EDITORIAL: The Gaza quagmire

Since Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, and violently seized power in Gaza a year later, Israel has been seeking to expedite the Islamist group's demise without resorting to an all-out effort at military victory. The hope is that Hamas will continue to be denied international legitimacy and will gradually lose its capacity to run Gaza, and that an organization overtly committed to Israel's destruction will be replaced by more moderate leadership.

Hence the Israeli government chose not to order the IDF to oust Hamas from Gaza during Operation Cast Lead a year ago, and is instead maintaining an economic blockade on the Strip.

Now, on its side of the border, Egypt is tightening its siege on Hamas, constructing an underground barrier that aims to cut off the arms- and goods-smuggling tunnels that serve as a lifeline for the Hamas quasi-state.

Plainly, Hamas is worried by the potential impact on its capacity to proceed with its campaign of jihad against Israel, and its capacity to meet the needs of the Gaza populace. It orchestrated violent protests at the border earlier this month, including a gunfight in which an Egyptian soldier was killed, betraying the depth of its concern.

But despite protests against the Egyptian barrier elsewhere in the region too, Egypt has remained unmoved. Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a perennial threat to the Mubarak government, and Cairo has evidently decided that Hamas's smuggling activities and the threat of increased Hamas influence in the Sinai Peninsula represent a challenge to Egyptian sovereignty.

At this point, there are few signs that the Hamas regime in Gaza is truly shaking. Indeed, Hamas proved all-too capable of restoring its rule even in the aftermath of the devastating impact of Cast Lead.

But were Hamas to begin to lose its grip, it is far from clear that the joint Israeli and Egyptian hope, of the return of secular Fatah rule to Gaza, enabling a new stability, is well-founded.

AMONG THE alternative Gazasuccession scenarios, indeed, is the prospect of the flourishing of the Al-Qaida-inspired global jihadi camp.

This camp has been trying to establish a foothold in Gaza for years, so far with only limited success. It learned the hard way last year that its presence may be tolerated by Hamas only if it does not pose an open challenge.

Thus, when Sheikh Abdel-Latif Moussa used a Friday afternoon sermon at his Rafah mosque last August to declare southern Gaza to be an Islamic emirate - a first step in the process toward the al-Qaida goal of an Islamic caliphate - the Hamas response was brutal. Hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed the mosque, firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the building, killing or injuring nearly everyone inside.

Global jihadis in Gaza have been licking their wounds ever since, trying to rebuild their forces without aggravating Hamas again.

According to one recent study, they have also attempted to solicit the support and recognition of the "official" al-Qaida network of Osama bin Laden.

The study, carried out by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and co-authored by former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) deputy director-general Yoram Cohen, said al-Qaida is proving reluctant to provide the would-be holy warriors in Gaza with its seal of approval… for the time being.

Although al-Qaida has long chastised Hamas for failing to look beyond Israel and link up with bin Laden's global war, it is also skeptical over the survivability and ideological commitment of global jihadis in Gaza, the study said. The jihadis remain hopeful, however, and claim to be plotting large-scale attacks in a bid to earn al-Qaida's approval.

Al-Qaida has proven its ability to move into the vacuum left behind by failed states, and convert territories with no sovereignty into bases for global jihad. For now, Hamasretains a firm grip on Gaza, and the prospect of its replacement by an even more radical entity, made up of a coalition of al-Qaida-affiliated organizations dedicated to bin Laden's global war, is remote.

But the ambition is certainly there. And the existence of so dark a scenario only underlines the escalated complexity of attempting to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when the Palestinian people are divided into two distinct, mutually hostile, geographic and political entities.

The Jerusalem Post

US troops use combat rifles bearing Bible verses

Combat rifle sights used by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan carry references to Bible verses, stoking concerns about whether the inscriptions break a government rule that bars proselytising by American troops.

Military officials said the citations do not violate the ban and they will not stop using the telescoping sights, which allow troops to pinpoint the enemy day or night.

The contractor that makes the equipment, Trijicon, said the US military has been a customer since 1995 and the company has never received any complaints about the Scripture citations.

"We don't publicise this," Tom Munson, Trijicon's director of sales and marketing, said in an interview. "It's not something we make a big deal out of. But when asked, we say, 'Yes, it's there"'.

The inscriptions are subtle and appear in raised lettering at the end of the stock number. Markings on the Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, which is standard issue to US special operations forces, include "JN8:12," a reference to John 8:12: "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life"'.

The Trijicon Reflex sight is stamped with 2COR4:6, a reference to part of the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness', made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ".

The US Defence Department is a major customer of Trijicon's. In 2009 alone, the Marine Corps signed deals worth $US66 million ($A71.24 million) for the company's products. Trijicon's scopes and optical devices for guns range in cost from a few hundred dollars to $US13,000 ($A14,032), according to the company's website.

Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, says the biblically inscribed sights could give the Taliban and other enemy forces a propaganda tool: that American troops are Christian crusaders invading Muslim countries.

"I don't have to wonder for a nanosecond how the American public would react if citations from the Koran were being inscribed onto these US armed forces gun sights instead of New Testament citations," Weinstein said. The foundation is a nonprofit watchdog group opposed to religious favouritism within the military.

A spokesman for US Central Command, which manages military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the inscribed sights do not violate the ban on proselytising because there is no effort to distribute the equipment beyond the US troops who use them.

Captain Geraldine Carey, a Marine Corps spokeswoman, said on Tuesday in an emailed statement that "we are aware of the issue and are concerned with how this may be perceived". Captain Carey said Marine Corps acquisition officials plan to meet with Trijicon to discuss future purchases of the company's sights. The statement did not say what the nature of those discussions would be.

The Army did not respond to an email requesting comment.

AP

The Age

Japan Airlines files for bankruptcy protection, to be delisted next month

TOKYO, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Japan's top carrier, Japan Airlines Corporation (JAL), formally filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, paving the way for state-led restructuring.

JAL filed for bankruptcy protection with the Tokyo District Court, with its liabilities, including those of group firms totaling 2.32 trillion yen (25.8 billion U.S. dollars), the largest ever loss by a Japanese nonfinancial business.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange said JAL shares will be delisted from its First Section from Feb. 20, through 100 percent equity reduction. Shares in the carrier dropped to a record low of 3 yen at one point during trade on Tuesday.

The Japanese government said in a statement it will seek "the understanding and cooperation of foreign governments" to enable JAL to continue its flight operations and implement its rehabilitation program.

Asia's largest carrier in terms of revenue will continue its operations under the sponsored support of the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation of Japan (ETIC), who will seek through wholesale restructuring procedures, to free itself from the burdening constraints of its crippling debt.

The rehabilitation plan will involve the ETIC injecting 300 billion yen (3.3 billion U.S. dollars) of fresh funds into the struggling carrier and creditor banks and other financial institutions have been asked to waive about 350 billion yen in liabilities to help eat away at JAL's debt.

Additionally the Japanese government is preparing at least 900 billion yen in new equity and credit lines to keep the airline operating while in bankruptcy.

According to sources briefed on JAL's financial situation, the financial estimate of the restructuring charges combined with the foreseen operating losses amount to a 265 billion yen loss for the year to March 30, compared with a 51 billion yen marked in the previous year.

The state-led rehabilitation plan is largely expected to slash the number of JAL's subsidiaries by around 50 percent and around 15,700 jobs, roughly 30 percent of its group workforce, will be cut by the business year through March 2013, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

Additionally the firm will dispense with 53 aged, fuel- inefficient 747 liners, in favor of 33 more cost-effective smaller jets and a number of superfluous and domestic and international routes are to be discontinued, in light of falling patronage and rising fuel costs.

JAL President, Haruka Nishimatsu, is to retire his post to the founder of Kyocera Corporation, Kazuo Inamori, well-renown for his entrepreneurial spirit and previous record of turning around stricken organizations. An official announcement on the matter will be made pending confirmation by the turnaround body, sources close to the matter said.

JAL was once seen as a national symbol of Japan's postwar boom, as it transformed a handful of leased planes in 1951 into a nearly 50,000 staff mega-carrier, with a fleet of almost 280 aircraft, but since 2001 the carrier has struck three previous rescue deals with its banks and the government.

The carrier has been hit with irreconcilable issues of safety, including a fatal crash in 1995, as well as failings stemming from government bureaucracy and a flawed corporate structure that allowed for overly-generous pensions and benefits for its employees.

The Japanese government, however, is fully backing JAL's restructuring plans and is urging the public to continue their support of the carrier, claiming that the disruptions will be minimal.

"What's most important is that all people who are working (for the airline) devote all their energies toward its restructuring," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters after the company filed for bankruptcy protection.

"On that premise, the government will support their efforts" so that people can fly on a JAL plane whenever they wish to do so, the premier said.

"The airline business is crucial for people's lives as well as economic activities. We'll strive to stave off any problems that may hamper JAL's operation," said Masayuki Naoshima, Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, to the press on Tuesday.

Seiji Maehara, Japan's Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister, added that, "the reconstruction must ensure that JAL will continue its 'safe operation', the government is ready to announce its full support for the airline after the ETIC formally decides to rescue JAL". (1 U.S. dollar = 90.45 Japanese yen)

China View

Yanukovych, Tymoshenko go into Ukraine election runoff Feb. 7

Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko face a February 7 runoff in Ukraine's presidential polls after neither of them was able to secure victory in the first round of voting.

With 100% of the ballots counted, Yanukovych garnered 35.32% and Tymoshenko took 25.05%.

Ex-National Bank head Serhiy Tyhypko gained 13.06%. He was followed by ex-parliamentary speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk with 6.96% and incumbent president Viktor Yushchenko with 5.45%. A total of 2.2% of voters voted for "none of the above".

"This is preliminary information," deputy Central Election Commission chairman Andrey Magera said, adding that the official results would be made available later.

Turnout was 66.7%, sharply down from the 75% of the 2004 polls.

Both Yanukovych and Tymoshenko have indicated a desire to better relations with Moscow, soured in recent years over Kiev's NATO bid, gas disputes, and a host of other issues.

In line with Ukraine's legislation, a runoff takes place if none of the candidates is able to gain 50% plus one vote in the first round.

KIEV, January 19

RIA Novosti

The top 20 Brazilian football stars in Europe!

Where would European football be without the Brazilians?

A top club can hardly exist without some magic skills from the country with the record number of World Cup wins.

And that was a good enough reason for French sport portal ‘sambafoot.com’ to launch an internet poll to find the continent's best Brazilians.

There was a surprising result - the best exponent of the Samba beat is not one of the world famous stars like Kaka, Ronaldinho, Robinho or Pato.

Instead it's Luis Fabiano (29)!

Nearly 21 per cent of the votes went to the international striker who plays for Sevilla FC, where he has scored eight goals in ten La Liga games this season.

The list of the top 20 show that the best Brazilian players are in Spain and Italy. Three stars from the Bundesliga also belong with the best in the opinion of the voters...

Highest was Wolfsburg’s Grafite (30) at fifth place with 4.86 per cent of the vote. The well-built forward didn't have a great first half of the season but is still in credit with fans following his heroics in 2008/09, where he scored 28 goals in leading the team to their first title.

Werder Bremen centre back Naldo (27) came ninth (3.14 per cent) for his sturdy defending and ability to score goals, with eight already this season in all competitions.

After a strong first half of the season, the old master Zé Roberto (35) - now at Hamburg - squeezed onto the list in 19th (0.73 per cent).

Who are the best Brazilians in Europe? Click through the above gallery of world-class players...

Bild

Unseen 'black eye' Freud self-portrait on sale

By Jerome Taylor

They say you have to suffer for your art. Which might explain why Lucian Freud went straight to the studio when he was punched by an irritated taxi driver - but not for a lie down to recover.

A newly discovered self-portrait of Britain’s most famous – and bankable – living artist is going on sale next month which shows the artist sporting a black eye. Legend has it that the notoriously reclusive painter, widely considered to be Britain’s best living artist, decided to use his run-in with an angry taxi driver to compose an unusual self-portrait rather than wallow over an altercation that left him noticeably worse off than his adversary.

The composition begins just above the artist’s top lip and ends at a tousle of messy brown hair. But it is the angry swelling around Freud’s left eye that makes the portrait so unusual. It is only the third time a self-portrait of Freud, now 87, has become available through an auction and it is expected to fetch between £3m and £4m when Sotheby’s sells it next month.

“It’s a very unusual painting,” said Oliver Barker, a contemporary art specialist at Sotheby’s. “The person who owns this painting used to sit regularly for Lucian Freud throughout the 1970s. He turned up one day for a sitting to find the artist flustered and angry because he had just been punched by a taxi driver. Lucian cancelled the man’s sitting because he wanted to immediately get to work on a self-portrait”. The painter did not manage to land a punch on the taxi driver, according to the owner.

Georgina Adams, market editor-at-large for the Arts Newspaper, said she believed the seller, whose identity is being kept a secret, will have little problem reaching the estimated sale price. “I think it will fetch a good price,” she said. “If you collect the work of a particular artist acquiring a good self-portrait would add enormously to that collection. Despite the economic climate, really good contemporary art is still selling well”.

In recent years Freud’s work has been increasingly sought after by collectors across the globe, particularly billionaires in Russia and the Middle East who see the acquisition of in-demand contemporary artwork as a fine blue-chip investment.

In May 2008 the Freud masterpiece “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping”, which portrayed a large woman sleeping naked on a sofa, broke the record for the most expensive painting by a living artist when it was bought by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovitch for $33m.

Although the recession has made the art market a less predictable place, Freuds come up so rarely that they almost always generate intense interest. Sources in the art world say Freud paintings are currently selling privately for up to £10m each.

The portrait of Freud with a black eye will inevitably draw comparisons to other famous self-portraits of injured artists such as Van Gogh’s “Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear” and “Self Portrait with Injured Eye” by Freud’s firm friend and fellow Colony Club drinker Francis Bacon.

In public Freud is notoriously reclusive but in comments he made once about his friendship with Bacon he remarked how easily he found himself in the middle of fist fights. “I used to have a lot of fights,” he recalled. “It wasn’t because I liked fighting, it was really just that people said things to me which I felt the reply was to hit them. If Francis was there he’d say, ‘Don’t you think you ought to charm them?’”

But Georgina Adams believes prospective buyers will be more interested in the quality of the brushstrokes than the unusual story behind the painting's composition. “It’s a self-portrait, it’s never been seen before and Freuds don’t come onto the market very often,” she said. “That’s what will make the painting sell, not the black eye”.

The Independent

Fort Bragg Soldiers continue humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti

By Reginald Rogers

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (Jan. 18, 2010) -- As of Monday, Fort Bragg Soldiers have distributed more than 3,600 gallons of bottled water, 14,400 meals, adding to the combined total of 54,738 pounds of supplies and equipment to Haitian citizens in the wake of last week's catastrophic earthquake, which has brought massive destruction and death to the small island country.

According to Fort Bragg officials, the post has deployed 896 Soldiers, including those from the XVIII Airborne Corps, 82nd Airborne Division and other Fort Bragg units that are now attached to the corps. Their mission in Haiti is to provide humanitarian support to the country's surviving population, most of which have been injured or affected by the earthquake in some way.

Fort Bragg is expected to deploy as many as 3,000 Soldiers to the ravaged country, in which thousands of citizens are still missing or feared dead.

"Our paratroopers and Soldiers are the greatest the world has ever known," said Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, commanding general of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg. "But it is also important to acknowledge that it is not just the Soldiers that make this post work and that make this JTF-Haiti support operation happen. We are blessed by a tremendous civilian staff in both the garrison command, and the Mission Support Element which augment the military".

Helmick also acknowledged the role that Pope Air Force Base has played in the massive relief efforts. It is the incredible relationship between Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base has allowed the XVIII Airborne Corps and the 82nd Airborne Division to deploy personnel, vehicles and supplies to assist the Haitian people. Equipment and personnel were selected to best meet the needs, and priorities, set by the Joint Task Force - Haiti commander.

"Our Air Force brothers at Pope are remarkable ... and honestly, we could not do this without all of them," Helmick said. "We work very closely and while we wear different uniforms, we are one team".

Thursday's deployment included Soldiers from the 73rd Cavalry Squadron, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. Although the initial deployment was on short notice, it was business as usual, according to some of the unit's members.

"It's what we're trained to do, help people," explained Sgt. Charles Tisdale, also of Troop B, 1st Squadron, 73rd Cav., who's a native of San Diego, Calif. "It's always good to help anybody that we can".

Others echoed that it was an opportunity to ease the suffering cause by the quake, which was rated a 7.0 on the Richter scale.

"I think it's a great opportunity to go down there and do our part, using some of the resources that we have in helping those people out," said Abilene, Texas native Sgt. Nicholas Moore, of Troop B. "They really need it and I feel pretty honored that we get to do that".

According to the unit's first sergeant, 1st Sgt. Michael J. Ames, the unit's humanitarian mission in Haiti is as important as any of its previous combat missions. He said his unit is up to the challenge.

"It's extremely important for us to be the first ones from division to go down there," Ames said. "To be able to provide assistance, aid or security, whatever needs to be done down there, is extremely important to us".

"We train for this and we prepare for this," added Ames, who hails from Moline, Kan. "This is not necessarily what we do in wartime, but it's something that we know we'll face someday. We're here to provide aid and assistance in any way that we can."

Leading the Fort Bragg contingency is Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Mike Foster, who said he is also sure his unit's preparation for the mission.

"We are certainly ready for what we're going to have to do. We were on a major training exercise yesterday that was supposed to go until the end of the month," he explained. "We got called out of the field and we've really been sitting around for the last 24 hours waiting for aircraft to go".

Foster's brigade is currently the unit that is overall responsible for the Army's global response force. He said it requires them to be ready to deploy on notice for any requirement that the Army feels is necessary.

"We're on a constant state of readiness for that and all of that preparation has made it a very easy transition to be ready today," he said.

He said the Soldiers who departed Thursday would be responsible for providing security.

"That security, I think, will initially focus around the airfield in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but that could change over time," Foster explained. "The overall goal is humanitarian relief".

He said his unit was up to the challenge, despite returning from a deployment to Iraq less than a year ago.

"I think that's one of the great thing about paratroopers," Foster said.

"When you give a well-trained, well-lead organization a task and purpose and you explain to them what the end state is of what you're trying to accomplish, they typically seem to adjust and adapt to that. I think our guys are well suited to do that."

"We're asking them to achieve things and produce results," he added. "Where and what those results really is not the main focus".

On Thursday, more than 110 Soldiers boarded a C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft with supplies and equipment Thursday, as part of the lead element of Fort Bragg paratroopers en route to Haiti to assist in the efforts.

The Soldiers, most of which are assigned to Troop B, 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, waited anxiously at Pope Air Force Base's Green Ramp early Thursday, before boarding the plane and beginning their mission.

U.S. Army

'Love Story' author Erich Segal dies at 72

Associated Press

LONDON - Erich Segal, the author of the hugely popular novel "Love Story," has died of a heart attack, his daughter said today. He was 72.

Francesca Segal said her father died Sunday at his home in London. She said he had suffered from Parkinson's Disease --a neurological condition that affects movement -- for 25 years. His funeral was held in London on Tuesday, she said.

Segal was a Yale classics professor when he gained nationwide fame for the book "Love Story" about a young couple who fall in love, marry and discover she is dying of cancer.

The book was turned into a hit film in 1970, starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw. It gained seven Oscar nominations -- including one for Segal for writing the screenplay, as well as for best picture, best director and best actor and actress (O'Neal and MacGraw.) It won one Oscar, for best music.

Its most famous line -- "Love means never having to say you're sorry" -- became a national catch phrase.

Segal's daughter said that her father fought hard again Parkinson's Disease.

"That he fought to breathe, fought to live, every second of the last thirty years of illness with such mind-blowing obduracy, is a testament to the core of who he was -- a blind obsessionality that saw him pursue his teaching, his writing, his running and my mother, with just the same tenacity. He was the most dogged man any of us will ever know," she said in a eulogy she read at his funeral and e-mailed to the AP.

Segal was an honorary fellow of Wolfson College at Oxford University.

He is survived by his wife, Karen James, and daughters Francesca, 29, and Miranda, 20.

Los Angeles Times