INTERNATIONAL

  U.N. General Assembly grants Palestine Non-member Observer State status. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas UNITED NATIONS, Nov 30 2012 (IPS) – Amidst thunderous applause – and the spontaneous unfurling of a Palestinian flag in the General Assembly hall – the U.N.’s highest policy-making body Thursday voted overwhelmingly to elevate Palestine from an “observer” to a “non-member state”. The final vote was …

  General David Petraeus, former CIA director Sometimes, generals purge politicians. In 1648, during the English Civil War, Colonel Pride and his troops removed those members of the Long Parliament who opposed military domination; the puppets who remained were called the Rump Parliament. This year, a cabal of generals evidently believed it could secure the White House for Mitt Romney …

SCANDAL: David Petraeus resigned as director of the CIA over his affair with biographer Paula Broadwell By Kimberly Dozier Saturday November 17 2012   Former CIA director David Petraeus told US lawmakers during private hearings he believed all along that the September 11 attack on the US consulate in Libya was a terrorist strike, even though the Obama administration initially …

  Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba, reporting from Gaza, has said that the search continues for survivors of an Israeli air strike that killed nine members of the same family in Gaza. Our correspondent said rescue workers worked frantically to pick up the debris from "the massive crater where the residential building stood". Five children were among the nine members of the …

A short interview broadcast by CNN late last week featuring two participants – a Palestinian in Gaza and an Israeli within range of the rocket attacks – did not follow the usual script.   For once, a media outlet dropped its role as gatekeeper, there to mediate and therefore impair our understanding of what is taking place between Israel and …

Just a week after his reelection, President Barack Obama is facing a big foreign policy crisis – the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip following the killing of Hamas’ military wing leader Ahmed Said Khalil al-Jabari on Wednesday by Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic secret service.    Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and Hamas’ angry reaction to them are …