Displaced people highest in a decade

Displaced people highest in a decade	17.04.2008

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04/17/2008		No one thinks Mugabe won, says Brown
BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told the UN Security Council that "no one thinks" that President Robert Mugabe won last month`s presidential election in Zimbabwe

04/17/2008		No choppers for war - Wills needs a taxi
More stag party fallout for Prince William He used RAF helicopter to get to party Forces say it was `legitimate training` ]]>

04/17/2008		No buyer for rare dinosaur skeleton
A RARE triceratops skeleton failed to find a buyer at a Christie`s auction in Paris today after the top bid of ?490,000 ($836,320) fell short of the price sought by the dinosaur`s owner

04/17/2008		Three charged over 21-death kill spree
THREE Ukrainian ex-schoolmates have been charged with 21 murders, two attempted murders and four armed assaults during a four-month rampage, the prosecutor`s office said today

Japan `to release hostages`

JAPAN has agreed to release two anti-whaling activists held on board a whaling ship in Antarctic waters, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.

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Latest Comments:

to me of sydey "poor little innocent israel" re you being sarcastic, inot you ave got to be kdding me.. both sides are at fault here and should both feel equally resonsible for the numbers killed.another thing the aticle says its a "slap in the face" for bush's pece efforts ha you got to be joking
Posted by: are you kidding of adelaide 10:01am today

Guys, Its obvious whos at fault here, the terrorist who are trying to protect them selves with locally made weapons, the ones who are throwing stones at helicopters, man, they are the bad ones, and pooor poor israel, killing all those palestinians , surrounding their country, depriving them of food, water and medical supplies, poor israelies, heart breaking honestly, one thing all you people should know is what goes around COMES AROUND, and what israelies are doing wont last long, give us a few more years and youll see!
Posted by: r.a of sydney 10:01am today

Sadly mankind will never change. There will always be wars and mankind will always be hell bent on destroying himself. The saddest thing man ever did was develop the atomic bomb.
Posted by: Nicky of Essendon 9:55am today

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ISRAEL has killed at least 18 Palestinians, most of them Hamas militants, in the Gaza Strip, in violence the Palestinian Authority said was a "slap in the face" to US President George W. Bush`s peace efforts.

Medical workers and Hamas said 13 Hamas men, three other militants and two civilians were killed in fighting with Israeli forces and a series of missile strikes in the northern and eastern Gaza Strip. One of those killed was a son of Mahmoud al-Zahar, a local Hamas leader.

A volunteer from Ecuador, working on an Israeli kibbutz, or farming community, bordering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, was killed by a Palestinian sniper near the frontier fence. Hamas claimed responsibility for shooting the man.

The violence, four days after Mr Bush ended a visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank, resulted in the highest number of Palestinians killed in a single day since late 2006. Israel said it mounted the operation to curb rocket attacks from Gaza.

In a statement, the West Bank-based Palestinian government said Israel`s "ugly crimes were a slap in the face" to efforts by Mr Bush and the international community to resume peacemaking that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.

"There was a massacre today against our people, and we say to the world that our people will not remain silent against such crimes," said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas`s armed wing claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel on Tuesday for the first time since the Islamist group routed Mr Abbas`s Fatah forces to take control of the Gaza Strip in June.

Hamas had fired mortar bombs and did not try to stop other militant groups from firing rockets into Israel, but the claim of attacks marked a change of approach toward the Jewish state.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said as long as militants continue to fire rockets into the Jewish state, "we are left without a choice but to answer and stop it".

Ambulance workers said at least five Israelis were wounded by the rocket fire.

At least 40 Palestinians were wounded, five of them critically, in the fighting, hospital workers said. Gaza`s Shifa hospital issued an appeal for blood donations.

"This is one of the results of the Bush visit. He encouraged the Israelis to kill our people," said Mr Zahar as he viewed the body of his son at a Gaza hospital.

"We will pursue the path of liberation, complete liberation, even if all of us are killed."

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe, speaking during Mr Bush`s visit to Riyadh, said: "There are clearly extremists who are trying to derail the peace process. We hope that the Israelis will be targeted in their strikes against the militants and we urge the Palestinians to stop killing innocent Israelis."

Hamas Islamists oppose US-backed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Mr Bush predicted during his three-day visit that a peace treaty would be signed before he left office in January 2009, despite deep public scepticism.

Israel, which pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, frequently mounts raids in the territory to try to halt rocket attacks disrupting life in border communities.

Newly appointed UN Middle East envoy Robert Serry on his first visit to Gaza condemned both sides for the violence and said the situation in the coastal territory was unsustainable.

"I really appeal to all parties to end the violence and to find ways to deescalate the present escalation of violence," Mr Serry said.

The United States and Israel have moved to isolate Hamas over its refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing Israeli-Palestinian interim peace deals.

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