Palestinian leader accuses Israel of ‘religious war’
Palestinian leader accuses Israel of ‘religious war’
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel on Tuesday of leading the region toward a “religious war,” saying frequent visits by Jewish worshippers to a site sacred to both Islam and Judaism are fueling clashes that have raised fears of a widespread outbreak of fighting.
The accusation drew a sharp response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Abbas was making matters worse.
“Instead of calming tempers, he is inflaming them. Instead of educating his people for peace, Abu Mazen is educating them for terror attacks,” Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address, referring to Abbas.
After meeting his Security Cabinet for several hours, Netanyahu also said security forces had been bolstered, and that he would begin imposing tough measures against violent demonstrators.
Incremental truce deal one of few ideas left for peace in Syria’s civil war
BEIRUT — Traction is growing for one of the few ideas left for peace in Syria’s civil war: Work out a series of local cease-fires to try to quiet the bloodiest fronts around the country, without tackling the core issues of the conflict between President Bashar Assad’s government and the rebels.
The U.N. envoy to Syria called Tuesday for such an incremental truce in the northern city of Aleppo as a building block for more — an idea that Assad has said is “worth studying.”
The Islamic State group’s onslaught has given greater urgency to finding some sort of solution for the nearly 4-year-old conflict. But reaching even small-scale truces in the fragmented country of multiple, divided fighting forces could be a near impossible task.
Staffan de Mistura is the third U.N. envoy to try to mediate a solution to the Syrian war. Previous peace initiatives and cease-fire attempts brokered by veteran U.N. diplomats Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi all ended in failure, including the brief deployment of a U.N. monitoring mission and two rounds of peace talks in Geneva earlier this year meant to discuss a political transition.
America marks Veterans Day
NEW YORK — Americans marked Veterans Day on Tuesday with parades, speeches and military discounts, while in Europe the holiday known as Armistice Day held special meaning in the centennial year of the start of World War I.
Thousands of veterans and their supporters marched up Fifth Avenue in New York, home to the nation’s oldest Veterans Day parade.
At 11 a.m. — the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month — a solemn hush fell over Manhattan’s Madison Square Park as veterans laid wreaths under the Eternal Light Monument to honor the fallen.
Barbie dolls fly off the shelves in Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela — Socialism has embraced Barbie, just in time for Christmas.
Mothers, grandmothers and beaming little girls are grabbing armfuls of the dolls in toy stores across Caracas, taking advantage of the government’s order that large chains sell the plastic figurines at fire-sale prices during the holiday shopping season.
No sooner had saleswoman Crystal Casanova begun mounting a display of gleaming pink boxes on a recent weekday than a horde of women descended. Soon, she and her co-workers were letting customers grab the Barbies straight out of the Mattel-stamped cardboard cartons.
Within minutes, the entire stock was gone.
By wire sources