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JERUSALEM (February 3) - Soldiers repulsed an attack by terrorists on their post near Kfar Darom's hothouses on Friday night. In retaliation, Israel Air Force helicopters fired four missiles and destroyed the Palestinian Naval Police headquarters in Deir el-Balah next to Kfar Darom in a pre-dawn attack yesterday. Prior to the attack, Palestinians were notified and cleared the building. The IDF Spokesman said the destruction of the building was also in response to the the firing of mortar shells at the Erez crossing. In Friday night's attack, a powerful bomb planted by Palestinians exploded at about 6:30 near the army ...

By Afshin Valinejad, The Associated PressTEHRAN, Iran - Iran is honored to be the target of attack by the United States, which Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today is "the most hated Satan in the world." "There are some satans in the world, but America indeed is the great Satan," Khamenei said, speaking at his residence to participants who had concluded a conference in support of the Palestinian uprising a day earlier. "The Islamic Republic of Iran is honored to be the target of wrath and anger of the most hated Satan in the world," state television quoted him ...

The 15-year-old girl attempted the stabbing attack at the French Hill junction. The police officers called for the girl to stop and one of them loaded his rifle. The girl attempted to flee the scene but was caught by police, Israel Radio reported. She is now being questioned by police. AND ALSO (10:10) Palestinian boy opens fire on Border Police officers A Palestinian youth opened fire on Border Police officers stationed at a roadblock in the Bethlehem area a short time ago. There were no casualties when the youth opened fire on officers with a handgun. He subsequently threw ...

Two Tanzim leaders in Nablus have links with Iran and Hizbullah and are receiving money from them, Palestinian officers said. Husam Khader, one of the Tanzim leaders, told Israel Radio he denied the allegation and blamed the head of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, Tawfik Tirawi, for accusing him. Khader has been involved in intra-Palestinian disagreements before. In August he accused Palestinian Authority officials and security chiefs of collaborating with Israel. Fatah activists from Nablus later threatened the Palestinian information minister for criticizing the statements of Khader, who was then a Fatah activist. The statements were made in an interview ...

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has dismissed senior PA official Fuad Shubaki, suspected of involvement in the Karine A arms ship affair, a PA report published Monday said. According to the report, the decision to dismiss Shubaki, who oversees the financial affairs of PA security forces, was made following the recommendations of a PA investigation committee into the arms-laden ship intercepted last month by Israeli commandos. Israel has demanded that Arafat arrest all those responsible for ordering the ship, which carried 50 tons of weaponry which Israel said was bound for PA territory. Palestinian sources reported that Arafat also ordered ...

RIYADH (Reuters) - Arab states plan to send a strongly worded message to the United States that its interests in the Arab world are at risk if it does not stop Israeli attacks on Palestinians, a Saudi newspaper reported on Monday. The Arabic-language al-Watan quoted what it described as a high-ranking Jordanian source as saying that King Abdullah, now visiting Saudi Arabia, will carry the message to President Bush when he visits Washington this week. "It will be an Arab message, particularly a Saudi one, that U.S. interests and relations with the Arab states will be in danger if ...

<p>Unfortunately, I mean that figuratively, rather than literally.</p> <p>In the latest example of political correctness run amok, it looks as though the city is going to prevent the organizers of this month's Russian end-of-winter festival in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, from staging a 1,000-year-old Russian tradition that calls for two teams of 50 bare-chested men to slug it out with their bare fists. Can you imagine the hubris?!</p>

A Muslim community in the West Midlands, has been rocked by news that two young men from their town are terror suspects being held by US forces in Cuba. Shafiq Rasul, 24, and Asif Iqbal, 20, are accused of belonging to a hardline Islamic group based in the small town of Tipton. They were captured in Afghanistan and are now among 158 Taleban and al-Qaeda suspects being held by the Americans at Camp X-Ray. He could have been brainwashed and taken over there to fight Murtza Rasul, brother Mr Iqbal's family has refused to comment. But the picture being ...

hen Michael Durso turned mob informant in 1998, his G-men handlers pegged him for just another wiseguy with a price on his head. But as he continues his testimony as a star government witness, prosecutors are crediting Durso with helping to nail about 50 Mafiosi &#151; including imprisoned Genovese crime boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante, who was indicted on new charges last week. Genovese crime boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante was indicted on new charges this week. Wearing a listening device hidden in a Rolex watch, Durso, 32, circulated among dozens of mobsters for three years. As a Genovese associate known as ...

Malcolm Shabazz, the Malcolm X grandson who set the fire that killed his grandmother, has been arrested on robbery and burglary charges in Middletown, cops said. Shabazz, 17, who lives in the small Orange County city, was arrested early Friday while riding in a stolen car, police said. State police had been looking for Shabazz in connection with a Wednesday robbery. Shabazz and Thomas Carter-Love, 17, of Wallkill are accused of assaulting another 17-year-old, robbing him of $100, threatening him with a gun, then going to the victim's home in Wallkill, stealing cash and assaulting him again. Carter-Love was arrested ...

LONDON (Reuters) - The Observer newspaper said on Sunday that brutal scenes of Algerian army conscripts being killed were being distributed on video in Britain's mosques as part of a radical Muslim recruitment drive.It said the video, titled simply 'Algeria', contained footage of an attack on an Algerian government convoy, showed mutilated corpses and repeatedly used shots of a wounded conscript having his throat cut.The Observer's chief reporter Jason Burke told Reuters he had obtained the video from a long-standing contact in Britain's Muslim community who had told him it was circulating around mosques in London and was being sold ...

Blaming Israel and Sharon was the easy part of the Hobeika assassination as the real mastermind accomplices and executors were Syria and Iran and their proxies in Lebanon whose agenda involved blaming Israel and destabilizing the entire region. The events surrounding the charges brought against Prime Minister Sharon are bizarre at best and beyond comprehension at worst. The Belgium court, ignoring Belgium's sordid past in administering the Belgium Congo that resulted in the deaths of millions of blacks in Burundi, Uganda, and Zaire, is attempting to regain Belgium's lost moral posture by allowing a judicial attack for political purposes on ...

London, Jan 26, IRNA -- For the second successive year, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has rejected an invitation from the government to attend its Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony on Sunday because it excludes the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians. "Genocide is the most abhorrent and outrageous crime against humanity and we are not going to prevent it by selectively remembering only some of its victims," MCB secretary general Yousuf Bhaliok said. Referring in particular to the ongoing Israeli massacre of Palestinians, he warned that the suffering of Jews during World War Two "must not blind us to ...

Al-Khalil, Jan 26, IRNA -- Palestinian officials, politicians, and civic leaders have denounced the Qatari Foreign Minister Hamed Ibn Jasem al Thani for saying the Arab states couldn't lend any support to the Palestinians in their present confrontation with the apartheid Israeli regime. Ibn Jasem said on the Qatari al-Jazeera television on Thursday that "the Arabs can't help the Palestinians, and we have to beg the US to stop the violence. The word `beg' disturbs me, but begging is the right word, for the Arabs don't possess the power and their situation doesn't allow them to exercise any pressure ...

A British man jailed for three years for plotting to blow up buildings in Yemen has been released from prison. Mohammed Kamel, convicted alongside seven other Britons and two men of Algerian descent in August 1999, is the son of the outspoken London-based Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri. The Yemini authorities claim the ten were involved in a plot directed by Mr al-Masri, who they want Britain to extradite to face trial. Mr al-Masri preaches at a mosque in Finsbury Park, north London, which several people arrested in connection with the 11 September attacks on the United States allegedly attended. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Female members of Britain's biggest trade union have added their voices to calls for the legalization of cannabis, but they have an unusual argument -- the drug offers women a calorie-free way to relax.Women members of Unison's eastern region say the decriminalization of cannabis is a ``women's issue'' because it presents a healthier and less fattening way to chill out.``Cannabis can be used for women to relax and de-stress without calories, in contrast to alcohol or chocolate,'' the women will argue in a motion to the union's 9,000-strong women's conference in Cardiff next month.Women lead ``amazingly stressful ...

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes launched a missile strike on Palestinian security targets in the West Bank and Gaza on Friday in retaliation for a Palestinian suicide bombing that wounded at least 25 people.President Bush (news - web sites) stepped up pressure on the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) to end violence in the region, meeting foreign policy aides to discuss options on how to punish Arafat over an arms shipment. An upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence has battered U.S. peacemaking efforts.At least two people were wounded when two missiles fired by Israeli F-16 fighter planes slammed into ...

At least 10 people were wounded when an apparent suicide bomber exploded near south Tel Aviv's old central bus station around 10:25 a.m. [This story last updated 11:40] Initial reports indicate a motorbike exploded at the corner of Rehov B'nai Brak and Rehov Neveh Sha'anan in the densely populated neighborhood surrounding the old central bus station, located several blocks north of the new facility. A man was reportedly sitting on the motorbike when it exploded. Police report at least 10 people, including the apparent bomber, were wounded in the blast. Magen David Adom has reported many wounded in the attack. ...

BERN, Switzerland Ð Argentina is investigating former president Carlos Menem for allegedly taking bribes to cover up Iranian involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center in which 86 people died, the Swiss government said yesterday. Federal Justice Department spokesman Folco Galli said that Argentinian justice authorities formally asked Switzerland for judicial aid in the case in December. "There is a suspicion that Iranian authorities transferred $10 million to Menem via a Geneva bank account in return for Menem agreeing to say that there was no evidence that Iran was responsible for the attack," he said. Argentinian ...

(16:45) Desecration of Prague Jewish cemetery caught on film By The Associated PressPRAGUE, Czech Republic - Police have found a group of teen-agers who vandalized a Jewish cemetery and recorded the desecration on a video tape, an official said today. Police spokesman Radek Galas said the group of seven teen-agers toppled over 50 tombstones at the old Jewish cemetery in Uhrineves, some 15 kilometers (10 miles) southeast of Prague, in September last year. The boys, aged 14-16, recorded the action on a video tape which they later showed to their friends. "It was an action planned in advance," Galas ...