Was this World Cup fever = or World War fervor?!?
As Italy beat France in a shootout (how appropriate and even allegorical) to capture the World Cup Sunday, all of this was happening all around the globe...
Shiite-Sunni Violence Kills Dozens in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Masked Shiite gunmen roamed through west Baghdad's Jihad neighborhood Sunday, dragging Sunnis from their cars, picking them out on the street and killing them in a rampage that police said killed 41 people...
Brakes Eyed in Deadly Siberia Plane Crash
MOSCOW (AP) - The brakes on a Russian plane may have failed as it landed and careened into garages in a fiery crash that killed at least 122 people in the country's second major commercial airline disaster in two months...
Israel Vows to Press Gaza Offensive
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday he would push ahead with the army's widescale offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying the fight to free an abducted soldier and stop militant rocket fire would last for a "long time."
The 12-day-old operation has caused widespread destruction in Gaza, left 51 Palestinians dead and led to international complaints that Israel was using excessive force. (My - yes. Maybe Ehud saw "Saving Private Ryan" one too many times there... hmm?)
1 Cdn soldier dead, 2 more injured in Afghanistan (CTV) -
A Canadian soldier has been killed in a gun battle west of Kandahar City, Afghanistan, and two more Canadian soldiers have sustained injuries.
The soldier has been identified as 21-year-old Cpl. Anthony Joseph Boneca, a reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment of Thunder Bay, Ont.
"He died in an ambush just about 200 metres away from where our patrol was," CTV's Steve Chao told Newsnet Sunday.
And, of course, this saga continues...
North Korea condemns Japanese penalties over missile testing (CBC News) -
A North Korean envoy warned Friday that Japan's imposition of sanctions against Pyongyang in response to its missile testing may yield "catastrophic effects."
Japan, which has been pushing the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on North Korea, announced today it has prepared a draft resolution that would cut off food aid to that country. Japanese officials said Tokyo may also restrict agricultural and fisheries trade.
Krazy Kim Jong-il will not like that - no he won't!
I once had a crazy girlfriend named Kim too... but that is another story.
As for the point of this post - the morale here is that there should not be any doubt about the futility of Futebol at this point... Just don't say it to your friendly (usually) Italian zaftig neighbor or you might get a pizza in the face! Heck - the whole pizzeria!
posted by Luminous (\ô/) Luciano™ @ 11:03 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
A mere 48 hours later... it continued...
Bomb Attack on Bombay Trains Kills 147
Jul 11, 8:12 PM (ET)
By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM
BOMBAY, India (AP) - Eight bombs exploded in first-class compartments of packed Bombay commuter trains Tuesday, killing 147 people and wounding hundreds in a well-coordinated terror attack on the heart of a city that embodies India's global ambitions.
Suspicion quickly fell on Kashmiri militants who have repeatedly carried out nearly simultaneous explosions in attacks on Indian cities, including bombings last year at three markets in New Delhi.
Pakistan, India's rival over the disputed territory of Kashmir, quickly condemned Tuesday's bombings. Even so, India alleges that Pakistan supports the Muslim militants, and analysts said a Kashmiri link to the blasts could slow - or perhaps even derail - a peace process that has gained momentum between the nuclear rivals over the past several years.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said "terrorists" were behind the attacks, which he called "shocking and cowardly attempts to spread a feeling of fear and terror among our citizens."
Security was tightened in cities around the world from New Delhi to New York after the eight blasts, which struck seven trains within minutes of each other during the early evening rush hour. The bombings appeared timed to inflict maximum carnage in this bustling Arabian Sea port of 16 million, more than 6 million of whom ride the crowded rail network daily.
Emergency crews struggled to treat survivors and recover the dead in the wreckage during monsoon downpours, and the effort stretched into the night. Survivors clutched bandages to their heads and faces, and some frantically tried to use their cell phones. Luggage and debris were spattered with blood.
The mobile phone network collapsed, adding to the sense of panic across the city. With train services down until midnight, thousands of people were stranded without any way of reaching their families.
There was no immediate indication if suicide bombers were involved. Police inspector Ramesh Sawant said most of the victims suffered head and chest injuries, leading authorities to believe the bombs were placed in overhead luggage racks.
The Press Trust of India, citing railway officials, said all the blasts hit first-class cars - a sign the assailants were targeting the professional class in a city that has come to embody India's 21st century ambitions.
Bombay, also known as Mumbai, is the center of India's booming financial industry and the home of Bollywood, a city that presents itself to the world as a cosmopolitan metropolis where bankers dine with movie stars and fashion models party until dawn.
While that image captures one side of life in the city, Bombay is also crowded and largely poor. And across the city, the prosperous and downtrodden worked together to aid survivors.
As police and rescue services struggled to reach the blast scenes through Bombay's jammed, chaotic everyday traffic, bystanders pulled the wounded from the debris, offering them water and bundling them into every available vehicle - from trucks to three-wheeled auto-rickshaws.
Others wrapped bodies in railway blankets and carried them away. Police collected body parts in white plastic bags streaked with blood and rain.
Those survivors who could walked from the stations to hospitals.
There, they found scenes of chaos and carnage.
Doctors and volunteers wheeled in the wounded and dead, one after the other.
"I can't hear anything," said Shailesh Mhate, a man in his 20s, sitting on the floor of Veena Desai Hospital surrounded by bloody cotton swabs. "People around me didn't survive. I don't know how I did."
Another man, bloody bandages over his eyes, held out a phone to a nurse, begging her to call his wife and tell her he was OK.
The first bombing hit a train at Bandra station at 6:20 p.m. The blasts followed down the line of the Western Railway at or near stations at Khar, Jogeshwari, Mahim, Mira Road, Matunga and finally Borivili, which was struck by two blasts at 6:35 p.m., according to the Star News channel. However, other reports gave different timelines.
Some passengers reportedly jumped from speeding trains in panic.
Maharashtra state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said after meeting with his Cabinet that the death toll was 147, with 439 others wounded, as of Tuesday night.
In Washington, the State Department said it had no information about whether there were any American casualties.
All of India's major cities were reportedly on high alert following the attacks, which came hours after a series of grenade attacks by Islamic militants killed eight people in the main city of India's part of Kashmir.
Reflecting the fears of coordinated or copycat bombings throughout the world, even New York City increased its transit security Tuesday with hundreds more officers patrolling the subways and more random bag searches.
"We take a terror attack in any place in the world, especially one on a public transport system, as a serious warning," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
President Bush expressed outrage at the attacks and said the United States stands with India in the war on terror.
"Such acts only strengthen the resolve of the international community to stand united against terrorism and to declare unequivocally that there is no justification for the vicious murder of innocent people," Bush said in a written statement.
Commuter transit systems have been tempting targets for terrorists in recent years, with bombers killing 191 in Madrid in 2004 and 52 in London last year.
Bombay suffered blasts in 1993 that included the Bombay Stock Exchange, killing more than 250 people.
A senior Bombay police official, P.S. Pasricha, said Tuesday's explosions were part of a well-coordinated attack.
Police reportedly carried out raids across the country following the blasts. One TV station said a suspect was in custody.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the subcontinent was partitioned upon independence from Britain in 1947, two over Kashmir.
Dozens of militant groups have been fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, demanding the largely Muslim region's independence or merger with Pakistan. New Delhi has accused Pakistan of training, arming and funding the militants. Islamabad insists it only offers the rebels diplomatic and moral support.
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf offered condolences over the loss of life Tuesday, his Foreign Ministry said, adding: "Terrorism is a bane of our times and it must be condemned, rejected and countered effectively and comprehensively."
Accusations of Pakistani involvement in a 2001 attack on India's parliament put the nuclear-armed rivals on the brink of a fourth war. But since then, Pakistan and India have embarked on a peace process aimed at resolving their differences, including the claims to all of Kashmir.
In Washington, a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the events were still unfolding said the coordination of Tuesday's attacks and the targeting of trains at peak travel times match the modus operandi of two Islamic groups active in India during the last several years: Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. The U.S. government has designated both terrorist organizations and considers them affiliates of al-Qaida.
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Associated Press writer Katherine Shrader in Washington contributed to this story.
Israeli Air Strike Kills 7 in Hamas House
Jul 11, 9:54 PM (ET)
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - An Israeli airstrike targeted the home of an Hamas activist in northern Gaza early Wednesday and killed seven people, officials and residents said, while Israel expanded a two-week offensive in the region with an incursion further south.
Palestinians said a high-level meeting of Hamas commanders was in progress at the residence in Gaza City just before the airstrike. Nervous Hamas officials carefully inspected the bodies but refused to comment.
The Israeli military said it attacked the home because it was a "meeting place for terrorists." It also confirmed Israeli forces were operating in southern Gaza as part of an effort to win the release of a captured soldier.
With tanks and troops on the move further south, a huge explosion destroyed the house of Hamas activist Dr. Nabil al-Salmiah, killing seven people, including two children, and wounding at least 24, hospital officials and residents said. There was no immeidate word if al-Salmiah was among the casualties.
They said the house was hit by a missile fired from an Israeli warplane. The Israeli military said it attacked the house because it was a "meeting place for terrorists" who were planning attacks and rocket launching.
Palestinian rescue teams dodged broken water pipes and electricity wires searching the rubble with bulldozers, shovels and their hands and to get to injured people screaming for help.
The scene resembled the aftermath of a 2002 attack, when an Israeli warplane dropped on one-ton bomb on the house of a Hamas leader in Gaza, killing him and 14 other people, including nine children. The attack set off complaints from human rights groups that are still reverberating.
The expansion of the Gaza offensive came hours after Israeli leaders authorized incursions into areas of the territory they have not yet entered.
Palestinians said they saw Israeli bulldozers leveling farmland and tanks moving across the border near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The military ordered Palestinian security to leave their forward positions in the area.
The Israelis have not entered Khan Younis during the current offensive. Before Tuesday, Israeli forces had entered southern and northern Gaza and have approached Gaza City.
Israel launched its offensive on June 28, three days after Palestinian militants linked to the Hamas-led government captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid. The operation was expanded last week to halt Palestinian militants from firing homemade rockets into Israel.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his defense minister, Amir Peretz, ordered the new incursions into Gaza after Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Monday he would not free the captive soldier, 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit, security officials said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation.
Mashaal called Shalit a prisoner of war and demanded a prisoner swap - which Olmert has ruled out.
Responding to Mashaal's statement, Shalit's father, Noam, called on Hamas to allow the Red Cross to visit his son. Under Geneva Conventions, the Red Cross is supposed to have access to prisoners of war.
Israel has demanded the unconditional release of its soldier to end the offensive.
The invasion - Israel's largest ground operation in Gaza since withdrawing from the area last year - has caused widespread destruction, knocked out much of Gaza's power supply and left more than 50 Palestinians dead, most of them gunmen. One Israeli soldier has died.
The European Union began delivering aid to Gaza in a bid to repair some of the damage. Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he had received $50 million from the Arab League.
It was the first aid delivered under internationally backed funding restrictions that bypass the Palestinian government led by the militant group Hamas since March.
Officials said the money had bypassed Hamas because of the international boycott. The European Union, along with Israel and the U.S., considers Hamas a terrorist group.
Mohammed Awad, the Palestinian Cabinet secretary, said Hamas agreed to allow Abbas to handle the money. He said the funds would be used to pay civil servants, who have not received salaries in four months.
The European Commission said it has started delivering $765,000 in monthly aid to hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
EU spokeswoman Emma Udwin said the funds - to purchase fuel for emergency generators at Gaza hospitals - was requested by Abbas after Israel destroyed six transformers at a power plant during its Gaza offensive. Gaza now has only sporadic electricity, almost all of it provided by Israel.
In Gaza, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said the area is "on the verge of a genuine humanitarian crisis."
"There are shortages of food, fuel and essential needs of Palestinian citizens," he told his Cabinet, calling on the United Nations, Arab League, Muslim countries and the rest of the international community to help.
Also on Tuesday, a 15-month-old Palestinian boy injured in an Israeli missile strike last month died of his wounds at an Israeli hospital.
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