Indonesia Urges Israel To Stop Air Raids On Gaza Strip

JAKARTA, April 3 (Bernama) -- The Indonesian government has urged Israel to stop its air raids on the Gaza Strip in Palestine which were harming the civilian population, Antara news agency reported Saturday.

The Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman, Tengku Faizasyah, said the air raids which started on Apr 2 following a series of rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel in reaction to the Israeli government's announcement that it would allow the development of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem, would hamper the peace efforts between Israel and Palestine.

"The use of military force by Israel in the Gaza Strip will have a great impact on the local people. Their actions in the Gaza Strip are a violation of international law," Faizasyah said here on Friday.

On Friday, Israeli warplanes carried out six overnight raids on the Gaza Strip causing material damage but no casualties, witnesses and Hamas officials said.

The raids came following a series of rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel.

Three air strikes targeted an area west of Khan Yunis, in the southern part of the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas, with two missiles hitting a guard post of Hamas` armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades.

A fourth raid destroyed a workshop in the refugee camp of Nusseirat, in central Gaza.

In the two final air raids, Israeli fighters targeted points in the west of Gaza City, completely destroying a small dairy factory in the Sabra district, said witnesses.

The attacks were carried out by F16 fighters, the witnesses said.

Israel`s armed forces have launched regular air raids on the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, responding to a series of rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza-based militants.

One such rocket attack killed a Thai laborer on an Israeli kibbutz, or collective farm, on March 18.

Ground forces have also clashed with Palestinian militants along the border with Israel.

On Tuesday, a Palestinian teenager was killed and several others were wounded as Israeli troops fired on protesters near the Gaza border.

The incident happened as Israeli Arabs and Palestinians marked "Land Day", the annual commemoration of Israel`s killing of six Arab citizens during a 1976 protest against land confiscations.

Source: Bernama.
Link: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/bm/newsworld.php?id=487782.

PLO to declare Palestinian state in 2011

RAMALLAH - Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Saturday said that Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will declare the Palestinian state in the middle of 2011.

"The government will continue building and rehabilitating the state's institutions and infrastructure to announce it in the middle of next year," Fayyad told reporters during the inauguration of a main street near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Fayyad also said his government supports resolving the issue of Palestinian refugees in accordance with UN Resolution 194 which grants the right to any refugee to return and live in peace with his Israeli neighbors.

Fayyad had announced last year that Palestinians were preparing for a possible unilateral declaration of independence after peace talks with Israel hit a deadlock.

Last month, the US-brokered Israeli-Palestinian negotiations failed to be relaunched due to Israel's approvals to build new Jewish homes in disputed East Jerusalem. The proximity indirect talks would have focused on the borders of the Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, a leftist Palestinian faction urged Fayyad to work on ending the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)'s security commitments towards Israel to allow the independence.

"Ending the security liaison and commitments with Israel is essential to build a state on the lands that Israel occupied in 1967," said Bassam Al-Salhi of the People Party.

The PNA is bounded by many security agreements with Israel based on information exchange, information and field coordination in the West Bank.

Source: China Daily.
Link: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2010-04/03/content_9685019.htm.

Kurds stage protest in Brussels

Brussels - Some 5,000 Kurds took to the streets of Brussels on Saturday in protest at a crackdown against the Kurdish television channel Roj TV.

Police detained two Kurdish politicians and 6 other people during the protest, the Belgian news agency Belga reported.

Kurds have been protesting in Belgium against the recent arrests of leading members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party PKK.

Some 20 Kurds were rounded up in March, among them employees of Roj TV in the town of Denderleeuw. Arrest warrants were issued for eight of them.

Prosecutors suspect the Kurds of membership of a terrorist organization and providing combat training to young Kurds.

Thousands of Kurds protested last month against the police action, which they claim was politically motivated.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/316976,kurds-stage-protest-in-brussels.html.

Protests greet UN secretary general's Kyrgystan visit

Moscow - A visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Central Asian republic of Kyrgystan was marked by protests on Saturday.

Around 50 journalists and civil rights activists demonstrated in the capital Bishkek against the closure of an independent television station.

Two opposition newspapers were also shut down recently after being accused by the authorities of insulting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Officials in the former Soviet republic have also blocked access to websites critical of the government.

Stan TV was shut down for using "cloned software," the news agency Interfax quoted a police spokesman as saying.

A reporter at the network denied this, saying the closure was a reprisal for "our honest reporting of what is actually happening in this country."

The protesters had planned to hand a petition to Ban, but were prevented from doing so by police.

A UN official said the secretary general urged President Bakiyev to uphold media freedom during their meeting on Saturday.

Kyrgyzstan is a part of a Central Asian tour by Ban, which will also take him to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/316991,protests-greet-un-secretary-generals-kyrgystan-visit.html.

Israeli runs over a Palestinian girl

by PT Editor maysaa jarour

Ramallah, April 3, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) Israeli settler runs over a Palestinian girl by his car causing her immediate death on Thursday in west of Ramallah.

Samar Redwan, 16, was delivered to an Israeli hospital after being intentionally ran over by an Israeli settler who escaped after running her over. She martyred yesterday.

The martyr Samar is the sister of the Palestinian detainee Haytham Redwan. As a Palestinian detainee in the Israeli jails he was unable to see his sister before burying her.

Source: The Palestine Telegraph.
Link: http://paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/5217-israeli-runs-over-a-palestinian-girl.

Egyptian publisher arrested over pro-ElBaradei book

Sun Apr 4, 2010

An Egyptian publisher has been arrested and copies of books supporting former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei have been confiscated.

Egyptian police arrested Ahmed Mahanna, who runs the Dawin publishing house, after raiding his house on Saturday but have not charged him yet, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said in a statement.

ANHRI Director Gamal Eid told AFP that Mahanna was being held in a state security prison. "He had published a book on ElBaradei more than a week ago," Eid said.

After he retired from the post of IAEA director last year, ElBaradei decided to challenge President Hosni Mubarak, 81, in next year's presidential election.

ElBaradei has said he would run for president if Egypt's Constitution were amended, a condition ruled out by Mubarak, who has ruled with an iron fist since 1981.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/122389.html.

'Palestinians determined to acquire their rights'

Hamas Political Bureau chief Khaled Meshaal says that the Palestinians will do whatever is necessary to acquire their rights.

Talking to reporters after a meeting with senior members of Palestinian factions at his home in Damascus, Syria on Saturday, Meshaal said that Hamas will do everything to "obtain the rights stolen from us, including confrontation with the enemy."

"The possibilities for war exist in the entire region," the Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonot quoted the exiled Hamas leader as saying.

"A conflict with the Zionist enemy is possible in any scenario… We shall realize our right by standing firm in the face of aggression through resistance," he added.

The comments came after Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom warned on Friday that Tel Aviv would soon launch another large-scale military operation against the Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=122390§ionid=351020202.