Clashes heat up over Gaza pullout

Kfar Maimon, Israel

Israeli police backed by officers on horseback sealed off an encampment filled with thousands of Jewish settlers and their supporters Tuesday, trading punches and dragging off protesters in the biggest confrontation yet over Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

The government has vowed to stop protesters from marching to Gaza Strip settlements marked for evacuation in August, fearing that more Israeli hard-liners at the sites would further complicate the contentious pullout.

Demonstrators said they would stay in their makeshift protest camp in the farming community of Kfar Maimon and try to march again today – and the next day and the next – setting the stage for more confrontations.

“As long as this terrible decision stands (to withdraw from Gaza), there will be a constant presence to prevent this,” settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein told Army Radio.

The demonstration could shape up as the last major stand by opponents to Israel’s withdrawal from 21 Gaza settlements and four in the northern West Bank.

But protesters’ willingness to tangle with the authorities could foreshadow difficulties awaiting the government as it tries to remove 9,000 residents from the condemned settlements.

The government said it was determined to push through with its “disengagement” plan, which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unveiled a year and a half ago.

Bomb attack kills 14 in northeast Chechnya

Moscow

An ambush and explosion killed 14 people and injured 21 in northeastern Chechnya on Tuesday in what authorities said was a meticulously planned attack that targeted a region previously thought to be firmly under the control of the Russian government.

The dead included 11 law enforcement officers and three youths near a jeep packed with the equivalent of more than 17 pounds of explosives that exploded at a busy intersection in the town of Znamenskoye.

“This infernal device was meant to destroy all living creatures, which is precisely what happened,” deputy district administration chief Ibragim Indarbiyev said as he stood near the scene, about a block away from the town police station.

Authorities said they believe the attack was planned by Chechen insurgent leader Shamil Basayev, who is wanted for a series of deadly attacks targeting law enforcement officials and civilians across Russia.

Philippine leader sets probe but won’t quit

Manila, Philippines

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced the creation of a truth commission Tuesday to look into vote-rigging allegations against her, but insisted again she would not resign.

In an open letter to the Philippines’ influential Roman Catholic bishops, Arroyo said public mistrust in government is rampant.

But despite the growing number of opposition leaders, former allies and civic groups calling for her resignation, Arroyo indicated that the solid turnout for a rally supporting her had helped provide “a more balanced view” of the public’s opinion of her leadership.

Report warns of China’s military ambitions

Washington

Chinese military planners have begun to look beyond the simmering crisis in the Taiwan Strait, and China’s rapid arms buildup is increasingly aimed at expanding China’s military power throughout Asia and beyond, according to a new Pentagon assessment presented to Congress on Tuesday.

In a report that will likely stoke anti-China sentiment growing in Congress, the Pentagon concludes that China has long-term ambitions to extend its power throughout the Pacific region. And it says that China’s leaders in the future “may be tempted to resort to force or coercion more quickly to press diplomatic advantage, advance security interests, or resolve disputes.”

“Current trends in China’s military modernization could provide China with a force capable of prosecuting a range of military operations in Asia – well beyond Taiwan – potentially posing a credible threat to modern militaries operating in the region,” the report says.

The Pentagon estimates that China could be spending as much as $90 billion annually on its military, three times the publicly released defense budget, making China the world’s third-largest defense spender and the largest in Asia.

Sea piracy on decline, but hotspots remain

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The number of pirate attacks worldwide hit a six-year low in the first half of 2005, but Iraq and Somalia emerged as increasingly perilous hotspots for commercial ships, a maritime watchdog said Wednesday.

Globally, 127 vessels were attacked from January to June, a 30 percent drop from 182 cases in the same period last year, the International Maritime Bureau said in a report released by its piracy watch center in Kuala Lumpur.

It was the lowest first-half figure since 1999, the British-based bureau reported. No seafarers have been killed by pirates so far in 2005 compared to 30 by this time last year, the report said. Thirteen crew were injured, down from 44 in the first six months of 2004.

The report offered no reasons for the declines.

New Antarctic station to be built on skis

London

Britain plans to replace its aging scientific research station in the Antarctic with a structure on skis so that it can move away from dangerous ice, officials said Tuesday.

The structure will be designed to protect scientists year round from outside temperatures as low as 40 degrees below zero, the British Antarctic Survey said.

The station, to be known as Halley VI, will be situated inland from the current Halley V station, on the Brunt Ice Shelf.

Halley V needs to be replaced because with the melting of the ice shelves it is in danger of floating out to sea, the BAS said.

The BAS and the Royal Institute of British Architects held a design competition for the new station, choosing a design by London-based Faber Maunsell and Hugh Broughton Architects.

The new station will comprise modular buildings that are built on legs, with a ski on the end of each leg. When they need to be moved as the ice flows out to sea, they can be towed by a bulldozer.

The station, the sixth built in the area since 1956, will be home to scientists and engineers studying the effects of ozone depletion, atmospheric pollution, sea level rise and climate change.