NPR 2008-12-28

Israel says the offensive it launched against the Islamist Hamas Group in the Gaza Strip today is aimed at improving the security situation in southern Israel which has been the target of salvos of rockets and mortar 1 shells fired from Gaza. Israeli warplanes struck at Hamas targets today, killing 2 more than 230 people and injuring hundreds of others. Israeli Defense 3 Minister Ehud Barak did not rule out the use of ground forces in the offensive. "If boots on the ground will be needed, there will be too. I don't to hide it. We will act until we reach the objective of this operation. " Barak was on FOX NEWS.

The daytime attack triggered widespread confusion as well as problems at hospitals in Gaza as the BBC's Rushdi Abou Alouf reports.

The main hospital, Shifa Hospital, in Gaza are still sending appeal for the people to go on donate their blood there since that we are running out of medicine. The operation rooms in the hospital are out of capacity. We have hundreds of people. They are in urgent need for a surgeon as we have no surgeons to do the surgeries. They are calling that Egypt to open the Rafah crossing, and we had that Egypt has already opened Rafah crossing and they are now caught or anything in some sort of transferring some people to the hospital in Egypt. The BBC's Rushdi Abou Alouf in Gaza.

The US is calling for re-establishment of a ceasefire there, but is blaming Hamas for violating the truce 4 in the first place. The reaction was quite different in the Arab world as NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

Arab League head Amr Moussa said "we face a major humanitarian 5 catastrophe 6 as the dead and wounded are collected. " Demonstrations 7 have been reported from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. As one of the few Arab states with diplomatic relations with the Jewish state, Egypt summoned the Israeli ambassador to complain about the air strikes. President Hosni Mubarak also ordered Egyptian emergency crews to bring wounded Gazans to Egyptian hospitals. Statements from the United Nations, Britain, France and Russia all called on both the Israelis and the Islamist Hamas Movement to end the violence. Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Cairo.

The explosion of a kerosene 8 heater touched off a fire at a duplex in Philadelphia last night. The blaze killed seven people. Joel Rose reports.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation 9, but the deadly blaze appears to have started with a kerosene heater. One neighbor told the Associated Press he saw a woman at the home add fuel to the heater shortly before it exploded. Firefighters arrived at the scene minutes after receiving an emergency call but they were not able to save the four adults and three children who died in the fire. Six of the victims were discovered in a basement that had only one exit. Firefighters say there were no smoke detectors 10 in the house. For NPR News, I'm Joel Rose in Philadelphia.

Environmental groups are accusing public health officials in Tennessee of downplaying the risk from a massive spill of potentially toxic 11 residue 12. The sludge came out of a reservoir at a coal-fired power plant.

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Rain and higher temperatures in the Pacific Northwest are expected to melt much of the snow that has fallen in the region over the past couple of weeks, 19 inches of snow in Portland for instance. In Seattle, forecasters are optimistic the rain will not trigger any major flooding. But there were still travel problems in eastern Oregon today and eastern Washington State got several inches of additional snow.

Consumer confidence is down not only in the United States but also across North America. But you wouldn't know it from watching shoppers in Canada on this, the traditional biggest shopping day of the year in that country, Boxing Day. More from Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto.

Hordes 13 of customers jammed parking lots and long lineups marked Boxing Day sales in most of Canada's major cities. Some store owners described it as retail 14 fever as Canadians came out in the tens of thousands in their annual search for bargains on the day after Christmas when many retailers 15 offered their deepest price cuts. Some store owners say many held off making big purchases, hoping for better deals closer to Christmas. At least one analyst 16 says it won't last, adding that even if store traffic remains 17 high, that won't be reflected in dollar sales as Canadians batten down their wallets for a tough year ahead. However, many retailers report Boxing Day sales at least as strong as last year. In contrast, the US holiday shopping season has been less jolly as some agencies say retail sales are down as much as 8% compared with last year. For NPR News, I'm Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto.

Federal Prosecutor 18 Patrick Fitzgerald has asked Illinois lawmakers not to subpoena 19 two aides to President-elect Barack Obama and the lawmakers have agreed. Fitzgerald said those subpoenas 20 would interfere 21 with his ongoing 22 probe of corruption 23 charges against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich has strongly denied any wrongdoing.