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The Prime Minister’s Update Following are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks earlier this evening (Saturday), 4.12.10, at the Haifa University forward command center: "As soon as the fire broke out, I set two goals: First, saving lives, and second, extinguishing the fire, which effectively means aerial efforts with international cooperation. The work on the ground is the responsibility of Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Israel Police Inspector-General Dudi Cohen and the Fire and Rescue Service, with the assistance of the IDF, MDA and all the bodies that are represented here. First of all, I would like to say that this...

A National Day of Mourning by Ari Bussel and Norma Zager It is not clear at this stage if the fire storm raging in the Carmel Mountains in Israel was deliberately set as an act of terrorism or not. What is clear is that Israel is unequipped and at the moment unable to stop the raging inferno. The spokesperson of the Fire and Rescue Services sounded almost desperate when he was interviewed earlier. One of the first headlines today: Forty cadets of the prison service were trapped in a bus and burned alive. The bodies are being identified and taken...

African Studies Practicumby: Emmanuel Opati, September 19, 2007 For decades, African diplomats to the western countries, especially to the United States, focused inter-alia on increasing the aid flow to the continent. However, current dynamics of global war on terror have changed foreign policy objectives and consequently changed the wave of international development and humanitarian aid. In 2006, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported that the contribution from the 22 member countries of the Development Assistance Committee (who are the World’s major donors) dropped by 5.1 per cent compared to 2005 contributions. The United States has been criticized...

-German town donates money to run summer camp for child Katrina victims in Austin.- Almost a year ago, Michelle Williams was standing on the roof of her uncle's house in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina filled it with water. A fireman rescued her and her family in a boat, she said. This week, the 9-year-old was sitting at a picnic table in Zilker Park, grinning about all the friends she has made at a summer camp for young Katrina evacuees. "It's very fun to play with people who understand you and what you're going through," she said. "You get to...

Korea to Send US$30 Million in Aid to United States Korea on Sunday shamed critics by deciding to send US$30 million in aid including private donations to help in the rebuilding of areas in the U.S. South devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It will also dispatch a 50-man rescue team to the area together with emergency relief supplies under a team headed by Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-shik, who has been tentatively named Korean ambassador to Washington. Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan announced the measures after a Cabinet meeting.

CNN) -- The oil-rich nation of Qatar has offered the United States $100 million to assist in the humanitarian crisis triggered by Hurricane Katrina. The state-run Qatar News Agency said Saturday that Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, decided to contribute that amount for relief "and humanitarian supplies for the victims of this disaster." The U.S. government has received offers of support from dozens of nations across the globe. As of Friday, the White House had not accepted any offers, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the State Department was "working very closely with the Department of Homeland...

Admittedly I haven't been sitting glued to the TV news all day every day throughout this catastrophe, and perhaps this has already been addressed. It is also possible that there are things going on that I've missed, but I have this nagging question on my mind. Where are all the countries we've helped when there has been a need? Who has rushed to give us aid in the form of money and supplies and manpower. Where are all these leaders who are the first to put their hands out when their countries are in trouble? Where are all the "spiritual"...

Sometimes what is truly breaking news is not what is reported but what isn't......It's been three days since the storm hit....Where is the world? What countries have offered supplies, logistics, encouragement or expressed sympathy. Where are the countries that we have supported and helped over the years? Where is the International Red Cross? We are a very capable country with vast resources and great people but would we honestly refuse a extra hands to clear roads tend to the elderly and infirmed etc..... It's nice to know you have friends and neighbors you can count on.... Admin Moderator: If you...

LONDON (Reuters) - Red tape, inefficiency and nepotism mean that only one fifth of international aid actually gets to the people who need it, aid agencies said Monday. Not only that, but 40 percent of international aid is spent buying overpriced goods and services from the donors' own countries, Action Aid and Oxfam said in a joint report calling for urgent reform of a politically compromised system. "First and foremost, they need to spend aid where it is needed -- on poverty reduction -- rather than channel it to their own consultancy and infrastructure industries and geopolitical allies," the report...

The events of September 11, 2001 have led, among many other things, to the revival of an old debate about the relationship between poverty and political extremism. To get at the root of apocalyptic terrorism, many new initiatives to reduce global poverty have been proposed. British International Development Secretary Clare Short advocates a massive international effort to stop poor countries from becoming breeding grounds for terrorism: "The conditions which bred their bitterness and hatred", she has said, "are linked to poverty and injustice." Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, has called for a fifty-year Marshall Plan that would disperse...

NASSAU, Bahamas -- Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday the Bush administration will not support the release of $200 million in international aid to Haiti until President Jean-Bertrand Aristide takes steps to end the country's political crisis and make its democracy work better. A long-running stalemate between Aristide and the Haitian opposition, fueled by episodes of corruption and political violence, makes it impossible for international donors to deliver contributions to Haiti with confidence, Powell said. He rejected a call from Caribbean governments to help free the $200 million, programmed by the Inter-American Development Bank but held up along with ...

U.N. Wants International Aid to Stem Djibouti Leak — GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations issued an urgent call Tuesday for international aid to help stem a toxic chemical leak at the port of Djibouti in East Africa. National efforts to stop the leak of some 200 tonnes of chromated copper arsenate, which can cause cancer, had failed and the imminent rainy season was sparking fears the chemical could flow into the sea and damage fish stocks.The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said earlier this month that the chemical, shipped from Britain for delivery to the Ethiopian Power Corporation,...