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
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 —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat