Heavy gunfire as Syrian tanks enter Homs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
August 14, 2011 - 12:00am

DAMASCUS — Syrian troops backed by tanks clamped down Monday on the flashpoint province of Homs, a day after gunboats joined an assault that killed more than 20 people in Latakia city, activists said. As the country's anti-regime uprising turned five months old, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said snipers shot dead an old man in the provincial town of Hula and reported another killing in Latakia. "The community of Hula is under siege ... The army is carrying out raids and arrests under the cover of heavy gunfire" in Homs province, said the Britain-based rights group.

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INTERVIEW-Turkey's saves ire for Israel, concern for Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Tulay Karadeniz - (Interview) May 30, 2011 - 12:00am

Democratic governments cannot stop their citizens launching another pro-Palestinian flotilla to Gaza, Turkey's foreign minister said on Monday, a year after the storming of an aid ship by Israeli marines. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Friday for activists to be discouraged from again setting sail for Gaza, but Ahmet Davutoglu said it was not within the authority of a democracy to prevent private challenges to an illegal blockade. "No democratic country can think that they have full control over these NGOs (non-government organisations)," he said.

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UN met only 52% of target for Palestinian aid in 2010
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - January 20, 2011 - 1:00am

First time such large gap exists between initial aid request, amount of money donated since UN began humanitarian appeal to member states, international organizations in 2003. The UN was only able to fund 52 percent of the humanitarian aid it wanted to provide to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in 2010, according to statistics it released on Wednesday at a press conference in Jerusalem.

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Unraveling another myth about the State of the Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - December 6, 2010 - 1:00am

In everything that pertains to locating the source of fires, water shortages, flight safety, earthquakes, etc. - subjects that require long-term planning - our decision makers prefer to use a method of pinpoint handling. It is known as "putting out fires." Yet the disaster in the Carmel has shown that we are also far from being able to be called world champions in putting out fires.

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Israel's eased blockade 'still crippling' Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
by Jon Donnison - November 29, 2010 - 1:00am

That is the verdict of a new report by aid agencies and rights groups working inside the Palestinian territory. A ban on most exports from Gaza is "crippling" the economy, they say. The report, "Dashed Hopes: Continuation of the Gaza Blockade", was compiled by 21 different groups, including Oxfam, Amnesty and Save the Children. "Only a fraction of the aid needed has made it to the civilians trapped in Gaza by the blockade," said Jeremy Hobbs, Director of Oxfam International.

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UNRWA Strike Closes Schools, Clinics in West Bank Camps
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller - November 16, 2010 - 1:00am

Garbage piles up, too, as labor action enters its second month; dispute gets personal Schools and clinics are shuttered, and garbage has been piling up on streets across the West Bank’s 19 refugee camps, as some 5,000 striking employees of the United Nations Works and Relief Agency (UNRWA) have brought critical public services to a halt in a pay dispute.

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UN Gaza leaders given submachine guns for protection 'against Hamas'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - November 5, 2010 - 12:00am

The defense establishment has taken the unusual step of granting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency approval to take four weapons into Gaza. The weapons, submachine guns, are to serve the security detail guarding the heads of the agency in Gaza. The request to bring in the weapons was made three years ago and approved last week. The director of UNRWA's activities in Gaza, John Ging, said on his website that his life is in constant danger and he needs more suitable protection than the handguns his bodyguards had been carrying.

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Gaza assailants vandalize UN summer camp
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Rizek Abdel Jawad - May 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Armed assailants in black masks burned and vandalized a U.N. summer camp site Sunday and left behind three bullets next to written death threats against U.N. officials — the latest escalation of tensions between Islamic extremists and U.N. representatives in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Also Sunday, a U.N. agency reported that three-quarters of the damage inflicted on Gaza by Israel's war against Hamas more than a year ago has not been repaired or rebuilt. The report warned that the international community is being increasingly sidelined in Gaza because of Israel's blockade of the territory.

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Easing of Gaza blockade shows more can be done-UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Patrick Worsnip - April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's recent easing of its blockade of Gaza is inadequate but shows restrictions could be lifted further without compromising the Jewish state's security, the top U.N. official in Gaza said on Thursday. Israel tightened controls on the Palestinian territory three years ago after Hamas Islamists seized control there, but in recent weeks has allowed in some goods it used to ban, such as clothes and shoes, wood and aluminum.

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Joint Palestinian-European committee to convene on supporting Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

A Palestinian official announced on Wednesday that the Joint Palestinian-European Committee will hold a meeting in Brussels in June to support vital projects in the Palestinian territories. A preparatory meeting was held Wednesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, attended by both senior Palestinian and European officials. Reyad al-Malki, minister of foreign affairs in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) government, said in a press statement that the two sides agreed to prepare a joint working plan.

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