Israeli tanks, troops advance into Gaza

Israeli tanks, troops advance into Gaza 
Ground assault ups political and military stakes for Jewish state 

GAZA: - Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants battled in Gaza yesterday after Israeli troops and tanks invaded the coastal enclave in the most serious fighting in the conflict in decades.
More than 30 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed as Israeli shells slammed into houses and Hamas-ruled Gaza’s main shopping district. Israel said one of its soldiers was killed, 30 others wounded.

The ground operation launched on Saturday night is the second phase in an offensive that began as a week-long aerial onslaught aimed at halting Hamas rocket fire that has reached deeper and deeper into Israel, threatening major cities and one-eighth of Israel’s population.

The offensive’s stated aim is to destroy the militants’ rocket-launching infrastructure, Israel said, indicating it has no intention to reoccupy the Gaza Strip.

But at least 32 rockets were fired at Israel yesterday, one hitting a house in Sderot and wounding a woman.

The Israeli ground assault brings new risks and the prospect of many new casualties on both sides in a confrontation that had already cost the lives of more than 500 Palestinians and four Israelis.

Israeli officials said the offensive could last many days.

‘The government did everything before deciding to launch the operation. This is an unavoidable operation,’ Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.

While the air offensive presented little risk for Israel’s army, sending in ground troops is much more dangerous. Hamas is believed to have some 20,000 gunmen and has had time to prepare.

‘There is a bigger strategic opportunity here to undermine Hamas,’ said analyst Mark Heller at the National Institute Of Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv.

‘It’s a gamble though, because, if the operation goes bad, or international intervention spurred by heart-rending pictures from Gaza forces Israel to cut the operation short without achieving its aims, it will boomerang and end up undermining Israel’s deterrent credibility.’

The fighting also holds significant political risks for Israeli leaders before national polls on Feb 10, especially if its forces take heavy casualties in street fighting.

Israeli tanks and troops virtually cut Gaza in half in a night-time advance on Saturday, and yesterday were ringing Gaza City, Palestinian witnesses said.

A foreign Red Crescent doctor in a Gaza hospital called the situation a nightmare. ‘Civilians are being killed…shells are severing people’s legs, shrapnel is going into people’s bodies and into people’s homes. Everyone is terrified,’ she said.

Calls for a ceasefire from the United States, Israel’s staunch backer, other foreign governments and the United Nations failed to gain traction over disagreements about its terms.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the ground push was to protect southern Israel from Hamas rocket attacks. ‘It won’t be easy. It won’t be short,’ said Mr Barak.

Hamas said Israeli troops faced death or capture. ‘The Zionist enemy must know his battle in Gaza is a losing one,’ said Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida.

In Gaza City, streets remained deserted yesterday after frantic families fled as tanks rumbled into the area accompanied by Israeli infantry.

The plight of Palestinian civilians was growing more desperate as humanitarian agencies warned that water, food and medical supplies were running short.

Heavy civilian casualties are likely to increase international pressure on Israel to halt its biggest operation in the Gaza Strip in four decades.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Israeli attack as ‘a vicious aggression’.

The US said a ceasefire should take place as soon as possible but must guarantee an end to Hamas rocket strikes.

Former British premier Tony Blair, envoy for powers sponsoring Middle East peace talks, was to meet Mr Barak yesterday. France, whose President Nicolas Sarkozy is due in Jerusalem today, condemned the Israeli invasion and Hamas rocket fire.

Israel’s assault on Gaza also drew cries of alarm across Asia yesterday , with Pakistan, China and Singapore calling for it to end and angry Muslims in Indonesia urging war against the Jewish state.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG

 
Source : Straits Times - 05 Jan 2009

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Israeli army storms Gaza as Palestinian toll passes 500

Israeli army storms Gaza as Palestinian toll passes 500

GAZA CITY : Tens of thousands of Israeli troops backed by tanks battled Hamas fighters in Gaza fields and roads on Sunday as the Palestinian death toll from the offensive to end militant rocket attacks passed 500.

Israeli forces surrounded the enclave’s main city and families fled other battlefield towns in packed trucks and cars to escape the biggest Israeli military operation since its 2006 war in Lebanon.

More than 45 Palestinians were killed by tank shells or missiles fired from warplanes since the ground offensive was launched on Saturday night, Gaza medics said.

Israel said one of its soldiers was by a mortar shell and about 30 were wounded.

Moawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza medical emergency services, told AFP the number of Palestinian killed since the Israeli operation was launched on December 27 had now passed 500, including 87 children.

But he expected the death toll to mount further saying “there are many martyrs and wounded in the streets, but we have not been able to get to them.”

Five members of the same family died when a tank shell hit their car near Gaza City on Saturday, emergency services said.

International efforts to halt the conflict sought new impetus after the UN Security Council failed even to agree the wording of a statement on the conflict, with the United States giving strong backing to Israel.

A Russian presidential envoy and an EU ministerial delegation headed to the Middle East to make pleas for a ceasefire.

Israeli infantry and tanks took over areas around Gaza City. Heavy fighting was also reported around the northern towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanun and Jabaliya.

Regular explosions shook the ground and machine gun fire echoed across the Hamas-controlled enclave , home to 1.5 million people, which has been under an Israeli blockade for months.

Hamas fighters fired mortar rounds and detonated roadside bombs in front of advancing Israeli troops, witnesses said.

But the Israeli army took control of the Salaheddine Road, the main highway along the length of the enclave and caught Gaza City in a pincer movement.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak said that “the operation will be expanded and intensified as much as necessary. War is not a picnic.”

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Gaza offensive had been “unavoidable” but Israel would not open a new front in the north, a veiled reference to tensions with the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

Olmert said he had ordered the army to be “extremely alert” in case “someone might think that this is his opportunity to take advantage” of the conflict in Gaza.

Israel unleashed “Operation Cast Lead” with the declared aim of ending rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza that resumed after a six-month truce ended in December.

Rocket fire over the past week has killed four people in Israel. Thirty two rockets and mortar rounds were fired across the border on Sunday and hit Sderot, Ashdod and other towns, lightly injuring three people.

Schools in southern Israel remain closed. Streets clear as soon as siren alerts of incoming rockets are sounded by authorities.

Israel’s offensive has sparked spiralling anger in the Muslim world and protests across the globe.

Israeli troops shot and killed a protester during a demonstration in the West Bank. Tens of thousands of Turks also staged an anti-Israeli rally in Istanbul.

The UN Security Council failed to agree a statement calling for a ceasefire in closed-door consultations late Saturday.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum condemned the Security Council action as “a farce” dominated by the United States, which has strongly supported Israel.

Deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, Alejandro Wolff, said: “The efforts we are making internationally are designed to establish a sustainable, durable ceasefire that’s respected by all. And that means no more rocket attacks. It means no more smuggling of arms.”

France has led international criticism of the Israeli offensive that Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas warned would have “grave consequences” for the region.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to hold talks on Monday with Olmert in Jerusalem and Abbas in Ramallah.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called the attack a “dangerous military escalation” that would undermine truce efforts.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the Israeli ground offensive had created a “very dangerous moment” in the conflict.

Egypt summoned the ambassadors of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — to protest at the delay in passing a ceasefire resolution.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana called for an immediate ceasefire, adding that European nations were ready to contribute international monitors to help.

Israel has called a snap general election for February 10, and the current leadership has widespread public support for the offensive.

- AFP /ls

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 05 Jan 2009

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Worldwide alarm at Israeli ground offensive

Worldwide alarm at Israeli ground offensive

PARIS : Israel’s tank and troop assault on the Gaza Strip unleashed cries of alarm worldwide on Sunday, but Israel won US backing as moves for an immediate ceasefire foundered at the United Nations.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown echoed grave European concerns when he said the ground offensive was a “very dangerous moment” in the conflict, and he called for increased efforts to rapidly secure a ceasefire.

The offensive was condemned across the Middle East, with Egypt saying the UN Security Council’s silence on Israel’s eight-day campaign of air strikes had effectively given Israel “a green light” for the ground assault.

Asian nations expressed alarm, too, with Pakistan and China calling for an immediate end to the assault and Muslims in Indonesia urging war against the Jewish state.

But in New York, the Security Council failed to agree on a statement calling for a ceasefire after the United States argued that a return to the situation that existed before Israel’s ground invasion was unacceptable.

US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said after the four-hour sitting that Washington believed it was important that the region “not return to the status quo” that had allowed Hamas militants to fire rockets into Israel.

“The efforts we are making internationally are designed to establish a sustainable, durable ceasefire that’s respected by all,” Wolff said. “And that means no more rocket attacks. It means no more smuggling of arms.”

As thousands of Israeli soldiers and scores of tanks pushed into Gaza Sunday, the British premier said assurances needed to be given to both the Israelis and Hamas to secure a ceasefire.

“I think everybody around the world is expressing grave concerns. What we’ve got to do almost immediately is to work harder than we’ve done for an immediate ceasefire,” Brown said on BBC television.

“I can see the Gaza issues for the Palestinians — that they need humanitarian aid — but the Israelis must have some assurance that there are no rocket attacks coming into Israel,” he said.

“So first we need an immediate ceasefire, and that includes a stopping of the rockets into Israel.”

At least 19 Palestinians were killed in the fresh fighting. Medics in Gaza said more than 460 Palestinians died in the preceding bombing campaign.

Rocket fire from Gaza over the same period has killed four Israelis.

European reaction to the ground offensive revealed a sharp difference in tone from the official US line.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the decision to send troops into Gaza was a “dangerous military escalation”.

The European Union’s new Czech presidency said Israel’s ground operation was more “defensive than offensive”, although it said Israel did not have the right to take military actions “which largely affect civilians”.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Israel’s incursion into the impoverished territory was in “brazen defiance” of international calls to end the offensive — and he blamed the Security Council for failing to act.

“The Security Council’s silence and its failure to take a decision to stop Israel’s aggression since it began was interpreted by Israel as a green light,” he said.

In Asia, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the Israeli offensive was “unjustified” and he called for an immediate halt to the fighting.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso warned that Israel’s ground offensive into Gaza would only worsen the situation.

“I’m very worried that the dispatch of ground troops will make the situation much worse,” he said.

There was outrage too in Africa. Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade, who also holds the presidency of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), called the Israeli ground offensive a “flagrant violation of the most elementary principles of international law”.

- AFP /ls

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 05 Jan 2009

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Market off to rousing start with surge - NEW YORK

Market off to rousing start with surge - NEW YORK

Rise may sputter when the pros get back on the saddle
By ANDREW MARKS

NEW YORK CORRESPONDENT

IF US stock market investors were looking for a good omen with which to start the new year, they couldn’t have asked for a much better one than the first trading day of the new year.
 
Glamour on the street: Singer/actress Liza Minnelli at the podium for the closing bell at NYSE last Friday. The Dow soared to close above 9,000 for the first time in nearly two months 
The market got off to a rousing start with a one-day surge in the face of more weak economic data that indicated investors were ready to put 2008 behind them and happy to welcome in the 2009 trading year.

If only Wall Street had been around to enjoy, and more importantly, participate in the rally that took place on Friday and for most of the holiday week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. But with most of the professional investment and trading world away on vacation last week - or at home licking their wounds - as evidenced by the slim trading volume, the few market analysts around to observe the action cautioned that the market’s recent surge may very well sputter once fund managers and institutional investors get back to work today.

‘The Santa Claus rally came after all, albeit following a four-week losing streak beforehand, and the low volume throws up a big question mark if you’re hoping that the rally has any legs to it,’ said Marc Pado, chief market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.

End-of-year rallies are often the product of the market being left in the hands of small, retail investors, who tend to embark on optimistic buying sprees as the old year rolls over into the new. ‘Then when the pros come back, reality tends to reassert itself,’ he said.

Still, no one was complaining about the stock market’s 8 per cent climb that began on Dec 24, featuring 2008’s lowest number of shares changing hands, which helped bring the S&P 500’s losses for the year under 40 per cent. Nonetheless, the 38.5 per cent loss for the year was the biggest since 1937, when the US was in the midst of a depression.

On Friday, investors showed that they were still willing to remain hopeful for 2009 in the face of bleak conditions. Getting the crucial first month of the year off to a rousing start will be a good omen for the stock market, if one recalls the saying, ‘As goes January, so goes the year.’

Wall Street traders remember all too well that last year’s first day of trading started with a big loss, which carried through to a 6 per cent plunge the rest of 2008’s first month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 258.30 points or 2.9 per cent on Friday, to close at 9,034.69, the first time it went above 9,000 in nearly two months. The S&P 500 jumped 3.16 per cent, or 28.55 points, to close at its highest level since early November at 931.80. The Nasdaq composite index rose 55.18 points, or 3.5 per cent, to 1,632.21.

For the holiday-shortened week, the Dow gained more than 500 points, or 6.1 per cent, snapping a four-week losing streak. The S&P had the best weekly performance, up 6.76 per cent, while the Nasdaq rose almost as much.

If the rally is to continue, analysts believe investors will soon need to see some signs that economic conditions are at least hitting bottom in crucial sectors such as housing, where all the problems began.

But as indicated by last week’s S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index, which slumped a year-over-year record 18 per cent in October, the bottom is a ways off yet.

In the meantime, it will be up to government intervention and spending programmes, such as last week’s announcement that the US Treasury would make a US$5 billion investment in GMAC, and would lend General Motors another US$1 billion to participate in a GMAC rights offering that supports GMAC’s reorganisation as a bank holding company.

‘The problem with relying on government moves like that is they can’t go on forever, or if they do, investors will stop taking heart from them if there’s nothing positive to show for all these billions of dollars,’ said Mr Pado

There have been limited signs that the government’s efforts are working. Mortgage rates have dropped, yields on Treasuries have risen and spreads on corporate bonds, while still wide as the Grand Canyon, have narrowed somewhat.

Any and all help coming from Washington will be welcomed on Wall Street, as the professional class of investors gets the New Year going with a full plate of data likely to be heaped with grim details of the economy’s continuing swoon.

‘The big number everyone will be keying on is the December employment report. It’s been pretty awful and the hope has to be that it’s not much worse than what we’ve been seeing the last couple of months,’ said Mr Pado.

Fourth quarter earnings has another two weeks before it takes the spotlight, but Wall Street might get a boost from the corporate side in the technology sector this week - the Consumer Electronics show and Mac World, Apple’s big gathering, could produce some interesting news.

 
Source : Business Times - 05 Jan 2009

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Pillar of strength in a wilting economy

Pillar of strength in a wilting economy

Cost and pricing advantages and public spending set to put construction industry in a good spot
By ARTHUR SIM

(SINGAPORE) The construction sector looks to be the only pillar of growth in the Singapore economy this year, especially if there are significant increases in public infrastructure spending.
Latest official flash estimates reveal that the sector continued to grow in Q4 2008, albeit at a slower 13.3 per cent.

While this is down from 18.6 per cent in the previous quarter, a recent survey of financial analysts conducted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore revealed that the general sentiment was that construction activity is expected to expand relatively strongly in 2009 - although at just around half the pace in 2008 - of about 7.5 per cent.

‘The construction sector will lead GDP growth in the next two years, but it only accounts for about 5-7 per cent of 2009/2010 GDP,’ said CIMB-GK analyst Song Seng Wun.

Still, Mr Song reckons the sector could grow by about 15 per cent year-on-year over the next two years, which is about as optimistic as one can get about any sector.

It is also notable that forecast growth is nowhere near trough levels in Q3 ‘99 and Q1 ‘03, which fell to minus 11.9 per cent and minus 14.9 per cent year- on-year respectively.

 
 
The executive chairman of contractor Lian Beng Group, Ong Pang Aik, is sanguine about this year’s prospects. He expects to see an increase in the number of public sector projects starting in the first half of 2009.

As chance would have it, Mr Ong believes the likely fall in construction costs will also accelerate the pace of new projects and possibly even fatten profit margins of contracts inked earlier.

‘We had to bear the cost of materials going up before. So when they come down, we will also make a bigger profit,’ he added.

United Engineers’ group managing director and CEO Jackson Yap is also optimistic about the year ahead.

‘Thanks to the relatively long project cycles - as most construction projects will take about two to three years to complete - construction contracts secured during the industry boom over part of this and last year will keep many construction companies busy for at least the next two years,’ he said.

According to property and construction consultancy Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB), steel export prices started to fall in the second half of 2008 with the average supply price of steel reinforcement now down by about 30 per cent from about $1,500 per tonne to $1,100.

RLB managing partner Winston Hauw said that based on current demand and cost trends, the tender price escalation is anticipated to decline, averaging in the order of minus 10 per cent to minus 15 per cent year-on-year for 2009.

But while traded prices for base metals are currently much lower compared to the first half of 2008, Mr Hauw says that prices of mechanical and electrical (M&E) services for building developments have not as yet moderated.

‘The limited pool of specialist subcontractors in the local market is for now pre-occupied with the large existing workload,’ he added.

RLB also noted that notwithstanding the general decline in many base construction materials, the average supply prices for cement and granite aggregates have actually increased as at November 2008, although he believes the impact of this on building tender prices is insignificant.

Mr Hauw said: ‘We see the forthcoming year as a period of consolidation for the construction sector, with the management of costs and cash flows as key priorities, while positively looking ahead to opportunities, both locally and regionally.’

How low construction costs fall could be influenced by monetary policy too.

National University of Singapore economist Tilak Abeysinghe said that a weaker Singapore dollar will increase the import cost of building materials and will have a negative effect on residential property construction.

‘Unlike the export sector where you get an offset of the import cost from increased export revenue, the construction sector has to bear the import cost resulting from the weaker dollar,’ he said.

Tempering expectations some more, construction consultancy Hill International’s senior vice-president and managing director (Asia-Pacific) John Brells foresees developers deferring more projects. ‘Such delays consequently would give rise to more construction-related disputes,’ he said.

The bright spot again is infrastructure and public sector construction. In his discussions with contractors, Mr Brells said some who have not previously bid on government works are now looking to do so with more ‘looking at areas of construction outside their normal comfort zone’.

Job prospects in the sector could also be hit.

Construction information services provider BCI Asia estimates the value of projects under construction will contract by 20-30 per cent and its managing director Thor Kerr said: ‘Unemployment will rise quickly as the construction volume declines.’

He added that construction companies should survive provided their existing contracts have appropriate fee structures and payment schedules, and that ‘contractors do not quote below market price in order to maintain sales volume’.

To this, Lian Beng’s Mr Ong says that ‘undercutting’ is unlikely, because of the volatility of construction material prices.

On the jobs front, Mr Ong said that the sector is still reeling from poaching of staff over the past year. ‘Salaries have been frozen but we will not cut because the staff will leave,’ he said.

Source : Business Times - 05 Jan 2009

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