thesun 2009-01-19 page01 ceasefire in gaza

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No. 4681 PP 2644/12/2009 (023092)

MondayJanuary 19, 2009

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Ceasefire in GazaG

AZA: Palestinian militants announced aone-week ceasefire yesterday after Israelcalled a unilateral halt to its massive of-fensive on Gaza, as medics pulled dozens

of bodies from the rubble of bombed-outhomes.

After exchanges of gunfire and an air strikepunctured what Israeli Prime Minister EhudOlmert acknowledged was a fragile cease-fire, Gazas Hamas rulers and other armedgroups said they would silence their guns forthe next seven days to give Israeli troops achance to withdraw from the territory.

We in the Palestinian resistance move-ments announce a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip

and demand that enemy forces withdraw ina week and open all the border crossings topermit the entry of humanitarian aid and basicgoods, Mussa Abu Marzuk, the deputy leader

of Hamass politburo, said in Damascus.Dawud Shihab, a Gaza-based spokesman

for Islamic Jihad, a smaller armed faction,said the truce would give an opportunity forArab governments to put pressure on Israel towithdraw all its troops.

During this period, the resistance is readyto respond to all efforts by the Egyptians,Turks, Syrians and Arabs that will allow for atotal withdrawal of Israeli soldiers and the totalopening of border crossings, he told AFP.

HAMAS TO SILENCE GUNS FOR A WEEK AFTER ISRAEL DECLARES TRUCE

45,000 facetemporary lay-offby Tan Yi Liangnewsdesk@thesundaily.com

KUALA LUMPUR: About 45,000 workers facethe prospect of being temporarily laid offduring the Chinese New Year period due tofalling demand, said Human Resource MinisterDatuk S. Subramaniam. During the period, the

factories will be on holiday for two to threeweeks and workers have been asked to takeleave. Some are on paid leave, and some onno-pay leave, he said yesterday.

Explaining that the lay-offs are due to adrop in orders, he said the factories felt that ifthey did not operate for two or three weeks,they could reduce their output and solve theissue of declining orders.

Subramaniam said the government waswatching the situation closely. We haveopened 80 centres nationwide to monitorthe problem; at the same time, we aretrying to find information on availablevacancies. As at Jan 12, there are15,000 vacancies registered with theministry, and those who have beenforced to stop work in one field can findwork in other areas, he said.

The government will help job-seekers find jobs, he told a press confer-ence after opening an agriculture seminarand workshop at Universiti Malaya.

Subramaniam also said the governmentwas considering the proposed pension planfor private sector retirees to overcome theproblem of needy senior citizens.

There are many facing financialdifficulties, especially in the private sector.After they retire at 55, they receive an EPFpayment of RM33,000. However, the money isall spent within a year or two, he said.

He said one source of the problem was thebreakdown of the traditional extended family.

Normally, they depend on their chil-dren to look after them, but this does nothappen today. This creates a situation wherepoverty exists among senior citizens and theyare forced to turn to the welfare departmentand Socso for assistance with the hope ofqualifying for invalidity pension, he said.

He said that more than 80% of applicantsfor the disability pension did not qualify.

He expects the problem to get worse. Thelifespan of Malaysians is increasing to about 70to 75 years. We need to ensure that they have

financial freedom. The question is, how do wedo that, said Subramaniam.

Militants in Gaza, however, fired two rocketsinto Israel following the announcement withoutwounding anyone, police said.

Israeli troops in Gaza pulled back from key

positions in and around Gaza City yesterdaytowards the border fence east and north of thecity, witnesses said.

Meanwhile, an international summit ofEuropean and Arab leaders aimed at shoringup the truce took place in the Egyptian resortof Sharm el-Sheikh while officials in Cairo heldtalks with Hamas with the same goal.

European leaders called on Israel to with-draw from the Palestinian territory and onmilitants to stop firing rockets.

This fragile ceasefire has got to be followedimmediately, if it is to be sustainable, by hu-manitarian access ... by troop withdrawals, byan end to arms trafficking, said British PrimeMinister Gordon Brown.

He also joined international calls for an endto Palestinian rocket fire.

Olmert announced late Saturday that hehad ordered an end to offensive operations inGaza after 22 days of combat but that troopswould remain in the territory and would fireback if attacked.

After the ceasefire came into effect at 2am(8am in Malaysia), Gaza enjoyed its firstbomb-free night in more than three weeks,but there were soon signs that the calm wasunravelling.

As militants fired rockets and Israellaunched retaliatory air strikes, troops shotdead an eight-year-old girl in the northerntown of Beit Hanun and a 20-year-old mannear Khan Yunis in the south, medics

said.Gaza medics took advantage of the halt in

the fighting to rush to areas which had beeninaccessible, pulling at least 95 bodies from therubble, including those of several children.

The discoveries brought the overall deathtoll since Israel launched Operation Cast Leadon Dec 27 to at least 1,300, the medics said,making it by far the deadliest Israeli offensiveever launched on the Gaza Strip.

On the ground, as Hamas congratulated thePalestinians on victory from mosque loud-speakers, Gaza residents cautiously venturedout into the streets to survey the rubble thatwas once their homes. AFP

REUTERSPIX

Obama lookalike ...Obama lookalike ...As Barack Obama, who arrived by train in Washington yesterday, takes his oath as the44th President of the United States tomorrow, Ilham Anas, 47, will be watching the historicmoment on television, just like millions of others around the world. But for the Indonesianphotographer, who looks like the first African American to hold the most powerful job in thefree world, it will be especially meaningful. Reports pages 8 and 9.