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ei: Photostory: The month in pictures, January 2008 : "January 2008 saw a tightening of Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip following Hamas' routing of Fatah there the previous June. Palestinians in Gaza have been cut off from the outside world and Israel has banned or severely restricted the import of basic needs such as fuel, medicine and medical equipment, food, school supplies and cement. In January, electricity cuts lasted more than 12 hours per day as lack of fuel forced the closure of the region's sole power plant. In the early morning hours of 23 January, 17 bombs planted by Palestinian resistance created an opening in the iron Israeli-built wall separating Gaza from Egypt and allowed a moment of free movement for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who seized the opportunity to visit family in Egypt, buy much needed supplies, or simply have a taste of the normal life being denied to them by Israel."

ei: Seven Gazans killed in day of Israeli air, shelling attacks : "On 7 February 2008, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed seven Palestinians, raising the number of victims from its military attacks to seventeen persons since the beginning of this month, and 96 persons since the beginning of 2008 in the Gaza Strip. The IOF launched seven attacks in different parts of the Gaza Strip since last night, of which the most affected areas were Khan Younis, al-Nuseirat, and other areas in northern Gaza."

Romney quits U.S. presidential race, takes shot at Europe - Haaretz - Israel News : "In a speech Thursday ending his presidential candidacy, Romney said Europe faces demographic disaster because of moral and religious failings, and warned that United States should not become the France of the 21st century. Romney also placed Russian President Vladimir Putin, alongside the United States' greatest adversaries, as a threat to America. Romney addressed what he saw as Europe's problems as he called on the United States to approve a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages. He called for the United States to become energy secure, 'because America must never be held hostage by the likes of Putin, (Venezuelan President Hugo) Chavez and (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad,' Romney said. 'If the United States did not change course we could become the France of the 21st century.' 'Still a great nation, but not the leader of the world, not the supe

Mr. Lincoln The Racist by Al Benson, Jr. : "It is amazing to see how many blacks today continue to revere the memory of Abraham Lincoln as though he had actually done something for them. Of course many whites do the same thing. In fact, there is an entire cottage industry operating nowadays, consisting of people, many of whom are academics, whose entire goal in life seems to be the attempted beatification of 'Saint Abraham.' Most of this foolishness is due to the fact that, in our government schools, we have been taught a laughable, shoddy imitation of history. The facts must never be allowed to get in the way of the fantasy. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is a dubious document that has been widely touted as having 'freed the slaves.' It didn't. It was aimed at the slaves in Confederate territory where Lincoln had no legal authority. Slaves in both states and territory controlled by Mr. Lincoln's dictatorial regime remained firmly in bondage until

Shia call on Mehdi Army to take up arms again in Iraq - Middle East, World - Independent.co.uk : "In the alleys of the ancient district of al-Salaikh in Baghdad, a Shia family fought a fierce gun battle with Sunni militiamen who tried to stop them reoccupying their house from which they had been forced to flee months earlier. The Shia family got the worst of the fighting and, after suffering seven dead, sent a desperate message asking for help to the Mehdi Army, the powerful Shia militia of the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that once would have rushed to defend them. On this occasion, however, the local Mehdi Army commander turned them down, saying: 'We can do nothing because we are under orders not to break the ceasefire.' It is this six-month ceasefire, declared on 29 August last year by Mr Sadr, which American commanders say is responsible for cutting much of the violence in Iraq. But the ceasefire will expire in the next few weeks and political and military leaders loyal

Iraq’s Tragic Future Rather than offering a word-for-word renouncement of the president’s rosy assertions concerning Iraq, I will instead initiate a process of debunking the myth of American success by doing that which no politician, current or aspiring, would dare do: predict the failure of American policy in Iraq. With the ink on the newspapers parroting the president’s words barely dry, evidence of his misrepresentation of reality begins to build with the announcement by the Pentagon that troop levels in Iraq will not be dropping, as had been projected in view of the “success” of the “surge,” but rather holding at current levels with the possibility of increasing in the future. This reversal of course concerning troop deployments into Iraq highlights the reality that the statistical justification of “surge success,” namely the reduction in the level of violence, was illusory, a temporary lull brought about more by smoke and mirrors than any genuine change of fortune on the ground. E

Nas: Whose Word Is This? -- In These Times : "The rapper Nas has thrust the word “nigger” back into the limelight by making it the title of his new album. Such a move seems improbably provocative given the increased public scrutiny hip hop has received recently in the wake of the Michael Richards and Don Imus incidents. Richards, who played Kramer on TV’s “Seinfeld,” spewed a nigger-laden diatribe at a Los Angeles comedy club in 2006. And in 2007, shock jock Imus infamously called the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.”"

Al Jazeera English - News - Gaza Teacher Killed In Israel Raid sraeli raids on Gaza have killed a teacher and seven Palestinian fighters in an assault on the Hamas-controlled territory following a suicide bombing and rocket fire into Israel this week. Hani Shaban Naim, 43, a father of five, was killed early on Thursday by an Israeli missile in his classroom in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. The Israeli army said the missile, which also wounded three students in the agricultural college, was aimed at a rocket-firing crew nearby.