Suicide bomber kills four civilians in Kabul

KABUL: A suicide bomber killed four civilians in an attack apparently aimed at a convoy of foreign forces on Sunday, security officials said.

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Suicide bomber kills four civilians in Kabul

EU foreign policy chief tours Gaza, checks embargo

GAZA CITY: The international community must pressure Israel to go beyond easing its Gaza embargo and throw open the territory’s long-blockaded borders, the EU foreign policy chief said after a tour of the Hamas-run coastal strip.

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EU foreign policy chief tours Gaza, checks embargo

Five Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Gaza violence

GAZA CITY: Five Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in Gaza on Tuesday as rockets were launched and a rare cross-border raid after a deadly Israeli assault on an aid convoy.

Three of the five were killed by an Israeli strike in the north of the Hamas-run territory, according to Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services.

The Israeli military said it had carried out an air strike in the area about an hour after two rockets were fired from Gaza. There were no reports of any casualties or damage from the makeshift projectiles.

Israeli troops had earlier shot dead two Palestinians who had snuck across the border in the southern part of the territory, according to a military spokeswoman.

“There was an exchange of fire in which they were killed,” she said, adding that no Israelis were wounded.

Witnesses on the Gaza side of the border said the exchange of fire was followed by Israeli shelling, and a photographer saw an Israeli helicopter firing missiles.

There was no immediate report of casualties from the Palestinian side as ambulances were not able to enter the area.

Egypt dismisses Israel”s Hezbollah Scud warning

BEIRUT: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit dismissed as “laughable” on Saturday US and Israeli fears that Syria has been supplying Lebanese militant group Hezbollah with Scud missiles.

“These allegations are lies and are laughable,” Abul Gheit told reporters in Beirut as he began an official visit.

“Egypt stands by Lebanon under all conditions and in the face of all threats,” he added.

Earlier this month, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria of arming Hezbollah with Scuds, a charge Damascus has strongly denied.

Washington has stopped short of openly accusing Damascus of supplying Hezbollah with the missiles, but has said Syria has been providing the group with a “wider array” of weaponry.

The Scud allegations come as the US administration has boosted relations with Syria and US lawmakers have seized on them to argue against a bigger rapprochement.

Relations between Damascus and Washington plummeted after the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in a Beirut car bombing widely blamed on Syria and its allies.

Relations were already strained amid US allegations that Syria was not doing enough to prevent the flow of arms and recruits to the anti-US insurgency in neighbouring Iraq.

No Palestinian state in temporary borders: Abbas

RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he opposes the idea of setting up a Palestinian state in temporary borders.

Abbas” comments Saturday came amid reports that Israel floated that proposal as a way of restarting peace talks. A state in temporary borders would be established on parts of the territory the Palestinians want for their state.

Abbas told his Fatah movement Saturday that “we won”t accept a state with temporary borders.”” U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell returned to the region Friday in a new attempt to restart negotiations.

Iran bars Khatami from leaving country: website

TEHRAN: Iran has barred former president Mohammad Khatami from leaving the country ahead of a trip he planned to make to Japan for a nuclear disarmament conference, a pro-reform website said Thursday.

The Parlemannews.ir website of the reformist bloc in parliament did not provide details of any reasons given for the travel ban.

Khatami, whose 1997-2005 presidency saw a thaw with the West under his “dialogue of civilisations”, had been invited to attend the annual nuclear disarmament conference in Hiroshima.

The former president has been the target of virulent criticism by regime hardliners since he backed former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi against incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in last June”s presidential election.

Car bomb targets hotel in Kandahar; 6 hurt

KABUL: Witnesses say a car bomb has targeted a hotel in the heart of the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar, injuring at least six people.

Police official Nidah Mohammed says at least two of those injured is in serious condition.

Witnesses say windows were shattered in the four-story Noor Jehan Hotel when the car bomb went off in the parking lot.

Hamas executes 2 Israeli spies

GAZA CITY: The head of the military court in Hamas-ruled Gaza says two informers for Israel have been executed.

The executions marked the first time in a decade — and the first time ever under Hamas rule — that the death penalty was carried out in Gaza.

It signaled an escalation in Hamas” ways of maintaining control over Gaza. The Islamic militants seized the territory in 2007.

The head of the military court, Ahmed Atallah, announced the executions in a statement on the Web site of Gaza”s Interior Ministry. He identified the two men as convicted collaborators Mohammed Ismail and Nasser Abu Freih.

Atallah did not say how they were executed. An employee at Gaza”s main hospital says their bullet-riddled bodies were dropped off there by armed men early Thursday.

Afghan offensive in Kandahar to begin in June: US

WASHINGTON: NATO forces will begin their offensive on the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in June, a US official said late Monday.

The offensive “has already begun but clearing operations will begin (in June),” the official said on condition of anonymity.

NATO and US forces had already announced plans to begin Kandahar operations this summer, but without giving specific dates.

Coalition forces have already launched a major offensive against the Taliban in Helmand province, near Kandahar, in an attempt to regain ground against the fierce insurgency.

The United States and NATO are boosting their military effort to 150,000 troops in Afghanistan in coming months as efforts to eradicate the Taliban threat intensify, with concentration on the militants” southern strongholds.

US General Stanley McChrystal said earlier this month he would take on Taliban militants in their Kandahar strongholds this summer when enough reinforcements are on the ground.

McChrystal, the US war commander, told President Barack Obama by video conference at a war cabinet meeting that the military was on course to pour thousands of extra troops into Afghanistan in the coming months, while he reported “continued progress” in the offensive against the Taliban in Marjah.

A US combat brigade of 4,000 men was already deployed in Kandahar in the summer of 2009 to secure lines of communication leading to the capital of southern Afghanistan, historic stronghold of the Taliban movement.

China to be ”involved” in Iran sanctions push:Clinton

OTTAWA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said China will play a role in international efforts to pen sanctions against Iran at the United Nations, and that Beijing recognizes the threat of Iran”s nuclear program.

“I think as the weeks go forward and we begin the hard work of trying to come up with a Security Council resolution, China will be involved,” Clinton said Monday in an interview with Canadian television.

“China is part of the consultative group that has been unified all along the way, which has made it very clear that a nuclear-armed Iran is not acceptable to the international community,” she said.

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