| |
|
 |
Israel air strikes spark protests worldwide |
| |
Updated at:
0615
PST, Monday, December 29, 2008 |
 ShareThis story
|
| |
|
| |
LONDON: Demonstrators in cities around the world Sunday marched in protest against the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip that have killed nearly 300 people in the Palestinian territory.
British police made 10 arrests as a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in London turned violent. Riot police moved in after people tore down the barriers keeping them back from the embassy.
Earlier Sunday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called for an "urgent ceasefire and immediate halt to all violence" in Gaza.
A call to "urgently halt" the military action also came from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who spoke to his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni.
The top diplomats in Italy and Spain, Franco Frattini and Miguel Angel Moratinos, also spoke by telephone with Livni who said Israel would try "to limit the suffering of the people of Gaza," the Italian foreign ministry said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the European Union presidency, told Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas by telephone of his grave concerns about the escalating violence in the region and the need for both sides to stop their aggressions.
Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday denounced the violence between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gaza, and urged everyone involved in the "tragic situation in the Middle East" to strive for humanity and wisdom.
The UN chief added his voice to the UN Security Council's call for an immediate end to hostilities and urged Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the poverty-stricken territory.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "deplores that violence is continuing today, and he strongly urges once again an immediate stop to all acts of violence," his spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement.
Around European capitals, Danish police arrested a man on the fringes of a protest march in Copenhagen after he threw a petrol bomb at officers. Police said the rally drew about 700 people, though organisers put the number closer to 2,000.
In Paris, about 200 people gathered on the Champs Elysees, while across the city in the northern district of Barbes, an area with a high concentration of north Africans, police said 1,300 others had joined an anti-Israel protest.
In Madrid, hundreds of people demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy, brandishing placards reading "Israel terrorist", "Stop state terrorism" and "No to the Palestinian holocaust."
The largest single protest of about 8,000 people took place in Egypt on the streets of the southern city of Assiut. Some 4,000 protesters rallied in the capital Cairo, while a demonstration in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria drew a similar number, a security official said.
Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah urged Egyptians in their "millions" to take to the streets to force their government to open the country's border with Gaza, to help save Palestinians from the Israeli bombardments.
Another major showing of anti-Israeli sentiment was seen in Turkey where thousands of people joined demonstrations in about a dozen Turkish cities.
In Syria, protesters burned Israeli and American flags as thousands demonstrated in central Damascus. Security was tight around the US embassy, which lies some two kilometres (just over a mile) from the scene of the protest in the Syrian capital.
Demonstrators also burned Israeli flags in the Jordanian capital Amman, where hundreds of people gathered to demand the closure of the Israeli embassy.
|
| |
|
| |
| |
More Updates |
|
Pakistan lose 3 for 15 chasing huge 435 runs |
Updated at:
2340
PST |
|
Prior century sets Pakistan record target |
Updated at:
2320
PST |
|
EU gives 30 million euros in humanitarian aid |
Updated at:
2311
PST |
|
Petrol price trimmed by paisas 21/ltr |
Updated at:
2300
PST |
|
Gilani says UK should condemn HR abuses in held Kashmir |
Updated at:
2230
PST |
|
Efforts being made to face flood threat: Qaim |
Updated at:
2145
PST |
|
Salman Butt voices DRS doubts |
Updated at:
2100
PST |
|
'High Flood' to hit Sindh on Aug 4 |
Updated at:
2050
PST |
|
Tax exemption announced for flood-hit KP areas |
Updated at:
2050
PST |
|
More monsoon rains expected next week |
Updated at:
2040
PST |
|
England advance despite Gul heroics |
Updated at:
2020
PST |
|
MQM asks Zardari to review UK visit |
Updated at:
2015
PST |
|
Fresh allegations slams Delhi Commonwealth Games |
Updated at:
1950
PST |
|
Indus River in high flood |
Updated at:
1945
PST |
|
Shahbaz asks Zardari to scrap UK visit |
Updated at:
1935
PST |
|
Two planes collide at Beijing airport |
Updated at:
1910
PST |
|
Kalam floods sweep away 8 hotels, over 300 houses |
Updated at:
1830
PST |
|
Qatar's emir makes visit to south Lebanon |
Updated at:
1800
PST |
|
Monsoon floods kill up to 800, affect 1m |
Updated at:
1745
PST |
|
This year’s Ramazan to see 3 different rates of sugar |
Updated at:
1730
PST |
|
One dead as police fire at H-Kashmir protest |
Updated at:
1730
PST |
|
Flood-hit areas of Punjab get tax relief |
Updated at:
1720
PST |
|
Asif claims 100 Test wickets |
Updated at:
1635
PST |
|
Dozens killed, stranded by Afghanistan floods |
Updated at:
1615
PST |
|
Russia deploys huge firefighting force on forest blazes |
Updated at:
1600
PST |
|
Pak avoid follow-on, all out at 182 in Nottingham test |
Updated at:
1525
PST |
|
Worst floods in a decade hit China |
Updated at:
1515
PST |
|
Celebrations of Shahbaz Qalandar’s Urs begins |
Updated at:
1500
PST |
|
Balochistan flooded areas declared calamity-hit |
Updated at:
1440
PST |
|
PSO ups furnace oil price |
Updated at:
1425
PST |
|
Black box of crashed plane found: DG CAA |
Updated at:
1420
PST |
|
Over 300 killed in Malakand floods |
Updated at:
1400
PST |
|
Black box of crash plane found |
Updated at:
1345
PST |
|
US church to burn Quran on Sept 11: report |
Updated at:
1330
PST |
|
Hamas vows revenge after Israeli strikes on Gaza |
Updated at:
1300
PST |
|
Curfew in IHK as another youth killed |
Updated at:
1250
PST |
|
Margalla tragedy: Search operation continues |
Updated at:
1225
PST |
|
Floods affected one million in KP: UN |
Updated at:
1215
PST |
|
More 11 dead in Noshehra: people await help in Kohistan |
Updated at:
1210
PST |
|
170 people injured in Iran quake |
Updated at:
1150
PST |
|
President mulls over cancellation of UK visit |
Updated at:
1145
PST |
|
Held Kashmir under curfew after deaths |
Updated at:
1140
PST |
|
New monsoon system from tomorrow |
Updated at:
1135
PST |
|
Five including ASI dead in Karachi firing incidents |
Updated at:
1135
PST |
|
Floods kill 37 in China's northeast: state media |
Updated at:
1130
PST |
|
Now, Aamir to teach civic sense |
Updated at:
1120
PST |
|
July is deadliest month for US forces in Afghanistan |
Updated at:
1105
PST |
|
Blast hits China tax office |
Updated at:
1100
PST |
|
Three dead in Dagestan brawl: report |
Updated at:
1035
PST |
|
Anil gives daughters free hand for ‘Aisha’ |
Updated at:
1035
PST |
|
Altaf questions govt’s conduct in face of floods |
Updated at:
1030
PST |
|
Salman offers next film to Dabangg director |
Updated at:
1030
PST |
|
Chelsea Clinton set for lavish, secretive wedding bash |
Updated at:
1025
PST |
|
Flip-flops 'can cause injuries' |
Updated at:
1010
PST |
|
French engineers test pedal-boat submarine |
Updated at:
1005
PST |
|
New super-strong painkiller developed from snail spit |
Updated at:
1005
PST |
|
Swat, Shangla toll from floods/rains mounts to 145, 158 |
Updated at:
1000
PST |
|
Boman Irani felicitated by Canadian Govt. |
Updated at:
0940
PST |
|
Study links calcium pills to heart risk |
Updated at:
0935
PST |
|
High blood pressure on the rise in Britain |
Updated at:
0925
PST |
|
Pakistan's Butt voices DRS doubts |
Updated at:
0915
PST |
|
Rare disease carried by mosquitoes kills infant |
Updated at:
0915
PST |
|
Israel shelling kills 2 Palestinians, injures 8 |
Updated at:
0910
PST |
|
Pakis to celebrate Azadi festivals on Aug 6, 8 in US |
Updated at:
0900
PST |
|
Teen stars align for "Camp Rock 2" soundtrack |
Updated at:
0855
PST |
|
Oil rises to near $79, gains 4.35 percent in July |
Updated at:
0850
PST |
|
PTI finalizes preparations for fundraising in Dallas |
Updated at:
0845
PST |
|
Chavez deploys military units in Colombia row |
Updated at:
0820
PST |
|
Malaysian court clears Muslim of church firebomb attack |
Updated at:
0815
PST |
|
China coalmine blast leaves 15 dead: state media |
Updated at:
0730
PST |
|
US, India sign nuclear reprocessing pact |
Updated at:
0645
PST |
|
U.S. worried more secret documents may be released |
Updated at:
0530
PST |
|
Five Taliban taken off UN sanctions list: Austria |
Updated at:
0400
PST |
|
UN chief urges Israel to further ease Gaza blockade |
Updated at:
0315
PST |
|
PM takes bird’s eye view of KP flood-hit areas |
Updated at:
0230
PST |
|
Three Kenyans face 76 murder counts in Kampala attacks |
Updated at:
0115
PST |
|
US concerned about possible leak of diplomatic cables |
Updated at:
30
PST |
ISSN 1563-9479 
