be just

The Daily Star - Politics - Hamas reiterates end of Gaza siege as price of truce GAZA CITY: Israeli aircraft bombed smuggling tunnels and other targets in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday as Hamas stuck by the opening of the besieged territory's border crossings as a condition of any ceasefire agreement. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the Israeli strikes. At least three missiles targeted tunnels along Gaza's border with Egypt, witnesses said. The tunnels are used to bring in food, medicines, consumer goods, fuel, and, according to Israel, weapons into the enclave.

Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Seized Pakistani policemen freed Thirty Pakistani policemen, seized by suspected Taliban fighters in the restive Swat Valley, have been freed, officials say. The AFP news agency quoted a security official as saying that the policemen were freed on Wednesday on the condition that they would quit their jobs. The policemen were captured a day earlier after Taliban fighters laid siege to a police station. "They have given assurances to the Taliban that they would quit their jobs and will take no part in any activity against the Taliban," the senior security official said.

BELLACIAO - U.S. Sold Phosphorus Shells Used in Gaza to Israel - LITTLE ROCK : "LITTLE ROCK The United States sold phosphorus artillery shells made at the Pine Bluff Arsenal to Israel — the same kind of rounds allegedly used against civilians during the recent fighting in Gaza. A State Department official told The Associated Press that the rounds — typically used to light up darkened battlefields or provide smoke cover for combat troops — were most recently shipped to Israel in 2007. International human rights groups accuse the Israeli military of firing the chemical rounds into civilian homes, causing severe burns to those inside and killing at least one woman. International law allows for the use of the phosphorus shells, but not in areas where civilians could be harmed by the burning rounds. The Pine Bluff Arsenal, a 13,000-acre base near Little Rock that once housed some of the Army’s deadliest chemical and biological weapons, advertises itself as the only plant in North Ameri...

California goes broke, halts $3.5 billion in payments : Information Clearing House - ICH : "California, the eighth largest economy in the world, is broke. 'People are going to be hurt starting today,' said Hallye Jordan, speaking on behalf of the state Controller. 'There's no money.'"

The US Is No Longer a Global Hegemon : Information Clearing House - ICH : "February 03, 2009 'Daily Star' --- Changes in the status and power of nations, just like changes in economic conditions, are not always immediately apparent. There is, in the jargon of economics, a recognition lag between the time when an economic shock, such as a sudden boom or bust, occurs and the time when it is recognized by economists, central bankers and the government. Recognition lag explains why, for example, economists have only recently acknowledged the current economic recession - several months after it began. And recognition lag might well be why officials and pundits are now failing to recognize the detrimental impact of the combination of the Iraq war and the financial crisis on America's standing in the international system. Some attribute Washington's current difficulties in dictating global developments to the Bush administration's mismanagement of US diplomacy a...

RIGHTS: Call to Try Bush : "BERLIN, Feb 2 (IPS) - Now that former U.S. president George W. Bush is an ordinary citizen again, many legal and human rights activists in Europe are demanding that he and high-ranking members of his government be brought before justice for crimes against humanity committed in the so-called war on terror. 'Judicial clarification of the crimes against international law the former U.S. government committed is one of the most delicate issues that the new U.S. president Barack Obama will have to deal with,' Wolfgang Kaleck, general secretary of the European Centre for Human and Constitutional Rights told IPS. U.S. justice will have to 'deal with the turpitudes committed by the Bush government,' says Kaleck, who has already tried unsuccessfully to sue the former U.S. authorities in European courts. 'And, furthermore, the U.S. government will have to pay compensation to the innocent people who were victims of these crimes.'"

Gaza desperately short of food after Israel destroys farmland | World news | The Observer : "Gaza's 1.5 million people are facing a food crisis as a result of the destruction of great areas of farmland during the Israeli invasion. According to the World Food Programme, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and Palestinian officials, between 35% and 60% of the agriculture industry has been wrecked by the three-week Israeli attack, which followed two years of economic siege. Christine van Nieuwenhuyse, the World Food Programme's country director, said: 'We are hearing that 60% of the land in the north - where the farming was most intensive - may not be exploitable again. It looks to me like a disaster. It is not just farmland, but poultry as well."