Israeli Offensive in Gaza

Reactions to Israel's Gaza Offensive (Dec 2008)

Since the egyptian brokered peace treaty expired on December 19th 2008, Hamas (the authority in Gaza strip, their legally elected government and a militant organization) resumed firing rockets into Israel. Israel, United States and the West Bank palestinian governments as well as a few world leaders called on renewed peace talks between Israel and Hamas and for Hamas to cease firing rockets into Israel. Hamas declined to discuss peace offers and decided to continue firing. On December 27th 2008, Israeli Defense forces launched major air strikes into Gaza strip to cripple and to damage Hamas infastructure. The operations are set to continue "for weeks to come" according to the Israeli defense minister.

About 320 Palestinians have died since the start of the operation, the UN says. Four Israelis have been killed by rockets from Gaza (these figures are latest figures published on December 30th 2008). However, massive infastructural damage has been inflcted on Gaza strip from Arial bombardment and on Israeli soil from numberous rocket attacks (close to 200-400 rockets a day).

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate ceasefire and condemned both Israel and Hamas. While recognising Israel's right to defend itself from militant rocket attacks, Mr Ban condemned its "excessive use of force". The United States and other world leaders called for "peace talks" and ceasefires but refrained from condeming Israel. Arab leaders were quick to condem Israel and began to take various diplomatic steps to isolate Israel.

According to White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe, "In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire." President Bush has been quiet on the issue but everyone understands he supports Israel while Condolessa Rice wants to put more pressure on Israel to control itself and for Hamas to stop its attacks. Incoming President Barack Obama said "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that, And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."

Israel's defender minister Ehud Barak says Israel will be engaged with Hamas to the "bitter end." Israel's ground forces have been mobilized along the border and reserve units have been called into active duty - leading to the speculation that Israel will lead a ground invasion following the airstrikes. Meanwhile, the UN has been relatively quiet and most of the world's attentions are diverted to India and Pakistani tensions and the holidays.

In my opinion, Israel should quickly use this time to dismantle as many Hamas infastructure as possible. If civilian casualites are kept low (hard to do since Hamas uses human shields), Israel should be able to follow its operations without much hinderance. So far the media worldwide have voice concern over civlian deaths but has supported Israel's right to defend itself.

Content Source: Reactions to Israel's Gaza Offensive (Dec 2008) - Bukisa.com

Indian school of Business (ISB) named as one of the best

One of India's premier business schools ISB in Hyderabad - has made it to number 20 in the top 100 global B-schools in Londons Financial Times list.

One of India's premier business schools ISB in Hyderabad - has made it to number 20 in the top 100 global B-schools in Londons Financial Times list.

ISB has created a record of sorts by attracting 200 companies, which includes several fortune-500 ones.

India celebrates Hanukkah

While India celebrates Hanukkah, we take a look in Delhi where a small group of the Jewish community meets in the rabbi's house to remember the loved ones lost in the Bombay (Mumbai) terror attacks.

Tension is high but the rabbi and his wife are determined to not let it dent their spirit. Their emotions resonate among other members of their community.

Website Reviews

Website reviews: TheBreastCancerSite.com

The website TheBreastcancersite.com was created on August 18th of 2000 to address and raise awareness about Breast Cancer. According to the website page information, the site began in October of 2000 to help offer free mammograms to women in need women for whom early detection would not otherwise be possible.

Breast cancer is a growing epidemic among women and it arouses much fear because we all know someone who had it or someone who died from it. Each year, 211,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and 43,300 die. Thus the website engages the users in simple activities that are constructive and tends to raise funds and awareness for the research and solution of this issue.

 

With a simple, daily click of the pink button at The Breast Cancer Site, visitors help provide mammograms to those in need. Visitors pay nothing. Mammograms are paid for by the site's sponsors and distributed by the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. The website also has a store where all items purchased helps pay for a free mammograms for women.

The website is registered by a man named Gregory Hesterberg, the man behind charityusa.com This organization is called the "Greater Good Network" because it is a family of online activism sites that harness the power of the Internet to help people, animals, and causes in need. Thus the issue of Breast Cancer is just one of the many issues they address.

For the many people who want someone to contact can choose to write to the creator of the website at the following address:

Charity USA.Com, LLC
Gregory Hesterberg
600 University St., Ste.1000
Seattle, WA 98101
US

However, if you wish to contact the website staff only for feedback or some more input, you can write a letter to:

The Breast Cancer Site
One Union Square
600 University Street, Suite 1000
Seattle, WA 98101-4107
U.S.A.

Contact email for the website staff is: customerserver@thebreastcancer site.com

There is no phone numbers listed for the staff. However, you can get in touch directly with Gregory Hesterberg by writing a email to: gregh@thehungersite.com or calling him via phone at: 734-475-0409

All calls regarding web page issues, website host issues or any other technical issues should not be placed to thebreastcancersite staff but you call 212-798-9200 or technical assistance.

Currently there are two join owners of this site. Long-time environmental activists Tim Kunin and Greg Hesterberg met at the University of Michigan while working on the Michigan Bottle Bill ballot campaign in 1976. Today their interests have sparked a varied interest in online activism and involvement in community projects. As enthusiastic supporters of The Hunger Site, they realized the power of providing busy Internet users with a fast, free and easy way to make a difference and launched EcologyFund.com to give people the means to support wilderness preservation efforts worldwide. They are particularly excited about The Breast Cancer Site, as both are sons of breast cancer survivors.

Content Source: Website reviews: TheBreastCancerSite.com - Bukisa.com

Ikariam Review

Game Review: Ikariam.org

Ikariam is a online browser game featuring a world with thousands of other real players. One begins the game with a single town on an Island and must make buildings, troops and alliances to advance in the game. Ikariam began as a small game offered by a German company(Gameforge Productions GmbH) and has now spread around the world with over 12 different international servers. Ikariam enjoys a growing audience and is great for a complicated online multiplayer real-time empire building game. Of course, the game can be played for free and is much much better than Travian online.

In the game, you spawn with a small level 1 city on an Island. The neat feature of this game is that every player starts on an Island with specific resources. The resources in the game are Building Material, Wine, Marble, Crystal Glass and Sulfur. Each island has 1 building material and 1 random resource (such as wine or marble or crystal or sulfur). As your city grows and you build and expand your buildings, you can assign workers to exploit those resources for the glory of your empire. When big enough, you can move onto other Islands to start gathering resources there and expand your empire further.

The game's updates and news are integrated into the game via the "advisers." Every time something happens in your empire or some news-worthy event occurs, your advisers send you a notification. When you start the game, you will find that these advisers will be very crucial to stay up to-date on all the events in your empire. Overall the game offers some great gaming experience, advanced browser game features, complicated alliance systems and some great house of time-killing fun.

The game itself is fairly new. It was created on July 8th 2007 and the sad fact is that much of the game is still in beta version with numerous glitches and patches being fixed and applied to the game. The good news is that the game provides a forum for members to request help, report bugs or glitches and take care of in-game issues and the moderators are really fast and very customer friendly.

But for those wondering how to contact the game creators or a mod (if you were banned from the forums), i want to say that i have the solution to your problem. The man behind the game is called Klaas Kersting and his address is:

Albert-Nestler-Str. 8
Karlsruhe, DE 76131
DE

You may also call the company headquarters at +49.7213548080 or fax them your hate-mail at +49.721354808152. But your best bet lies with contacting them through email and the best email is tech@gameforge.de however customers and players are urged to email to info@gameforge.de

Anyway, Ikariam was a good game still and it can improve a bit more. It is currently in its beta stage with growing users turning to that game - most of those users from another German game called Travian. My recommendation is for you to try the game and see if you like it but be warned that this game can consume alot of your time especially if you get involved in alliances and wars. If you do not like browser games, then go out and buy a real game for your PC or your game console.

Content Source: Game Review: Ikariam.org - Bukisa.com

India stands united in grief

India stands united in grief

Bollywood celebrities speak to India after Terror Attacks