Jordan's king warns of plot against Palestinians

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Tuesday warned of a plot against the Palestinian people, their future and right to establish an independent state behind Israel's offensive on Gaza.

The king made the remarks to Al Jazeera channel after meeting with a visiting delegation of the World Federation of Muslim Scholars headed by Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi.

"I see a conspiracy against the Palestinian people and the future of Palestine," said the king, adding that Jordan is concerned and upset, and fears about what will happen after the Israeli Gaza offensive.

"We must be aware of the conspiracy, and along with Arab and other states we will stop the Israeli agenda quickly," Abdullah said.

The king affirmed that he is working with the Arab and Western countries to stop the aggression on Gaza immediately.

"We, as Arab and in cooperation with some Western countries are exerting our utmost efforts and we pressure on the Israeli government and Israeli army to stop the aggression immediately," Abdullah said.

According to the royal Hashemite court, the king said when meeting al Qaradawi that Jordan will continue to exert its utmost effort to stop the Israeli aggression, provide medical and humanitarian support for Palestinians and foil any plot targeting their right to establish their independent state.

More than 600 Palestinians have been killed and 2,700 others injured since Israel launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Dec.27 and a ground assault a week later.

Official: UN plans to move operations to Somalia

NAIROBI, Kenya – The U.N. envoy to Somalia says the United Nations must establish a proper base inside the country in order to help it overcome almost 20 years of conflict, hunger and disease.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah says the U.N. plans to move its Somalia operation from neighboring Kenya, where it is now based. But he didn't say when.

He said Tuesday that given the widespread violence in Somalia, the move could involve creating a fortified, walled-off area like the Green Zone in Baghdad used by U.S.-led forces.

The U.N. now keeps its international Somalia staff members in Kenya to shield them from the risk of attacks and kidnappings. In 2008, at least 13 aid workers were killed in Somalia, which has not had an effective government since 1991.

A Palestinian family huddles together in Gaza City

By Safwat al-Kahlout

The Israeli drones are driving me crazy. I go outside only to buy food, water, and medicine, or to recharge my cellphone at a nearby mosque that is powered by generators. Inside my Gaza City apartment, electricity and phone lines are out. Heat is a luxury. We sleep with the windows open in case an Israeli shell lands nearby, which would shatter the glass.

All around Gaza City, this coastal strip's largest urban area, fighting has intensified since Israel launched its ground invasion Saturday. So far, even though more than 530 Gazans have been killed and 2,000 wounded in the conflict, support for Hamas does not appear to be weakening.

At the long bread lines, customers listen to their transistor radios while they wait. When they hear of a Hamas missile striking Israel, cheering begins. Others lash out at Arab states because of their alleged cooperation with Israel, some trade stories about the wounded, the dead, and worsening life for Gazans since the start of the assault, now in its 10th day.

Many Gazans see no end in sight and say that unless there are high numbers of Israeli casualties, nothing will change despite the increasing calls for a cease-fire. They say: If the Palestinians are the only ones dying, no one will care.

The sound of fighting could be heard throughout the city Monday even as those efforts to forge a diplomatic solution moved ahead across the border in Israel. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Middle East special envoy Tony Blair called for a cease-fire and Hamas is sending a delegation to Egypt for talks.

But Israel has been steadfast in its resolve. On Monday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: "Hamas has so far sustained a very heavy blow from us, but we have yet to achieve our objective, and therefore the operation continues."

Since Saturday, when troops crossed the border, more than 20 family members – an aunt, uncle, four cousins, and their families – have been sharing our three bedroom apartment.

My cousin Anas reached our house following the invasion.

"Where is all the rest of the family?" I asked him after he entered, referring to my uncle and the rest of his kids. Anas responded that they tried to flee, but the situation was too difficult. Only after two hours did my uncle, Abu Khaled, reach my house with four of his five children.

He was in the same situation as dozens of families living east of Jabaliya, a refugee camp outside Gaza City where fighting has been heavy.

"I was forced to leave the house that I worked 30 years for," Abu Khaled told me. "I took my clothes and underwear and ID cards so I could be identified if killed in one of the explosions."

The moment Abu Khaled reached my house, he entered one of the rooms and immediately fell asleep. When he woke, he told me what he had been through. "I didn't sleep for 48 hours because of the continuing shelling. Once the tanks came over the eastern border, the explosives began falling from all directions."

His wife added: "This time is the worst of all. The Israeli army is shelling mosques and ambulances without any sort of care. So we decided to flee and leave all of our possessions behind."

The Israeli army entered Gaza by what used to be the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, before Israel pulled out of the strip three years ago. The Israeli assault has essentially split the strip in two and surrounded Gaza City.

Monday, Israel hit at least 30 targets, Reuters reported, and bombed homes of Hamas members. At least three children were killed Monday when their home was struck.

On Sunday, the grocery story was full of people. I asked one person why he was buying lentils and fava beans. He looked at me as if I were from a foreign country.

"You don't know that there's nothing else to buy except for fava and lentils? I bought five kilos of each type, hoping that the crisis would finish before the supplies ran out."

Much of Gaza's supply of fruits and vegetables has been destroyed by Israeli rockets.

Since the beginning of the assault, on Dec. 27, the streets here have largely been empty except for funerals, mourning tents, ambulances that rush to every bombing, and Palestinian press cars heading toward the scene of Israeli attacks.

One night, a cellphone call woke me up. It was my friend Abu Ahmed and he was very afraid.

He said that his wife had gotten a call on her cellphone and that it was a recorded message by the Israeli intelligence.

It said: "To the civilians of Gaza, we are warning you not to carry any weapons and have weapons in your home. Otherwise we will bomb your house.... If you deal with terrorists, you will be our target."

Fighting continues as Israel considers peace plan

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writers

GAZA CITY, Gaza – Plumes of smoke engulfed a neighborhood east of Gaza City on Wednesday as Israel's leaders considered a peace plan put forth by France and Egypt on the 12th day of their campaign to stop rocket fire into Israel.

Sounds of heavy gunfire engulfed the Zeitoun neighborhood east of Gaza City and Israel said it struck 40 Hamas targets during the hours of darkness. One morning airstrike killed four people, Gaza officials said, but their identities were unclear.

The Islamic militants said they ambushed an Israeli tank and set it ablaze. However, the Israeli military said it had no information on any such incident and previous Hamas announcements of hitting Israeli troops have proved unfounded.

The fighting comes a day after France and Egypt announced a plan to stop the fighting, an initiative spurred on by an Israeli mortar strike near a United Nations school that killed at least 30 Palestinians and stained the streets with blood.

The U.N. said the school was sheltering hundreds of people displaced by the onslaught on Hamas militants. Israel said its troops returned fire on a Hamas squad that fired mortars at them.

In the wake of the criticism over civilian casualties, Israel agreed to set up a "humanitarian corridor" to ship vital supplies into the Gaza Strip. Under the plan put forward by the Israeli Defense Ministry, Israel would suspend attacks in certain areas to allow people to get supplies.

The Egyptian and French presidents released no details of their proposal, saying only that it involved an immediate cease-fire to permit humanitarian aid into Gaza and talks to settle the differences between Israel and Hamas, which rules the small coastal territory.

They said they were awaiting a response from Israel. Officials in Jerusalem declined comment on the announcement, which came amid diplomatic efforts by the U.S. and other nations to resolve a conflict that has seen 600 Palestinians killed.

Eleven Israelis have been killed since the offensive began: three civilians and a soldier by rocket fire and seven soldiers in the ground offensive, according to Israeli officials.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed the initiative but cautioned that no agreement would succeed unless it halted Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and arms smuggling into Gaza.

Earlier on Tuesday, President-elect Barack Obama broke his silence on the crisis, saying that "the loss of civilian life in Gaza and in Israel is a source of deep concern for me." He declined to go further, reiterating his stance that the U.S. has only one president at a time.

Israel's military said its shelling at the school — the deadliest single episode since Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza on Saturday following a weeklong air bombardment — was an attack on a military target and accused Hamas militants of using civilians as cover.

Two residents of the area who spoke with The Associated Press by telephone said they saw a small group of militants firing mortar rounds from a street near the school, where 350 people had gathered to get away from the shelling. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

An Israeli defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to make the information public, said it appeared the military used 120-mm shells, among the largest mortar rounds.

U.N. officials demanded an investigation of the shelling. The carnage, which included 55 wounded, added to a surging civilian toll and drew mounting international pressure for Israel to end the offensive against Hamas.

At a news conference in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said the truce proposal offered by him and French President Nicolas Sarkozy envisioned an immediate end to combat, so humanitarian supplies can safely enter Gaza.

Mubarak said the plan also calls for an urgent meeting between Israel and the Palestinians to discuss ways to resolve the conflict and provide necessary guarantees to ensure fighting doesn't erupt again.

There was no indication of the plan's chances. Sarkozy said at the news conference that he saw it as a "small hope" for ending the Gaza violence.

Sarkozy said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to inform him of the initiative and was awaiting a response. In Jerusalem, Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, told AP: "We are holding off comments on that for the time being."

At U.N. headquarters, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the proposal. "I express my support for the plan set in motion today by President Mubarak and President Sarkozy," said Abbas, who was in New York for a Security Council meeting on the Gaza crisis.

Israeli officials have said any cease-fire agreement must prevent further rocket attacks by Gaza militants and put in place measures to prevent the smuggling of missile and other weapons into the small Palestinian territory.

Rice told the Security Council meeting that the U.S. understood the growing desire for a cease-fire and commended the initiative. But she added that any solution must address Israel's security.

"There must be a solution this time that does not allow Hamas to use Gaza as a launching pad against Israeli cities. It has to be a solution that does not allow the rearmament of Hamas, and it must be a solution that finds a way to open (border) crossings so that Palestinians in Gaza can have a normal life," she said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the Israeli bombardment of U.N. facilities in Gaza "totally unacceptable." Israel's shells have fallen around three schools, including the girls school hit Tuesday, and a health center for Palestinian refugees.

Ban added that it was "equally unacceptable" for militants to take actions that endanger Palestinian civilians, referring to the practice of militants making attacks from residential areas.

In Gaza, U.N. official Christopher Gunness hoped an investigation would show whether militants were using U.N. schools for weapons or activities. "It is just not in our interests to have militants, whether in war or peace, in our installations," he said in a statement.

Some 15,000 Palestinians have packed the U.N.'s 23 Gaza schools because their homes were destroyed or to flee the violence. The U.N. provided the Israeli military with GPS coordinates for all of them.

The three mortar shells that crashed down on the perimeter of the U.N. school struck at midafternoon, when many people in the densely populated camp were outside getting some fresh air, thinking an area around a school was safe.

Images recorded by a cameraman from AP Television News showed crowds fleeing the scene, pavements smeared with blood and battered bodies being carried off by medics and bystanders. A youth who limped away was helped along by several others. Sandals lay scattered on the pavement by a pockmarked wall.

"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," said John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

Two residents who spoke to an AP reporter by phone said the two brothers were known to be low-level Hamas militants. They said a group of militants — one of them said four — were firing mortar shells from near the school.

An Israeli shell targeted the men but missed and they fled, the witnesses said. Then another three shells landed nearby, exploding among civilians, they said.

An Israeli military statement said it received intelligence that the dead at the girls school included Hamas operatives, among them members of a rocket-launching squad. It identified two of them as Imad Abu Askar and Hassan Abu Askar.

A total of 71 Palestinians were killed Tuesday — with just two confirmed as militants, Gaza health officials said. An Israeli infant was wounded by one of about two dozen rockets fired into southern Israel by Gaza militants.

Venezuela expels Israel envoy over Gaza attacks

CARACAS, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Venezuela expelled the ambassador to Israel on Tuesday in protest over the offensive in Gaza only hours after leftist President Hugo Chavez called the attacks a Palestinian "holocaust."

The socialist Chavez, a harsh critic of Israel and the United States, in recent years has frequently withdrawn Venezuela's diplomatic envoys amid bilateral disputes and last year kicked out the U.S. ambassador over a conflict involving allied Bolivia.

The OPEC nation's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Israel's campaign constituted "flagrant violations of International Law" and the use of "state terrorism."

"For the reasons mentioned above, the government of Venezuela has decided to expel the Ambassador of Israel and part of the personnel of the Embassy of Israel," the statement said.

The Israeli embassy did not respond to phone calls requesting comment.

Chavez in 2006 threatened to break ties with Israel over its military campaign in Lebanon in a war of words that led both nations to withdraw their envoys.

On Monday he accused Washington of poisoning the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to destabilize the Middle East and justify U.S.-backed Israeli incursions into Arab countries.

Israel is under international pressure to reach a ceasefire with Hamas militants and halt an offensive that has killed nearly 600 Palestinians, including more than 40 in a U.N. school sheltering civilians.

"The Holocaust, that is what is happening right now in Gaza," Chavez said in televised comments earlier on Tuesday.

"The president of Israel at this moment should be taken to the International Criminal Court together with the President of the United States."

The United States, which Chavez describes as a decadent empire, firmly backs Israel -- its principal ally in the region.

New Congress opens pledging to rescue economy

WASHINGTON – The Capitol rang loud with vows to fix the crisis-ridden economy Tuesday as Congress opened for business at the dawn of a new Democratic era. "We need action and we need action now," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Republicans agreed, and pledged cooperation in Congress as well as with President-elect Barack Obama — to a point.

On a day largely devoted to ceremony, new members of Congress and those newly re-elected swore to defend the Constitution. The Senate galleries were crowded; children and grandchildren of lawmakers squirmed in their seats in the House chamber as the winners in last fall's elections claimed their prizes.

One office-seeker was not among them.

In a scripted bit of political theater, Democrat Roland Burris of Illinois was informed he would not be seated because his paperwork was not in order. He pledged a lawsuit, the latest twist in a political drama that began when he was named to Obama's Senate seat by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has been charged with having attempted to sell the appointment.

Obama was across town in a meeting with his economic advisers as the opening gavels fell in the House and Senate at noon. His inauguration as the nation's first black president is two weeks away.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a veteran of numerous battles with President George W. Bush, made plain how glad he was the old administration was winding down.

"We are ready to answer the call of the American people by putting the past eight years behind us and delivering the change that our country desperately needs," he said on the Senate floor. We are grateful to begin anew with a far more robust Democratic majority."

At the same time, in comments directed at Republicans, he said, "we are in this together" when it comes to the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, health care and the country's energy needs.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, replied in a speech of his own, saying, "The opportunities for cooperation are numerous." He said Democrats should avoid a "reckless rush to meet an arbitrary deadline" to pass an economic stimulus bill that could reach $1 trillion, and he outlined possible changes in the approach Obama and the Democratic congressional leaders have been considering.

Among them was a proposal to cut taxes by 10 percent. Another was to lend money to hard-pressed state governments rather than give it to them. "States will be far less likely to spend it frivolously" in that case, he said.

By the new political calculus, McConnell will soon be the most powerful Republican in government after elections that handed Democrats the White House and left them with gains of least seven seats in the Senate and 21 in the House.

McConnell's counterpart in the House, Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, handed the speaker's gavel to Pelosi in a traditional unity tableau. He, too, pledged cooperation, then said, "America's potential is unlimited. But government's potential is not. We must not confuse the two."

Obama spent much of Monday in the Capitol, conferring with Republicans and Democrats alike on the economic stimulus measure he hopes to sign early in his term. The nation's consumer spending has plummeted, manufacturing has withered and job losses have grown in recent months, adding urgency to the legislative effort in contrast to the customary sluggish start to a new Congress.

Strikingly, the war in Iraq drew scant mention during the day, a contrast to the weeks of debates that Democrats once had forced to try and maneuver Bush into withdrawing American forces.

Reid mentioned the fighting in passing when he noted the country was fighting two wars overseas, a reference to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pelosi was even more indirect, saying, "We cannot afford to wait to modernize and rebuild our military."

Like Reid, she focused her remarks on domestic issues, the economy chief among them.

"We need action and we need action now," she said again and again, calling for help for "hardworking and still hopeful Americans" bearing the brunt of the economic crisis, for the states struggling to provide services, for families without health care, for a climate crisis and for energy needs.

Speechmaking and celebrations aside, House Democrats pushed through a series of rule changes, including one that calls for greater disclosure of earmarks.

They also repealed the six-year term limit for committee chairman. It was a legacy of the Republican Revolution that swept through Congress in 1994, and in erasing it Democrats evinced confidence in the strength of their majority status.

In all, 34 senators were sworn it, and apart from the controversy involving Burris, one other Senate seat was in limbo.

Democrat Al Franken holds a 225-vote lead over former Sen. Norm Coleman in Minnesota, a result certified on Monday by the state Canvassing Board. He has not yet received a certificate of election, and with Republicans threatening to protest, Democrats made no attempt to seat him.

Inevitably, it was a day for personal transitions.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware took the oath of office for a seventh time for a seat he has held for more than 30 years and will soon relinquish to become Obama's vice president.

Anh "Joseph" Cao, who arrived in the United States as an 8-year-old war refugee, was sworn in as the nation's first Vietnamese-American lawmaker. He's a Louisiana Republican.

Across the Capitol in mid-afternoon, the chamber nearly deserted, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, 91, spoke about his 50 years in the Senate.

"I look forward — yes, look forward — to the next 50 years," he said.

He spoke from a wheelchair, his hair white, his voice often faltering.

Ukraine: Russia stops sending gas to Europe

By MARIA DANILOVA, Associated Press Writer

KIEV, Ukraine – Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that Russia had cut off all gas supplies through pipelines crossing Ukrainian territory, the latest move in a devastating pricing dispute between the two neighbors that has already left a number of countries without gas.

Valentyn Zemlyansky, spokesman for state gas company Naftogaz, said Russia's gas giant Gazprom completely stopped sending gas to European consumers at 7:44 a.m. (0544 GMT). Eighty percent of Russian gas is shipped via Ukraine.

"Words fail us," Zemlyansky said of Gazprom's move.

Russia confirmed the cutoff but said it was Ukraine's fault because it had shut down the last pipeline carrying gas from Russia.

The Russia-Ukraine natural gas dispute has hit Europe with the force of a winter storm. It has affected at least a dozen nations. Tens of thousands of people were left without heat and governments scrambled to find alternative energy sources.

Before Wednesday, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey had all reported a halt in gas shipments, while France, Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary had reported substantial drops in supplies from Russia.

Russia says it has limited supplies to Europe because Ukraine was stealing the gas. Ukraine blames Russia for the shortfalls. Russia stopped all gas shipments to Ukraine on Jan. 1 after the two countries failed to agree on prices and transit fees for next year.

Ukraine has continued shipping Russian gas to Europe, but acknowledged diverting some gas used to pump the fuel, saying it was Gazprom's duty to supply it. Gazprom started dramatically reducing supplies to European consumers this week.

The cut-off comes after Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz agreed to resume face-to-face talks and the head of Naftogaz said he would fly to Moscow on Thursday.

The cut-off also takes place on Orthodox Christmas, celebrated in Russia, Ukraine and a number of other Orthodox Christian countries in Europe.