"Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, had the following to say at the ongoing APEC conference, "One man's terrorist may be another man's freedom fighter. We are concerned because in the past those who had been called terrorists had become respectable, like Jomo Kenyatta and Robert Mugabe. The IRA is considered terrorist in Britain but in the United States they can raise funds". And, "The September 11th terror attacks on the United States had a profound effect on the whole world which was rushing ahead with the notion that globalization was a means of gaining tremendous wealth. Absolute capitolism with its emphasis on unlimited greed has been effected by September 11th."
"An Associated Press reporter at the scene in the residential district of the Afghan town of Khair Khana and at a hospital, "saw the bodies of seven of the dead, three women and four boys. At the hospital where the victims were taken, a doctor wept as he showed the dust covered bodies of the children who appeared to be between 8 and 13 years old. The doctor said there were 13 dead all from the same family who were brought to the Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital and 10 more wounded, eight of those children."
"Taliban spokesman, Mullah Amir Khan Mutaqqi, claimed Taliban militia had killed between 20-25 U.S. soldiers in the first ground attacks of the campaign carried out on Saturday at and around Kandahar."
"Pakistan Finance Minister, Shaukat Aziz said he, "estimated the cost to his country of the crisis in neighboring Afghanistan to be between US$1 billion and US$2.5 billion."
"Saudi Arabian Interior Minister, Prince Nayef, "dismissed reports of a split in the Saudi government over the bombing of Afghanistan and said the kingdom's security was secure."
Reuters news agency reports that, "U.S. and other Western officials believe many of those who carried out the hijacked plane attacks on America were Saudis. But there is widespread skepticism about this in the Kingdom itself, and growing public anger about the treatment of Saudis in the United States".
Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, said yesterday that, "Israel's most widespread ground offensive against the Palestinian Authority would end only when he was satisfied that Yasser Arafat was cracking down on terrorism".
Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, referring to the widespread Israeli ground offensive against the Plaestinian Authority said, "Israel is pursuing this plan in direct challenge to all international efforts to calm the situation and revive the peace process".
Christian churches in Jerusalem have called on the international community and churches around the world to urge Israel to put an end to its incursions into autonomous Palestinian territory. Patriarch Michael Sabbah said, "The key to death or peace is in your(Israel's) hands and in that of the government you elected. Give back the occupied lands to the real".
"The police in Malaysia are taking a tough stand against anthrax pranksters, with Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai, warning that their irresponsible actions have been classified as attempted murder," said a report in Malaysia's Star newspaper.
"A Taliban official reported very high civilian casualities when over 100 died when a hospital in the Western Afghan city of Herat was destroyed in an overnight U.S. attack," says the AFP news service.
"Afghan officials claim that their fighters had downed a U.S. helicopter killing the 20 to 25 soldiers on board," reports the AFP news agency.
"U.S. military officials denied losing any helicopters in Afghanistan," also reported by the AFP news agency.
The correspondent for Al-Jazeera, the only foreign television news organization operating in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, said, "the wreckage of the U.S. helicopter downed by the Taliban was shown to him in the mountains about 12km north of Kandahar".
Maulbi Najeebullah, the Taliban consul in Peshawar, Pakistan, said, "the helicopter found in the Baba Sahib mountains was shot down during the first ground assault by U.S. special forces near Kandahar. There are bloodstains that is possibly the blood of Americans killed in the operation, (and) possibly another helicopter came and took away the bodies as no bodies have been found".
Reuters news agency reports, "Russian President, Vladimir Putin, pledged more military assistance for Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance yesterday and said he saw no role for members of the ruling Taliban in a future Afghan government".
In the Philippines Lt-General Roy Cimatu, the chief of the military's southern command said that, "troops were battling Muslim guerillas linked to Osama bin Laden on two southern islands and that at least 18 gunmen had been killed".
"Under hugh military pressure from Israel, the Palestinian Authority late on Sunday outlawed the militant group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, that assassinated Israeli Cabinet Minister, Rahavam Zeevi, last week, blaming it for giving Israel a pretext to launch its tank and troop deployment in and around six of it main autonomous towns," reports the AFP news service.
Taliban Information Ministry official, Abdul hanan Himat, said, "Today in my contact with doctors in Herat and Kandahar, they told me they have found signs that the Americans are using biological and chemical weapons in their attacks".
Washington authorities yesterday confirmed that two postal workers from the Brentwood mail facility in Washington D.C. have died from anthrax. Dr. Ivan Walks, chief health officer for the District of Columbia, said "those two deaths were confirmed as anthrax." The Brentwood mail office processes all mail bound for the U.S. Capitol and White House.
"Israeli defence forces should be withdrawn immediately from all Palestinian controlled areas and no further incursions should be made," U.S. State Department spokesman, Philip Reeker said yesterday.
"Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, yesterday defied pressure from the United States to end Israel's biggest military offensive against the Palestinian Authority," reports Reuters news agency.
"The CIA has relaxed a policy on recruiting shady agents to allow on-the-spot hiring of people with information on terrorism, even if they are guilty of human rights violations," a U.S. government official said, on the condition of anonymity.
"The United States is unlikely to take military action soon to topple Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, but it could be ready to tighten the noose around him by re-instituting eleven year old sanctions," a senior Arab official said yesterday.
Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, referring to the Afghan refugee problem, told a press conference, "This is a cause of great concern to us. Hundreds of thousands of refugees want to cross over into Pakistan and our dilemma is that we already have about two and a half million here".
"With the United States starting to bomb the Taliban frontlines north of Kabul, Washington now appears resigned to throwing in its lot with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance. But given the Northern Alliance's bloody record of atrocities, including massacres, rape, torture and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, this new found friendship can be seen as the strangest of partners for the U.S. in its war on terrorism. Northern Alliance General, Abdul Rashid Dostam, for example favoured dealing with local criminals by publicly crushing them under tanks, and his feared militia were nicked named Killam Jam(Carpet Theives) for their locust like pillaging," reports the Reuters news agency.
"The Pentagon has received information indicating U.S. warplanes on Monday might have accidentally bombed a home for senior citizens," a senior U.S. Defence Department official, who asked not to be identified, said a day after U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, denied a charge from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban that the U.S. bombs ripped into a hospital in Herat in Western Afghanistan killing more than 100 people.
U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfield, later told reporters at the Pentagon he was sure the report was untrue, saying, "We have absolutely no evidence at all that would suggest that the allegation(bombing the hospital) is correct. I'm sure that it is not".
"Our information is that a hospital in Herat was hit and it was reportedly destroyed," U.N. spokesperson, Stephanie Bunked told a press conference in Islamabad.
Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef speaking about the American bombing of the hospital in Herat said, "It is now clear that American planes are intentially targeting the Afghan people. Their goal is to punish the Afghan people for having chosen an Islamic system".
"Two Sikhs were attacked and beaten near the international airport in Seattle Washington, by people who mistakenly assumed they were Muslims," local authorities Reuters news agency yesterday.
"Japan is set to lift economic sanctions on Pakistan and India as early as this week to show appreciation for Islamabad's support during U.S. military strikes on Afghanistan," a Japanese government spokesman told Reuters News agency yesterday.
"The suspected germ warfare campaign against the United states moved towards the White House on Tuesday. The White House reported that traces of the disease had been found at a remote military facility where mail for the President and his staff is screened," said Reuters news agency.
"I don't have anthrax. I'm confident when I come to work tomarrow that I will be safe,' U.S. President George Bush told reporters.
The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, said that Malaysia supported the hunt for terrorists, but not the war, saying, "Unless you win the hearts of Muslims the world over, this war will not succeed. The media in the United States does not give a true picture of what is happening."
"Not many of the tens of thousands of high fibre food rations dropped by the American military have been picked up by hungry people in Afhganistan. Afghan refuges told aid workers they feared the U.S. food packets were poisened," reported the Star newspaper in Malaysia.
Afghan Ambassador to pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, told reporters, "We are telling President George Bush's administration and all those who are siding with them in this genocide, that killign innocent civilians in Afghanistan is as much a terrorist act as that done in New York".
Taliban Education Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said yesterday, "If American troops enter Afghanistan they will suffer lots of casualities. Their casualities will be higher than the Russians, over 17,000). It is true that their technology is more advanced than ours but as long as one Muslim Afghan is alive he will not surrender to America".
Pakistan authorities have increased security around an air base where the United States said one of its helicopters came under hostile fire yesterday," reports the AFP news service.
"Israel Has no intention of holding on to these areas(in the West Band) for a lengthy period or toppling the Palestinian Authority," said Israeli Defence Minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer at a meeting with The European foreign policy chief, Javier Solana.
"Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf has said, "Moderate Taliban should be included in the future broad based Afghan government, and Secretary of State, Colin Powell has also left the door open to their participation".
The Taliban's envoy to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeed, yesterday dismissed a report that his battle scarred translater was a key member of a radical Egyptian Islamic group who left 15 years ago to fight in Afghanistan, saying, "The translater, who has tranxfixed the world when he appears at news conferences with a black eye patch and a plastic hand is an Afghan called Raatib".
"U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, says the United States may not be able to catch Osama bin Laden even though he predicts the Taliban regime harbouring him will be toppled," reports the USA Today newspaper from an interview with Mr. Rumsfeld.
At a Pentagon news conference, Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem said, "U.S. intelligence sources indicate the Taliban might poison relief supplies and blame it on the United States".
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban yesterday called on the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to immediately dispatch an urgent delegation to inspect damage and casualities caused by U.S. bombing. Education Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi told the Afghan Islamic Press that, "The Afghan militia had appealed to the 56 nation OIC to send delegates to see with their own eyes the destruction caused by the Americans and theor allies in our country. They are carryiny out barbaric and indiscriminate bombing of residential areas, mosques, and hospitals. They have killed more than 1,000 civilians since the U.S. attacks began on October 7th".
"Further terrorist attacks in the United States are a distinct possibility", FBI chief Robert Mueller said.
A U.N. spokeswoman, Stephanie Bunker, told a press conference that, "The U.S. was dropping cluster bombs, fist sized anti-personnel and armour piercing explosives designed to scatter across a wide area, near civilian areas. Nine civilians were killed by cluster bombs in an attack on Shakar Qala, a village in the Herat region".
The AFP news service reports that, "The Diana, Princess of Wales memorial Fund has urged the United States to stop using cluster bombs, saying they posed a long term threat to civilians similar to that of landmines".
"The Taliban have killed veteran opposition commander, Abdul Haq, along with two other people after capturing him on a mission to raise a rebellion. This happened on the basis of the verdict of the ulama(Muslim clerics) that anyone who assists the United States is liable to be killed," said Taliban Information ministry official, Abdul Himat Hannan.
Speaking to The Star newspaper in Peshawar Pakistan Afghan Mullah, Abdul Rahman, said, "If the Americans want to prove that Osama is guilty, they can take him to the United Nations or the Organisation of Islamic Conference(OIC) or a neutral third country for trial". Also saying that "Afghanistan's mullah's asked that a message of thanks be conveyed to Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and the Malaysian people for condemning the loss of innocent lives in Afghanistan".
About 40,000 activists from hardline Pakistani Islamic groups took to the streets of the city of Karachi yesterday to demand an end to the U.S. raids on Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Pakistan's military government", reported Reuters news agency.
At a press conference U.S. Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, said, "U.S. bombings are killing both Taliban troops and members of al-Qaeda network. And they are trying to do it every day and in fact they are doing it every day. Those trucks you see hit are not empty".
AFP news service reports, "Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Richard Myers, and U.S. Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, both expressed frustration with what they claimed were trumped up Taliban claims of civilian casualities. But neither was prepared to respond to accounts of specific villages reportedly struck by U.S. bombs".
Reuters news agency reports, "Britain's MI5 security service has launched a special Internet operation to track down terrorist supporters of Osama bin Laden working in the country. Using the name Abdullah Ahmed MI5 reportedly left messages in Arabic on the discussion boards of websites catering to Muslim extremists in hopes of unearthing terrorist links with the September 11th attacks on the United States".
"Traces of anthrax were discovered inside a CIA building, officials said yesterday in the latest escalation of bio-terrorism sweeping America," reported the Reuters news agency.
"This is not war it is hell, why don't the Israelis just bomb and kill us all" said Ayman Azza, who lives in a Palestinian refugee camp inside Bethlehem.
Robert Tabash, Director of the Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem said yesterday, "An Israeli tank Wednesday night turned its gun on the hospital entrance and just started shooting. Nobody was attacking them from the hospital grounds".
"The United Nations Security Council, including Israel's main ally the United States, yesterday called for Israeli troops and tanks to leave the autonomous Palestinian territories immediately, becuae the United States wants the region calm so it can keep Arab backing for its strikes on Afghanistan," reports the AFP news service.
"The AFP news service says, "The hardline Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon signalled he was satisfied enough militant Palestinians had been killed or captured that he could withdraw without seeming to have yielded to pressure from the United States to pull out of Palestine".
"Malaysia's Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said the United States and its allies should stop the bombing in Afghanistan as many civilians have been killed and nothing has been achieved so far," said a report in The Star newspaper.
Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, when asked if too many civilians were dying in American raids to flush out members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network said, "Well, one doesn't know the exact numbers killed, but the daily view of children and woman being injured and suffering is the collateral damage I'm talking about. That's causing a lot of concern all over the world, including Pakistan".
AFP news service reports newspapers in Bangladesh as saying, "The war in Afghanistan has crossed the threshold of tolerence for most people except for a select group of hawks in the Western world. What began as an attack on the Taliban has crossed the boundary into what resembles an attack to symbolise the might of the Western world. Not having acheived significant military results and having only added to the terrible conditions of the afhgan people, this is turning from a hunt for terrorists into a war of injustice".
"Faizal Rahim escaped injury from the first bomb that hit his mud hut. When he tried to pull his children out from under the rubble a second bomb fell from the sky and he was hit. Faizal miraculously survived, although injured, but 22 members of his family and relatives were not so lucky as the bombs destroyed their two houses," reports The Star newspaper.
Reuters news agency says, "The execution of commander Abdul Haq has dealt a blow to Afghan opposition efforts to rally anti-Taliban forces at a time when the United States says the Taliban fundamentalists are proving much tougher fighters than expected".
"The Pentagon has denied that the military of the world's only superpower was getting bogged down in Afghanistan, with no victory over the Taliban in sight despite a savage 20 day bombing campaign," says the Reuters news agency.
The Washington Post newspaper reports, "The FBI and CIA now believe that extremists in the United Staes, not followers of Osama bin laden, are probably behind this month's anthrax attacks. The anti-Israel message in the anthrax letters sent to U.S. Senator Daschle and the NBC news echos U.S. extremist groups such as Aryan Action which praised the September 11th attacks on America".
"In buses and truck, pickups and vans more than 5,000 people rolled out of a northeastern Pakistan village yesterday morning, bound for the Afghan frontier and vowing to fight against the United States. Thousands of Pakistani men, young and old, had massed in Temergarah on Friday night with assault rifles, machine guns and even rocket launchers. A few even carried axes and swords," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"I am an old man I consider myself lucky to go and to face the death of a martyr," said Shah Wazir, 70, a retired pakistani army officer as he went off to battle carrying his French rifle from about 1920.
Hussain Khan, 19, a carpenter from the local area carried a Kalashnikov and stood with a friend. He said he was, "leaving a fiance behind to fight in a just cause. Wheter or not I come back alive or I am dead, I'll be fortunate because I am fighting in the cause of Islam".
"Its a difficult time for Islam and Muslims. We are in a test. Everybody should be ready to pass the test and to sacrifice our lives," said Mohammed Khaled, a volunteer brigade leader.
Sufi Mohammed an outspoken ulama(religious scholar) who runs a madrasah(religious school) exhorted, "true Muslims to mass and prepare to go to Afghanistan to repel any U.S. ground incurions". Sheik Mohammad's followers say the number going to fight in Afghanistan will reach at least 100,000.
"The International committee of the Red Cross was unable to distribute food to the starving Kabul residents yesterday, a day after three of its warehouses were hit again in U.S. air raids. The roofs of the buildings were clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem and the attacks violated international huminatarian law," a Red Cross official said.
"Civilians wounded in allied bombing raids are fleeing into Pakistan for treatment because the medical system in southern Afghanistan has completely collapsed. Those too wounded or poor to make the journey have been left to die in their homes in Khandar," said Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
"Bullet riddled house fronts, smashed shops, and arsoned buildings following a week of bloody clashes between the Palestinians and the Israeli army have left the center of the West Bank town of Bethlehem in ruins. This small town south of Jerusalem, where Christians believe Jesus was born, was reoccupied on October 19th by the Israeli army," reports the AFP news service.
"Some 50 Palestinians have been killed since October 18th during the Israeli incursions into the West Bank, including 20 in Bethlehem. The state of the main street of Bethlehem gave an idea of the severity of the clashes. Every single floor of every single building was hit by tank fire," says the AFP news service.
"The Taliban have killed veteran opposition commander, Abdul Haq, along with two other people after capturing him on a mission to raise a rebellion. This happened on the basis of the verdict of the ulama(Muslim clerics) that anyone who assists the United States is liable to be killed," said Taliban Information ministry official, Abdul Himat Hannan.
Speaking to The Star newspaper in Peshawar Pakistan Afghan Mullah, Abdul Rahman, said, "If the Americans want to prove that Osama is guilty, they can take him to the United Nations or the Organisation of Islamic Conference(OIC) or a neutral third country for trial". Also saying that "Afghanistan's mullah's asked that a message of thanks be conveyed to Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and the Malaysian people for condemning the loss of innocent lives in Afghanistan".
About 40,000 activists from hardline Pakistani Islamic groups took to the streets of the city of Karachi yesterday to demand an end to the U.S. raids on Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Pakistan's military government", reported Reuters news agency.
At a press conference U.S. Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, said, "U.S. bombings are killing both Taliban troops and members of al-Qaeda network. And they are trying to do it every day and in fact they are doing it every day. Those trucks you see hit are not empty".
AFP news service reports, "Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Richard Myers, and U.S. Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, both expressed frustration with what they claimed were trumped up Taliban claims of civilian casualities. But neither was prepared to respond to accounts of specific villages reportedly struck by U.S. bombs".
Reuters news agency reports, "Britain's MI5 security service has launched a special Internet operation to track down terrorist supporters of Osama bin Laden working in the country. Using the name Abdullah Ahmed MI5 reportedly left messages in Arabic on the discussion boards of websites catering to Muslim extremists in hopes of unearthing terrorist links with the September 11th attacks on the United States".
"Traces of anthrax were discovered inside a CIA building, officials said yesterday in the latest escalation of bio-terrorism sweeping America," reported the Reuters news agency.
"This is not war it is hell, why don't the Israelis just bomb and kill us all" said Ayman Azza, who lives in a Palestinian refugee camp inside Bethlehem.
Robert Tabash, Director of the Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem said yesterday, "An Israeli tank Wednesday night turned its gun on the hospital entrance and just started shooting. Nobody was attacking them from the hospital grounds".
"The United Nations Security Council, including Israel's main ally the United States, yesterday called for Israeli troops and tanks to leave the autonomous Palestinian territories immediately, becuae the United States wants the region calm so it can keep Arab backing for its strikes on Afghanistan," reports the AFP news service.
"The AFP news service says, "The hardline Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon signalled he was satisfied enough militant Palestinians had been killed or captured that he could withdraw without seeming to have yielded to pressure from the United States to pull out of Palestine".
"Malaysia's Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said the United States and its allies should stop the bombing in Afghanistan as many civilians have been killed and nothing has been achieved so far," said a report in The Star newspaper.
Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, when asked if too many civilians were dying in American raids to flush out members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network said, "Well, one doesn't know the exact numbers killed, but the daily view of children and woman being injured and suffering is the collateral damage I'm talking about. That's causing a lot of concern all over the world, including Pakistan".
AFP news service reports newspapers in Bangladesh as saying, "The war in Afghanistan has crossed the threshold of tolerence for most people except for a select group of hawks in the Western world. What began as an attack on the Taliban has crossed the boundary into what resembles an attack to symbolise the might of the Western world. Not having acheived significant military results and having only added to the terrible conditions of the afhgan people, this is turning from a hunt for terrorists into a war of injustice".
"Faizal Rahim escaped injury from the first bomb that hit his mud hut. When he tried to pull his children out from under the rubble a second bomb fell from the sky and he was hit. Faizal miraculously survived, although injured, but 22 members of his family and relatives were not so lucky as the bombs destroyed their two houses," reports The Star newspaper.
Reuters news agency says, "The execution of commander Abdul Haq has dealt a blow to Afghan opposition efforts to rally anti-Taliban forces at a time when the United States says the Taliban fundamentalists are proving much tougher fighters than expected".
"The Pentagon has denied that the military of the world's only superpower was getting bogged down in Afghanistan, with no victory over the Taliban in sight despite a savage 20 day bombing campaign," says the Reuters news agency.
The Washington Post newspaper reports, "The FBI and CIA now believe that extremists in the United Staes, not followers of Osama bin laden, are probably behind this month's anthrax attacks. The anti-Israel message in the anthrax letters sent to U.S. Senator Daschle and the NBC news echos U.S. extremist groups such as Aryan Action which praised the September 11th attacks on America".
"In buses and truck, pickups and vans more than 5,000 people rolled out of a northeastern Pakistan village yesterday morning, bound for the Afghan frontier and vowing to fight against the United States. Thousands of Pakistani men, young and old, had massed in Temergarah on Friday night with assault rifles, machine guns and even rocket launchers. A few even carried axes and swords," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"I am an old man I consider myself lucky to go and to face the death of a martyr," said Shah Wazir, 70, a retired pakistani army officer as he went off to battle carrying his French rifle from about 1920.
Hussain Khan, 19, a carpenter from the local area carried a Kalashnikov and stood with a friend. He said he was, "leaving a fiance behind to fight in a just cause. Wheter or not I come back alive or I am dead, I'll be fortunate because I am fighting in the cause of Islam".
"Its a difficult time for Islam and Muslims. We are in a test. Everybody should be ready to pass the test and to sacrifice our lives," said Mohammed Khaled, a volunteer brigade leader.
Sufi Mohammed an outspoken ulama(religious scholar) who runs a madrasah(religious school) exhorted, "true Muslims to mass and prepare to go to Afghanistan to repel any U.S. ground incurions". Sheik Mohammad's followers say the number going to fight in Afghanistan will reach at least 100,000.
"The International committee of the Red Cross was unable to distribute food to the starving Kabul residents yesterday, a day after three of its warehouses were hit again in U.S. air raids. The roofs of the buildings were clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem and the attacks violated international huminatarian law," a Red Cross official said.
"Civilians wounded in allied bombing raids are fleeing into Pakistan for treatment because the medical system in southern Afghanistan has completely collapsed. Those too wounded or poor to make the journey have been left to die in their homes in Khandar," said Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
"Bullet riddled house fronts, smashed shops, and arsoned buildings following a week of bloody clashes between the Palestinians and the Israeli army have left the center of the West Bank town of Bethlehem in ruins. This small town south of Jerusalem, where Christians believe Jesus was born, was reoccupied on October 19th by the Israeli army," reports the AFP news service.
"Some 50 Palestinians have been killed since October 18th during the Israeli incursions into the West Bank, including 20 in Bethlehem. The state of the main street of Bethlehem gave an idea of the severity of the clashes. Every single floor of every single building was hit by tank fire," says the AFP news service.
