Israel has stepped up preparations for a possible military incursion into Gaza over concerns that fighting between Palestinian factions may lead to renewed attacks on Israel, a newspaper reported on Sunday. The Haaretz daily quoted senior military sources as saying that such a raid was not an immediate possibility but part of a contingency plan in case the violence escalated further. More than 80 Palestinians have been killed in fighting that has erupted between rival factions Fatah and Hamas after unity government talks stalled and President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah called for new elections. The fighting continued on Saturday despite a new ceasefire deal. Asked about the Haaretz report, Israeli Foreign Ministry Director-General Aharon Abramovitch said "there is no doubt we are in a difficult period." He said Israel was watching the violence and was concerned at continued weapons smuggling into Gaza as well as sporadic rocket fire at Israel despite a November 26 truce....
http://news.yahoo.com
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Editor - 22:38:00 02-03-07
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 Gold rush tears up a patch of the Amazon |
It's a gold rush in the Amazon jungle, driven by the Internet. Speeding past unbroken walls of foliage, a motorboat packed with gritty prospectors veers toward the shore of the Juma river and spills its passengers into a city of black plastic lean-tos veiled by greasy smoke. All around them are newly dug pits, felled trees, misery and tales of striking it rich. This is Eldorado do Juma, scene of Brazil's biggest gold rush in more than 20 years. Drawn by a Brazilian math teacher's website descriptions of miners scooping up thousands of dollars in gold, between 3,000 and 10,000 people have poured in since December, cutting down huge trees, diverting streams and digging ever-deeper wildcat mines, in an area that only months ago was pristine rain forest. Hundreds of mud-covered men with picks and shovels hack at the earth, marking their tiny plots with tree branches and string. Others feed dirt into wooden troughs and the residue into pans. ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-02-04-amazon-gold-rush_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 22:29:00 02-03-07
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| GOP's conservatives strain for leadership |
Conservative House Republicans are disappointed that their leaders have no strategy to win back in 2008 the majority they lost in November. "We think they need to be a lot more aggressive than they are," Rep. Steve King of Iowa said. "They don't seem willing to have blood on the floor, and there's got to be blood on the floor." He and other House conservatives who came here from Washington for an annual meeting say they are united in thinking that the United States must win the war in Iraq. That view, however, puts them at odds with the majority of voters, who say in poll after poll that they no longer support the war, think victory is unachievable and is not worth the cost in money or lives. "We are united in understanding that we have to win the war," Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia said. "Our goal is to make sure we do whatever is necessary to strengthen and hold up Iraq's government and get that nation off on its own."...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070203-111610-7209r.htm
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Editor - 22:25:00 02-03-07
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| U.S. takes over NATO in Afghanistan |
The United States, which has just doubled its combat troops in Afghanistan, takes over command of the 33,000-strong NATO force in the country on Sunday amid warnings of a bloody spring offensive by the Taliban. Outgoing commander British General David Richards, who in his nine months in charge saw his force grow from 9,000 and push into the Taliban heartland in the south for the first time, said 2006 had been a crunch year for the rebels and they had failed. "Because last year they really did see that they had an opportunity to defeat NATO. As I've said, we foiled that attempt and much more," Richards said on Saturday. "The Taliban do talk about a spring offensive. I won't use that term because all they offer is more death, destruction and despair, against the vision of hope and growing prosperity of the government and the international community."...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2847914
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Editor - 22:16:00 02-03-07
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| British fear gung-ho Americans |
SENIOR defence sources have voiced fears that an imminent push by the United States in Afghanistan will force British soldiers to adopt an overly aggressive approach that will damage relations with ordinary Afghans and play into the hands of the Taliban. The extent of “frictions” between US and British commanders are revealed in the latest edition of Pegasus, the journal of the Parachute Regiment, in which an unnamed senior officer accuses the Americans of undermining British strategy during last year’s handover. British troops had planned to focus on reconstruction to win hearts and minds among the local population, the article states. However, American commanders “forced” them to take part in an offensive. “The UK taskforce arrived in theatre immediately prior to Operation Mountain Thrust, an offensive operation being planned by the US commander to destroy and defeat the Taliban,” Pegasus says. “Despite our ‘ownership’ of Helmand and our request to conduct ops in ‘the British way’ we...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2583184,00.html
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Editor - 21:51:00 02-03-07
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| Doubts Run Deep on Reforms Crucial to Bush's Iraq Strategy Even Plan's Authors Say Political, Economic Changes May Fail |
The success of the Bush administration's new Iraq strategy depends on a series of rapid and dramatic political and economic reforms that even the plan's authors have little confidence will work.In the current go-for-broke atmosphere, administration officials say they are aware that failure to achieve the reforms would result in a repeat of last year's unsuccessful Baghdad offensive, when efforts to consolidate military gains with lasting stability on the ground did not work. This time, they acknowledge, there will be no second chance....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/03/AR2007020301441_pf.html
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Editor - 21:32:00 02-03-07
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