provocation and to live up with the terms of past agreements, including the armistice agreement."

The U.S. fought on the South Korean side during the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. North Korea has long demanded a permanent peace agreement.

The prospect of another eruption of serious fighting has been constant on the Korean peninsula since the war ended. But it had been largely out of focus in the past decade as North and South Korea took steps to end enmity and distrust, such as launching joint economic projects and holding two summits.

The sinking of the warship, however, clearly caught South Korea - which has a far more modern and advanced military than its impoverished rival - off guard.

"I think one of the big conclusions that we can draw from this is that, in fact, military readiness in the West Sea had become very lax," said Carl Baker, an expert on Korean military relations at the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank in Honolulu, calling it nothing short of an "indictment" of Seoul's preparedness.

South Korean and U.S. militaries are taking pains to warn the North that such an embarrassment will not happen again.

South Korean media reported Thursday that the U.S.-South Korean combined forces command led by Sharp raised its surveillance level, called Watch Condition, by a step from level 3 to level 2. Level 1 is the highest.

The increased alert level means U.S. spy satellites and U-2 spy planes will intensify their reconnaissance of North Korea, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unidentified South Korean official.

The South Korean and U.S. militaries would not confirm any changes to the alert level. It would be the first change since North Korea carried out a nuclear test in May 2009, a South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

A South Korean Defense Ministry official said Seoul will "resolutely" deal with the North's measures announced Thursday, but did not elaborate. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy. South Korea's military said there were no signs of unusual activity by North Korean troops.

Despite the tensions, most analysts feel the prospect of war remains remote because North Korea knows what's at stake.

"I don't think they're really interested in going to war," said Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank. "Because if it's all-out war, then I'm convinced it would mean the absolute destruction" of North Korea. "And their country would cease to exist."

Thousands of South Korean veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars rallied Thursday in Seoul, beating a life-sized rubber likeness of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il with wooden sticks and stabbing it with knives. "Dialogue won't work with these North Korean devils," said Mo Hyo-sang, an 81-year-old Korean War veteran.

In Moscow, the Kremlin said President Dmitry Medvedev sent a group of experts to Seoul to study the findings of the investigation into the ship disaster.

"Medvedev considers it a matter of principle to establish the reason for the sinking of the ship," it said.


By: AP
Israel on Thursday unveiled a massive makeshift detention center in the country's main southern port and announced the end of days of intense naval maneuvers, vowing to stop a flotilla of hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists trying to break a 3-year blockade of the Gaza Strip this weekend.
Military authorities said that masked naval commandos would greet the eight ships deep out at sea, escort the vessels to port and give each of the activists a stark choice: leave the country or go to jail.

But the tough response threatened to backfire by breathing new life into the activists' mission and drawing new attention to the oft-criticized blockade of Gaza.

"We know that we are sailing for a good cause," said Dror Feiler, 68, an Israeli-born Swedish activist who was on board a cargo ship headed from Greece to Gaza. "If the Israelis want us to pay a price, we will pay a price, but we will come again and again."

Some 750 activists, including a Nobel peace laureate and former U.S. congresswoman, have set sail for the Gaza coast in recent days, carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian supplies. They are expected to reach the Israeli coast on Saturday.

The volunteers say they are bringing desperately needed materials to the area, which has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since Hamas militants violently took control in June 2007.

Israel, which considers Hamas a terrorist group, says the blockade is needed to prevent the Islamic militants from developing weapons. It has condemned the flotilla as a publicity stunt, insisting there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza and offering to deliver the aid through official channels.

"If they were really interested in the well-being of the people of Gaza, they would have accepted the offers of Egypt or Israel to transfer humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza," said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev. "Instead, they have chosen a cheap political stunt."

In recent days, Israel's navy chief, Vice Adm. Eliezer Marum, has overseen a series of drills simulating the boarding of ships and the transfer of passengers to shore, the military said. It said it would make every effort to avoid using force against the flotilla, but that naval commandos and attack dogs were prepared for a military confrontation if necessary.

"We have no intention of harming any one of these people, but with that said, we have a very clear mission to carry out. We will prevent them from entering the Gaza Strip," Marum said. The military has said that those arrested would be deported.

In Ashdod, authorities showed off three large white tents, equipped with computers and medical supplies. Officials said the activists would be identified, then placed on buses going straight to Israel's international airport for deportation. Those who refuse to go voluntarily will be taken to a nearby prison.

"We have to remember: These people are entering Israel illegally," said Maya Kadosh, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.

Officials said the cargo would undergo a security check, and then be transferred to U.N. agencies for distribution in Gaza.

In a statement Thursday, the U.N. called on all sides to "act with a sense of care and responsibility and work for a satisfactory resolution," while calling for an end to Israel's blockade and expressing "concern at the insufficient flow of material through legitimate crossing points to meet basic needs, begin reconstruction and revive economic life."

Israeli authorities have sharply rejected allegations that a humanitarian disaster is brewing in Gaza.

"There is no shortage of fuel, there is no shortage of medication, there is no shortage of any necessities in the Gaza Strip," said military spokeswoman Avital Liebovitch.

Israeli officials have launched a public relations blitz ahead of the flotilla's arrival, detailing the tons of supplies of food, medicine and other staples it allows into Gaza, and inviting reporters to view the transfer operations at the border. The official Government Press Office went so far as to release a sarcastically worded statement for the press encouraging journalists to visit one of Gaza's few luxury restaurants.

Critics say such claims are misguided. They note the blockade has failed to dislodge Hamas, hurt Gaza's weakest and fomented a bustling smuggling industry along the Egyptian border that has helped enrich Hamas and stocked store shelves with abundant but overpriced food and goods.

But it remains virtually impossible to repair damage to thousands of homes struck by a devastating Israeli offensive launched early last year to halt Hamas rocket fire.

Flotilla organizers say they have loaded the ships with some of the hardest items to procure, such as cement, lumber, and high-end medical equipment.

This is the ninth time that the Free Gaza Movement, the pro-Palestinian organization behind the effort, has sent a flotilla of supplies to Gaza. Israel permitted five deliveries to reach Gaza, but has not allowed any ships through since the military offensive that ended in January 2009.

Among the passengers are Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a Holocaust survivor in her 80s, a retired U.S. army colonel and lawmakers from a dozen European countries.

In Gaza, Hamas officials were eagerly making last-minute preparations for the ships' arrival. Officials said hotel rooms have been booked for all the activists, police and medical teams had conducted drills, and tiny boats were ready to unload the aid ships, which are too big to enter Gaza's tiny port.

"We are hopeful these ships will reach the Gaza Strip. It's a humanitarian mission that flouts the siege," said Yousef Rizqa, deputy prime minister of the Hamas government.



By: AP

Relations on the divided Korean peninsula plunged to their lowest point in a decade Tuesday when the North declared it was cutting all ties to Seoul as punishment for blaming the communists for the sinking of a South Korean warship.

The announcement came a day after South Korea took steps that were seen as among the strongest it could take short of military action. Seoul said it would slash trade with the North and deny permission to its cargo ships to pass through South Korean waters. It also resumed a propaganda offensive - including blaring Western music into the North and dropping leaflets by balloon.

North Korea said it was cutting all ties with the South until President Lee Myung-bak leaves office in early 2013, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch monitored in Seoul late Tuesday.

The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification said it would expel all South Korean government officials working at a joint industrial park in the northern border town of Kaesong, and South Korean ships and airliners would be banned from passing through its territory.

The North's committee said it would start "all-out counterattacks" against the South's psychological warfare, and called its moves "the first phase" of punitive measures against Seoul, suggesting more action could follow.

Earlier Tuesday, one Seoul-based monitoring agency reported that North Korea's leader ordered its 1.2 million-member military to get ready for combat. South Korean officials could not immediately confirm the report, and its military said it had no indication of unusual activity by North Korea's military. North Korea often issues fiery rhetoric and regularly vows to wage war against South Korea and the U.S.

South Korea wants to bring North Korea before the U.N. Security Council over the sinking, and has U.S. support. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was to visit South Korea on Wednesday.

Clinton was in Beijing on Tuesday, wrapping up two days of intense strategic and economic talks with China, which responded coolly to U.S. appeals that it support international action against North Korea over the warship sinking.

The North and South have technically remained at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Tensions have risen since last week, when a team of international investigators concluded that a torpedo from a North Korean submarine tore apart the Cheonan warship on March 26, killing 46 South Korean sailors.

The North flatly denies involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan, one of the South's worst military disasters since the Korean War, and has warned that retaliation would mean war.

South Korea's Unification Ministry said it had no immediate comment on the North Korean statement on cutting ties.

However, spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo that although the North was expelling eight South Korean officials from the Kaesong complex, some 800 South Korean company managers and workers will remain. Yonhap news agency said that suggested the North had no intention of completely shutting down the Kaesong park, as South Korea also decided to keep the complex intact.

The U.S. and South Korea are planning two major military exercises off the Korean peninsula in a display of force intended to deter future aggression by North Korea, the White House said. The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea.

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said it was "odd" that North Korea would sever ties to the South, given the precarious state of the North Korean economy.

"I can't imagine a step that is less in the long-term interest of the North Korean people than cutting off further ties with South Korea," he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday he expects the Security Council to take action against North Korea, but China - North Korea's main ally and a veto-wielding council member - has so far done little but urge calm. North Korea is already subject to various U.N.-backed sanctions following earlier nuclear and missile tests.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Tuesday that the U.S. was waiting for Seoul to decide when and how it will bring the issue to the council.

South Korea is not expected to go to the council until after visits to Seoul by Clinton on Wednesday and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on Friday, a U.N. diplomat familiar with the issue said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the contacts.

In Beijing, Clinton said she had "very productive and very detailed" discussions with Chinese officials but could not say if any progress had been made in convincing the Chinese to back U.N. action.

"We know this is a shared responsibility, and in the days ahead we will work with the international community and our Chinese colleagues to fashion an effective, appropriate response," she told reporters.

Her Chinese counterpart in the discussions merely repeated his government's standard line.

"Relevant parties should calmly and appropriately handle the issue and avoid escalation of the situation," Chinese State Counselor Dai Bingguo said.

As part of its propaganda offensive, South Korea's military resumed radio broadcasts airing Western music, news and comparisons between the South and North Korean political and economic situation late Monday, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The military also planned to launch propaganda leaflets by balloon and other methods on Tuesday night to inform North Koreans about the ship sinking.

South Korea also will install dozens of loudspeakers and towering electronic billboards along the heavily armed land border to urge communist soldiers to defect.

On Tuesday, North Korean state media cited the powerful National Defense Commission as saying the North's soldiers and reservists were bracing to launch a "sacred war" against South Korea.

The North's military also claimed Tuesday that dozens of South Korean navy ships violated the countries' disputed western sea border this month and threatened to take "practical" military measures in response.

North Korea put its army on high alert following a November sea battle with South Korea near where the Cheonan went down in March. The Koreas also fought bloody maritime skirmishes in the disputed area in 1999 and 2002.

Relations are at their lowest point since a decade ago, when South Korea began reaching out to the North with unconditional aid as part of reconciliation efforts. Lee has taken a harder line since taking office in 2008, and the South has suspended aid.

Seoul-based North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il last week ordered his military to get ready for combat.

The group, citing unidentified sources in North Korea, said the order was broadcast last Thursday on speakers installed in each house and at major public sites throughout the country.