A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in the Israeli port city of Haifa yesterday, killing at least 12 people, as Israel tightened its siege on Yasser Arafat's headquarters.
The blast, the fourth suicide attack since the Jewish Passover holiday began last Wednesday, tore a gaping hole in the roof of a restaurant frequented by both Jews and Arabs soon after Pope John Paul had appealed for peace in his Easter Sunday address.
The Magen David Adom emergency rescue service said 12 people were killed and about two dozen wounded. Government spokesman David Baker said Israel would leave no stone unturned to "stop this campaign of terror against us."
Israeli troops encircling Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah had earlier traded fire with the Palestinian president's guards, ignoring a UN call to end the siege and the Pope's Easter appeal for peace.
"It seems that war has been declared on peace," the Pope said in his Easter Sunday message to the world, calling for an end to the "dramatic spiral of abuse of power and killings that bloody the Holy Land."
The UN Security Council urged Israel on Saturday to pull out of Ramallah and other Palestinian cities. The resolution was supported by Israel's key ally, the US, but President George W. Bush later said he understood Israel's actions.
Arafat, his pistol at his side in a building metres away from the shooting, has said he would rather die than surrender.
Palestinian officials said Israel was trying to storm the building where Arafat was holed up on the third day of the siege, intended to isolate the Palestinian leader and end a wave of suicide attacks. Israel denied trying to enter the building.
Witnesses said at least two people were killed and six of Arafat's guards wounded in the latest fighting in Ramallah, which follows 18 months of tit-for-tat violence since Palestinians rose up against Israeli occupation.
Israeli soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, arresting at least 25 young men who were taken away with their hands tied behind their backs.
Smashed cars were strewn across the city, pavements were chewed up and at least 50 tanks had taken up positions in the center of Ramallah, 15km north of Jerusalem. Troops fired at water tanks and water gushed out.
The army cut off water and electricity to Arafat's compound but said on Saturday it had let Palestinian ambulances deliver food, bottled water and candles.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS