RAMALLAH, West Bank — The radical Islamic group Hamas took control of the Palestinian parliament Saturday during a somber swearing-in ceremony, and legislators from the new majority quickly made clear that they would not abide by signed agreements that recognize Israel’s right to exist. In a speech to the new 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council, the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, staunchly defended past agreements with Israel, including the 1993 Oslo accords that created the Palestinian Authority and legislature that Hamas entered Saturday. Abbas, the Palestinian Authority’s president, called for the immediate renewal of negotiations with the goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, declaring, “There is a Palestinian partner” for such talks. “We, as presidency and government, will continue our commitment to the negotiation process as the sole political, pragmatic and strategic choice through which we reap the fruit of our struggle and sacrifices over the long decades,” Abbas told lawmakers gathered here in the government compound known as the Muqata, as well as those who participated by teleconference from the Gaza Strip. Past agreements with Israel were backed by Abbas’s Fatah party, now a minority for the first time. Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by […]
Changes in glaciers in the world’s largest and highest mountain system may have the most immediate effects on nearly half of the world’s population, a University of Idaho glaciologist said here Thursday. Vladimir Aizen, a UI professor of glaciology, said changes in the flow of freshwater from 100,000 glaciers in the Central Asia Mountain System will affect nearly 2.5 billion people. He spoke at a media briefing organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science during its annual meeting in St. Louis. Rising temperatures are causing dramatic changes in the world’s glaciers, scientists studying ice fields in Greenland, Chile and Asia agreed during the briefing. Aizen said changes in water flow caused by climate change could have dramatic influence on water supplies. Better information is needed about both the record of past climate shifts stretching back 200,000 years recorded in Central Asia’s mountain glaciers, Aizen said. That data can guide future decisions and trillions of dollars of investment to build reservoirs or other means of coping with changing water regimes. Aizen said rising temperatures can be expected to narrow the time between the rivers’ annual peaks of runoff from rain and snow […]
A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far faster than scientists had feared – twice as much ice is going into the sea as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels – and climate change – could be dramatic. Yet, a few weeks ago, when I – a Nasa climate scientist – tried to talk to the media about these issues following a lecture I had given calling for prompt reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases, the Nasa public affairs team – staffed by political appointees from the Bush administration – tried to stop me doing so. I was not happy with that, and I ignored the restrictions. The first line of Nasa’s mission is to understand and protect the planet. This new satellite data is a remarkable advance. We are seeing for the first time the detailed behaviour of the ice streams that are draining the Greenland ice sheet. They show that Greenland seems to be losing at least 200 cubic kilometres of ice a year. It is different from even two years ago, when people still said the ice sheet was in balance. Hundreds […]
A few large groups using sophisticated communications increasingly have come to dominate Iraq’s insurgency, a report released Wednesday said. The report from the International Crisis Group, a nongovernmental organization that tries to solve conflicts, noted the insurgency “no longer is a scattered, erratic, chaotic phenomenon.” “Groups are well organized, produce regular publications, react rapidly to political developments and appear surprisingly centralized,” the report said. It noted the insurgency, a predominately Sunni Arab movement, has grown “more confident, better organized, coordinated, information-savvy.” “That it has survived, even thrived, despite being vastly outnumbered and outgunned, suggests the limitations of the current counter-insurgency campaign,” the report said. It added that the insurgents’ emergence “carries profound implications for policymakers.” The report, “In Their Own Words: Reading the Iraqi Insurgency,” used voluminous insurgent communications culled from Web sites, videos, tapes and leaflets. Advice for U.S. The study was critical of the United States fighting “an enemy it hardly knows,” and called its labeling of insurgency groups as Saddamists, Islamo-fascists “gross approximations and crude categories.” It said U.S. and Iraqi forces must “reach out to the Sunni Arab community, amend the constitution and build a more inclusive policy.” […]
The day after the US denounced a United Nations report that called on the Bush administration to close its Guantánamo detention center in Cuba, international pressure to close the camp continues to grow. While there were voices from around the world calling for action, the voices were particularly loud in Britain, which has been America’s main ally in the war on terror. Leading politicians from the two main political British parties, and a judge in Britain’s high court, said allegations of torture at the camp meant the US should close it as soon as possible. On Thursday, The Los Angeles Times reported that the Bush administration responded strongly to the UN report. The White House called it a “rehash” of old allegations. “We know that these are dangerous terrorists that are being kept at Guantánamo Bay,” White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said. “They are trained to provide false information, and Al Qaeda training manuals talk about ways to disseminate false information and hope to get attention.” The Daily Telegraph reports, however, that Peter Hain, the secretary for Northern Ireland in the cabinet of Prime Minister Tony Blair, called on the US to close the camp. Mr. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
