Fears of a possible ground invasion intensified among Gazans last night. Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system knocked out a third rocket launched on Tel Aviv in as many days, and Jerusalem ramped up its rhetoric at home and abroad on the need to deter Hamas.
Earlier Israel had kept up its determined bombardment of Hamas targets for a fourth successive day, destroying the headquarters of the de facto Hamas government, including the office of its Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and flattening a three-storey house in Jabalya identified as being that of the northern commander of the faction's military wing.
ARMED CONFLICT
Fighting erupts in eastern Congo
Fresh fighting has broken out between rebel forces and the internationally-backed Congo military. The UN Security Council demanded an end to foreign support for the rebels, who are moving towards the city of Goma.
Rebel fighters captured the town of Kibumba on Saturday, despite strikes from UN attack helicopters who are assisting the Congolese military.
The fall of Kibumba means rebel forces are closer than they have ever been to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, since a rebellion exploded eight months ago in the country's eastern provinces. The town lies north of Goma.
"Kibumba has fallen into the hands of the M23," said a spokesman for the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in an email.
Thousands protest in Ireland to liberalize abortion laws
The recent death of a woman reportedly denied an abortion has sparked outrage. In Dublin, thousands of marchers demanded liberalization of Ireland's tough – and, some say, unclear – anti-abortion laws.
By Jason Walsh, Correspondent / November 17, 2012
Thousands gathered on the streets of Irish capital Dublin today to demand liberalization ofIreland's stringent anti-abortion laws.
The street protest, the second the city has seen in three days, was called in response to the Oct. 28 death in a Galway hospital of Savita Halappanavar, who was pregnant and reported to the hospital complaining of severe pain. She was reportedly refused an abortion, and died after complications during a miscarriage. Her widower, Praveen, says they was told this was because Ireland was "a Catholic country."
The death has sparked outrage across Ireland — and the world. One headline in an Indian newspaper's online edition accused Ireland of murdering Ms. Halappanavar.
Earlier Israel had kept up its determined bombardment of Hamas targets for a fourth successive day, destroying the headquarters of the de facto Hamas government, including the office of its Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and flattening a three-storey house in Jabalya identified as being that of the northern commander of the faction's military wing.
ARMED CONFLICT
Fighting erupts in eastern Congo
Fresh fighting has broken out between rebel forces and the internationally-backed Congo military. The UN Security Council demanded an end to foreign support for the rebels, who are moving towards the city of Goma.
Rebel fighters captured the town of Kibumba on Saturday, despite strikes from UN attack helicopters who are assisting the Congolese military.
The fall of Kibumba means rebel forces are closer than they have ever been to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, since a rebellion exploded eight months ago in the country's eastern provinces. The town lies north of Goma.
"Kibumba has fallen into the hands of the M23," said a spokesman for the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in an email.
Thousands protest in Ireland to liberalize abortion laws
The recent death of a woman reportedly denied an abortion has sparked outrage. In Dublin, thousands of marchers demanded liberalization of Ireland's tough – and, some say, unclear – anti-abortion laws.
Thousands gathered on the streets of Irish capital Dublin today to demand liberalization ofIreland's stringent anti-abortion laws.
NATO report exposed danger of Afghan 'insider attacks'
A damning report exposing the causes of a surge in “insider attacks” by Afghan troops was suppressed by military commanders, The Telegraph has learnt.
Nato chiefs were warned last year, in a document they commissioned, that the attacks were “part of a growing and systematic threat” that was undermining the war effort.
But the report, from Dr Jeffrey Bordin, an American behavioural scientist, was declared secret, and he was removed from his job and forced to leave Afghanistan.
Since the report was produced, a third of British casualties have been the result of so-called green on blue attacks, with 12 soldiers shot dead by the Afghan police or army in Helmand province this year.
Last weekend Capt Walter Barrie, 41, of The Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Bn The Royal Regiment of Scotland, was the latest to die when he was shot by a member of the Afghan army after a football match following a Remembrance Sunday service.
Militant chief Ocalan wants end to Turkey hunger strike
By Daren Butler and Seyhmus Cakan
ISTANBUL/DIYARBAKIR (Reuters) - Jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan called for an end to a hunger strike by hundreds of his supporters in prisons across Turkey on Saturday, raising hopes of a push to end a decades-old conflict.
The hunger strike by at least 1,700 people to demand an end to Ocalan's isolation is in its 67th day and doctors have said prisoners could soon die. The protest has posed a growing challenge to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and risked fuelling tension in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.
"Today I went to see my brother Abdullah Ocalan face-to-face in Imrali prison," Ocalan's brother Mehmet said in a statement. "He wants me to share immediately with the public his call about the hunger strikes .... This action has achieved its goal. Without any hesitation, they should end the hunger strike."
Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy for almost three decades, has been imprisoned on the small island of Imrali in the Marmara Sea since his capture in 1999.
Does chocolate make you clever?
Eating more chocolate improves a nation's chances of producing Nobel Prize winners - or at least that's what a recent study appears to suggest. But how much chocolate do Nobel laureates eat, and how could any such link be explained?
The study's author, Franz Messerli of Colombia University, started wondering about the power of chocolate after reading that cocoa was good for you.
One paper suggested regular cocoa intake led to improved mental function in elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment, a condition which is often a precursor to dementia, he recalls.
"There is data in rats showing that they live longer and have better cognitive function when they eat chocolate, and even in snails you can show that the snail memory is actually improved," he says.
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