Israel Disaster Drills Prepare Nation For War

By Sam Kiley, Middle East Correspondent

Israel is conducting mass casualty drills to train the nation for a national disaster which focuses on responding to an earthquake but which military officials admitted was also a rehearsal for how to respond to war.

Mired in conflict since before its birth in 1948, Israel's first ever national disaster drill envisages 7,000 dead, 70,000 casualties and 170,000 made homeless as a consequence of an earthquake along the Rift Valley fault.

However, Brigadier General Mickey Tessler of Israel's military Home Front Command told Army Radio: "It is very important to emphasise that whoever is ready for earthquakes perforce increases his readiness level for various events, including wartime events."

A conflict with Iran looms largest in the Israeli mind at the moment. It may be triggered by a unilateral strike against Tehran's alleged nuclear weapons programme. It would be certain to provoke a counter-attack from Iran directly using long-range ballistic missiles and through its Lebanese surrogate, Hizbollah.

The latter is believed to have a new arsenal of missiles capable of reaching every major population centre in the Jewish state.

The quake drill also coincides with the largest ever joint US-Israeli military exercise, Austere Challenge 2012, which has seen 3,500 US troops arrive in the country.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aims to curb Iran's nuclear ideas

On Sunday, Israel's public was asked to evacuate buildings and schools at 11am local time and similar drills ordered by text message, on TV announcements and with sirens are part of the exercise's night-time programme.

Children across the country also participate, carrying out enactments of the drills in schools.

While many Israeli buildings have safe shelters built into them, the advice during the current exercise is for people to find open outdoor spaces due to a recent assessment by the Home Front Command that around 70% of buildings in the coastal areas - which house just under half of Israel's population - do not meet the earthquake resistance standards set in 1980.

Meanwhile, the joint US-Israeli Austere 12 exercise will see soldiers from both countries deployed in numerous locations, including near civilian areas.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Force has warned that the public may notice increased military activity and some roads may be closed for short periods of time.

Much of the operation will focus on testing the defences against attacks from the air.

Missile protection systems such as the David's Sling and the Iron Dome batteries will be tested as well as Israel's medium range Patriot and Arrow2 missiles.

However, it is thought only a small amount of live fire will be used, with the majority of scenarios using computer simulation.

The timing of the joint operation follows a slight diminishing of the war rhetoric emanating from the Israeli prime minister's office.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Benjamin Netanyahu indicated the window in which to prevent Iran progressing its nuclear programme towards a weapon stretched into next year - a timescale widely perceived as an extension on previous comments by Mr Netanyahu.

The Austere 12 operation was originally due to take place two months ago, but was postponed. Both Israel and US spokesmen deny this was due to the prospect of an imminent strike on Iran.

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Beirut Protests: Tense Stand-Off In Lebanon

Police in Beirut have fired warning shots and thrown tear gas at hundreds of angry protesters attempting to storm the Prime Minister's office in Beirut.

Clashes erupted during the funeral for top intelligence chief Brigadier General Wissam al Hassan, who was killed in a massive car bombing on Friday.

Forces had earlier set up road blocks and cordoned off Beirut's Martyrs' Square as well as boosting security in the capital.

Wissam al Hassan was killed by a massive car bomb on Friday

Currently, the scene has quietened to a tense stand-off, which some protesters refusing to leave the area.

Mr al Hassan, 47, was a powerful opponent of Syria in Lebanon and headed an investigation over the summer that led to the arrest of former information minister Michel Samaha, a politican who was one of Syria's most loyal allies.

He was among eight people killed in the attack on Friday, which many have blamed on the Syrian regime.

The protesters believe the government is too close to Syria and its ally in Lebanon, the Shiite group Hizbollah.

They are calling for Prime Minister Najib Mikati to quit over Mr al Hassan's assassination.

Even before the bombing, the civil war in neighboring Syria had set off violence in Lebanon and deepened tensions between supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad's regime.

The attack heightened fears that Lebanon could easily plunge back into cycles of sectarian violence and reprisal that have haunted it for decades.

Dozens of anti-Syrian protesters erected eight tents near the cabinet headquarters in central Beirut, saying they will stay until Prime Minister Najib Mikati's government, which is dominated by the Shiite militant group Hizbollah and its allies, resigns.

Politicians salute Mr al Hassan's coffin during the funeral

Hizbollah is Syria's most powerful ally in Lebanon, which for much of the past 30 years has lived under Syrian military and political domination.

Syria's hold on Lebanon began to slip in 2005, when former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, an opponent of Syria, was assassinated by a truck bomb along Beirut's Mediterranean waterfront.

Syria denied any role, but broad public outrage in Lebanon expressed in massive street protests forced Damascus to withdraw its tens of thousands of troops from the country.

For years after the pullouts, there was a string of attacks on anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon without any trials for those responsible.

Al Hassan will be buried in Martyrs' Square next to the late Hariri.

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Body Found At Family Shooting Suspect's House

Police have found a body at the burnt-out home of a man suspected of breaking into a nearby house and shooting five members of a family, killing two of them.

Investigators believe Desmond John Moses, 55, set his own bungalow on fire before entering the neighbouring home around 4am on Saturday and firing 10 shots.

A four-year-old boy and his 30-year-old father, who was shielding two children when he was shot, were taken to hospital but both died in surgery.

The man's wife and two other children were also injured in the attack in Inglewood, California, near Los Angeles.

Despite being shot in both legs, in what police described as an "extraordinary rescue attempt", she managed to carry the four-year-old, who was shot in the head, out of the house.

A six-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound to the pelvis and a seven-year-old girl was shot in the chest.

The mother, 28, and daughter are in hospital in a stable condition. The six-year-old boy has been released, while an eight-year-old boy escaped unharmed.

The shooting happened in Inglewood, near Los Angeles

Police later found the body in Moses' house after a search which took hours because it was packed with debris. The body has not been formally identified.

About 15 neighbouring houses in Inglewood were evacuated after the shooting as officers searched for the suspect.

Police cordoned off the area and residents were told to stay indoors as officers combed the area for evidence and clues.

A neighbour, Judy Castellanos, told the Los Angeles Times the suspect was "really weird" and "dangerous".

She said he had not paid his rent for years and that a new property owner had been trying to evict him.

"He had been asked to leave by the end of this month," she told the newspaper, adding that he was reclusive and would not let anyone look inside his home.

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Lourdes Flooding Forces Pilgrims To Flee

More than 450 pilgrims have been evacuated from the sanctuary of Lourdes in France after heavy flooding hit the area.

Two campsites were also cleared and several roads were closed as the river Gave de Pau burst its banks.

Buses ferried guests from all the hotels in the lower town to a conference centre and a sports complex as officials said the sites would stay closed for several days.

Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared to peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous in a Lourdes grotto in 1858. Now millions of visitors, including disabled or sick people, go there every year to pray.

The water was around one metre deep in front of the grotto and 80 centimetres in the avenue du Paradis, where most of the hotels for pilgrims are located.

Rescue workers carry a woman to safety

Only the massive basilica, built on higher ground, was still accessible.

The flooding has been described as the worst for 25 years.

"The space in front of the grotto is entirely covered with water, the altar is under water," said Thierry Castillo, the custodian of the sanctuaries.

"There are torrents of mud," he said, predicting major damage which would be costly to repair.

"I've seen nothing like it in 40 years," said hotel owner Pierre Barrere as he watched the pilgrims being taken to safety.

Some of those evacuated were transported through the flood water by boat

Catherine Brun from Grenoble in southeast France was told to leave at 8.30am. She said she had just had time to take her car from the garage before the water suddenly rose.

Rescuers evacuated her mother, who is frail, in a boat some hours later. The two women were taken to another hotel.

The sanctuaries are not expected to reopen before Tuesday or Wednesday.

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Pregnant Mum Stabbed A Day Before Wedding

A woman who was eight months pregnant has been found stabbed to death a day before her wedding.

Vindalee Smith was discovered inside the basement of her home in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday morning.

It is unclear how long the mother-of-four had been dead before her body was discovered by the authorities.

She had been stabbed in the neck. Her unborn child did not survive.

The 38-year-old was due to be married on Sunday.

She had been living at the apartment for a few weeks while her four other children stayed with family friends.

Friends told the New York Post she was an active member of the New Dimension Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Pastor Ferron Francis told the newspaper: "She was a jovial person.

"She was a very dedicated and caring person. She was a mother and father to her children and was very protective and supportive of them."

Police are investigating the killing.

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Spain: Test For PM As Voters Go To The Polls

Voters in the Galicia and Basque regions of Spain are going to the polls in what is seen as a key test for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Mr Rajoy's Popular Party is tipped to win in his home region of Galicia, where it holds an outright majority, but a recession and biting cuts could yet cause an upset.

On another front, separatist forces are expected to gain ground in the Basque Country's first regional vote since separatist group Eta last year renounced guns and bombs in their fight for an independent homeland.

Almost 4.5 million people are eligible to vote in the regions - almost 10% of Spain's total population - and it may be for that reason that Mr Rajoy has not yet revealed whether his government will seek a national bailout from the EU.

Most Spaniards believe it to be inevitable and that the prime minister will announce details of a bailout soon after the elections.

Mr Rajoy is already grappling with rising separatism in Catalonia which, he says, is a threat to Spain's unity as he fends off warnings that the country will need to be bailed out by its neighbours.

Observers say the elections will be a key test for PM Mariano Rajoy

"The biggest mistake we could make is to add a political and institutional crisis to an economic crisis," he said recently, referring to Catalonia and to the Basque Country, known as Euskadi in the Basque language.

Eta is blamed for 829 deaths during its four-decade armed campaign for an independent Basque homeland in parts of southern France and in the northern Spanish region.

The Spanish Basque Country is home to 2.2 million people and includes the major city of Bilbao. Its current unemployment rate, though high at 14.5%, is well below the national average.

In Galicia, polls indicate the Popular Party faces a tight race to defend its narrow absolute majority, ahead of Spain's other main party, the Socialists.

Mr Rajoy has insisted Spain must stay united as it fights to stabilise its public finances and pushes through reforms that, he says, will strengthen its economy in the long term, in the face of mass street protests.

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Thirteen Dead In Damascus Car Bomb Blast

At least 13 people have been killed after a car bomb exploded near a police station in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

A state official speaking from the scene said an explosives-rigged taxi blew up 50 metres from the Bab Touma neighbourhood's main police station.

The mainly Christian neighbourhood is a popular attraction for shoppers and inhabited mostly by the Christian minority.

Pro-government television said seven people had been killed and 15 wounded.

Mr Assad has met with UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 10 had died and dozens were wounded, adding that it was unclear if the victims and the wounded were civilians or policemen.

A reporter at the scene said he saw blood stains in the street and on the pavements. He said glass windows of several shops in the area were shattered and at least four cars were completely burnt.

The blast came as President Bashar al Assad opened talks with visiting UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who is trying to broker a truce to start during a Muslim holiday this week.

Mr Brahimi told reporters following a closed-door meeting that he had earlier met with unidentified Syrian opposition groups inside and outside the country to consult on his truce plan.

He said he received "promises" but not a "commitment" from them to honour the cease-fire.

"There is a promise to stop fighting," he said, referring to the opposition.

He noted that he "found an overwhelming response" from Mr Assad's opponents to his cease-fire plan and that "all of them have said that it's a good idea which they support."

State news agency Sana said the president supported "any sincere effort to find a political solution to the crisis, based on respect for Syrian sovereignty and rejecting foreign intervention".

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Ben Needham: Police Believe He Can Be Found

British police officers have told Sky News that if missing toddler Ben Needham is buried on a site being searched on a Greek island they are confident of finding him.

The officer leading the British side of the inquiry says the police service would not have gone to so much effort if they did not believe there was a chance of finding something significant.

A joint operation between UK and Greek search specialists is taking place on the island of Kos at the spot where the toddler disappeared in July 1991.

Sophisticated radar equipment is being used to provide penetrating images from below ground level.

Ben went missing 21 years ago, when he was 21 months old

"It is a real line of inquiry and it is a realistic line of inquiry," said Detective Inspector Matt Fenwick.

"I hope we don't find anything and in the future we can assist (Ben's mother) Kerry to be reunited with her son."

He said the search was "more than just a process of elimination".

"We are interested in anything that might identify the movements of Ben 21 years ago, so any item of clothing, any toys, anything that Ben may have been playing with, anything that might give us an indication of where Ben was when he was here and how far into the field he ventured.

"It's the sort of things we are looking for to get some clarity on Ben's movements immediately prior to his disappearance."

Greek police join their British counterparts in the area in Kos

It has been revealed that radar readings will be taken from inside a farmhouse next to the spot where 21-month-old Ben went missing. 

The boy's grandfather Eddie was renovating the property at the time.

The police chief of Kos, Colonel Sergos Sentonas, has told Sky News the level of co-operation between the two nations along with scientific advances has made the new search possible.

He said: "We are hoping to get a positive answer for this boy's family and an answer to the whole mystery after 21 years."

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White House Denies Iran Nuclear Talks Report

Israel Braced With Disaster Drills

Updated: 4:09pm UK, Sunday 21 October 2012

By Sam Kiley, Middle East Correspondent

Israel is conducting mass casualty drills to train the nation for a national disaster which focuses on responding to an earthquake but which military officials admitted was also a rehearsal for how to respond to war.

Mired in conflict since before its birth in 1948, Israel's first ever national disaster drill envisages 7,000 dead, 70,000 casualties and 170,000 made homeless as a consequence of an earthquake along the Rift Valley fault.

However, Brigadier General Mickey Tessler of Israel's military Home Front Command told Army Radio: "It is very important to emphasise that whoever is ready for earthquakes perforce increases his readiness level for various events, including wartime events."

A conflict with Iran looms largest in the Israeli mind at the moment. It may be triggered by a unilateral strike against Tehran's alleged nuclear weapons programme. It would be certain to provoke a counter-attack from Iran directly using long-range ballistic missiles and through its Lebanese surrogate, Hizbollah.

The latter is believed to have a new arsenal of missiles capable of reaching every major population centre in the Jewish state.

The quake drill also coincides with the largest ever joint US-Israeli military exercise, Austere Challenge 2012, which has seen 3,500 US troops arrive in the country.

On Sunday, Israel's public was asked to evacuate buildings and schools at 11am local time and similar drills ordered by text message, on TV announcements and with sirens are part of the exercise's night-time programme.

Children across the country also participate, carrying out enactments of the drills in schools.

While many Israeli buildings have safe shelters built into them, the advice during the current exercise is for people to find open outdoor spaces due to a recent assessment by the Home Front Command that around 70% of buildings in the coastal areas - which house just under half of Israel's population - do not meet the earthquake resistance standards set in 1980.

Meanwhile, the joint US-Israeli Austere 12 exercise will see soldiers from both countries deployed in numerous locations, including near civilian areas.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Force has warned that the public may notice increased military activity and some roads may be closed for short periods of time.

Much of the operation will focus on testing the defences against attacks from the air.

Missile protection systems such as the David's Sling and the Iron Dome batteries will be tested as well as Israel's medium range Patriot and Arrow2 missiles.

However, it is thought only a small amount of live fire will be used, with the majority of scenarios using computer simulation.

The timing of the joint operation follows a slight diminishing of the war rhetoric emanating from the Israeli prime minister's office.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Benjamin Netanyahu indicated the window in which to prevent Iran progressing its nuclear programme towards a weapon stretched into next year - a timescale widely perceived as an extension on previous comments by Mr Netanyahu.

The Austere 12 operation was originally due to take place two months ago, but was postponed. Both Israel and US spokesmen deny this was due to the prospect of an imminent strike on Iran.

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Nixon Rival George McGovern Dies Aged 90

George McGovern, the former Democratic senator who vowed to end the Vietnam War only to lose to Richard Nixon in a presidential election defeat in 1972, has died at the age of 90.

Family members and friends were at his bedside when he died early on Sunday at a hospice in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

"We are blessed to know that our father lived a long, successful and productive life advocating for the hungry, being a progressive voice for millions and fighting for peace," a family statement said.

"He continued giving speeches, writing and advising all the way up to and past his 90th birthday, which he celebrated this summer."

McGovern, a three-term senator, was a decorated World War Two bomber pilot whose later policy was marked by his staunch opposition to the Vietnam War.

McGovern (r) lost to Richard Nixon (l) in the 1972 presidential election

He was also the intended victim of the infamous Watergate break-in, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.

McGovern's run for president against Nixon in 1972 drew upon widespread opposition in the US to the Vietnam conflict.

But the campaign faltered when it emerged that McGovern's running mate, Missouri senator Thomas Eagleton, had battled against mental illness.

Having previously vowed to back Eagleton "1,000%", a decision was made to drop the vice-presidential candidate from the ticket.

McGovern went on to suffer a crushing defeat to Nixon, carrying only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. He won just 38% of the popular vote.

President Nixon ended direct US military involvement in Vietnam with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, but resigned in disgrace the following year over the Watergate scandal.

The McGovern campaign defeat in 1972 was one of the worst in US history

Americans voting for president in 1972 were aware of the Watergate break-in, but the most damaging details of Nixon's involvement would not emerge until after the election.

McGovern tried to make a campaign issue out of the bungled attempt to wiretap the offices of the Democratic National Committee.

At the time he called Nixon the most corrupt president in history, but the issue could not eclipse the embarrassing missteps of his own campaign.

McGovern's campaign, nevertheless, left a lasting imprint on American politics.

Determined not to make the same mistake, presidential nominees have since interviewed and intensely investigated their choices for vice president.

Former President Bill Clinton got his start in politics when he signed on as a campaign worker for McGovern, and is among many Democrats who credit him with inspiring them to public service.

After McGovern was defeated in his bid for a fourth Senate term in the 1980 Republican landslide that made Ronald Reagan president, he went on to teach and lecture at universities, and founded a liberal political action committee.

George McGovern left a lasting imprint on American politics

He made a long-shot bid in the 1984 presidential race with a call to end US military involvement in Lebanon and Central America and open arms talks with the Soviets.

Former vice president Walter Mondale won the Democratic nomination and went on to lose to President Ronald Reagan by an even bigger margin in electoral votes than had McGovern to Nixon.

A funeral service will be held for McGovern in Sioux Falls.

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