State of emergency in Palestine
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has criticised the decision taken by President Mahmoud Abbas, the leading Fatah politician, to dismiss Haniya and declare a state of emergency on Thursday, as "hasty". Haniya, the leading Hamas member, has said that the ‘unity government' will continue to function. It is not clear, however, how the party will be able to finance government, nor whether they will be able to maintain influence in the West Bank.
Israel, the US and EU countries, on the other hand, are initiating the easing of sanctions in the West Bank, in order to bolster the emergency government of Abbas. Meanwhile, Egypt has withdrawn its envoys in Gaza in protest at the Hamas takeover.
Abbas has appointed independent lawmaker Salam Fayyad as prime minister in the emergency government. Fayyad was finance minister in the unity government.
Having seized several senior officials, including commanders of the National Security Force and the Presidential Guard, Hamas have granted clemency to all Fatah members and security forces, a spokesperson for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades - the group's military wing - announced on Friday.
Eighteen year-old Lina al-Sharif, a student in Gaza City, fears the emergence of two regions: Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank. Yet Palestinians "want one state, one region, one Palestine!", says Lina in an interview with al-Jazeera.
Hamas vow to secure release of BBC journalist
Hamas promised on Friday to secure the release of kidnapped British journalist Alan Johnston, who was abducted in Gaza three months ago.
Barak appointed defence minister
The Israeli cabinet has approved the appointment of Ehud Barak as defence minister, with the Knesset expected to vote in favour of the move on Monday. The shake-up was initiated by Barak himself, who insisted that in the wake of violence in the Gaza Strip, it was prudent that he, rather than outgoing Labor Minister Amir Peretz, be appointed to the position, in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has said that were a proposed multinational force to be deployed along the Philadelphi corridor, the strip of land along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, then it must be mandated to use force against militants, who use tunnels in the area to transfer weapons into Palestine. Monitors will not suffice, he says.
Jemaah Islamiyah true ‘leader' arrested
Indonesian police have netted the ‘real' head of Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Long thought to be JI military chief Abu Dujana, Indonesia's most wanted person, upon interrogating Dujana police learnt that an individual called Zarkasih in fact leads the Islamist militant group. Zarkasih was arrested on the island of Java hours after police detained Dujana, on Saturday. Six other senior militants have also been detained.
JI supporters are accused of the 2002 Bali bombing, attacks on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in 2003 and Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004, as well as the triple suicide bombings of restaurants in Bali in 2005.
Reformed JI leader Nasir Abbas describes the arrest of Dujana as a severe blow to the group. "The JI mainstream is now finished", he exclaims. JI splinter groups may still pose a considerable threat to Indonesia, however, while a number of jihadis involved in JI attacks remain at large.
Troop surge complete in Iraq
United States military spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, announced on Friday that the ‘surge' of around 28,000 extra troops being deployed in Iraq has been completed. This bolstering is designed to stem sectarian violence in the troubled country, and to re-establish security there. The full effect of their arrival may, however, not be felt, he cautioned, for several months. Personnel, after all, will take time to acclimatise to "their battle space and get to know their counterparts". A total of 160,000 US troops now reside in Iraq.
Five more US soldiers have died in Iraq, the US military announced on Friday.
US Democrat majority leader, Senator Harry Reid, has criticised the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace for his failure in being "as candid as he should have been about the conduct and progress" in Iraq. He has demanded that Congress be given a "fair, honest and frank" report about conditions there, so that they might make the best possible decisions.
New generation of jihadis inhabit Lebanese camps
Since 1948, when they fled or were expelled from their lands to make way for the Israeli state, Palestinians have been residing as refugees in camps throughout Lebanon. Abdul-Ahad visits Ain al-Hilweh, the largest of these camps, to investigate the ascendance of the jihadi youth, at war with the Lebanese security forces.
Six Lebanese soldiers have been killed by a booby trap set by Fatah al-Islam fighters at the Palestinian Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon, where the army has been attempting to root-out Islamist militants for nearly four weeks.
"First obstacle" to N. Korea denuclearisation removed
The transfer of $20m from Macau-based Banco Delta Asia on Thursday has removed the "first obstacle" to North Korean denuclearisation, South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator has said. With the confirmation of having received the funds, focus must turn to initiating the provisos of the six-nation 13 February agreement, he said, hitherto reliant on the release of said funds according to Pyongyang.
Iran has announced that it favours "dialogue and negotiations, without preconditions", in discussing its uranium enrichment activities, Tehran's permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told the UN nuclear watchdog on Thursday. Yet, UN Security Council resolutions necessitate the suspension of enrichment prior to further negotiation. Tehran has said that it will consider diminished engagement with the IAEA were the UN to introduce further sanctions against Iran, as favoured by the US.
Democratic "downsliding" among EU members
US-based pro-democracy group Freedom House have noticed worrying trends in progress toward democracy in several Central European states. Poland and Hungary, for instance, both members of the European Union (EU) as well as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), have shown signs of "downsliding" in the ‘Nations in Transit' report, which reviews democratic standards in twenty-nine countries and territories in the former Soviet sphere.
Venezuela set to sign Russian submarine deal
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is expected to sign a deal with Moscow to secure the sale of five Russian Project 636 diesel submarines in a £500m deal, along with a further four Project 637 Amur submarines at a later date. Last year, he secured 24 Russian Sukhoi-30 two-seater attack aircraft, 34 helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikovs in a deal purported to be worth £1.9bn. Venezuela is now the world's largest purchaser of Russian military hardware after Algeria.
A Russian military court has convicted four army officers with the killing of six unarmed civilians in Chechnya in January 2002. The bodies of the five victims were burnt to cover up the killings. Russia's Supreme Court overturned an earlier acquittal of the men, which had ruled that the suspects had merely been following orders.
Civilians killed amid violence in Somalia
Two children have been killed by a remote-controlled landmine detonated near a UN compound in southern Mogadishu. Hours earlier, four civilians died when a grenade was thrown amongst a crowd watching a film in the south-central town of Baidoa.
Soldiers killed in Thailand ambush
Seven soldiers have been killed in southern Thailand in a bomb and gun attack. Three Muslim government workers were shot dead elsewhere in the region.
