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Israeli forces on Sunday held its ground offensive in the deepest incursion into the most populated area of Gaza, where the tanks were moving into neighborhoods and infantry fighting in the streets and buildings with extremists Hamas, which also continued firing rockets into southern Israel.



An Israeli army spokesman said that Gaza had neighborhoods crammed with rudimentary bombs and explosives with decoys, including dummies positioned at the entrance of similar apartments for militiamen ready to explode and if the soldiers approached.


"Given that most of the Hamas militia are rather hidden in these places, especially urban areas, then we operate in those areas," said the spokeswoman, more Avital Leibovich.

Large columns of smoke emerging from the Gaza City on Sunday night, while in the south of the town were heard intense gunfire. At dawn on Monday, launches artilladas Israel fired at least 25 missiles at Gaza City, which caused fires and shook office buildings such as the drafting of local The Associated Press.


The armed forces said that in general the targets were Hamas facilities, but there were no immediate details.

Before dawn on Monday, at least one militiaman was killed by an Israeli shelling in northern Gaza, where continued fighting, hospital sources said.


The medical authorities in Gaza said at least 870 Palestinians, half of them civilians, died in the conflict which erupted on December 27 air missions over buildings with Hamas as well as assumptions points for launching rockets and tunnels smuggling on the border with Egypt. In the clashes have killed 13 Israelis, including 10 soldiers.

In diplomatic efforts, the envoys of Germany and Britain maintain the effort to negotiate an end to the conflict, but Israel and Hamas have ignored a Security Council resolution the United Nations that calls for an immediate ceasefire and lasting settlement.


In Cairo, the Egyptian official news agency reported progress in talks with Hamas on a truce, but gave no details. According to the News Agency of the Middle East, an Egyptian official said that talks between the national intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman and Hamas representatives were "positive."

The outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Israel was moving into their targets in the Gaza offensive, but it is still not finished.


"Israel is approaching the goals that were imposed" to "change the reality of security in the south," said Olmert.

Israel seeks to stop the firing of rockets that Hamas has fired several years to the population in southern Israel. The goal is complicated since it would require the support of Egypt and several countries to eliminate the routes used for smuggling arms into Gaza from Egypt. Israel has bombed tunnel passing under the border of Egypt and Gaza.


The leader of Hamas, Ismail Radwan, said his group will not consider a ceasefire with Israel until the Jewish state suspended the attacks and to withdraw from Gaza. In an email, also demanded the opening of all border crossings, on the crossing between Rafah and Egypt.

The medical authorities in Gaza reported that on Sunday there were 60 dead, including 17 from injuries suffered in previous days. According to medical officers, most of those killed Sunday were not combatants and the victims were four members of a family and a girl of 10 years.


According to Palestinian witnesses, Israeli troops came to 800 meters (half mile) from the southern neighborhoods of Gaza City, which has 400,000 inhabitants. In the neighborhood of Sheikh Ajlin died Sunday some 20 Palestinians in fighting between Israeli soldiers and militia groups, one of the most bloody battles so far, Palestinian medical sources said. Specifying how many casualties might be civilians. There were no reports of Israeli casualties.

"We are fine, but do not know for how long," Allawi said Khamis, 44, who spent the night with his wife and six children in the kitchen. He stated that walls and windows of his house was torn by bullets.


Israel mobilized a reserve that was at the border, said army spokesman, Brigadier General Avi Benayahu, but declined to specify whether it was a new stage in the offensive which began on December 27 and continued with air strikes on January 3 with a ground incursion.

The British envoy to the Middle East, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and a prominent German diplomat visited Jerusalem on Sunday. Blair, after meeting with Olmert, agreed with the main demands of the parties and said the emergency was vital because more people die every day.

More than 100,000 people marched Sunday through the center of the Spanish capital to demand that Israel take an immediate truce in the Gaza Strip.

The demonstration in Madrid was the largest of those in Europe, some in support of Israel but the majority in favor of the Palestinians and against the Israeli offensive in Gaza.


The demonstrators filled downtown with posters reading "Peace," "SOS Gaza," and "Gaza" on a red-stained hands and bodies of children, represented by dolls, covered in blood.

The mother of actor Javier Bardem, Pilar, who has some experience in the tables, was one of the speakers who addressed the crowd.


"The Spanish government must do something. The Gaza Strip is now virtually a concentration camp," said the activist.

Spain, which has about 800,000 Muslims over 800 years and which was occupied by the forces of Islam, has 46.1 million inhabitants.


The organizers, including the Party and the unions Socisalista left, estimated attendance at 250,000 people. But the police refused to give figures. In addition, there were demonstrations propalestinas in other Spanish cities, including Seville and Ourense.

"It is our duty to ask Israel to take an immediate ceasefire," the president said the government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to the protesters in the city of Orense in Galicia.


In Brussels, bloodied children with dolls were at the head of a march that called for an end to the Israeli military campaign in the coastal strip. The demonstrators burned an Israeli flag.

Trafalgar Square in London, some 4,000 protesters called for end to Hamas rocket attack on southern Israel and supported the efforts of the Jewish state to protect its citizens.


A few thousand people demonstrated in favor of the Palestinians in Rome, Naples and Verona.

More than 3,000 people were in favor of Israel in the German cities of Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin.


In Athens, dozens of children and their parents demonstrated against the Israeli operations in Gaza.

Security forces used teargas and batons on Sunday to keep away demonstrators who were protesting against Israel and tried to attack a U.S. consulate in Pakistan, while tens of thousands of people protested worldwide against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

In Beirut, about 2,500 Lebanese and Palestinians held a peaceful protest Sunday against the devastating Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, while in neighboring Syria, hundreds of demonstrators threw insults against the Jewish state against Arab leaders who have not expressed a strong condemnation of the attacks.


Thousands of people also staged a protest demonstration in the cities of Madrid and Seville, Spain.

As for the protest on Sunday in the Pakistani city of Karachi, the official said Ameer Sheikh that hundreds of people began marching towards the consulate. He added that some were carrying bricks and sticks.


Access roads to the consulate were cut barricades, but the crowd was able to remove some metal barriers several hundred meters away. The security forces launched recognized baton charge and tear gas against demonstrators in hand, which eventually forced to disperse.

Massive protests have been registered across the Arab world since Israel began its campaign with the December 27 bombing raids in densely populated areas of Gaza.


Israel launched its offensive to stop rocket attacks from militiamen of the Islamist organization Hamas, which controls Gaza, and other armed groups.

Public health officials in Gaza have said that more than 820 Palestinians have been killed, about half of them civilians, including many children, elderly and women. They have also killed 13 Israelis.


Many of the demonstrators in Lebanon, carrying Palestinian flags and posters demanding the international community to stop Israeli attacks, while marching near a building where United Nations offices.

In Madrid and Seville, thousands of people marched through the streets demanding that Israel halt the carnage in Gaza. "


"It is my duty to call on Israel to implement an immediate truce, said Sunday the president of the Spanish government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, in a political act in Orense in northwestern Spain.

On Saturday, thousands of people staged demonstrations in the Spanish cities of Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca calling a truce.


Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain should make a tour of the Middle East from Monday to promote a solution to the conflict.

In Beirut, a group of leftists burned an Israeli flag, while children took part in the protest were carrying in their hands bloodied dolls representing children killed in Gaza.


In Syria, protesters accused several Arab leaders including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, of complicity with Israel in the attacks on Gaza.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón will find many similarities in terms of the drug war when he meets with Barack Obama on Monday, but could have more difficulties when trying to persuade the U.S. president-elect to take a reform of immigration laws as one of its highest priorities.

In a release issued Sunday, the presidency of Mexico said that with Obama Calderon addressed the issue of migration, promoting their "treatment."


Calderon "will seek in particular to promote better conditions for Mexicans in the United States on the basis of respect for their rights and full recognition to the financial, social and cultural performing," he added.

Calderon will probably express his concern about Obama raids against illegal immigrants in the U.S. and speak in favor of expanding the temporary worker program. Obama, who last year supported an attempt to immigration reform that would have granted a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, could be open to discuss these issues.


Still, there is little chance that the new U.S. government will rush to change the immigration laws, while the unemployment and foreclosure continue to rise in the United States, said George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the University of William & Mary in Virginia.

Indeed, the fragile U.S. economy could put pressure on Obama to strengthen border security and keep illegal immigrants out of the country.


"The possibility is being discussed now that immigration reform is like snow in the desert," said Grayson.

"With rising unemployment in the United States and forecasts of the economic slowdown this year, this is not the best time to encourage more workers to the country," he added.


Janet Napolitano, the governor of Arizona to become the new head of the Department of Homeland Security of the country, has supported the earlier tightening measures to curb undocumented immigration.

Napolitano was in favor of sending National Guard troops to the Mexican border and punish businesses that hire undocumented workers.


However, she and Obama are in favor of the idea of giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

While Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, an intense pressure for immigration reform that would give illegal immigrants legal status, the new Mexican president will probably not be so ambitious.


"Calderon continues emphasizing the contribution of Mexican workers to the U.S. economy," said Grayson. "(Calderon) expects that although there is still a chance for 'the whole enchilada,' there's' cues' that would benefit Mexico."

The war against drug trafficking, which has always defined the relations between Mexico and the United States, could complicate the passage of immigration reform.


Killings linked to drug trafficking doubled last year in Mexico, followed by an increase in murders in cities across the U.S. border. Some Mexicans, especially police officers, have emigrated to the United States, seeking a safe place where there are death threats.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice described the Mexican drug cartels as the greatest threat of organized crime for the United States, accusing them of joining the Italian Mafia and other gangs to control the distribution of drugs in American cities.


Calderon will also meet with President George W. Bush on Tuesday to discuss anti-drug agreement, announced on Saturday the press office of the White House. It also plans to meet with financial experts, academics and lawmakers.

President George W. Bush said the Republican party should not become a party "enemy of immigrants", in statements broadcast on television on Sunday.

The outgoing U.S. president said that his party, which seeks to revive a vast electoral defeat and reformulate its message, you must maintain an open mind. Bush cited the issue of immigration and said that Republicans will damage their chances of success if they are considered enemies of the immigrants.


Bush was in favor of comprehensive reforms on immigration policy during his second term, but could not get support from his party and the idea failed in Congress.

Many Republican lawmakers have proposed more stringent measures to prevent the entry of aliens and the country to expel people without documentation.


Agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service have conducted numerous raids on factories to stop illegal immigrants.

Sometimes, it separated parents from their children, who had to go live with their families. Campaigns against illegal immigrants have generated great anger in the Hispanic population and organizations that advocate for immigrants without legal residency.


It is believed that one reason for the huge defeat of the Republicans in November elections, plus the unpopularity of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economic catastrophe, was that many Hispanics, the largest minority in the U.S. , voted in favor of the Democrats over what they considered an anti-immigration Republicans.

Bush admitted in statements to the Fox television network that his party "was beleaguered in the elections.

Ford has had a tough few years and is facing more of them in an increasingly competitive automotive arena. But the Mustang is one of the bright flashes of the company. The model, with S197 platform, the current generation, has been a sales success since its launch in 2005 and is approaching its first serious update. The basics remain the same, but the redesign is complete. Still offer the coupe and convertible body with V-6 engines and a variety of V-8.

Our sources tell us that Dearborn planning to launch models are still being finalized, but the current scenario is that the 2009 model year will be an abbreviated, whose cars will be identical to 2008. Then, the 2010 will be launched in the spring of 2009, as it did when Ford introduced the Mustang 1964 - in April this year, which continued to 1965.

The biggest news from the standpoint of design is the addition of an edge just behind the doors open. The doors are equal, and the fixed roof and windows in the form of a triangle on the back side. The new design is intended to recall the one used by the Dodge Charger, but it is more like a fluid. The front and rear fascias will also receive a review. We have not seen the new nose, but do not be surprised if we looked like the Ford Shelby GT500 today. For back, the taillights were changed a bit, and the defense received a rear bevel 45 degrees, adding more detail to the surface lines on the back of a square shape. Expect new colors and designs of wheels, too.

Taking inspiration from the Mustang Giugiaro concept car that appeared in our home a year ago (March 2007), Ford will offer factory option, a large panel of glass in the canopy that will extend the framework of the leading edge of the windshield the rear window. It will not be a whole piece of glass as in the Italian term for reasons of cost and structural rigidity, but the effect is almost equal. The panel of glass, dark stain, stamped replace much of the current sheet metal, creating an airy atmosphere inside. The interior is far from the style of the current car, which took inspiration from the classic Mustang 1967-1968. The new instrument panel will focus more on the driver and leave more space on the panel for a navigation screen and audio equipment bigger. The seat fabrics and colors will also change.

The scene of the train drivers Mustang 2008 remains bleak. Do not expect any changes in the engine 4.0L V-6, as its main objective is to motivate and basic Mustang rental fleets. But the V-8 GT - currently one of 4.6L SOHC and three valves - possibly receive a jolt.

A Ford engineer confirmed that the work done to create the 4.6 engine enhanced edition of the Mustang Bullitt "has a future." That engine, described in our first test story (January 2008), is basically a series of inside, but breathes better due to an open system, cold air intake, revised mufflers, a new regulator for the arm crankshaft (which raises the red line at 250 rpm), and revised fuel mapping of Ford Racing. This engine management programming allows the use of regular gasoline, but changed to a more aggressive time curve when it detects premium fuel. The result is 315 hp, compared with 300 of the current GT. The Bullitt's V-8 is freer and faster than before revolutionizes and it sounds great because the new system of admission. There is no reason to believe that the new power plant next GT not take something from this technology, and therefore, the same tricks. Or it could be the basis of a basic V-8, even more robust, nearly 325 hp. This would be the perfect time for Ford to certify the production of 5.0L DOHC engine with 400 hp, but we have no confirmation of this detail. That is as far as the common patterns of Mustang. What about the Shelby versions?

It was planned that the Ford Shelby GT500 had a life of nearly two years - 2007 and 2008 and these, perhaps reaching 2009 depending on how well it was sold, and production schemes Shelby -. Demand has been strong, and we can confirm that there will be a version Shelby GT500, built, developed and produced by Ford, the model 2010.

Receive all the improvements mentioned, plus its own look, sportier tires and wheels. The question driving the train is still unanswered, but since GM and Chrysler have higher numbers of potential horsepower for the Challenger and Camaro, Ford may have aimed for higher Mustang logo. The next delivery GT500 KR 540 hp, and believe that this could become the engine of power plant serial Shelby. Where can go from there? Nobody knows. A new GT350? It is worth dreaming.

And what about the models (GT, GT-H, Super Snake) that Shelby Automobiles is building its manufacturing plant in Las Vegas? Assuming that Shelby and Ford renew their current contracts, and we are confident that they will wait to continue these models, now based on the platform of the current Mustang, with revisions and variants limited edition on the way.

By mid 2009, the new version of the war against Dodge Chevrolet against Ford will be in full swing, with buyers having a slice of cake which had not been so fresh since 1970. Hemi Challenger will have the power, and GM has a basket full of V-8 small block of six to seven liters to install below the chest Camaro. Both competitors have Mustang independent rear suspension, which is an advantage in terms of leadership and management, but the crowd lover quarter mile still enjoys its axes alive. But Ford has the luck on their side as well as a body that neither convertible Chevrolet and Dodge offer, at least not at launch. Stay with us for more information about the clash of American muscle.

The general director of Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), Yann Le Moen, owner of the Dakar Rally, warned Saturday in the Chilean port of Valparaiso that the company will make no further comment on the death of competition French rider Pascal Terry, although he admitted mistakes in the search string.

"As an investigation is underway, the ASO will make no comment," said Le Moen in a press conference in Valparaiso (110 km west of Santiago), which complies with the rest day of the Dakar Rally to Argentina after 2009 seven stages disputed.

"Clearly, there was an error. We are investigating what could happen and now bringing all the elements," added the head of ASO after his arrival at the port after Chilean personally express his condolences to the family of Terry in Buenos Aires.

Argentine Judge Manuel Alvarez, in charge of Court No. 1 of General Acha in the province of La Pampa (center-south), where he died Terry, said to AFP Friday that Terry died of a heart attack caused by a pulmonary edema , which had its origins in a pre-existing heart disease.

Alvarez said that the coroner had found an enlargement of the heart muscle and found that the conditions in which the pilot was up, speed, effort and the very high temperatures contributed to fatal outcome.

The judge believed that the death of the pilot to open two possibilities: either there was negligence in the care of a competitor in emergency and may have committed a crime, fault, or there was a disastrous Rally not scheduled a series of events and could lead to abandonment of the figure of the person. "

Disappeared during the second stage between the Argentine cities of Santa Rosa de Puerto Madryn and the Pampa (south), Terry, aged 49, was found dead in the early hours of last Wednesday at 02H10 local (05H10 GMT).

In a statement issued the same day, the ASO said that Terry had no more signs of life after last Sunday afternoon.

The ASO on Monday ordered the search of the competitor, which made it difficult for the land and vegetation, found his body until 56 hours after his disappearance.

The Rose Lake, mythical goal of the Dakar rally almost without interruption since the early'80s, the prevailing disappointment and resignation because this year the world's toughest rally has changed in South Africa.



The last stage of the Dakar causing a huge buzz in the place, but today on the shores of the lake water violet whipped by the wind, no camps or fortune, or flags, or any other sign of the arrival of the caravan.

Except for some collectors of salt, the surroundings are deserted. And in the nearby town of artisans, vendors swooped on the few tourists passing by.

"Since the Dakar rally has come to Senegal, is a hard blow for us" because "it brought a lot of money," laments the chairman of the artisans of the village, Assane Kane.

The income of the artisans, who presented their works in a camp "where they ate between 200 and 400 people," then they could reach "the Senegalese 250,000 francs (381 euros) in a single day," she says.

The hotel Aliou Oumar Ndiaye recalls with nostalgia the "atmosphere" of the Dakar when installed for its customers Finnish, Swedish and French "Mauritanian stores. "Economically it was interesting. We could win between 10 and 15 times more than normal in a month," he explains.

The last minute cancellation of terrorist threats by the 2008 edition of the Dakar and his move to Argentina and Chile in 2009 makes grinding teeth of tourism professionals. Have "an impact because we have lost the rally represents a loss of revenue for our hotel," Ndiaye said.

The rally attracted between 200 and 300 people, "the president of the hoteliers Lake Rosa, Idrissa Diop. When he owned a camp of the rally came to win five million francs (7,622 euros) in one day.

Cheikh Ba, installed in the village of artisans from a decade ago, sells musical instruments and traditional paintings, including two paintings depicting the silhouette of two nomads with the legend "Lisbon-Dakar 2008. "I have not sold last year," laments.

But beyond the economic losses in the Lake Rose, professionals fear repercussions on tourism in Senegal.

The rally was "a great event for the promotion of Senegal because in the world, people familiar with the Dakar," said the director general of the National Agency for the Promotion of Tourism, El Hadj Malick Mbaye, although this impact unencrypted .

"The Dakar had achieved over the years a large, measured in number of competitors," he says with bitterness the secretary general of the federation of motor sports, André Mathieu, "disappointed" by the change of destination of the rally .

This year, the Lac Rose is getting a little consolation 11 January a new competition, Race Africa, driven by the Paris-Dakar tricampeón Hubert Auriol. But the Senegalese press has scarcely heeded and there has been almost no publicity surrounding the trial.

That race followed the tracks of the Paris-Dakar through France, Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal, but "in terms of communication has had less impact than the Dakar rally," admits Mamadou Diallo, head of the TUI group, which announces the presence of some fifty riders on arrival. "

The president-elect of the USA, Barack Obama says his economic stimulus plan could create or save three to four million jobs, at a time when unemployment rises and the first world power falls into recession.

"The recovery will not come overnight and it is likely that things will get worse before they improve," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio address.


But then he added: "I am confident that if we join (...), overcome the challenges of our time and write a major new chapter in our history." On Friday, Americans were shaken by the disclosure of official unemployment figures: 7.2% across the country, the highest rate of the last 16 years, with 524,000 jobs lost in December.

In this context, the elected president defended his plan to revitalize the economy, currently under debate in Congress that could reach 800,000 million dollars. "My team and I have been involved in a constructive dialogue with members of Congress in recent days, these last few weeks (...) We have made great progress in these consultations," said Obama in a press conference on Friday.


The successor to George W. Bush bid to create hundreds of thousands of posts in the education sector, which will give schools new classrooms, including computer laboratories and classrooms.

The modernization and improvement of the health system will also generate hundreds of thousands of new charges, said Obama. In particular he cited the digitization of medical records, which not only "saving money" but also "to save lives by minimizing medical errors."


He also said that a report commissioned a team of economists stressed the need for a strategy to boost economic recovery. Without a plan to organize the efforts of financial incentive, the country is exposed to lose between three and four million jobs in the coming months or years.

"If nothing is done, this recession may last for years," said the future head of the White House. In this regard, said that his plan, which promised to reveal just come into office on January 20, will help retain or create jobs, most in the private sector.


Republican side, lawmakers are concerned about rising budget deficit and the possibility of creating hundreds of thousands of public jobs. But Obama said that investment in alternative energy sources will generate about half a million new jobs over the next three years.

Ten days of assuming the presidency of the United States, Obama appealed to Congress and the public to support its economic recovery plan, which amounts to 775,000 million dollars.


The U.S. economy lost more than half a million jobs for the second consecutive time in December, making the unemployment rate climbing to 7.2%, its highest level since January 1993, according to the Labor Department. In all of 2008, the U.S. has lost 2.6 million jobs, which was not the case since 1945.

A ferry with 250 passengers and 17 crew members sank in a storm off the coast of Indonesia, authorities said Sunday.

Waves of two meters hit the boat while sailing from the island of Sulawesi to Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo.


The ship sank at dawn on Sunday, said Taufik, an official port. Like many Indonesians, uses only one name Taufik.

Several crew members were found alive, but the fate of the passengers is not clear, he said.


The boat sank Teratai Prima 50 kilometers (31.07 miles) west of Sulawesi, after its captain reported by radio that he was "in the midst of a storm," said Nurwahida also port official.

Eighteen survivors were rescued by fishing boats, but it ignores what happened initially with the rest, said Taufik.


According to Transport Minister Jusman Syafi'i Djamal, the captain reported that 150 people had jumped from the ship before its sinking, but was unaware of what had happened to them.

"We have prepared a search and rescue operations, but the process is affected by the strong waves," said Djamal.


The Teratai Prima, a ship of 700 tons, sank as it headed west Parepare port on the island of Sulawesi, due to Samarinda, East Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo island.

According to Taufik, fishermen rescued 18 crew members and passengers who were aboard the three lifeboats.


The nearest town to the site of the wreck is Majene, about 1370 kilometers (850 miles) northeast of the capital, Jakarta.

The boats are the main form of transport in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands with a population of 235 million.