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Syrian Gov't Daily Suggests Israel Created, Spread Avian Flu Virus On January 31, 2006, the Syrian government daily Al-Thawra published an article by columnist Abd Al-Rahman Ghunaym suggesting that Israel created the avian flu virus in order to damage "genes carried only by Arabs." The article further speculates that Israel may have planted the virus in East Asia in order to mislead the world, and that this is why the disease first appeared in that remote region. Another possibility given is that the virus was created to attack "the yellow race - especially in China and Vietnam" which are "rising...

The United Nations’ human rights office reported on Tuesday the discovery of mass graves outside of two hospitals in Gaza with hundreds of bodies, including some who were found with their hands tied and stripped of their clothes. “Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands… tied and stripped of their clothes,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing local Palestinian authorities.

VICTIM: A boy, injured in Israeli raids on Gaza Strip, being treated in hospital yesterday. — AFP GAZA CITY — Three Palestinians, including a nine-year-old boy, were killed by the Israeli Army yesterday in the Gaza Strip, as Shaul Mofaz began his second term as defence minister with a vow to crack down harder on Palestinian fighters. Israeli tanks thrust into the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Khan Yunis overnight after a large bomb flipped an Israeli personnel carrier against a wall, injuring two soldiers, an army spokesman said. The incursion met fierce resistance, sparking gunbattles which killed...