Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Navigation
Primary Navigation
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Top Stories
Most Popular
Secondary Navigation
Africa
Europe
Latin America
Middle East
North America
Search
Search:
US concerned by Gaza situation
By MATTHEW LEE,Associated Press Writer AP - 35 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Friday expressed concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, but officials blamed the militant Hamas movement for Palestinian suffering and said it was difficult for the Israeli military to avoid civilian casualties.
Officials said they were continuing to press Israel to take measures to prevent harming civilians and defended the decision to abstain in Thursday's U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution calling for an immediate but lasting cease-fire. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had helped negotiate the resolution.
Rice said Friday that she was pleased that Israel had responded to calls to open a humanitarian corridor into Gaza, where the United Nations and aid agencies say a full-blown crisis has developed. But, she said, "it is very difficult in a circumstance like Gaza, which is a very densely populated area," to protect civilians.
"It's also an area in which Hamas participates in activities like human shields and using buildings that are not designated as military buildings to hide their fighters," she told reporters at the State Department. "So it's hard."
At the White House, spokesman Scott Stanzel said the administration is "very concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza" but echoed Rice's comments on the difficulties Israel faces.
"We want to see that situation improve," he said. "However, it is a difficult situation. It is a conflict area. And this situation will not improve until Hamas stops lobbing rockets into Israel."
Rice and State Department spokesman Sean McCormack sought to explain the seeming incongruity between U.S. support for the Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire and its decision not to vote on it.
Rice, who spent three days in New York conducting frantic diplomacy on what eventually became the resolution, said the vote was "premature" because details of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's cease-fire initiative that the document endorses have not yet been worked out. At the same time, the U.S. did not want to use its veto to kill the resolution, she said.
"The U.S. abstention was principally because we believed that it would have been useful to have a little bit more time for the Mubarak initiative to mature," she said. "It was simply believed that this might have been a little premature."
Meanwhile, McCormack faced a barrage of questions from reporters about the apparent inconsistency of the abstention in the face of his declarations: "We support the text of this resolution. We support the goals of this resolution. We support the objectives of this resolution."
"Our hope, again, in a perfect world, was that that resolution would have been referring to more specific actions that had to have been agreed upon as part of the Mubarak initiative," McCormack said. "That wasn't the case."
Meanwhile, on the ground in Gaza, 23 Palestinians had been killed by Friday afternoon, pushing the death toll to 777 in the 2-week-old conflict, according to Palestinian health officials who say at least half of those killed were civilians. Thirteen Israelis have also been killed.
The United Nations kept aid deliveries to Gaza on hold for a second day because of security concerns, but Palestinians who risked going to relief centers could still get food and medicine. Just over half the territory's population of 1.4 million rely on the U.N. for food.
Howard Sumka, USAID's mission director for the West Bank and Gaza, said that the agency has been purchasing far more food and emergency supplies than it has been able to deliver to Gaza.
"The scope of the need is quite extensive," he told reporters in Washington by teleconference. "The problem is the logistics and security."
Email Story
IM Story
Printable View
Blog This
Recommend this article
Average (0 votes)
Sign in to recommend this article »
Most Recommended Stories »
Related Articles: World
Russian gas stays off amid wranglingAFP - 21 minutes ago
Israel presses on with Gaza strikes despite UN resolutionAFP - 27 minutes ago
Analysis: Israel, Hamas take tough line on truceAP - 28 minutes ago
Court: no review of enemy combatant designationAP - 30 minutes ago
Court rules Unabomber writings to be sold onlineAP - 33 minutes ago
Most Popular – World
Viewed
Marks & Spencer to axe 1,230 jobs and close 27 stores
Citigroup: 2-billion-dollar exposure to LyondellBasell
Finance fights sex for Aussie dictionary honour
Israel presses on with Gaza strikes despite UN resolution
Half the planet could be hit by food crisis by 2100: study
View Complete List »
Search:
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Top Stories
Most Popular