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Russia harshly criticized Group of Seven members for their hypocrisy

G7 countries united against Russia and issued a joint statement in which they condemned Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the USA and Great Britain said that Russia had violated the territorial integrity in Georgia, as well as the resolution of the UN Security Council regulating relations between Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“Russia’s decision has called into question its commitment to peace and security in the Caucasus,” the counties’ foreign ministers said in a statement. “We deplore Russia ’s excessive use of military force in Georgia and its continued occupation of parts of Georgia.”

The ministers urged Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia to the positions Read more »

The boats are carrying 40 activists, 200 hearing aids and 5,000 balloons Two boats carrying members of a US-based pro-Palestinian group have arrived in the Gaza Strip, despite an Israeli blockade of the territory. Israel earlier said they would be let in, saying they would not be given the chance to have a “provocation at sea”. The boats left the port of Larnaca in Cyprus on Friday morning. The Free Gaza protest group said about 40 activists from 14 countries were on board the boats to highlight the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza in June 2007 when the militant group Hamas took control of the territory by force. Since then, Israel has allowed in little more than basic humanitarian aid as a means of isolating Hamas and persuading militant groups to stop firing rockets into Israel. The closure of Gaza’s borders by the Israeli and Egyptian authorities has also meant that very

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Members of the U.S. team, who won the 4 x 400m relay final of the athletics competition, hold flowers during the medal ceremony at the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 23, 2008. The members (from L to R) are Jeremy Wariner, David Neville, Angelo Taylor and LaShawn Merritt.

The United States made up for their botched performance in the sprint relays by winning both 4×400 meters events on Saturday to finish the Olympic athletics program on a high.

LaShawn Merritt, Angelo Taylor, David Neville and Jeremy Wariner clocked a combined time of two minutes 55.39 seconds to win the men’s gold medal while Mary Wineberg, Allyson Felix, Monique Henderson and Sanya Richards won the women’s gold in 3:18.54.

The two victories enabled the United States to overtake Jamaica and Russia at the top of the athletics’ medals tables with seven golds and just the men’s marathon to come on Sunday.

“To end it with an Olympic record after everything they’d gone through, that shows you that they care Read more »

Cheese previously being brought into Gaza at the Kerem Shalom Crossing, which was closed after militants in the enclave fired a rocket into Israel

JERUSALEM, 20 August 2008 (IRIN) - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak closed all crossing points to the Gaza Strip on 20 August, after militants in the enclave fired a rocket into Israel, which caused no damage or harm.

The attack comes as Israel was planning to reopen the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Gaza Strip later this week, officials said.

Trials were under way on 18-19 August to see how the reopened crossing would function in practice, and on 19 August some 55 truckloads of goods entered southern Gaza via the crossing.

Kerem Shalom crossing was closed after a suicide bomb attack in April, for which the Islamist group ruling Gaza, Hamas, has claimed responsibility.

The current Gaza-Israel ceasefire, which dates from June 2008, has led to an increase Read more »

Als Geste des guten Willens hat Israel die Freilassung von 200 Palästinensern beschlossen.

Darunter sind auch zwei Gefangene, die wegen Anschlägen auf Israelis seit 30 Jahren im Gefängnis sitzen. Ein Sprecher von Ministerpräsident Ehud Olmert sprach am Sonntag von einer vertrauensbildenden Maßnahme, um den Friedensprozess zu fördern und die moderaten Kräfte unter den Palästinensern zu stärken. Ein Berater von Palästinenser-Präsident Mahmud Abbas bezeichnete die Ankündigung als Schritt in die richtige Richtung. Allerdings müssten nicht Hunderte sondern Tausende palästinensische Häftlinge freigelassen werden, sagte Nabil Abu Rdainah.

Die Gefangenen sollen um den 25. August freikommen, noch vor Beginn des muslimischen Fastenmonats Ramadan, wie ein israelischer Regierungsvertreter erklärte. Eine Namensliste sei noch nicht endgültig fertiggestellt. Aber es seien Gefangene Read more »

Israel has built heavily on occupied land in the West Bank and Jerusalem Israel has offered a peace deal to the Palestinians which would annex 7.3% of the West Bank and keep the largest settlements, Israeli reports say. In return the Palestinians would be given land equivalent to 5.4% of the West Bank in the Negev desert, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. Palestinian officials confirmed that such a plan had been put forward, but called it totally unacceptable. The two sides have been in peace talks sponsored by the US since November. Israel wants a new border similar to the route of the barrier it is currently building in and around the West Bank, Haaretz reports. The proposed deal also covers Palestinian refugees and security arrangements, as well as the future of Gaza, Haaretz says, but not the issue of East Jerusalem and the ring of settlements around it. On Monday, a delicate truce over Gaza’s border was shaken when unidentified

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Revived talks have produced signs of warmth but little visible progress Israel’s strategy in negotiations could force the Palestinians to abandon their goal of a two-state solution, a top Palestinian negotiator says. Ahmed Qurei says they may instead seek a binational solution, that is a single state for Israelis and Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Israel fears such a this would spell the end of the Jewish majority state. Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. Its negotiators have always resisted full withdrawal from them. Mr Qurei told a meeting of the ruling Fatah faction in the West Bank that the Palestinian leadership had been working to establish a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. “If Israel continues to reject this and prevent us from achieve our choice, we will call for the alternative solution for the Palestinian people and their leadership - that is a single binationalist state,”

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