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PA red-tape prevents medical care for Palestinians Palestinians arriving in Israel for medical care encounter Palestinian government's refusal to reimburse Israeli hospitals' expenses, causing delays in treatment. 'We don't really exist as far as Hamas and Fatah are concerned,' patients say Ali Waked Published: 10.29.07, 08:33 / Israel News For many Palestinians, the ongoing fighting between Hamas in the Gaza strip and Fatah in the West Bank has created a far more serious problem: The lack of proper medical care. Palestinian hospitals refer many of their patients to Israeli hospitals, where they can receive better treatment; but in many cases,...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is providing immediate emergency aid to victims of the California firestorms. Six semi-trucks have ....

An Iraqi Army Soldier hands a toy to a local girl during a humanitarian aid operation in the small town of Hawr-Rajab, Oct. 13. Photo by U.S. Army Pfc. Erik Burmeister, Combined Press Information Center. BAGHDAD — Iraqi Army (IA) Soldiers and a Concerned Local Citizens (CLC) group brought much needed aid to nearly 500 families in the small town of Hawr-Rajab, Oct. 13. While U.S. forces provided security, the humanitarian aid operation offered medicine along with school and household supplies to the town’s residents. The event was made possible only after the Hawr-Rajab CLC group reached out to the...

'Half of Zimbabwe will soon need food aid' By Sophie Arie Last Updated: 2:28am BST 27/09/2007 Half of Zimbabwe's people will be dependent on emergency food aid next year, a senior British diplomatic source has said, in a damning indictment of President Robert Mugabe's regime. Of an estimated eight million Zimbabweans still in the country, "we know we'll be feeding four million people by January or February, possibly more", the official said. Zimbabweans line up to receive food aid He estimated that since Mr Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms in 2000, the population has fallen from 12 million to eight...

The Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin accuses Norway of supporting "terrorist groups" in Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan. "False allegations," replies Norwegian Parliamentary Secretary Raymond Johansen.

President George W. Bush arrived in the Twin Cities at approximately 4:26 p.m. aboard Air Force One at the International Airport's Air Reserve Station. Following a 15-minute closed-door briefing on recovery efforts related to the I-35W bridge collapse and flash flooding in southeastern Minnesota Bush departed for for a private political fundraiser on behalf of U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. On hand to meet with Bush at the airport were Gov. Tim Pawlenty and First Lady Mary Pawlenty, Coleman, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Reps. Michele Bachmann, John Kline, Keith Ellison, Tim Walz and Betty McCollum and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. Following...

Overstretched US cuts aid to Israel By Damien McElroy and Tim Butcher in Jerusalem Last Updated: 11:04pm BST 08/08/2007 America has been forced to withhold funding from its key ally in the Middle East amid the strain of paying for its expensive military campaign in Iraq. Insurgents fire off a battery of 49 rockets aimed at an American military base in Baghdad Washington had promised Israel a substantial increase in its financial support to bolster it against Iran. But US officials decided to amend their pledge because of escalating costs, including the need to spend $750 million (£375 million) to...

US aid ban threatens alliance, says Musharraf By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad Last Updated: 1:43am BST 08/08/2007 Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, warned yesterday that America's recent decision to link US aid to Pakistan's efforts in tackling Islamic militants was an "irritant" between the two countries. Relations between the US and Pakistan, a key ally in the war on terror, have soured since President George W Bush signed the new law last week. It contains a provision, proposed by Democrats in Congress, which obliges the President to withhold aid if Pakistan is deemed not to have fulfilled its obligations in...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has signed an agreement giving the Palestinian Authority $80m (£39m) to reform their security services. Ms Rice was in the West Bank, where she met with the Fatah-appointed cabinet installed after the Hamas faction took over Gaza in June. She said Israel was ready to discuss "fundamental issues" leading to the creation of a Palestinian state. The US is seeking to bolster the Fatah leadership, headed by Mahmoud Abbas. At a news conference in Ramallah with Mr Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, Ms Rice said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was ready to meet...

FALLUJAH, Iraq, Aug. 1, 2007 – Even though she’s surrounded by war, Dalal is not much different from other children her age. She likes jump-rope and Cinderella and enjoys reading and drawing. Her favorite classes are religion and language, and she recently completed second grade -- earning perfect marks in all her studies. But, unlike many of her peers, the 8-year-old Iraqi girl also has fought a life-threatening battle from within since birth. Dalal, an 8-year-old girl from Iraq’s Anbar province, was escorted to Baghdad, along with her father, by U.S. Special Forces members so they could catch a...

UN in food aid plea for Zimbabwe Food shortages have become common in Zimbabwe The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is asking donor countries to fund an expanded aid operation in Zimbabwe. The WFP says a poor harvest and the country's worsening economic situation means hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans are running out of food. It says it will have to provide assistance to more than three million people over the coming months. Without additional funds, UN food stocks will be completely exhausted by the end of 2007, the agency says. According to the WFP an estimated 3.3 million...

Some state lawmakers want to create a fund for victims of the April 16 shooting at Virginia Tech that left 33 people dead. Any significant action on the proposal is likely several months away -- the General Assembly meets in January -- but several state legislators say the idea is increasingly becoming a topic of conversation. "I feel it's altogether appropriate, in this case, for the commonwealth to do this," state Sen. John S. Edwards, D-Roanoke, said during a phone interview yesterday. "I would strongly support this." Edwards, whose district includes Blacksburg, the home of Virginia Tech, believes money for...

Congress Pushes Pakistan To Stamp Out Terrorism (Washington, DC) -- Congressional negotiators have agreed on legislation tying U.S. aid to Pakistan to significant progress in cracking down on terrorists. The agreement still has to be approved by the Senate and House comes after concerns about al-Qaeda becoming entrenched in Pakistan's tribal region near Afghanistan grows. Bush administration officials say Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been an important ally in the war on terrorism, but believe he could do more. The agreement bars financial aid in the fiscal year beginning October 1st until President Bush finds Pakistan is making, quote, "demonstrated,...

The People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Committee held a press conference this morning in front of their New Orleans office to protest the alleged withholding of funds from Hurricane Katrina victims by the American Red Cross. PHRF charges that the humanitarian aid organization is concealing money available through the Means to Recovery program, which is part of its third-phase recovery efforts for people who suffered losses in Katrina, Rita and Wilma. The first phase was emergency response, sheltering and feeding, while the second phase was financial assistance. According to PHRF, the Means to Recovery program is supposed to allocate...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Aid to poor countries has little effect on economic growth, and policies that rely on such claims should be reexamined, two former International Monetary Fund economists wrote in a paper released this month. "We find little evidence of a robust positive correlation between aid and growth," wrote Raghuram Rajan, who stepped down as IMF chief economist at the end of 2006, and Arvind Subramanian, who left the IMF this year, said. "We find little evidence that aid works better in better policy or institutional environments, or that certain kinds of aid work better than others," they added....

Afghan Government Provides Aid to Flood Victims Hundreds of pounds of food and water help 250 villagers. By U.S. Army Capt. Ashley Dellavalle Task Force Rugged Public Affairs Office SHARANA, Afghanistan, July 9, 2007 — Flood victims of Janan Kala Village received humanitarian aid from the Paktika Rural Development minister and members of the Sharana Provincial Reconstruction Team, July 3. The team brought bags of rice, milk, beans and flour, as well as tarps and blankets to the beleaguered Janan Kala villagers living in the Mota Khan district of Paktika province. The area was devastated by large amounts of...

http://70.47.124.114/node/751 Editorial: Mahmoud Abbas the Moderate? July 3, 2007 - 11:43am Extras By Don Winter Yesterday, I had the unexpected pleasure of watching the great Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian people bemoaning the violence that has been planned against his person and the de-facto violence that has been committed against his own goons by Hamas. Yet, during the speech he didn’t miss an opportunity to blame Israel as the reason for the violence. If some Jews on this globe decide to view Abbas as a benevolent moderate, they must be the same ones who believed that the Nazis...

http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/13376/ What They Are Saying What They Are SayingJune 28, 2007 - Jonathan S. Tobin, Executive Editor Like a Ship That Sinks? Investing in Fatah Calls to Mind the 'Titanic'Historian and Shalem Center fellow Michael Oren writes in The Wall Street Journal (www.opinionjournal.com) on June 20 that backing Fatah isn't the answer: "America and its Middle Eastern allies have every reason to panic. The green flags of Hamas are furling over Gaza, and the Fatah forces trained and financed by the United States have ignominiously fled. Fears are rife that Iranian-backed and Syrian-hosted terror will next achieve dominance over the...

Quick Takes: News From Israel You May Have Missed http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/21905/Quick_Takes%3A_%3Ci%3ENews_From_Israel_You_May_Have_Missed%3C%2Fi%3E.html By: Aaron Klein Wednesday, June 20, 2007 More Aid To Abbas Even after the Hamas takeover of U.S.-backed Palestinian security compounds in Gaza and seizure of large quantities of American weapons, the Bush administration is contemplating sending more weapons to the Palestinians and is asking Israel to make security concessions to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli and Palestinian diplomatic sources said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the U.S. will resume "full assistance to the Palestinian government," lifting an economic and political embargo against the Palestinian government enacted after...

MORE than $600 million of Australia's foreign aid over the past two years never went overseas but was swallowed up in the coffers of a small Federal Government agency in Pitt Street, Sydney. This is just one example of a shift in policy under which the Government dresses up as overseas development assistance money that never leaves Australia or is used to prop up its immigration policies. Help for refugees in Australia, payments to support the "Pacific solution", and a legal bill at the AWB inquiry are other forms of aid which make the nation appear more generous than it...