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[OMEN]

President Bush has blamed the violence in Gaza and southern Israel firmly on Hamas, after a week of Israeli air strikes and Palestinian rocket attacks.

Mr Bush, who has just weeks left in office, said Hamas was a terrorist group dedicated to destroying Israel.

Earlier the Hamas leader-in-exile, Khaled Meshaal, warned Israel of a "black destiny" if it began a threatened ground offensive on Gaza.

Hamas said one of its military leaders died in an overnight strike.
Abu Zakaria al-Jamal died of his wounds after a raid.

Israel has now carried out more than 700 strikes on Gaza since launching the offensive a week ago, AFP news agency said.

The UN warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The UN said it believed 25% of more than 400 Palestinians killed by Israeli action so far were civilians.

'Monitoring mechanisms'

In his weekly radio address President George W Bush said Hamas was responsible for the latest violence and rejected any unilateral ceasefire that he said would allow Hamas to continue to fire on Israel.

He added that no peace deal would be acceptable without tougher action to prevent Hamas and other groups from receiving weapons
"There must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure the smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end," he said.

"I urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror and to support legitimate Palestinian leaders working for peace," Mr Bush added.

Resistance 'intact'

Israeli air strikes on Gaza continued early on Saturday, with 35 reported. One person was killed as large parts of the American school in north-west Gaza were destroyed.

Israel has threatened to launch a ground offensive. It has called up army reservists, and tanks and troops are massed on the Gaza frontier.

BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen says a week of bombardment has not been able to stop militant rocket attacks, and Israel now has to decide whether to send in ground troops.

But in a pre-recorded statement broadcast on al-Jazeera TV, Damascus-based Khaled Meshaal said Israel would be making a "foolish mistake" if it sent tanks into Gaza.

Speaking publicly for the first time since Israeli air strikes started a week ago, he said Hamas resistance and infrastructure were intact.

"We will not break, we will not surrender or give in to your conditions," Mr Meshaal said in a speech aimed at the Israelis, the Palestinians and the wider Muslim world.
Al-Jazeera reaches millions of people across the Arabic-speaking world in the Middle East and beyond.

To them, Mr Meshaal said this was not a battle against Hamas alone, but against the entire umma, or nation.

Analysts say this was an apparent reference to a populist Islamist idea that the Palestinians are defending the Muslim world against a modern form of Crusades.

The UN said the Israeli military escalated its offensive against the Hamas leadership in Gaza on Friday, targeting the homes of more than 20 Hamas officials in its latest air strikes.

In response, Palestinian militants fired on Israel, their missiles injuring four people in the southern city of Ashkelon. More than 20 more missiles were fired on Saturday morning.

Four Israelis have been killed so far by militant rocket fire.

Israel is refusing to let international journalists into Gaza, despite a Supreme Court ruling to allow a limited number of reporters to enter the territory.

The UN says the week-long assault has worsened the crisis in Gaza, despite an increase in humanitarian shipments.

Israel tightened its control of what gets in and out of the crowded coastal Strip after Hamas, the elected power, seized control of the area from rival Fatah forces 18 months ago.

Since then, the UN says there has been a significant deterioration in infrastructure and basic services, with 80% of the 1.4m population unable to support themselves.

BBC

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A couple with two children who married last summer were among the three victims of a plane crash which closed one of the country's busiest rail routes, it emerged.

British Transport Police (BTP) said Nick O'Brien, 35, and his 29-year-old wife Emma, from Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands, were passengers on board the light aircraft when it crashed at Little Haywood, near Stafford, at about noon on Friday.

A BTP spokeswoman said the couple had two sons, Callum, aged 10, and 18-month-old Joel.

It is understood that the pilot of the plane, Alan Matthews, knew Mr O'Brien through his work with a Birmingham-based demolition firm.

Mr Matthews, a member of a flying club based near Lichfield, Staffordshire, was said by friends to be a well-liked and proficient pilot who had almost two decades of flying experience, often making trips to France and Spain.

His wife Jenny Matthews, from Walsall Wood, West Midlands, issued a short statement through BTP paying tribute to her husband as a "loving, caring" man who would help anybody and loved flying.

The BTP spokeswoman said: "Nick and Emma O'Brien married in August 2008 and leave behind two children. The families of all the victims ask the media to leave them to grieve in private at this time."

Meanwhile, work was continuing at the crash site on Saturday to gather evidence and recover the wreckage of the aircraft.

"The line is not expected to be fully restored this weekend and passengers are asked to check with their train operator before travelling," the BTP spokeswoman said.

The aircraft is believed to have been a Piper Cherokee based at the Sittles Flying Club, which operates from an airfield near the village of Fradley.

-Nova

[OMEN]

Israeli troops backed by helicopters have advanced into Gaza, a Palestinian witness and the Israeli army said, in the first ground action of an eight-day offensive against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.

The small column of military vehicles crossed the boundary fence into the northern Gaza Strip under darkness, said the witness, a resident of Beit Lahiya.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the incursion and said the aim was to seize areas from where Hamas was launching rocket attacks on southern Israel.
'The objective is to destroy the Hamas terror infrastructure in the area of operations,' Major Avital Leibovitch said.

Israel has also ordered the call-up of tens of thousands of military reservists as part of a ground offensive launched in Gaza, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said in a statement.

It said that, in accordance with a secret cabinet discussion yesterday, the government ordered the armed forces 'to draft the necessary reservists, on a scale of tens of thousands of troops'.

Earlier, in the bloodiest incident of the day, an air strike on a mosque killed 11 Palestinian civilians, including children, and wounded dozens as they prayed, Hamas officials said.

An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate comment.

Israel has targeted mosques previously saying that Hamas had used them as command posts and fire bases.

Hamas kept up its rocket attacks on southern Israel in defiance of international calls for it to halt such actions.

As the Israeli offensive entered its second week, prospects of a ceasefire any time soon looked dim.

'I hope the results of this operation will bring about quiet in the long term. The moment they fire, we will respond with great force,' Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Israeli TV.

The Palestinian death toll has risen to at least 446, with about 2,050 wounded, in the worst sustained bloodshed in decades of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Four Israelis have been killed in cross-border rocket attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.

Israeli air strikes targeted Gaza from early morning and naval vessels also shelled the area from the Mediterranean, witnesses said.

One strike killed Abu Zakaria al-Jamal, a senior commander of Hamas's armed wing, Hamas said. He was the second Hamas leader killed in three days.

Israeli war planes also hit a private Palestinian college called the American School, killing a guard.

Israel launched the campaign, called Operation Cast Lead, on 27 December saying it wanted to stop Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel.

Israeli flag burned after protest

Protestors against the air attacks on Gaza have burnt an Israeli flag outside the Dáil.

Around 1,000 people attended the demonstration organised by the Ireland Palestine solidarity campaign.

The organisers say protests will take place as long as the Israeli bombardment continues and they called on the Government to boycott Israeli goods and businesses.

Afterwards around 80 protestors knelt on Kildare Street to pray.

Bush says Hamas is responsible

Amid growing concern for the humanitarian condition in the densely-populated territory, the US gave its close ally free rein to push on with a ground offensive, insisting that the key to a ceasefire is Israel's demand for Hamas to permanently halt rocket fire.

US President George W Bush urged all able parties to press Hamas to stop firing on Israel to facilitate a lasting ceasefire.

'The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful ceasefire that is fully respected,' Mr Bush said in his weekly radio address to be broadcast today, the text of which was released late yesterday.

'I urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror, and to support legitimate Palestinian leaders working for peace.'

Mr Bush said Hamas was responsible for the latest violence and rejected a unilateral ceasefire that would allow Hamas to continue to fire on Israel.

'This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas - a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel's destruction,' Mr Bush said.

Hamas's Syrian-based chief Khaled Meshaal, meanwhile, told Israel that 'if you commit the stupidity of launching a ground offensive then a black destiny awaits you.

'You will soon find out that Gaza is the wrath of God,' Mr Meshaal said in pre-taped remarks as the death toll rose from bombing and concerns grew about the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory.

RTE

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[OMEN]

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 has rocked eastern Indonesia, meteorologists say.

The tremor struck south-west of Manokwari, West Papua province, at 0443 on Sunday (1943 GMT), the US Geological Survey said.

Residents ran outdoors and to higher ground, but a tsunami alert was withdrawn within an hour.

The Indonesian archipelago lies over several continental plates where seismic activity happens regularly.

While the local seismology agency said the quake had a magnitude of 7.2, the US Geological Survey put the quake at a stronger 7.6.

Hasim Rumatiga, a local health official, told Associated Press that electricity went off and residents ran to higher ground.

A policeman said that without power it was difficult to check for damage in Manokwari, the seaside capital of the province, AFP news agency reported.

He added that the police and military had been helping people get to higher ground.

A huge quake off western Indonesia on 26 December, 2004 caused a massive tsunami that killed around 230,000 people around the region

BBC