Palestinian leader firm on stance
In the face of imminent funding cuts from Europe and from the United States, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday reiterated his government’s refusal to recognize the state of Israel and forswear violence.
Haniyeh’s pledge, made at the opening of an exhibition of children’s projects in Gaza City, came as an Israeli missile strike killed two militants and injured a bystander. A second strike by Israel after dark on Saturday killed six people and injured four, according to medics at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younnis. On Friday, Israeli missiles killed six people, including a little boy.
Israeli forces have recently increased attacks on militants operating from within the Gaza Strip, which Israel evacuated last summer.
Haniyeh, who assumed the prime minister’s post a little more than a week ago, accused the West of conspiring with Israel to blackmail Hamas by withholding funds. Two major donors, the United States and the European Union, announced Friday they were halting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Hamas-led government, but said they would try to find a way to get the money to the Palestinian people through humanitarian organizations and projects.
London
Prince said to visit lap dance club
Prince Harry, the third in line to the British throne, celebrated the end of his military training with a visit to a lap dancing club, British newspapers reported Saturday.
Harry, 21, watched dancers at the Spearmint Rhino nightclub in Slough, southern England, during celebrations marking the end of a year of study at a military academy, the Daily Mirror said.
The newspaper and British tabloid the Sun claimed Harry spent several hours at the venue in the early hours of Friday morning.
“We have no comment to make on the matter,” said a spokesman for Clarence House, the office of the Prince of Wales.
Kabul, Afghanistan
Bombing kills two at NATO base
A suicide bomber killed two Afghans outside a NATO military base in western Afghanistan, and two suspected Taliban commanders died in raids by the U.S.-led coalition, authorities said Saturday.
The suicide car explosion in the city of Herat, where hundreds of Italian soldiers are based, was the second such attack in as many days. It highlighted the increasing risk to foreign forces as they expand into new areas across Afghanistan.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammed Yousaf, called the Associated Press to claim responsibility for Saturday’s suicide attack near the gates of the Italian NATO base.
London
Human-skin-bound book discovered
A 300-year-old book that appears to be bound in human skin has been found in northern England, police said Saturday.
The macabre discovery was made on a central street in Leeds, and officers said the ledger may have been dumped following a burglary.
Detectives were trying to trace its rightful owner and believe it may have been taken from a dwelling in the area.
Much of the text is in French, and it was not uncommon around the time of the French Revolution for books to be covered in human skin.
The practice, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, was sometimes used in the 18th and 19th centuries when accounts of murder trials were bound in the killer’s skin.
Anatomy books also were sometimes bound in the skin of a dissected cadaver.