The Gaza Strip (Arabic: قطاع غزة transliteration: Qiṭɑʿ Ġazza/Qita' Ghazzah, Hebrew: רצועת עזה Retzu'at 'Azza) is a coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea governed by Hamas. It borders Egypt on the south-west and Israel on the north and east. It is about 41 kilometers (25 mi) long, and between 6 and 12 kilometers (4–7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometers (139 sq mi). The area is not recognized internationally as part of any sovereign country but is claimed by the Palestinian National Authority as part of the Palestinian territories. Since the June 2007 battle of Gaza, actual control of the area is in the hands of the Hamas de facto government.
Israel, which governed the Gaza Strip from 1967-2005, still controls the strip's airspace, territorial water, and offshore maritime access, as well as its side of the Gaza-Israeli border. This continued control has allowed the Israeli state, which opposes Hamas, to control the Gazan inflow and outflow of multiple types of resources, including food. Whenever food is in short supply, Gazans have had little choice but to take in food supplied by World Food Programme workers in the area. Egypt governed the Gaza Strip from 1948-1967 and today runs the southern border between the Gaza strip and the Sinai desert, a border now famous for the breach in early 2008.
The territory takes its name from Gaza, its main city. It has about 1.4 million Palestinian Arab (or Gazan) residents.[1]
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Warplanes pressing one of the Israel's deadliest assaults ever against Palestinian militants widened their sights on Sunday, dropping bombs on smuggling tunnels that are a major weapons pipeline for the Gaza Strip's Islamic Hamas rulers.
Israel's Cabinet authorized the military to call up 6,500 reserve soldiers for a possible ground invasion and moved tanks, infantry and armored units to the Gaza border. Since it began Saturday, Israel's offensive against Gaza rocket squads has been carried out exclusively from the air.
Crowds of Gazans, backed by a bulldozer, breached the border wall with Egypt to escape the chaos. Syria, reflecting the rage in the Arab world over Israel's aerial onslaught, broke off indirect peace talks with the Jewish state.
The airstrikes, which initially targeted Hamas security compounds, killed more than 280 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more in its first 24 hours, said Gaza health official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain. A Palestinian human rights group said among 251 dead it counted, 20 were children under 16 and nine were women
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh in 1981, police in Florida said Tuesday. The announcement brought to a close a case that has vexed the Walsh family for more than two decades, launched the television show about the nation's most notorious criminals and inspired changes in how authorities search for missing children.
"Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" an emotional John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know. The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over.Walsh's wife, Reve, at one point placed a small photo of their son on the podium.
Police named Ottis Toole, saying he was long the prime suspect in the case and that they had conclusively linked him to the killing. They declined to be specific about their evidence and did not note any DNA proof of the crime, but said an extensive review of the case file pointed only to Toole, as John Walsh long contended.
OS ANGELES (Reuters) – A federal judge in California on Wednesday ordered MGA Entertainment Inc to stop selling its popular Bratz dolls and banned it from using the Bratz name, finding that "hundreds" of Bratz products infringe on copyrights owned by rival toymaker Mattel Inc (MAT.N).
U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson also ordered MGA to recall all Bratz dolls from retailers and to destroy "specialized plates, molds and matrices" used to make the dolls, according to a permanent injunction issued late on Wednesday, but stayed until at least early next year.
The ruling appears to allow MGA and retailers to sell the Bratz dolls through the Christmas holiday season.
Larson rejected the idea of allowing MGA to continue to make the pouty lipped, urban chic dolls that made its name and fortunes while paying Mattel a royalty. Larson set a February 11 hearing on post-trial motions.
"Mattel has established its exclusive rights to the Bratz drawings and the court has found that hundreds of the MGA parties' products -- including all the currently available core female fashion dolls Mattel was able to locate in the marketplace -- infringe those rights," Larson wrote in the ruling.
Mattel won the rights to the $1 billion-plus Bratz franchise earlier this year in a lawsuit against MGA and former Mattel Barbie designer Carter Bryant, who invented the Bratz concept while under contract to Mattel.
A jury later ruled Bryant had secretly sold the concept to MGA.
BROOKLYN (CBS) ― Police said a New York City bus driver was stabbed to death Monday afternoon by a rider apparently angry over not receiving a free transfer.
The driver of the B-46 bus, identified as 46-year-old Edwin Thomas, was operating the bus in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and picked up the suspect around 12:30 p.m. Monday at Malcolm X Boulevard near Gates Avenue.
Police said the man swiped an invalid fare card and sat down on the bus, then asked for a transfer slip usually available to riders.
ESSENCE's January 2009 dual-cover issue featuring President-elect Barack Obama and soon-to-be First Lady Michelle commemorates a once-in-forever event as only we can. The 56-page tribute features the images, thoughts and dreams of some of our best writers and photographers and examines what the Obama victory means for us, our children and the future of Black America. Yes, this is our time. And the journey has just begun.
