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DONALD CLARKE
Irish Times
9 Jan 09

AWARDS SEASON came to Dublin yesterday with the announcement of the nominations in 37 categories for the sixth annual Irish Film and Television Awards (Ifta).

As Los Angeles steadied itself for Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony, Áine Moriarty, chief executive of the Irish Film and Television Academy, and Amy Huberman, star of RTÉ’s The Clinic and A Film With Me in It, unveiled the nominees at a press conference in the Shelbourne Hotel.

Hunger, Steve McQueen’s ecstatically reviewed study of Bobby Sands’s final days, led the pack with an impressive eight mentions, including nods for best film, best script and - for the extraordinary Michael Fassbender - best actor.

Lance Daly’s Kisses, a loose- limbed low-budget Dublin fable, secured seven nominations, while Ian Fitzgibbon’s A Film With Me in It, a Beckettian comedy co-starring best actor nominee Dylan Moran, took the bronze position with six mentions.

Irish personnel on In Bruges received five nominations but, as a co-production between the United Kingdom and the US, Martin McDonagh’s cult hit was deemed ineligible for the best film race.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the film section was the four nominations for Agnès Merlet’s hitherto under-appreciated horror film Dorothy. The picture will receive a theatrical release later this year.

“Ireland has a fantastic resource of creative talent and 2008 has been another strong year of world-class Irish production across a very interesting mix of genres and styles,” Moriarty said.

Ifta acknowledged that resource’s contribution to television with multiple nominations for The Clinic, Whistleblower and - ahead of the field yet again - those rollicking, canoodling Tudors.

Aiden Gillen is short-listed in the best actor category for his contribution to The Wire, arguably the most celebrated television series of the decade, and Owen McPolin, the much admired cinematographer, gets a nod for the BBC’s Little Dorrit.

Yesterday also saw the announcement of the third annual awards from the Dublin Film Critics Circle (DFCC). The organisation, which polls votes from the city’s professional cinema reviewers, named Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood as the best film released in Ireland during 2008. Runners-up were, in order, Hunger, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, No Country for Old Men and Wall-E.

Unsurprisingly, Hunger managed to take the prize for best Irish film and now looks like a runaway favourite to win the best film Ifta when those results are announced at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin on February 14th.

The DFCC’s list of the three best Irish films of 2008 was completed by Kisses and Liam Nolan’s and Ross Whitaker’s Saviours. Nolan and Whitaker’s film, a study of St Saviour’s Olympic Boxing Academy in north Dublin, is nominated in the best feature documentary category at the Iftas.

In previous years, such stars as Mel Gibson, Rene Russo and Mischa Barton have attended the Iftas, just one of a multitude of awards presentations - Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, People’s Choice and so forth - that now path the way to the Academy Awards.

The Oscar nominations will be announced on January 22nd and the statuettes handed out on February 22nd.

A full list of Ifta nominees will appear at www.ifta.ie

GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor
Irish Times
9 Jan 09

AN SDLP councillor has pulled out of an Ógra Shinn Féin weekend conference in Newcastle, Co Down, because he said it glorified “mass murder”.

Unionist politicians have also condemned a conference event described as a “visit to site of Warrenpoint ambush”. This is a visit to Narrow Water near Warrenpoint where, in 1979, two IRA bombs killed 18 British soldiers.

Minister for Education Caitríona Ruane and Mid-Ulster Assembly member Barry McElduff are among a number of Sinn Féin members who will speak at the conference, which will also deal with issues such as the H-Block hunger strikes and current politics.

The Ógra Shinn Féin website carries details of the conference and shows an aerial shot of Narrow Water with the caption “Visit to site of Warrenpoint Ambush”.

At Narrow Water in August 1979 – the same day that Lord Louis Mountbatten and three others were killed in an IRA bomb explosion in Mullaghmore, Co Sligo – 18 British soldiers, most of them members of the Paratroop Regiment, were killed in the IRA explosions.

The SDLP’s youngest councillor Matthew McDermott, who is on Lisburn Council, has withdrawn from a panel discussion tomorrow because of the Narrow Water reference. “The people of Ireland year after year democratically rejected the IRA,” Mr McDermott said. “IRA terrorism divided, not united, the people of Ireland.”

DUP South Down MLA Jim Wells said most people in the constituency would be appalled that the youth wing of Sinn Féin had on its conference programme “an outing to celebrate and gloat over one of the most dreadful events in Northern Ireland’s history”.

Ógra Shinn Féin Newcastle spokesman Fra Cochrane said the conference would include a number of historical tours.

“Mr Wells needs to realise that republicans fought a justifiable war against the British war machine here in Ireland, just as the Palestinian people are currently doing in Gaza,” Mr Cochrane added.

“The British Paratroop Regiment are notorious killers who, amongst a litany of other crimes in the six counties, murdered 13 innocent people in Derry on Bloody Sunday. The British soldiers killed at Narrow Water were combatants in a bloody conflict where all sides suffered.”

DEAGLÁN DE BRÉÁDÚN, Political Correspondent
Irish Times
9 Jan 09

THE FIRST annual memorial day for the Great Famine will take place next May with separate commemoration ceremonies in Co Cork and in Canada.

Communities around the Republic are being encouraged to hold commemorations and sporting organisations are being asked to observe a minute’s silence on National Famine Memorial Day.

Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív told a press conference at Government Buildings the national commemoration would take place at Skibbereen, Co Cork, on May 17th, with high-level Government representation.

Each province is to host the event in turn, with the 2010 commemoration having a Connacht setting, in Co Mayo, and the 2011 event taking place at a location, yet to be decided, in Ulster.

Mr Ó Cuív said a “parallel international event” would be held in Canada on May 10th. The exact location has yet to be decided. The international commemoration will be also be held at a different place each year.

“In May of last year, I announced that the Government had agreed to commemorate the Great Famine with an annual memorial day and I established the National Famine Commemoration Committee to decide on the most appropriate arrangements for the commemoration.

“Membership of the committee includes a range of interested parties, including representatives of relevant government and non-government organisations as well as individuals with particular interests or expertise in relevant issues,” Mr Ó Cuív said.

The National Famine Commemoration Day was held on May 25th last year when an official reception was hosted at the Custom House in Dublin by Minister of State at the Department of Community Affairs John Curran, who also spoke at yesterday’s press conference.

“The failure of the potato crop during the 1840s was a transforming event in Ireland and no other event in our history can be likened to it for either its immediate impact or its legacy of emigration, cultural loss and decline of the Irish language,” he said.

“That legacy includes a strong appreciation today among Irish people of issues such as food security and a strong commitment to humanitarian aid and relief.

“The spread of Irish people around the globe during that fateful period in our history is without parallel. The Great Famine resulted in the formation of many diaspora communities, who helped to ensure the prosperous development of the countries to which they travelled,” Mr Curran said.

Explaining the choice of this year’s location, Mr Ó Cuív said: “The Skibbereen area was one of the worst affected by the Great Famine.

“The mass graves of between 8,000 and 10,000 famine victims at Abbeystrewery near Skibbereen are testament to the tragic consequences of the catastrophic failure of the potato crop in the area during the 1840s.”

With regard to the Canadian ceremony, he said: “Some 250,000 Irish emigrants arrived in Canada between 1845 and 1855. 1847 was the high water mark, as close to 110,000 immigrants, most of whom were Irish Famine refugees, made their way to Canada. Four million Canadians (12.5 per cent of the population) claim Irish heritage today,” said Mr Ó Cuív.

Irish Times
9 Jan 09

An investigation is to be carried out to establish whether any offences were committed amid criminal proceedings brought against former Sinn Féin publicity director Danny Morrison, it was revealed today.

The Court of Appeal was told the Director of Public Prosecutions is to ask Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde to obtain and provide information emerging from a report which led to Mr Morrison’s conviction for kidnapping being quashed.

Lord Chief Justice Sir Brian Kerr confirmed the development as he said evidence not produced during the trial could have been given.

This material was likely to have either resulted in prosecutions against Mr Morrison and seven others being abandoned or “almost certainly” have led to their acquittal, the court heard.

Mr Morrison (56), claimed outside the court that an inquiry would now centre on whether RUC officers withheld information. He was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for the false imprisonment of British agent Sandy Lynch by the IRA in Belfast in 1990.

A decision to quash the convictions last year was based on a confidential dossier supplied by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates suspected miscarriages of justice.

Following an application by Crown lawyers for a so-called closed judgment, Mr Kerr said it was not possible for him and his fellow judges disclose all of the reasons why the convictions were quashed.

He said they were under constraints due to the information received during two private hearings.

But he told the court there was directly relevant material on whether the appellants trial should take place which had not been made available to the Director when he decided they should be prosecuted for the offences for which they were convicted. Because of that, the extent of disclosure to those charged was not sufficient.

“We are satisfied that if that material and information had been provided to the Director, he would have been bound to disclose it, if the trial was to proceed,” Mr Kerr said.

He added that the appellants were deprived of the opportunity of applying for a stay of the proceedings on an abuse of process basis.

“We consider that, if this material had been made available and if the trial had not been discontinued, it would have been open to the appellants to make such an application,” Mr Kerr said.

“We further consider that it is highly likely that it would have succeeded.”

Even if the application had failed, the court was told evidence not produced during the trial could have been produced which would have had a significant effect on its outcome.

“We are of the view that, had the trial continued, the giving of that evidence would almost certainly have led to the acquittal of the appellants on all charges.”

He added that the Director now plans to exercise his powers to request the Chief Constable to obtain and provide to him information relating to matters arising from the CCRC report.

Derry Journal
09 January 2009

Derry’s Bogside Artists recently opened an impressive new studio space at the corner of Rossville Street and William Street with the intention of showcasing the work of emerging young artists in the city.

The People’s Gallery, situated in the heart of the Bogside in an area previously known as ‘Aggro Corner’, was officially opened by the city’s Nobel Peace Prize-winner John Hume several weeks ago.

As well as showcasing the mural work of the artists themselves, the trio intend to use the sleek new space as an arena for emerging young Derry artists to showcase their work.

Bogside artist Kevin Hasson told the ‘Journal’: “When the space became available, we jumped at the chance.

“The public are welcome to call in and look around and young local artists can come in and see what opportunities are here for them. As a new venture, it’s very exciting for us so, hopefully, everything will go well.”

Kevin said that the public feedback for the new gallery has been very encouraging: “The feedback has been tremendous so far. Local people have begun to pop their heads in on their way down the town, just to get a look at the space and to wish us well. It’s been very encouraging so far and they all seem to like what we’ve done with the place.

“Some older people have dropped in too, and one said that they hadn’t seen this place lit up like this since before the Troubles began. This particular location was always a flashpoint during the Troubles, and so in a way I suppose we are bringing life back to Aggro Corner.”

The artist went on: “The idea was that within our own communities there are a lot of budding artists and we intend to create a gallery space where they can display their work in a real exhibition space and not be intimidated by the idea of getting their work out there in the public arena.”

Local colleges

Future exhibitions could also involve groups of artists from local colleges who may avail of the space. Kevin says that as many as eight people have already inquired about displaying their work, be it fine art or sculpture, and that the pubic are already beginning to see the value of this free exhibition space and its superb location in the city.

“Other galleries take commission but we’re not going to do that. We want to encourage young people to pursue the arts and by providing this free, public space we will hopefully break down some of the barriers of the art world.

“We’re not going to change the world but hopefully it will help in some small way,” Kevin added.

The first exhibition to take place at the new People’s Gallery is to be an exhibition of Eamonn Melaugh’s acclaimed photographs depicting Derry’s ‘Troubled Years’.

MARK HENNESSY, Political Correspondent
Irish Times
9 Jan 09

SINN FÉIN president Gerry Adams has no intention of stepping down as party leader despite a number of changes among the party’s top ranks that will be made at next month’s party ardfheis.

Dublin MEP Mary Lou McDonald is relinquishing the party’s chair to become Sinn Féin’s first woman vice-president in place of Pat Doherty, who is standing down after 21 years.

She will be replaced by Declan Kearney, who has led the party’s efforts to reorganise in the Republic following the disappointing 2007 general elections.

He played a key role in the party’s decision to support the PSNI.

Long-time party official Wexford-born Dawn Doyle becomes general secretary in place of Rita O’Hare, who becomes joint party treasurer, alongside Limerick-based Maurice Quinlivan - brother of Brixton Prison escaper Nessan Quinlivan.

The changes are a deliberate effort to strengthen the Southern representation in the party’s leadership, Mr Adams acknowledged, though he insisted he had never met “with a partitionist attitude” from voters in the Republic.

“I do not see myself as a Northern leader.” He said he had been reluctant to take on the leadership in 1983 “because I thought that we needed a Southern-based party leader and 20-odd years later I am still in the job”.

The leadership nominations have yet to be formally ratified by next month’s ardfheis, but none of the individuals going forward faces a challenger and their appointment will go through without difficulty.

“I see this as part of a long-term strategy for a Southern leadership. Sinn Féin is a party in transition,” said Mr Adams, adding that together the changes will make the party “fit for purpose everywhere on the island”.

Paying tribute to Pat Doherty and to his wife, Mary, Mr Adams said he had been “a consistent part of our leadership over 20 years”, and he will remain involved in the party’s taskforce on Irish unity.

Responding to a question from the party’s newspaper, An Phoblacht, about whether he had plans to stand down, Mr Adams said: “I have no plans to stand down. The schedule for year is a very busy one with many challenges.”

Speaking later to The Irish Times, he said: “It’s my intention to remain as long as the party finds me useful. I am the party president, but I am not vainglorious about it. I’m not precious about it. I am very much part of a collective leadership.”

The party faces a major battle to get its sitting Dublin MEP, Mary Lou McDonald, re-elected in June, a task made more difficult by Dublin losing one of its four seats in the European Parliament.

He acknowledged that the party had not done well in the 2007 general election, but he claimed that predictions made by commentators had been exaggerated.

By Michele Canning
Ulster Herald
**Via Newshound
8 Jan 09

AN OMAGH teenager has been approached by the PSNI to become an informer on illegal activity in the town, and he has the damning evidence to prove it.

The young man part-recorded on his mobile phone a conversation he had with a named Constable at Omagh PSNI station last Friday afternoon.

That recording was handed over to the UH by the 18-year-old, a member of Ogra Shinn Féin, shortly after he had left the station.

On the recording, a policeman is heard to ask the teenager to take part in ‘an intelligence interview,’ with the assurance that it is ‘totally confidential’.

The officer continues, “What you tell me, as you can see written on the back here, you don’t have to be brought into the equation or nothing.”

The PSNI man proceeds to say it’s about illegal activity in the young man’s area, or the wider area, at which stage the teen is heard to say that he is not interested, and he’s not a tout.

The teen was arrested on Boxing Night for disorderly behaviour, and released to attend the station on Friday past for interview, summons and court date.

He told the UH, “After interview, I was told to go and wait in the waiting area to have my fingerprints taken. The police officer taking the prints seemed deliberately very nice and over friendly.”

He said there was a bit of banter by the officers over ‘intelligence’, at which stage he decided to tape the conversation.

It was then that the Constable is heard to refer to the ‘intelligence interview’.

The 18-year-old told the UH that he is a member of Ogra Shinn Féin, is politically aware and thought that an approach was about to be made to him given the conversation that was developing.

“I told Constable (which he named) that I was not a tout and he asked me did I want him to write that down, before laughing it off. He told the other officer to write that down. Nothing was said after that.”

After signing for his charges the young man left the station and went to the Sinn Féin offices.

Barry McColgan, of Ogra Shinn Féin, said, “This young man came into the office when Fr Joe McVeigh was present and he has undertaken to contact the Taoiseach and Sean Woodward and bring the issue up with them.

“We also intend to raise this with the DPP. As long as this behaviour continues then the community can have no confidence in the PSNI. We intend to pursue this as much as we can.”

The teenager has made contact with this solicitor and intends to take the matter to the Police Ombudsman.

A police spokesman said, “We do not comment on specific intelligence matters and no inference should be drawn from this.”

Omagh District Council Chairperson Martin McColgan voiced his concern at the PSNI tactics.

He said, “This kind of approach by the PSNI certainly raises a lot of concern. At a time when the PSNI should be putting resources into building public confidence through open and effective policing they are instead reverting to these sort of tactics which have in the past only led to distrust and lack of faith in policing especially in Nationalist communities.

“The fact that this young man is well known as a republican activist also raises questions as to why he was approached in this manner. I am pleased he had the presence of mind to record the incident and bring it to public attention.

“This is not the type of policing that people in the north want or are entitled to, this is a system which has been used previously and has failed. Such actions like this incident only serve to undermine public confidence and public support for policing.

“As a local councillor and member of Omagh DPP I will be seeking a meeting with the area commander at the next available opportunity to raise this issue,” he added.

Newry Democrat
**Via Newshound
Wednesday, January 07, 2009

ACTOR Jimmy Nesbitt has thrown his weight behind the efforts of the families of the Disappeared to find their loved ones’ bodies.

Three men from the Newry and Mourne area are generally held to be included amongst the Disappeared, although the IRA has never admitted murdering and then secretly burying Gerald Evans, who was last seen in March 1979, or fellow Crossmaglen resident Charles Armstrong, who vanished after leaving his home in August 1981.

The INLA has, however, admitted killing Newry man Seamus Ruddy in May 1985 and burying his remains in France.

Speaking after meeting with relatives of the Disappeared in Belfast, Mr Nesbitt, who is a patron of WAVE, the organisation which helps those bereaved during the Troubles, said:“I have nothing but admiration and respect for the families of the Disappeared,” he commented.

“Theirs is a story of unimaginable pain and suffering and this will continue until the remains of their loved ones are returned.

“I would ask anyone who knows anything about where the bodies are buried to look into their hearts, listen to their conscience and speak to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains. They have nothing to fear in doing this and could help bring closure to a family which has suffered for decades.”

Irish News
08/01/09

Taoiseach Brian Cowen and former US President Bill Clinton are among several high-profile guests invited to mark the 20th anniversary of the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

Mr Finucane (39) was gunned down by loyalist paramilitaries as he ate a meal with his family at his home in February 1989.

The British security forces have repeatedly been implicated in the killing.

Family members, including his widow Geraldine, yesterday personally invited Mr Cowen to the three-day event at Trinity College Dublin, where Mr Finucane studied.

“We intend to reflect on all that has taken place in the last 20 years in Ireland and to examine what we have learned about British government collusion with paramilitaries in Pat’s murder and many other murders,” Ms Finucane said.

“We will also be examining and discussing the momentous changes that have taken place in Ireland in the legal and political landscapes and the contribution made by Pat to ensure that equality, justice and human rights were a reality for all both during his life and after his death.”

Other invited guests include President Mary McAleese, Hillary Clinton and former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

News Letter
09 January 2009

A 99-YEAR-OLD retired RUC officer has been looking back on a lifetime of memorabilia collected during his decades on duty in the border country of Co Fermanagh in the last century.

James McBryde has collected news clippings about policing down through the years, along with photographs and a collection of poems he wrote inspired by his life, work and everything around him.

Now living in Omagh, he recalls how his career started in the linen industry at the age of just 14, at Glenmore linen works outside Lisburn, where his father was an engineer.

“I told my father, this linen trade will be finished by the time I have five years finished here. He said to me, ‘I have been hearing this all my life’, and in five years, the writing was on the wall. I had to get his permission to join the police. He gave it all right,” he said.

James joined the police force in 1932.

“I gave up £3.12 shillings a week to get £2 and 15 shillings,” he said.

His collection of memorabilia and clippings includes an article he wrote for the Police Gazette in 1932, about joining the police, and over 115 items written for the Pepper column, letters, including some for the Sunday News, and his poems, many published in the Competition Journal.

A booklet is now being compiled using the material.

Mr McBryde is one of the last surviving RUC officers who trained for six months at Newtownards depot.

He recalled 13 others who trained with him in recruitment and they had three educational exams to sit before passing out, as well as being assessed on height and sight.

“During the war, they reduced the height to five feet 10 inches, but before that it was five feet 11 inches. For the RIC it was five feet nine inches,” he said.

He served in Coleraine, and then went to Rosslea, Fermanagh.

“Customs had started, there was smuggling going on,” he recalled.

Building up the barracks was the main priority and he recalled working with two other officers by the names of Walmsley and Donnelly.

“Instead of one sergeant and two men, there were two sergeants and eight men,” he said.

Mostly they got around by bicycle, and a customs car was attached to the barracks.

He recalled once that a fellow officer was caught red-handed smuggling bags of meal for cattle, pigs and fowl, into Northern Ireland, on a horse and cart, following a tip-off about activity at the Belturbet border.

He said butter was the main thing smuggled in, as well as bacon, ham and items such as tobacco.

He remembered how two customs men at Kinawley were asked by a well-spoken young man if he could leave a bag in their building overnight to be picked up the following day. Overnight the building exploded.

The customs officers were heard to say: “And that nice young fellow’s bag was blown up too.

Not a pick of it anywhere,” he said.

During his service at Rosslea he developed a keen interest in learning the meaning of townland names.

“I spent five years in Rosslea and loved the mountain district and the people,” he said.

He recalled how, during 1933, two crannogs appeared in Killyfole Lough near Rosslea, after water levels were lowered, and disappeared when water levels rose again.

After that he worked in Derrylin, Kesh and then Lack, Ballinamallard and Belleek.

During the war years Kesh was busy with the allied forces men stationed at the flying boats based on Lough Erne and at Castle Archdale.

With his late wife Ethel and two young children living on the main street in Kesh at the time, he was glad to get away from the cars that were flying about at the time to Lack village, which was safer.

In the big snow in the winter of 1947, he recalled his late father suffered a stroke and he went to visit him in Lisburn.

On his return to Omagh train station the snow was 18 inches deep and he had to cycle back to Lack, where the snow had drifted off the hills, making it difficult to find the road.

“I just had to pound down into it, the snow was very powdery and dry and freezing.

“I was glad to feel the road. A whole lot of children were building a snowman. In June there were still traces of it there,” he said.

Promotion in the police was hard to get unless you had “someone speaking for you” in Stormont, he said.

He retired in 1967, after 35 years in the police.

Because of the Troubles, he said he felt thankful that his sons were living in Australia and London, however, his daughter Breda Larsen was injured in the 1998 Omagh bomb, and recovered.

“When I thought about her being blown up, I thought it was terrible. I had been congratulating myself that my boys were in Australia and London,” he said.

During his career, he did not think of it as dangerous.

He recalled the Army had said Lack police station may be attacked as it was close to the border.

“I stood many a night with my machine gun with me.

“Thank goodness I never needed it,” he said.

BBC
9 Jan 09

The owners of Lissadell House in County Sligo have announced that they are closing the estate from next Monday and letting go 11 staff.

Lissadell is one of the Republic of Ireland’s most historic premises and was the childhood home of high profile rebel Countess Markiewicz.

The house featured in a poem by W B Yeats, who was a frequent visitor.

The owners of the house have announced it will close

Countess Markiewicz fought alongside the Irish insurgents during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.

Condemned to death by the British authorities her sentence was later quashed and she was imprisoned instead.

After refusing to take her seat as the first woman MP at Westminster, she later sat as a member of the first Dail, the Irish parliament.

The decision to close the estate follows Sligo County Council’s decision to preserve public rights of way along routes through the estate.

W B Yeats was a frequent visitor at the house

The owners, Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy, said the move created uncertainty about the future of Lissadell and that no property could be operated on the basis of uncontrolled access.

They said there were no public rights of way over the property and that when they took it over in 2003, there was no suggestion by the council that the internal roads or paths were subject to any rights of way.

Soon after purchasing the estate from Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth, the family closed a road leading to the front of the house.

The family said this road was not a public road and it was closed for safety reasons relating to their seven children.

However, the public can drive through the estate on another road and can also walk through the estate and access Lissadell beach.

In a statement the owners said it had become impossible to operate the house as a historic house or private home.

“No property whatsoever, let alone a large tourist facility, could be operated on the basis of unregulated, uncontrolled and unfettered access,” they said.

Visitor numbers to Lissadell have grown from 4,000 to 40,000 annually and the estate employs about 23 people.

A Constance Markiewicz exhibition area, an art gallery, shop and coffee shop had been added to the estate and the old Victorian gardens were restored.

The family said they regretted the adverse economic repercussions of their decision to close but that they would meet all existing commitments and will continue ongoing maintenance to the estate.

A Sligo council spokesperson said they had no comment to make at the moment but would be issuing a statement on Monday.

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, January 8, 2009

(01-08) 14:36 PST GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) —

Tiny bodies lying side by side wrapped in white burial shrouds. The cherubic face of a dead preschooler sticking up from the rubble of her home. A man cradling a wounded boy in a chaotic emergency room after Israel shelled a U.N. school.

Children, who make up more than half of crowded Gaza’s 1.4 million people, are the most defenseless victims of the war between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli army has unleashed unprecedented force in its campaign against Hamas militants, who have been taking cover among civilians.

A photo of 4-year-old Kaukab Al Dayah, just her bloodied head sticking out from the rubble of her home, covered many front pages in the Arab world Wednesday. “This is Israel,” read the headline in the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. The preschooler was killed early Tuesday when an F-16 attacked her family’s four-story home in Gaza City. Four adults also died.

As many as 257 children have been killed and 1,080 wounded — about a third of the total casualties since Dec. 27, according to U.N. figures released Thursday.

(more…)