In my previous post, I wrote that I saw Benazir Bhutto at the luggage carousel in the arrivals area of Geneva’s Cointrin Airport very late on the night of 26 June. She was with a single aide (a subcontinental-type man in a grey suit, about her height). Just now, in Israel’s YNet news, I saw [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Pakistan
Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan who returned two months ago to contest parliamentary elections (8 January) after being pardoned on corruption charges by General Pervez Musharraf, was assassinated today by a gunman who blew himself up after reportedly firing bullets at her in Rawalpindi. At least 20 other persons died in the same [...]
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Filed under: Pakistan
Haaretz’ senior correspondent Akiva Eldar — who seems to spend a lot of time at or in conversation with sources at the Palestinian Presidential compound in Ramallah where Yasser Arafat was blocaded for the last four years of his live — has written about the new-old problem that has arisen in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Akiva [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians
The Israeli government has disclosed that it will start implementing Phase II of fuel cuts to Gaza — which will mean that as much as 43% less gasoline or petrol will be delivered — starting on Sunday. At the same time, Israel reportedly indicated that it would temporarily restore the amounts of diesel fuel it [...]
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Filed under: Gaza
Bethlehem at Christmas: Nice red car, nice red stop sign … and all those zany Santa characters With thanks to Annie’s Letters and Electronic Intifada
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
The Palestinian independent news agency Ma’an reported that “The director of the statistics department in the Palestinian ministry of Prisoners and Freed Prisoners, Abdul-Nasser Farawnah released on Sunday a comprehensive report about the long term Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails showing that many of them have entered the Guinness Book of Records. According to the [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians
After the Paris Donor Meeting on 17 December, the Quartet (U.S., European Union, Russia, and the UN Secretary-General) issued a statement in which they urged donors to resume direct aid to the Palestinian Authority. Direct aid was stopped in early 2006, after Hamas won a majority of seats in elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council. [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that the UN General Assembly has adopted a two-year budget — though the U.S. voted against it. The JPost wrote that “The 142-1 vote in the 192-member world body climaxed weeks of discussions and an all-night session that failed to reach consensus because of US objections that the budget included [...]
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Filed under: UN General Assembly, United Nations, US in UN
A spokesperson for UNSG BAN Ki-Moon announced that a headquarters agreement was signed on Friday to establish the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Netherlands. The SG said, in the statement issued by the spokesperson, that “The Agreement will now be submitted to the Parliament of the Netherlands for ratification. In the meantime, the United [...]
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Filed under: Hariri Commission of Inquiry, International Tribunals, Lebanon, The Hague, UN Security Council
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told journalists at a pre-holiday press conference in Washington on Friday 21 December that “the fact is that Kosovo and Serbia are never going to be a part of the same state again. I think that’s quite clear.” What could be clearer? After months and years of following a [...]
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Filed under: Former Yugoslavia, Kosovo