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Israel unleashed a fierce bombardment on targets in southern Beirut and southern Lebanon after a Hezbollah rocket attack on Israel’s third-largest city.
Eleven months ago, Israel withdrew from every last inch of the Gaza Strip. The Israelis dismantled all military bases, destroyed all their settlements, turned over functioning greenhouses that could employ 4,000 people, expelled all 7,500 Israeli settlers--all at a huge financial and political cost. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon even went a step further, declaring the lines that divide Israel from Gaza an international frontier, making Gaza the first independent Palestinian territory ever.
According to a report card released by the March of Dimes last week, only five states and the District of Columbia now routinely screen newborns for 29 rare but treatable conditions, from impaired hearing to hypothyroidism. Many of the conditions are life threatening if not caught early, but they can be successfully handled through diet or medication. The tests, which are recommended by the American College of Medical Genetics, are fast and easy to administer: All but the hearing screen, in fact, can be accomplished by taking just a few drops of blood from the baby's heel. Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia test for all 29 conditions; overall, the proportion of babies getting at least 20 of the tests jumped from 38 percent to 64 percent in the past year. "States are really moving in the right direction here," says March of Dimes President Jennifer Howse. She recommends that expectant parents find out which tests are done at hospitals in their state; a full screening can be arranged with an outside laboratory. The extra cost, she says, shouldn't be more than $100.
AP - Hezbollah and Israel traded rocket and missile barrages for a sixth day Monday, as warfare that has erupted in the Middle East showed no sign of easing. Hezbollah rockets struck deep inside Israel, killing eight people in the northern city of Haifa, and Israel retaliated with waves of missiles from Lebanon's north to south and into the Bekaa Valley near Syria.
AP - Israel bombed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry building in Gaza City early Monday, pushing ahead with its three-week offensive in Gaza as troops clashed with militants in the northern part of the territory.
AP - A suicide bomber detonated explosives Sunday inside a cafe packed with Shiites in northern Iraq, killing 26 people and injuring 22, an Iraqi general said. Gunmen seized a top Oil Ministry official, the second major kidnapping in as many days.
• Beirut airport in flames after new strike • IDF: Hezbollah rockets hit Nazareth, Afula, Givat E'la • Civilians reported killed in strike on city of Tyre • Seven Canadian citizens killed in Israeli strikes • U.S. military arrives to evacuate U.S. citizens • Hezbollah rocket kills 8 in Haifa train depot
(Time.com) Around the world, people could be excused for feeling that they are witnessing something numbingly familiar in the Middle East, like a recurring nightmare that many would rather keep stored in the recesses of memory.
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