BOGOTÁ, Colombia – Four years ago, when Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos agreed to open a secret channel to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, only three people knew. One was Sergio Jaramillo, Colombia's high commissioner for peace, who was the government's strategist for peace talks with the guerrillas.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. forces launched a second wave of air strikes against Islamic extremists near Arbil in northern Iraq on Friday, destroying a militant convoy and killing a mortar team, the Pentagon said.
The strike on the school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the southern city of Rafah came as Israel pounded the region following the suspected capture of a soldier by militants, who was later declared dead.
BERLIN – Israel eavesdropped on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during doomed peace talks with the Palestinians last year, the German news weekly Der Spiegel reported Sunday.
In a joint statement, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said both sides in the conflict are sending delegations to Cairo for negotiations aimed at reaching a lasting cease-fire. During the 72-hour respite, Israel will not withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip, a demand that Hamas had previously made as a prerequisite to peace talks.
Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel González met with Israeli Ambassador Avraham Haddad at the Casa Amarilla Wednesday afternoon to express outrage at ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip and its devastating toll on civilians. He urged the Israeli diplomat to push for an immediate ceasefire. The Foreign Ministry also said its ambassador to Israel would briefly return to Costa Rica.
Solís: "If the situation continues as it has, the world, not just Costa Rica, is going to have to take increasingly strong measure to protect the lives of the weakest who are being bulldozed by an attitude that does not agree with the values that the government of Costa Rica defends.”
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – It was one of the worst scenes so far in a war that has put civilians in the crosshairs. An elementary school packed with hundreds of Palestinian evacuees seeking shelter under U.N. protection came under heavy fire Thursday, leaving 16 people dead and more than 100 wounded, including women, children and infants.
