1001 reasons to commence the Last Judgment and Resurrection

[Guest guest]

BBC Thursday August 21, 2003

 

 

Palestinian militants call off truce

 

The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have called

off their ceasefire after an Israeli missile strike killed a Hamas

leader in Gaza City.

 

Helicopter gunships fired several missiles at a car, killing Ismail

Abu Shanab, one of Hamas' best-known figureheads, and two of his

bodyguards.

 

Within minutes, Hamas and Islamic Jihad declared an end to the

temporary truce they announced on 29 June and vowed revenge.

 

The air strike came hours after the Israeli Government decided to

take military action against Palestinian militants following a

suicide bombing in Jerusalem on Tuesday, which killed 20 people.

 

Gaza City, ISRAEL

 

 

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Drug crime wracks South Africa

 

Crime syndicates and drug dealers are flourishing in southern Africa

due to a lack of police resources and experience, a United Nations

report has said.

 

" New patterns of organised crime, drug trafficking and terrorist

financing have placed the issue of money laundering firmly on the

agenda of a number of key Southern African Development Community

(SADC) states, " says the UN report on drugs and crime in southern

Africa.

 

The report published on Tuesday, singles out Lesotho, Swaziland,

Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa as the countries where

organised crime has made the biggest inroads.

 

SOUTH AFRICA

 

 

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SA sex trafficking widespread

 

South Africa is the regional centre of a pervasive trafficking ring

of women and children for the sex industry, says an international

NGO.

 

Local syndicates as well as global Chinese triad and Russian

organized crime gangs are involved, says the International

Organisation for Migration.

 

The trade in southern Africa is being fuelled by economic

deprivation and civil unrest, it stated.

 

The IMO are calling on governments in the region to make human

trafficking a criminal offence as well as provide awareness and

training for officials as a way to bear down on the growing

exploitative and lucrative sex industry.

 

The report compiled in Pretoria was based on 232 interviews with

victims and traffickers from 11 countries, as well as officials from

governments, police and the media.

 

" White, Afrikaans-speaking men " abduct street-children in Lesotho,

bring them across the border into South Africa, and assault them for

days in " a feeding frenzy for fantasies of hatred, humiliation and

revenge, " the report says.

 

SOUTH AFRICA

 

 

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US seeks to widen Iraq force

 

The United States and Britain are considering proposals to encourage

more nations to provide troops to Iraq following the bombing of the

UN building in Baghdad on Tuesday, diplomats have said.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is meeting US Secretary of State

Colin Powell in New York on Thursday to discuss the proposals and a

possible new Security Council resolution, they say.

 

Until now, nations like France, Germany, India and Pakistan have

been unwilling to contribute troops to an operation being run by the

occupying powers - the United States and Britain.

 

The death toll from Tuesday's truck bomb attack has risen to 23,

after another three bodies were hauled from the ruins of the

building on Thursday. The UN special representative for Iraq, Sergio

Vieira de Mello, was among the dead.

 

Baghdad, IRAQ