Israeli offensive continues for fourth day, toll reaches 370
Israeli warplanes destroyed a Hamas complex, security installations and home of a top commander as the toll in the military operation against Gaza crossed 370 on the fourth day.
With hundreds of Israeli troops and tanks amassed at the border with Gaza, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the bombardment of Hamas targets is so far "the first of several stages" of action approved by the security cabinet.
Over 370 Palestinians have died since the Israeli air onslaught began on Saturday, including at least 64 civilians according to the UN figures, even as Israel said it was ready for a "prolonged conflict".
Among those killed were two sisters, aged 4 and 11, who perished in an airstrike on a rocket squad in northern Gaza on Tuesday.
Palestinians said that Israeli missiles flattened five ministerial buildings and a structure belonging to the Islamic University in Gaza City, a daily reported.
An Israeli attack also targeted a house in the Jabaliya refugee camp, killing seven people, while another hit the home of Abdel-Karim Jaber, a Hamas political figure who is a senior administrator at Gaza’s Islamic University.
However, he was not at home and it wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was hurt in the strike, the paper said.
Hamas’s Interior Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Treasury, and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s offices were amongst the targets, as well as Gaza police stations.
Israel deputy Defence Minister said the Jewish nation was ready to continue the offensive for weeks.
"We are ready for a prolonged conflict and for weeks of combat," Matan Vilnai told public radio.
Arabs asks UN to act tough on Israel over Gaza strikes
Amid the worldwide protests against Israel’s attacks on Gaza Strip that claimed over 350 lives, Arab states have asked the UN to bring the Jewish state into compliance and cease military activities in the region.
Ambassadors from Egypt and Palestinian Authority met the UN chief Ban Ki-moon shortly after he had addressed a press conference asking both Hamas and Israel to declare immediate ceasefire and criticised Tel Aviv for using "excessive force."
The two met Ban, as Arabs increased pressure on the Security Council to ensure that its call for ceasefire is
heeded by Israel even as Tel Aviv said it planned to destroy the ability of Hamas to fire rockets into its territory and threat of a ground attack loomed.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian permanent observer to the United Nations, told reporters that Israel must be made to comply with the unanimous call of the 15-member council for an immediate end to the violence and bloodshed in Gaza.
"It’s the responsibility of the council to act in a practical way to bring the Israeli compliance" with the unanimous council call for a cease-fire, Mansour said.
"What we want is to bring Israel into compliance with the wish of the Security Council," he said, adding that it has been more than 48 hours since the council made the appeal, but Israel did not comply with it.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev had said in a letter to the Security Council on Saturday that the airstrikes were aimed at "the terrorists and their infrastructure" in Gaza and were not intended against the civilian population.
But reports from the Gaza said several dozens of civilians were killed. The UN reported that at least 62 women and children have been killed.
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Hasina’s alliance scripts stunning victory in B’desh polls
Awami League-led alliance headed by Sheikh Hasina won a landslide victory in Bangladesh’s general elections on Tuesday held under a neutral caretaker government after nearly two years of emergency rule.
The Election Commission has so far announced "unofficial" results of 295 seats of the 300-seat parliament saying, the Hasina’s alliance won 258 seats while her archrival ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist
Party-led four-party grouping won in 31 constituencies.
Five seats went to other small parties and independents while results of the four others were pending.
A beaming Hasina, who lost power to Zia’s BNP by a huge margin in 2001, asked her party to show restraint and not to stage any victory processions until the results were officially published.
She also urged her rivals to accept the results to end the years of confrontational politics.
"Our leader has called for change and the people have responded to her call," AL spokesman Nuh Alam Lenin said soon after the poll out come was known.
"They have given a thumping verdict against corruption and criminalisation of the past regime," he said.
Meanwhile, Zia’s BNP was quick to raise the issue of electoral fraud.
"There have been a lot of irregularities," BNP spokesman Rizvi Ahmed said.
He alleged that his party supporters were kept from voting, and their polling agents and officials were barred from performing their duties.
Hasina, who is close to New Delhi, was in power from 1996-2001 and during the period Bangladesh’s bilateral ties with India were at its best.
The historic Ganges water sharing treaty between the two countries was signed during her regime.
The Election Commission officials said over 80 per cent of voters exercised the franchise to elect the country’s ninth parliament after seven years of gap.
"We are expecting to get the results of all the 299 seats in next few hours" as the election was postponed in one of the 300 constituencies following the death of a candidate ahead of the polls, an EC spokesman said.
Foreign observers and independent poll monitor groups widely appreciated the voting, held for the first time under a digital electoral roll with photographs, but Zia hinted about "election engineering and rigging" as her party said it lodged complaints with the election against "irregularities" in 220 polling centres.
PM lauds Hasina on her landslide victory in B’desh polls
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today congratulated Sheikh Hasina on the landslide victory of her Awami League-led alliance at the general elections in Bangladesh.
Singh telephoned to Hasina on Tuesday morning and warmly congratulated her, Media Adviser to the Prime Minister said in a statement.
"India looked forward to working with the Government and the people of Bangladesh in the years ahead for the mutual benefit of the people of the two countries," Singh said.
Awami League-led alliance headed by Hasina, who has a good equation with Indian leadership and favours strong ties with New Delhi, won a landslide victory in the general elections held under a neutral caretaker government after nearly two years of emergency rule.
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No escalation of tensions on the part of India: Pranab
Rejecting Pakistan’s contentions, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday that there had been no escalation of tensions on the part of India and that its military movements were routine winter exercises.
Reacting to his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s statement that India had deployed ground forces to forward positions and activated forward airbases, Mukherjee said that there had been no no such action on the part of India to escalate tension.
The Indian army has made it clear that it’s military movements were a "normal winter exercise", the minister told the news agency.
Mukherjee said that in response to India’s demand that it should dismantle terrorist infrastructure, Pakistan was making an attempt "to divert the attention, to create tension".
"We have not not created any tension….first there should be escalation from Indian side, then the question of de-escalation will come. We have not not escalated anything," the minister said.
He pointed out that the army had stated that whatever they were doing was a "normal winter exercise" which is done every year.
"There is no no question of mobilisation or escalation of tension," he said
About the investigation into the Mumbai terror attack, Mukherjee said that these were in the final stages and will be shared with Pakistan and others, Mukherjee said.
The minister told Pakistan, "Please fulfil your commitments and do the job you are expected to do."
Pakistan, he emphasised, will have to act on the evidence India gives to it.
"And there has to be credible evidence that they are acting on it," he added.
He recalled that way back in January, 2004 the then President Pervez Musharraf and more recently President Asif Ali Zardari had given commitments Pakistan’s territory would not not be allowed to be used by terrorists against India.
"We are only asking that you fulfil these commitments you have made. Kindly dismantle the infrastructural facilities, dismantle the camps…upto now we have not not seen any such thing," the External Affairs Minister said.
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‘Food security can be achieved only by agri, rural development’
The important goal of food security can be achieved only through rapid agricultural growth and multi-dimensional rural development, PresidentPratibha Patil said in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
"Food security is an important goal, particularly in the contemporary world, which faced a serious global food crisis earlier this year. This can only be achieved through rapid agricultural growth and multi-dimensional rural development," she said, while delivering the golden jubilee address at the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD).
To enhance agricultural productivity, land development and irrigation are necessary, she said.
She, however, said there should be optimum utilisation of land as land is a scarce resource.
Efforts must also be made to improve land quality and to restore soil health, Patil said.
Encouraging farmers to adopt improved agricultural practices, she said making innovative farm implements available to them would go a long way in improving farm productivity.
Stressing on the need for providing irrigation facilities, the President favoured building small structures like farm ponds, village tanks, nallah bunds, besides de-silting of existing water bodies to improve their water storage capacity.
"Apart from government programmes, these activities can also be undertaken through ’shramdaan’ by motivating people," she said.
Noting that the rural communities in India face many challenges and opportunities, the President said rural
development institutions should provide "creative" answers to such challenges.
An important assignment for the institutions and rural development managers would be to make new technologies available to the rural communities, she said.
"Technological interventions that are gender sensitive and link the weaker sections of society to the national
mainstream are the need of the hour," Patil said.
Underscoring the vast repository of traditional knowledge in the country, she said it is important to understand and value it.
Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh expressed confidence that poverty and unemployment in the country can be eliminated by taking up rural development programmes in a big way.
The budget for rural development has been enhanced from Rs 16,000 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 73,000 crore in 2008-09.
The UPA government has launched several programmes, including NREGS and ‘Aam Admi Yojana’ for increasing the earnings of people in rural areas, Prasad said.
Andhra Pradesh Governor N D Tiwari appreciated the role of the NIRD in the development of rural areas in the country.
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Omar Abdullah to be next J-K CM, to form govt with Congress
National Conference chief Omar Abdullah will be the next Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir heading a coalition government with Congress party.
This was decided after Omar met Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Tuesday afternoon.
Emerging from the meeting, 38-year-old Omar said, "it has been decided that I will lead the coalition government in the state of which Congress will be a part of."
Omar, who will be the state’s youngest chief minister, said, "Other nitty gritty of the alliance will be worked out in due course of time."
Congress and NC were part of an alliance in J-K in 1987.
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Dense fog hits flight and rail operations in Delhi
Flight operations at the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi has been disrupted due to heavy fog, which enveloped the national capital for second consecutive day today with about 18 flights, including six international, being delayed and nine being cancelled.
The general visibility at the IGI airport fell below 50 metres and runway visibility range (RVR) dipped to less than 100 metres, bringing a halt to flight operations, sources said.
Nine early morning flights to Jaipur, Bangalore, Srinagar, Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Leh were cancelled, they said.
Over 200 flights were delayed and 19 cancelled as a heavy blanket of fog surrounded the capital on Monday.
The minimum temperature slipped to eight degree Celsius from Monday’s minimum of 8.4 degree Celsius, the Met department said.
Monday’s maximum temperature was recorded at 20.8 degree Celsius, one degree less than the normal at this point of the season.
The Met department said the fog condition will prevail till noon. The city roads wore a deserted look with less number of vehicles playing.
Office goers had no option but to brave the cold conditions to reach in time.
The weatherman said similar condition will be witnessed on Wednesday also with the maximum temperature hovering around 20 degree Celsius and the minimum around eight degrees.
There will be thick fog till noon on Wednesday
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Proteas make history, beat Australia by 9 wkts, seal series
Ricky Ponting’s Australia are now just one defeat away from losing their world number one crown after South Africa crushed them by nine wickets in the second Test to register their first ever series victory Down Under.
Having taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, South Africa will topple Australia from their top ranking if Graeme Smith’s men can win the third and final Test in Sydney.
Resuming on 30 for no loss, South Africa needed 42 overs to score the remaining 153 runs for a memorable win and the moment came soon after lunch when Hashim Amla flicked Michael Clarke behind square leg for two runs.
In a match where Smith struck two fifties, JP Duminy scored his maiden hundred and Ponting scored 101 and 99, Dale Steyn was adjudged Man of the Match for his match haul of 10 for 154 besides the crucial 76 he scored in the first innings.
Graeme Smith was the lone South African wicket to fall in the second innings. The South African captain was trapped leg before by Nathan Hauritz after making a 94-ball 75 with 10 boundaries in it.
Fellow opener Neil McKenzie (59) and Amla (30) remained not out after guiding the team to a historic win.
Ponting, meanwhile, became the first Australian captain in 16 years to suffer a series defeat on home soil.
Last time Australia lost a series at home was against the West Indies in 1992-93.
More than their bowling attack, Australia’s slim chance of saving the match depended on rain.
Though there was slight drizzle in the morning, play started on schedule and South Africa could not be denied the win they thoroughly deserved.
Ponting once again ignored Mitchell Johnson despite the left-arm seamer being Australia’s best bowler of the season so far.
Instead, the Australia skipper relied more on Brett Lee and Peter Siddle.
Lee, who is set to undergo a foot surgery, looked in pain and hobbled.
Meanwhile, Matthew Hayden’s nightmare continued and the Australian opener today dropped McKenzie in the first slip when the batsman was on 49.
"I have been smiling since the winning runs. It’s incredible. It has been a team effort and when it’s come to key moment in this Test we’ve stepped up," a beaming Smith later said.
"JP (Duminy) was incredible and the self belief in the team is flowing. It’s an honour to come here and beat a
quality unit. We’re going to celebrate and enjoy our New Year and not many of us are thinking about Sydney. After all the hard work this year it’s incredible to be standing here," Smith said.
His opposite number Ponting was graceful in defeat and he hinted there might be a few changes in the side for the Sydney Test.
"We deserved to be in this position and full marks to South Africa . They won very comfortably, a well deserved
series win. Things were looking good for us at one stage, but their tail played exceptionally well and Lee went down through injury.
"We weren’t able to convert our opportunities. Let’s see what the selectors come up with for next week," Ponting said.
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UN demands immediate Gaza cease-fire
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has demanded an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and has urged Mideast and world leaders to do more to help end the Israeli-Hamas conflict and promote political dialogue.
Ban said on Monday that the third day of an Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has killed at least 360 people including 62 women and children according to the UN and wounded
some 1,400 that regional and international partners have not done enough.
The secretary-general urged Arab foreign ministers, who are holding an emergency meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, "to act swiftly and decisively to bring an early end to this impasse."
At the same time, he told reporters that "other world leaders must also step up efforts to support a longer term resolution of the issue."
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Hasina’s alliance wins 258 seats in B’desh parliamentary polls
Former premier Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League-led grand alliance on Tuesday won a stunning landslide victory in the ninth general elections held under a neutral caretaker government after nearly two years of emergency rule.
The Election Commission said the grand alliance bagged 258 seats in the 300-seat parliament for which elections were held on 29th December.
Hasina defeated her archrival and former premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led four-party grouping which mustered only 38 seats.
Results of the four other seats were yet to reach the commission from the returning officers at the field level.
Five seats went to other small parties and independent candidates.
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Omar in Delhi, hopeful of stitching up alliance with Cong
National Conference chief Omar Abdullah, whose party seeks to form government in Jammu and Kashmir has said that he has got "positive response" from Congress and hoped an announcement on the coalition would be possible in next couple of days.
"We will talk about formation of a coalition and if we succeed in the talks, then within one or two days, probably the announcement of coalition will be possible," Abdullah, who flew in here from Srinagar to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, told reporters at the airport on Monday night.
Asked whether he received positive signals from Congress, Abdullah said he would not have come to Delhi had
his party had not received positive response from the grand old Congress.
"Very positive response is coming from Congress".
Abdullah said "there has been efforts by some quarters to start a propaganda campaign. But till now, I will say I have received very good response from almost all Congress leaders with whom I have talked informally," he said.
On whether Congress agreed to his candidature for chief ministership, the 38-year-old leader said he would first hold talks about stitching up an alliance and then discuss the nitty-gritty of the coalition.
"First, we will discuss about formation of the coalition. Then nitty gritties of coalition as also the terms and conditions, which will be finalised later," Abdullah said.
Asked whether NC and Congress will have an arrangement of rotating the Chief Ministership after three years during the six-year tenure, he said "we have not come with any formula and any conditions. I think it (talks) will be successfull.
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