CLG Update - Israeli military resumes Gaza fighting

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Israeli military resumes Gaza fighting, says Hamas ignored truce 27 July 2014 The Israeli military started fighting again in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, saying Hamas militants had ignored a 24-hour, humanitarian ceasefire requested by the United Nations...Residents in Gaza reported hearing heavy shelling east of Gaza City shortly after the announcement was made.

Israel extends Gaza ceasefire for 24 hours, Hamas rejects terms 26 July 2014 Israel extended a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for another 24 hours, but Hamas, which dominates the coastal enclave, said it would only accept the truce if Israeli troops left the territory. Israeli ministers had signaled that a comprehensive deal to end the 20-day conflict with Hamas and its allies, in which at least 1,050 Gazans - mostly civilians - have been killed, and 42 soldiers and three civilians in Israel have died, was remote. "At the request of the United Nations, the cabinet has approved a humanitarian hiatus until tomorrow at 2400 (midnight local time, 1700 EST Sunday)," the official, who was not named, said in a statement after the cabinet session held in Tel Aviv had ended. "The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will act against any breach of the ceasefire."

Gaza death toll soars above 1,000 as ceasefire reveals horrors 26 July 2014 The people of Nazaz street in Gaza City returned home during the 12 hour ceasefire in hostilities not to resume their lives but to bury their dead and pick over the remains of their possessions. The homes that once lined this street in the eastern suburb of Shejaiya have been pulverised beyond recognition. Where once there were crowded apartment blocks, three or four storeys high, now there are fetid heaps of rubble...The Gaza health ministry said that over 100 corpses had been recovered in this period, bringing the total Palestinian death toll since the onset of Israel’s offensive to more than 1,000.

Gaza Officials Accuse Israel of War Crimes at ICC --Officials accuse Israel of "crime of apartheid," "attacks against civilians," "excessive loss of human life" and "crime of colonization" 25 July 2014 Top Palestinian officials have accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza, filing a complaint Friday to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Palestinian Justice Minister Saleem Al-Saqqa and Ismail Jabr, the Gaza court public prosecutor, started legal proceedings via a Paris-based lawyer over the 18 days of fighting between Hamas fighters and Israeli ground forces that's left 800 Palestinians dead -- including hundreds of civilians. Thirty seven Israelis have been killed, 35 of them soldiers.

Five Palestinians Killed Amid Prayer Lockdown --Israelis are blamed for the deaths on a "day of rage" in the West Bank, as only men over 50 are allowed into a Jerusalem mosque. 25 July 2014 Five Palestinians have reportedly been killed in the West Bank - four shot by Israeli troops and the other by a female settler. Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinians in the village of Beit Ummar, near Hebron, medics said. In a separate shooting, Israeli settlers fired on a group of Palestinians near the northern city of Nablus, killing 18-year-old Khaled Oudeh and wounding four others after they threw stones at their car, security officials said.

Shelling of Gaza school kills at least 15; toll nears 800 25 July 2014 Gazan authorities said Israeli forces shelled a shelter at a U.N.-run school, killing at least 15 people, as the Palestinian death toll in the conflict reached 796 and attempts at a truce remained elusive. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed horror at the Thursday attack on the school at Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza strip. "Many have been killed – including women and children, as well as U.N. staff," he said in a statement. "Circumstances are still unclear. I strongly condemn this act."

Israelis kill Palestinian protesters in West Bank --Witnesses: Israeli forces used live rounds, tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters 24 July 2014 Israeli forces have killed several Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during a deadly crackdown on a massive protest rally against the ongoing Israeli attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip. The violent clashes erupted during a protest rally in the village of Qalandiya near Ramallah on Thursday night. Initial reports say at least four Palestinians were killed and more than 200 others injured in the fierce clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied region.

IDF determines Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, previously considered missing, is dead 25 July 2014 The IDF determined on Friday that Givati Brigade soldier Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul died in battle, and defined him as "a soldier killed in action whose burial site is unknown." In the case of Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul, the evidence was collected from the APC that was attacked last Sunday.

Israel bans radio ad listing dead children's names 25 July 2014 It is the radio advertisement Israeli authorities do not want their citizens to hear. In a quiet voice, a woman speaking in Hebrew reads the names and ages of just a few of the more than 190 Palestinian children killed in Gaza in the last two weeks of intensive Israeli air strikes. Describing the ad's content as "politically controversial", the Israeli Broadcasting Authority banned the 1 minute, 25-second spot produced by local human rights group B'Tselem.

UK issues 400 arms licenses to Israel 24 July 2014 A report by British arms export controls parliamentary committee shows that Israel received around 8bn pounds in the form of 400 arms licenses from the UK in 2013. The report shows that the arms Israel received included combat drones, F-16, Apache fighter jets, spare parts for tanks, crowd-control ammunition, military support vehicles, assault rifles, pistols and parts for "all-wheel drive vehicles with ballistic protection."

Iraqi air strikes kill 19 around Fallujah: medical official 22 July 2014 [US-backed] Iraqi government air strikes killed 19 people, including children, in Fallujah on Monday and Tuesday, a health official in the militant-held city said...Ahmed al-Shami, a spokesman for the Fallujah health office - the local arm of the health ministry - said the 19 dead included women and children and that Fallujah hospital had also received 38 wounded people since Monday evening. Residents of Fallujah and the nearby town of Garma said helicopters fired artillery and dropped three barrel bombs on Fallujah and two on Garma.

U.S. pulls embassy staff from Libya after militia clashes in Tripoli 26 July 2014 The United States evacuated its embassy in Libya on Saturday, driving its staff under heavy military guard across the border to Tunisia because of escalating clashes between rival militias in Tripoli, the U.S. State Department said. Security in the Libyan capital has deteriorated following two weeks of fighting between brigades of former rebel fighters who have exchanged rocket, cannon and artillery fire in southern Tripoli near the embassy compound.

Court Censures Poland Over C.I.A. Renditions, Torture 24 July 2014 The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that Poland had violated the rights of two terrorism suspects by allowing their transfer to a secret detention center run by the C.I.A. in Poland, where the two men were tortured. The ruling says Poland failed to prevent the two men -- Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri -- from being subjected to "torture and inhuman or degrading treatment" after they were brought to the prison in northeast Poland. It ordered Poland to pay 100,000 euros, about 135,000, to Mr. Nashiri and 175,000 to Abu Zubaydah. Both are now being held at the American detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

15,000 Russian Troops Reportedly Reach Ukrainian Border 25 July 2014 Reuters has reported that Russia has now amassed 15,000 troops along the Ukrainian border, according to information supplied by a U.S. ambassador to NATO. EuroMaidan offered this photograph from the scene...

Ukrainian Air Defense Exercises Might be Behind Malaysian Aircraft Crash - Source 25 July 2014 A system mix up during a Ukrainian air defense units’ rocket launch exercise could be the cause of the Malaysia Airlines crash in southeast Ukraine, a source from one of the Ukrainian defense departments told RIA Novosti. "On July 17 the commanding officer of 156th Anti-Aircraft Regiment was instructed to conduct a training exercise of ground troops stationed near Donetsk, which involved deploying the troops, and carrying out a routine tracking and destroying of targets with the Buk-M1 missile," the source said. The source added that the actual launch of the rockets was not intended.

'He had a gun to my head': Released RT stringer Graham Phillips tells of 3-day Ukraine captivity 25 July 2014 RT has managed to re-establish contact with Graham Phillips, a news contributor who was captured at Donetsk airport on Tuesday night while covering the Ukrainian conflict. Philips shared firsthand details of his three days in captivity with RT. Phillips said he was deported from Ukraine and banned for three years on the grounds that he works for RT.

Liberian man in Lagos being tested for Ebola 24 July 2014 A Liberian man is being tested for the deadly Ebola virus after he collapsed on arrival at an airport in Lagos, a mega-city of 21 million people, the Lagos State Health Ministry said on Thursday. Ebola has killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since it was first diagnosed in the region in February...The special adviser on public health to the Lagos state government, Yewande Adeshina, said Lagos state authorities had requested the flight's manifest to contact the other passengers.

Norway: Terrorism Warning Announced 24 July 2014 Norway's intelligence service said Thursday that it had received information about an imminent "concrete threat" against Norway from people with links to Islamic fighters in Syria. Benedicte Bjoernland, the chief of the Norwegian police security service, said the agency had received "reliable information" from a foreign partner about some kind of attack "within days."

F16 fighters scrambled after 'bomb threat' to Sunwing flight from Toronto 26 July 2014 Two US F16 fighter jets were scrambled to escort a Panama City-bound flight from Canada back to Toronto on Friday after a man on the plane apparently threatened to blow up the aircraft, authorities said. Major Julie Roberge of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said the jets flew up to join Sunwing Airlines flight 772 as a "precaution" less than an hour after it took off from Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Video shot by a passenger showed armed Canadian law enforcement officers shouting "heads down, hands up" as they stormed aboard the aircraft in helmets and tactical gear after it was escorted back to Toronto.

The Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a Terrorist --'Not even death provides a guarantee of getting off the list.' 23 July 2014 The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither "concrete facts" nor "irrefutable evidence" to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept. The "March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance," a 166-page document issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells out the government's secret rules for putting individuals on its main terrorist database, as well as the no fly list and the selectee list, which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border crossings. The new guidelines allow individuals to be designated as representatives of terror organizations without any evidence they are actually connected to such organizations, and it gives a single White House official the unilateral authority to place "entire categories" of people the government is tracking onto the no fly and selectee lists. It broadens the authority of government officials to "nominate" people to the watchlists based on what is vaguely described as "fragmentary information."

Newington PD Acquires Armored Vehicle Used for Afghanistan Combat 23 July 2014 (CT) The BAE Caiman is a six-wheeled, all-terrain, roadside-bomb-proof armored vehicle designed to carry troops into combat in Afghanistan. The Newington Police Department recently acquired a Caiman from the military at no cost through a surplus equipment program, Police Chief Richard C. Mulhall told the town council Tuesday. Town Manager John Salomone added that the Caiman, which can carry up to 12, is significantly bigger than the three armored vehicles the town shares with about 28 area municipalities.

Prosecutors Are Reading Emails From Inmates to Lawyers 22 July 2014 Jailhouse conversations have been many a defendant's downfall through incriminating words spoken to inmates or visitors, or in phone calls to friends or relatives. Inmates' calls to or from lawyers, however, are generally exempt from such monitoring. But across the country, federal prosecutors have begun reading prisoners’ emails to lawyers -- a practice wholly embraced in Brooklyn, New York, where prosecutors have said they intend to read such emails in almost every case. The issue has spurred court battles over whether inmates have a right to confidential email communications with their lawyers -- a question on which federal judges have been divided.

U.S. House panel votes to authorize lawsuit against Obama 24 July 2014 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday took another step toward authorizing a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, claiming he has overstepped his executive powers. In a partisan vote of 7-4, the House Rules Committee approved the legislation, likely setting it up for consideration by the full House next week. The Republican initiative already has spawned a bitter debate with Democrats less than four months before elections that will determine the political control of Congress next year. [LOL! The same hypocritical GOP scum-bags were *silent* when unelected dictator George W. Sociopath was *waterboarding* people. --LRP]

More Bad Luck for Depressed Polar Bear 23 July 2014 As if Arturo's loveless life couldn't get any more sad, Argentina is now refusing to let the bear spend his remaining days in a plush wildlife refuge in Canada. A severely depressed polar bear in Argentina seems destined to stay that way after Argentinean authorities rejected the global petition to relocate him to a better environment in Canada. Addressed to Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the president of Argentina, it had received well over 619,000 signatures. [If the sociopaths won't free Arturo, it's time -- long past time -- for insurgents to free the bear.]

Doncaster's Yorkshire Wildlife Park to get England's first polar bear 23 July 2014 Yorkshire Wildlife Park is getting ready to welcome its latest and coolest creature yet. Polar bear Victor is set to become the first resident in the Doncaster-based wildlife park's purpose-built polar bear centre. The 15-year-old polar bear is due to arrive at the park from his home at Rhenen Zoo in Holland next month - and will be the only one in England...The park is also in the process of attempting to rescue another polar bear, named Yupi, who is trapped in soaring temperatures and a concrete enclosure in a Mexican zoo.

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