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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Israel will continue its offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, despite a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. Hamas leaders also dismissed the measure, saying it did not take Palestinian interests into account. The resolution, approved late Thursday by a 14-0 vote, calls for a truce leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces. It also demands an end to Hamas rocket attacks and calls for the unimpeded distribution of humanitarian aid. The United States abstained from the vote, saying it wants to see the outcome of mediation efforts by Egypt. In Gaza, Israeli warplanes carried out at least 50 air strikes overnight and early today, killing at least 12 Palestinians. Hamas also continued firing rockets into southern Israel. Meanwhile, a U.N. report issued today said 30 Palestinians were killed earlier this week when the Israeli army moved more than 100 civilians into a house, warned them to stay insi...

A young girl is sitting in front of me, ironing the white shalwar kameez that is her uniform ,ready for school the next day. We have been chatting about the usual stuff - clothes, movies, school... I ask her about the halats and how it affects her - halat meaning the situation. No more needs to be said: she knows I am talking about. what has repeatedly been termed The Kashmir Issue. "So many girls have been raped in Kashmir and so many of them are known to me," she said. "One girl was interrogated and raped in front of her begging father-in-law." She sees the tears in my eyes, folds the kameez she has just finished ironing and picks up the shalwar. "This is what happens all the time - our lives are built around deaths, rapes, murders. For two days we go to college and then for the next four days it's closed because of a curfew or something going on." This is not a joke to them, there is no childlike joy in being given a day off school. She feels it ...