be just

Relatives of 17-year-old Hiyam Abu Ayish view her body in the morgue at Gaza's al-Aqsa hospital a day after she was killed in an Israeli attack, 3 July 2009. (Hatem Omar/ MaanImages ) ei: Hiyam, a Gaza teenager killed as she offered aid : "Thursday was as normal and quiet an afternoon as you get in Johr al-Deek village in the central Gaza Strip. 'Prepare yourself for I will be taking you to the dentist in half an hour,' Salim Abu Ayish recalled telling his 17-year-old daughter Hiyam. Moments later everything changed. 'At 5:30 PM an Israeli shell landed on my brother's house,' the father told visitors who had come to offer condolences for his daughter at the family's home on Friday. The shell injured a nephew and Salim Abu Ayish rushed to render aid. 'I asked Hiyam to bring me the car key from my bedroom,' Salim Abu Ayish said. As she went, he recalled, 'suddenly another shell struck my room, killing Hiyam instantly, as shrapnel rippled throu...

ei: Why Obama should fire General Dayton : "The US-sponsored 'security coordination' program headed by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, which was launched by the Bush Administration in 2005 to allegedly help the Palestinians reform their security services, has done more harm than good. US President Barack Obama would do well to fire Dayton and put an end to US intrusion into internal Palestinian affairs. In his recent address at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel think tank, Dayton said that his program has created a 'new' kind of Palestinian man. Three battalions of 500 men each have graduated from the program, and more are currently in training. These troops have been vetted by US, Israeli and Jordanian security services. Over the past year and a half, these forces have engaged in a series of offensives against members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad across the West Bank. According to Dayton, senior Israeli commanders were so impressed with the Pale...

Cynthia McKinney Reported Released From Israeli Prison: Atlanta Journal Constitution Attributes Info to Mother | Black Agenda Report : "According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has been released from an Israeli prison. On Sunday evening, the paper quoted McKinney's mother, Leola McKinney as saying: '“We finally got word that she was released. We don’t know what time she is supposed to fly out. All we know is that they took her to the airport.'"

Al Jazeera English - Africa - 'More troops expected' in Somalia : "Somalia's prime minister has said more African Union soldiers are expected to arrive in Mogadishu, the capital. Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke did not say, however, where the troops will come from. More than 4,000 African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi are stationed in Mogadishu but their mandated is limited to protecting government installations. Sharmarke's announcement came after heavy shelling between Somali troops and anti-government fighters near the presidential palace left 12 people dead on Sunday. Much of the fighting was concentrated in Mogadishu, witnesses said. A day ealier, 23 people had been killed and 51 injured on Saturday in clashes between the two sides. 'It was a very gruesome scene,' a local resident said. He saw dead bodies and wounded people running away from the scene on Sunday. Serious injuries Ali Adde, deputy-director of Madinah hospital in Mogadishu, said that they...

Al Jazeera English - Americas - Israel 'has right to rein in Iran' : "Israel has a sovereign right to decide how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions whether the United States agrees or not, Joe Biden, the US vice-president, has said. In an interview on ABC's 'This week' programme on Sunday, Biden said Israel can determine for itself how best to deal with the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. 'We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're existentially threatened,' Biden said. Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has signalled that he agrees with President Barack Obama's end-of-the-year deadline for progress in efforts to engage Iran diplomatically to resolve a dispute over its nuclear programme."

Al Jazeera English - Asia-Pacific - Scores dead in Xinjiang riot : "China's government has blamed Uighur exiles for inciting a riot in the country's western Xinjiang region that it says left 140 people dead and more than 800 injured. According to the official Xinhua news agency the deaths occurred in the city of Urumqi on Sunday after a protest against the government's handling of an industrial dispute turned violent. The agency said rioters burned and smashed vehicles, and fought with police, while state broadcaster CCTV showed footage of people throwing rocks at police and overturning a police car. Xinhua had reported earlier that three people died in the clashes, all of them ethnic Han Chinese, as well as one police officer."