INTERNATIONAL

Are we witnessing the stirrings of a new, large-scale Israeli military operation?  Haaretz today reports that “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday that the Israel Defense Forces would continue to use ‘firm determination and assaults’ on Gaza…[Netanyahu said:] ‘It could take the form of exchanges of fire, it could continue for a particular length of time.’”   Indeed, the stars seem to be aligning …

  MURFREESBORO — State Sen. Bill Ketron's anti-Shariah Law bill is unconstitutional because it punishes all Muslims for practicing their faith, Awadh Binhazim told an audience at MTSU Wednesday.   "The authors of the bill incorrectly define Shariah," Binhazim said to 100-plus people gathered in the university's James Union Building. "Shariah is synonymous to Islam." Binhazim is a professor of …

Muammar Gaddafi's government said it was declaring a unilateral ceasefire in its offensive to crush Libya's revolt, as Western warplanes prepared to attack his forces. "We decided on an immediate ceasefire and on an immediate stop to all military operations," Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa told reporters in Tripoli on Friday, after the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing military …

For a month and a half since the famous popular uprisings that led to the Arab World's first democratic revolution, Tunisia had been struggling to identify and implement the necessary structural and ideological changes that are essential for the budding democratic system. Tunisians all over the country had been patiently waiting to see what the interim government and the opposition …

Britain, France and the US, along with several Arab countries, are to join forces to throw a protective ring around the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi as soon as a UN security council vote on military action is authorised, according to security council sources. A source at UN headquarters in New York said military forces could be deployed "within hours" of …