Free Syrian Army abandons Annan's peace plan – report

The bodies of people whom anti-government protesters say were killed by government security forces lie on the ground in Huola (REUTERS/Shaam News Network/Handout)

Source: Russia Today

The Free Syrian Army has declared that it will no longer honor the UN-brokered ceasefire unless the Security Council takes urgent steps to protect civilians. Meanwhile, UN monitors have arrived in Houla to investigate a recent massacre.

“We announce that unless the UN Security Council takes urgent steps for the protection of civilians, Annan's plan is going to go to hell," a statement by the FSA said, as cited by AFP.

The announcement comes after the deadliest act of violence since the implementation of the UN peace plan in Syria.

At least 90 people, including dozens of children, were killed in the city of Houla on Friday night. Some reports put the number of dead at more than 110, saying that at least 50 of them were children.

A team of UN observers that arrived in Houla to investigate the killings have confirmed at least 90 casualties, including 32 children under the age of 10 and dozens of women. UN mission head Maj-Gen Robert Mood said the killing in Houla was "indiscriminate and unforgivable," and called on both government forces and the opposition to immediately stop the violence “in all its forms.”

Initially the massacre was reported by opposition activists, including the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who claimed that the city was shelled by government forces during an anti-regime demonstration. Reports also suggested that troops entered the city and butchered dozens of people.

Syrian state TV meanwhile reported that the attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups who exterminated several families in the Homs province.

They also burned several houses in order to push blame on the army, SANA news reported.

So far, there were no official statements blaming any particular party for the deadly attack.

Several amateur videos posted on YouTube show dozens of bodies, including many children, crippled by shrapnel. The videos were widely distributed by the media, but the source of the footage could not be independently verified.

International condemnation

Although there was no confirmation of the Syrian government's involvement in the attack, international media and world leaders rushed to accuse the Assad regime of being behind the bloodshed.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was the first to condemn the massacre, saying that "with these new crimes, this murderous regime pushes Syria further into horror and threatens regional stability." He also urged the Friends of Syria working group to immediately arrange a meeting on the issue in Paris.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague meanwhile is calling for an urgent session of the UN Security Council. "There are credible and horrific reports that a large number of civilians have been massacred at the hands of Syrian forces in the town of Houla, including children," Hague said as cited by the BBC.

The Arab League also condemned the attack, with Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi urging the UN to take immediate steps to stop the killings being perpetrated by both armed gangs and army soldiers in Syria.

On May 25, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon released a report blaming the Assad government for the majority of the crimes in Syria, the magnitude of which he said have reached an “unacceptable level.” He added, however, that “significant parts of some cities appear to be under the de facto control of opposition elements,'' calling on all opposition members to also stop the violence and respect human rights

REUTERS/Shaam News Network/Handout

'US liable for DU birth defects in Iraq'

Children at Fallujah General Hospital (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158524.html

The US must be accountable for the rising number of cancer rates and birth defects reportedly linked with America's use of depleted uranium in the Iraq war, analysts say.

“I think the Iraqi government should take the responsibility and go to an international court against the American forces to take the responsibility in this case. This is the best solution for the Iraqi victims,” Ali al-Nashmi, an Iraqi political analyst, told Press TV in an interview on Monday.

He made a reference to the US military's attack on the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004 and said that the American forces need to compensate for the damage inflicted on civilians.

US forces besieged and bombarded Fallujah, 30 miles (48 km) west of Baghdad, in April 2004 after four elements of the notorious American security firm Blackwater/Xe were killed in the town.

The US military stormed Fallujah in November that year using heavy artillery and aerial bombing. They later admitted to having used white phosphorus and other munitions.

The fallujah attack left trails of deaths and destruction with many bizarre birth defects and other congenital deformities that raised questions about the US deployment of radioactive material.

According to a study published in July 2010, infant mortality rates, cancer and leukemia cases in the Iraqi city exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs dropped by the US on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the closing days of World War II in 1945.

“Now, what is actually needed to get the Americans to admit that and to come clean about it is for the Iraqi government to launch a comprehensive, rigorous investigation, a formal one and official one, into what happened and the usage of those weapons and to document all those major defects that have happened, so that we can have a formal case. Because those people, who are still suffering, deserve compensations,” Zayd al-Isa, an expert on Iraqi affairs said in a Monday interview with Press TV.

“Now the Americans are basically shying away from admitting or confessing, because they know that this would open the flood gates for foreigners to ask for compensation, particularly those Iraqis who suffer at their hands, those innocent civilians. Also the American soldiers, who basically have repeatedly joined the war twice in Iraq, will ask for compensation from the American government,” he added.

Iraqi doctors in Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the US attack on Fallujah, the British daily The Independent wrote upon the release of the recent study by a number of physicians including Dr. Chris Busby, a professor at the University of Ulster in the UK.

According to the survey, the Iraqi doctors' claims have been supported by a four-fold increase in all cancers and a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer in children under 14 years old.

Professor Busby said it is difficult to pin down the exact cause of the cancers and birth defects, adding that "to produce an effect like this, some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred in 2004 when the attacks happened."

The study, entitled "Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009," confirmed the Iraqi citizens' account of a sharp rise in cancer and congenital birth defects.

Researchers found a 38-fold increase in leukemia, a ten-fold increase in female breast cancer and significant increases in lymphoma and brain tumors in adults. At Hiroshima survivors showed a 17-fold increase in leukemia, but in Fallujah, Busby says, what is striking is not only the greater prevalence of cancer but the speed with which it was affecting people.

Of particular significance was the finding that the sex ratio between newborn boys and girls had changed. In a normal population this is 1,050 boys born to 1,000 girls, but for those born from 2005 there was an 18 per cent drop in male births, so the ratio was 850 males to 1,000 females. The sex-ratio is an indicator of genetic damage that affects boys more than girls. A similar change in the sex-ratio was discovered after Hiroshima.

The use of uranium ammunition is widely controversial because of potential long term health effects. The United States and Britain used up to 2,000 tons of this type of ammunition during the Iraq war.

Disease threatens 6 million Pakistani children

A flood-affected Pakistani child


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=138503§ionid=351020401


Aid agencies warn that at least six million children are at risk of diarrheal diseases, malnutrition and pneumonia following the devastating floods in Pakistan.

Save the Children's spokesman in Islamabad, Mohammed Qazilbash, said outbreaks of cholera and malaria are the biggest concern.

''In southern Punjab and Sindh, there are vast numbers of people living right along the water, some in makeshift houses with very poor hygiene and sanitation," he added.

''Children are drinking, washing in and going to the toilet in the same river water. If this sanitation crisis is not tackled now, in six months' time, millions and millions of children will be suffering potentially deadly diarrhea and other diseases," Qazilbash said.

As the figures continue to rise, UNICEF says that 6 million children have been affected by the floods in Pakistan with some 2.7 million children in need of urgent, lifesaving assistance.

"This is the biggest natural disaster to hit Pakistan and this region in living memory, bigger than the Tsunami or the earthquake, with millions of children and women struggling to survive in dire conditions," the United Nations International Children's Fund said earlier this week.

Meanwhile, doctors working in northern areas of Punjab and the Swat Valley have reported that children living in displacement camps have been affected by outbreaks of measles.

The head of emergencies for the British aid agency, World Vision, Mark Bulpitt, said, "as we continue to reach those most affected by this flood, we must also focus on the longer-term recovery, prioritizing livelihoods and education to ensure more of Pakistan's children do not become victims of child labor."

“Schools have been washed away so education will need to be prioritized, houses and health centers are unusable and then there is the emotional fallout of living through a disaster as devastating as this one," Bulpitt added.

Pakistan's deadliest floods in decades have killed more than 1,500 people and exhausted government efforts to provide aid to the flood-ravaged regions.

Israel to deport 400 children

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137073&sectionid=351020202


The Israeli Parliament (Knesset) approves the deportation of 400 children and their families whom Tel Aviv considers a "tangible threat" to Israel.

Those affected by the new measure fail to meet the regime's criteria of speaking Hebrew and having lived in Israel for more than five years, AFP reported on Sunday.

They have been given only 21 days to return to their homelands.

The motion passed 13 to 10 after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to table an earlier proposal, which he said "is much more harsh and dramatic," Ynetnews reported.

The Israeli Children organization warned that the decision targets kindergarten kids and other children, who "will fail to meet impossible bureaucratic demands."

The premier, however, said "illegal" immigration was a "tangible threat to the Jewish and democratic character" of Israel, the agency added.

Letters from Spanish children draw Israeli ire

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119765&sectionid=351020202


Tel Aviv is seriously angered by letters from Spanish children urging Israel to 'stop killing Palestinians' and has accused Madrid of favoring 'anti-Semitism' in schools.

Israel expressed 'distress' on Sunday after its embassy in Madrid was flooded with hundreds of letters from schoolchildren protesting Tel Aviv's conduct toward the Palestinians.

One letter directed at Israel's envoy in Madrid, Rafael Shotz, asked, "How many Palestinians have you murdered today?"

"Mr. Ambassador, you should think about not killing Palestinian children and the elderly. I don't know if it doesn't bother you, having to murder people. You should leave Palestine," read another.

Officials within Israel's Foreign Ministry said the handwriting appears typical of children six to nine years of age and criticized Spanish authorities for condoning activities by "anti-Semitic and anti-Israel individuals who gain permission to operate within schools."

The Israelis were, moreover, perplexed by the different sources of the profuse letters, saying that "it seems as though whoever was doing this was moving from school to school," Haaretz reported.

Despite an earlier decision to summon Spain's Ambassador to Israel Alvaro Iranzo, the Israeli Foreign Ministry opted instead to call the official by telephone on Sunday to complain about the issue.

"Israel is greatly distressed," Naor Gilon, foreign ministry deputy director for Europe, told Iranzo. However, the Spanish side argued that the letters were not part of any Spanish Education Ministry program, but the initiative by private citizens.

Israel has sealed all border crossings to Gaza Strip for years, in a move widely condemned as a collective punishment of Palestinians. The blockade, tightened since 2007, exerts a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the populated coastal enclave which is home to some 1.5 million Palestinians.

Turning a deaf ear to calls for easing the siege, Israel launched three weeks of relentless airstrikes and ground incursions into the Gaza Strip on the last days of 2008, leaving well over 1400 people — mainly women and children — killed.

Bomb explosion injures three in south Lebanon

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116040§ionid=351020203


Three people, including two children waiting for their school bus, have been injured in a bomb blast that struck Kfar Fila in southern Lebanon.

Naharnet news website cited unnamed security officials in reporting that that blast took place at 7:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) Wednesday at the entrance to a three-storey building.

The security sources identified one of the tenants in the building as Mohammed Zreik, believed to be a Hezbollah official.

Two of Zreik's children — Hasan, 7 and Diala, 11 — were among the wounded. The third casualty was identified as Zainab Hazimeh, 15, Naharnet added.

The elder of the two youngsters injured lost a leg in the blast while the other suffered slight wounds to his face, AFP later reported, quoting hospital officials in the nearby town of Nabatiyeh.

It was not immediately clear whether the owner of the building, identified as Hussein Saeed Hamdan, was the target of the bombing or if he was in the building when the bomb went off.

Kfar Fila is a village located 15 kilometers (10 miles) east of the port city of Sidon, and is viewed as one of the bases for the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement.