Watch Hamas: Talks with Israel fatal

Hamas: Talks with Israel fatal


Meshaal says Palestinian president is too weak to negotiate with Israel
The exiled leader of Hamas has warned that talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority could be a 'fatal blow' to the Palestinian cause, and urged the Egyptian and Jordanian leaders to boycott them.

Khaled Meshaal, who lives in exile in Syria, said that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, was too weak to stand up to Israel and negotiate a fair deal at the upcoming talks in Washington.

"If the talks succeed, they will succeed to Israeli standards and liquidate the Palestinian cause. They'll give us parts of 1967 lands. They'll draw the borders as they want and they'll confiscate our sovereignty," Meshaal said in a speech in Damascus on Tuesday.

Meshaal appealed to Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, and King Abdullah of Jordan "not to back these negotiations, which are rejected by the Palestinians".

"The results of these negotiations will be catastrophic for the interests and the security of Jordan and Egypt."

Mubarak and the Jordanian monarch have been invited to Washington to join a summit on September 2, during which Israel and the Palestinian Authority are due to resume direct talks for the first time in 20 months.

The Palestinian Authority broke off negotiations with Israel in December 2008, when Israel launched a three-week war in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians 'not bound'

Meshaal said the Palestinian people "will not feel bound by the outcome of these negotiations, because the Palestinian negotiators renounced their demands".

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, announced earlier that the talks will be held without preconditions, and will run for a year.

Meshaal asked Abbas and his Fatah faction to join Hamas in adopting a unified strategy, which he said would not drop diplomacy but would concentrate on the "option of resistance and holding on to inalienable Palestinian rights".

Abbas's negotiation strategy has long been condemned by Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

Hamas and Fatah have been estranged for years, and Egyptian attempts at mediation over the last few months have produced little progress.

coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/2010824202513336792.html

Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service China-N Korea river hit by floods

Enjoy Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service China-N Korea river hit by floods

More than 1,500 people have died in China in recent months.
China and North Korea have evacuated thousands of people from their homes after heavy rains burst the Yalu river, flooding areas near their border.

North Korean state media reported that 5,000 people had been moved in the city of Sinuiju and nearby villages.

China is continuing mass evacuations, with 94,000 people in the Dandong area being taken to safety after the Yalu burst its banks on Saturday.

Further rain is expected in the region, putting more pressure on rescue work.

North Korea's official KCNA news agency reported that water from Yalu - or Amnok, as it is known in Korean - had destroyed homes and buildings in five villages.

Sinuiju, in the North Pyongan province, was said to have been "severely affected", with residents trying to find safety on roof-tops or on higher ground.

The agency reported that Kim Jong-il, North Korea's leader, had deployed military units, including the air force and navy, to aid rescue efforts and move at least 5,150 people.

Sinuiju lies on a vital trade route for North Korea and previous flooding has exacerbated problems in a country where millions have died in famines over the last two decades.

'More rain'

In China, at least 200 houses have been destroyed in the city of Dandong, in Liaoning province, and four people are reported missing, state media say.

Xinhua news agency says that a local weather station on Sunday morning had forecasted more rains over the next 24 hours.

More than 1,500 people have died in China in recent months.

The latest flooding comes after the deaths of more than 700 people in China in a landslide triggered by heavy rains in Zhouqu county, Gansu, last week.

Coppied by http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=65965