8 ISRAELIS KILLED BY ARABS

Slight intensity earthquake rocks Kashmir
Srinagar, Thursday, March 06, 2008

A slight intensity earthquake hit parts of Indian administered Kashmir Thursday in the wee hours. The quake measuring 3.9 on the Richter Scale was felt in many parts of Kashmir Valley including summer capital Srinagar. According to the Meteorological office in Srinagar, the earthquake was felt at 0427 hours and its epicenter was 34.07 degrees North and 74.58 degrees East somewhere north of Srinagar. The slight tremors triggered panic among the people, who have been anxious over the unusual seismic activity in the region for past some weeks. This was the sixth tremor in Kashmir Valley in the past fortnight. There were no immediate reports of any damage.

On Sunday government had to come up with clarification that there is no confirmation of a major earthquake in the near future, after rumors started spreading that Kashmir is going to witness a high intensity earthquake following these small tremors.We are living in an earthquake prone area but when and where an earthquake will strike and what will be its magnitude nobody knows said Aamir Ali, Project Coordinator UNDP/Disaster Management in Srinagar in a statement. The statement gave detailed instruction regarding what to do and what not to do during an earthquake. Geologists say the region is located in a zone of high seismic activity. Srinagar falls in Seismic Zone-V and other parts of Indian administered Kashmir in Seismic Zone IV. A high intensity quake measuring 7.4 on the Richter Scale with its epicenter in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan administered Kashmir shook the region on October 8, 2005 causing large scale destruction.feedback@kashmirnewz.com

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Winter storm to hit Ontario in 2 stages
Fri Mar 7, 9:27 AM

CALGARY (CBC) - A winter storm brewing over Alabama could bring heavy snow to parts of southern and eastern Ontario in two stages on Friday and Saturday, Environment Canada says.The service issued a winter storm watch for Toronto early Friday, saying the city could receive more than 20 centimetres of snow on the weekend.The forecast called for two to four centimetres in Toronto on Friday afternoon, five centimetres on Friday night and 15 centimetres on Saturday.The first stage will begin Friday afternoon in southwestern Ontario and move into eastern regions by evening, Environment Canada said in a statement. After a short break overnight, the second snowfall is expected to begin Saturday afternoon in southwestern Ontario and later over eastern Ontario. It isn't expected to ease for several hours.Keep in mind that the snowfall duration will be about 36 hours, but the heaviest snow will be Saturday afternoon into the evening, the Environment Canada statement said.The Niagara region and the Kingston and Cornwall areas could be hit hard, receiving up to 50 centimetres.The latest storm watch in Toronto was issued as thousands of people prepared to leave the city for March break.More than 100,000 travellers are expected to pass through Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Friday. The day before the beginning of March break is considered one of the busiest travel days of the year.

Winter chill sends more people to soup kitchen, food bank
Fri Mar 7, 6:46 AM

NEW.BRUNSWICK (CBC) - Cold weather and higher power bills are being blamed for an increased number of visitors at Fredericton's food bank and soup kitchen.According to officials, approximately 64 per cent more visitors have used the Fredericton food bank in the first two months of 2008 compared to the same period last year.At Fredericton Community Kitchen, officials said 1,500 more meals were served in February 2008 than in 2007.The winter storms and the dropping temperatures this winter have left more people struggling with the cost of power in the province, said George Piers, administrator of the community kitchen.The Energy and Utilities Board approved a 5.9 per cent rate increase for NB Power in February. New Brunswickers had been paying an interim 6.4 per cent rate hike since August prior to the approval and the company is also seeking to further raise its rates by three per cent for April 1.If someone is on income assistance or they're on pension, they're getting so much a month and all of a sudden their power bills double or triple then this has a real bad effect on them, Piers said.Heather Gruchy, a 25-year-old mother of two, said she has managed to pay the bills to keep the heat this winter but it's left her needing help with food.

I don't like the fact that all the hydro is being upped every time you turn around, but you need the heat and you need the lights, Gruchy said.Governments need to come up with solutions to help the people being most affected by the increasing costs of energy and food, said Elizabeth Crawford-Thurber, executive director of the food bank.There's many things that need to be done, but they're the same things that have needed to be done for the last 10 years, Crawford-Thurber said. What needs to happen right now is to help people get these bills paid off so that they can move forward.

Snow falls in Texas; tornadoes in Fla. By JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press Writer MAR 7,08

DALLAS - Snow started falling in a band that stretched from central Texas to southern Ohio on Friday, while severe storms rolling through Florida spawned two tornadoes in the northern part of the state. The tornadoes touched down in the tiny coastal town of Keaton Beach in Taylor County and Capitola in Leon County, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Tallahassee, state emergency officials said. Power lines were brought down, but there were no reports of serious injuries or deaths.Up to a foot of snow was possible in several areas in the nation's midsection.It could get real nasty, said Dusty Harbage, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Jackson in eastern Kentucky, a region expected to be on the tail end of the wintry blast.The snow in Texas came on top of a storm system Thursday that left as much as 9 inches of snow on northern parts of the state and brought a tornado to the south part of the state.

A twister packing 95 to 105 mph winds in Corpus Christi on Thursday afternoon, but trees were snapped and several homes were damaged, said Roger Gass, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Corpus Christi. About 20 homes in northern Lake City were damaged, with a handful of homes destroyed in Capitola, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Tallahassee.The weather service said the Louisville, Ky., area could expect 8 to 12 inches of snow, starting Friday morning. The heaviest snow is expected Friday night and early Saturday, when 4 to 5 inches could fall within six or seven hours, said Joe Ammerman, a weather service meteorologist in Louisville.

It's not uncommon to get big snows in March, he said. The one good thing about that is it tends to warm up fairly fast and the snow doesn't stay around very long.In Arkansas, Weather Service forecaster John Lewis said conditions in Little Rock could be particularly hazardous by Friday evening.The winter storm Thursday left slick roads in North Texas that sent some school buses into ditches and hundreds of cars off the roads.South of Gainesville, several buses from the Callisburg school district slid into ditches as students from all grades were being taken home early Thursday because of the weather, Cooke County Emergency Management Coordinator Ray Fletcher said.The children walked out through the main doors except in one case, where the bus slid onto its side and they had to escape through a back door, he said. No injuries were reported.Associated Press writers Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark., and Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.

Millions of victims, little aid for Philippines disaster victims: report Thu Mar 6, 9:07 AM

MANILA (AFP) - Natural and man-made disasters affect nearly one in 10 people in the Philippines every year but millions of victims are largely left to fend for themselves, the Asian Development Bank said Thursday.Disasters, both natural and man-made, have been a major source of poverty and vulnerability in the Philippines, the Manila-based lender said in a country report.Situated in the Ring of Fire of volcanic islands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean and situated in the typhoon belt, the Philippines gets a hefty dose of typhoons, floods, devastating waves, landslides, quakes and volcanic eruptions.These adversely affected an annual average of about eight million people, mostly in rural areas, the bank said.

Only about one-half of the affected people received assistance from the government and private relief institutions.Of those assisted, the value of assistance was a miniscule amount, not even representing one percent of the average income during normal times of the poorest 30 percent of the population.The bank said there was a lack of funds as well as poor targetting caused by poor governance, leading to significant leakages and wastage of resources.It said the scant aid reaching displaced populations was a serious concern considering that disasters often inflict severe damage and loss to property and destroy the only means of livelihood for the poor.Failing to receive assistance, they risk falling to perpetual poverty traps.The bank said the Philippines gets hit every year with 20 typhoons that come with strong winds, intense rainfall and flooding.In recent years hydrologic events have become more intense and more frequent, presumably due to global climate change.

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Medvedev wins 70 percent of Russia vote MAR 7,07

MOSCOW - Dmitry Medvedev has won Russia's presidential election with over 70 percent of the vote, according to final results released Friday. Russia's Central Election Commission said Medvedev won Sunday's election with 70.28 percent of the vote. Turnout was 69.81 percent.Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov trailed with 17.72 percent, while ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky had 9.35 percent and little-known candidate Andrei Bogdanov captured 1.3 percent.Medvedev's landslide victory was virtually assured by a blessing from Vladimir Putin, the popular incumbent who said he would retain clout by becoming Medvedev's prime minister. Medvedev has repeatedly pledged to pursue Putin's policies.He thanked voters Friday, saying the broad public support meant a credit of trust to solve the main socio-economic problems which the country faces.

Putin captured about 53 percent of the vote in 2000 and won a second four-year term in 2004 with more than 71 percent, just above Medvedev's result. But the turnout in those elections — 60 and 64 percent, respectively — was significantly lower than a hefty 70 percent on Sunday.While Putin won about 49.5 million votes in the 2004 election, Medvedev was backed by more than 52.5 million voters, according to the final tally released Friday by Central Election Commission.The election was tainted by lopsided state media coverage favoring Medvedev and accounts of pressure on voters. Across Russia, voters said they were pushed, cajoled and pressured to cast ballots as part of a Kremlin campaign to ensure a strong victory for Putin's protege.During the Central Election Commission's session Friday, its Communist member, Yevgeny Kolyushin, demanded a recount, criticizing campaign violations and official efforts to boost voter turnout.The commission dismissed the criticism and endorsed Medvedev's election.

WORLD TERRORISM

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

2 PETER 2:5
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

2 PETER 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men

LEVITICUS 26:16
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you( sudden) terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

US blames Al-Qaeda after Baghdad blasts kill 68 by Salam Faraj MAR 7,08

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A twin attack in central Baghdad's commercial district which the US embassy on Friday blamed on Al-Qaeda killed at least 68 people, making it the second deadliest assault in Iraq this year. The roadside bomb, followed by a suicide attack, ripped through Al-Atar Street in the Karada neighbourhood on Thursday evening.In addition to the dead, 154 people were wounded, an interior ministry official said on Friday, adding that among the casualties were several women and children who had been cut down by the blasts while shopping.On Friday, relatives carried the bodies of loved ones killed in the attack to their burial site in Najaf, an AFP photographer said.Near the blast site, a number of roadside stalls had been destroyed, and windows of nearby shops and homes had been blown out by the force of the explosions.Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered security forces to chase and arrest the criminals who committed the attack.He blamed the terrorists and condemned the latest barbaric crime against the civilians, a statement released by his office said.The US embassy in Baghdad said the attack was carried out by Al-Qaeda.

Such indiscriminate mass violence demonstrates that Al-Qaeda in Iraq will spare no effort, however brutal, to attempt to re-ignite sectarian strife in Iraq, the embassy said in a statement released Friday.An interior ministry official said the attack was coordinated to inflict maximum casualties.First a roadside bomb went off and as people and police gathered to rescue the victims, a suicide bomber blew himself up amid the crowd, he said.The worst attack this year was on February 1, when bombings in the capital's bird market killed 100 people.The bombings came after the US military announced a reduction in troops on the back of what it claims to be a drop in violence across the country.On Thursday, the military said some 2,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, deployed in last year's surge, would not be replaced once they leave the country, likely within the next few weeks.

The US military currently has 158,000 troops in Iraq.

Figures collected by AFP on March 1 from the interior, defence and health ministries show that violence in Iraq surged in February after drop in each of the six months to January.Iraq saw 721 people killed in February, a 33 percent rise over January, when 541 people were killed. That was down from 1,856 last August.The drop over six months was attributed to a surge of an extra 30,000 US troops in Iraq, the formation by Sunni leaders of anti-Qaeda fronts and a ceasesfire by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

On Friday, another suicide bomber blew himself up near a police station in the northern city of Mosul. Four policemen were killed and 17 people wounded, including 15 policemen, police officials said. The bomber attacked the Al-Waqhas police station in the Ras al-Jadha neighbourhood at around 7:00 am (0400 GMT). In another incident, one person was killed and 14 wounded when two bombs went off within minutes of each other near the home of a police officer in Mosul, police said. The US military claims Mosul to be the last urban bastion of the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda and is involved in a massive operation there. It says US and Iraqi forces have managed to dent the Islamist group's networks elsewhere in the country, especially in the west and the centre following which the group has focused on Mosul, the third largest city of Iraq. Also on Friday, several armed men dressed like security forces stormed a house in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, south of the northern oil city of Kirkuk, and shot dead a woman and a child, police Captain Abdullah al-Bayati said. Three others from the same family were wounded.

BREAKING NEWS THU MAR 06,08 3:45 PM
AT LEAST 8 ISRAELIS KILLED BY MURDERER ARABS
By Stan L Bowman Jr.

A couple of hours ago at least one terrorist gunman went in to a Jerusalem Yesheva and started firing killing at least 8 Israelis and injuring at least 35 or more.

These murdering of innocent Israelis has got to stop, EU and USA get over to Israel quick and bomb Gaza to a crisp. This land is Israels GOD given land not ARAB MURDERERS who are in Gaza laughing and rejoicing over the innocent Israelis murdered.

This hating of Israel has to be told and Islam is a murderous, fierce so called religion. The world better get in there and protect Israel instead of sticking up for MURDERERS (ARABS).

Israelis mourn 8 killed at seminary By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer MAR 7,08 UPDATED

JERUSALEM - Thousands of mourners gathered outside a bullet-scarred Jewish seminary and said farewell Friday to eight students killed by a Palestinian gunman. Israel slapped a closure on the West Bank and beefed up security around Jerusalem. Masses of mourners marched in funeral processions after a rabbi who recited Hebrew psalms with the crowd repeating them after him.In the Gaza Strip, Hamas militants backtracked on an earlier claim of responsibility for the first major attack in Jerusalem in four years.The attacker walked through the Mercaz Harav seminary's main gate Thursday night and entered the library, where witnesses said some 80 students were gathered. He opened fire with an assault rifle and a pistol, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. The gunman was shot and killed on the scene.

Israeli officials said the victims were between ages 15 and 19 except one, who was 26. They identified one of the victims as 16-year-old Avraham David Moses, an American citizen whose parents moved to Israel in the 1990s. The State Department confirmed an American was killed and another wounded in the attack, but gave no other details .The attack came on the heels of an Israeli offensive on Gaza that Palestinian officials say killed more than 120. The campaign targeted militants who have been barraging southern Israel with rockets. Four Israelis have also been killed in fighting since last week.It was not immediately clear whether a militant group had orchestrated Thursday's shooting, and two Israeli television stations said security officials believed the perpetrator could have acted alone.Ibrahim Daher, head of Hamas' al-Aqsa radio, said his station put out an earlier claim of responsibility prematurely. Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas' military wing, confirmed the group was not taking credit for the attack — at least yet.There may be a later announcement ... But we don't claim this honor yet, he said.The family of Alaa Abu Dheim, a 25-year-old from east Jerusalem, said he had carried out the attack on the seminary, a prestigious center of Jewish studies identified with the leadership of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank.They said he was not a member of a militant group and described him as intensely religious. He had planned to get married in the summer, the family said.

Abu Dheim had been transfixed in recent days by the news of bloodshed in Gaza, said his sister, Iman Abu Dheim.He told me he wasn't able to sleep because of the grief, she said.Abu Dheim's family set up a mourning tent outside their home and hung green Hamas flags along with one yellow flag of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Family members said several relatives had already been taken for questioning by Israeli police.Israeli defense officials said the gunman came from Jabel Mukaber in east Jerusalem, where Palestinian residents hold ID cards giving them freedom of movement in Israel, unlike Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.Some Israeli lawmakers called for breaking off peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' moderate, West Bank-based government. But an Israeli official said the negotiations would continue.Israel will push ahead with talks so as not to punish moderate Palestinians for actions by people who are not just our enemies but theirs as well, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the government had yet to make an official announcement.Mark Regev, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman, said the shooting had almost certainly been organized in the West Bank. He would not confirm or deny that Israel had reached a decision to continue peace talks. The council of world leaders known as The Elders, meanwhile, said Friday it was sending a three-person team to help ease tensions in the region. Former President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and former Irish president Mary Robinson will visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia from April 13-21.

Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told mourners that Arabs in east Jerusalem who have been involved in militant activity should be expelled to the West Bank. The attack was the deadliest in Israel since a suicide bomber killed 11 people in Tel Aviv on April 17, 2006. As the gunman fired, students scrambled to flee, jumping out of windows. Holy books drenched in blood littered the floor. Rosenfeld said at least six empty bullet clips were found on the floor. David Simchon, head of the seminary, said the students had been preparing a celebration for the new month of the Jewish calendar, which includes the holiday of Purim. We were planning to have a Purim party here tonight and instead we had a massacre," he told Channel 2 TV. A seminary graduate who is an army officer and lives nearby rushed into the seminary with his weapon and killed the gunman, Simchon told Israel Radio. He saw the terrorist shooting, and with amazing resourcefulness he went into one of the rooms and managed to kill him, he said. Police said the seminary graduate was assisted by another man who also shot the Palestinian.

The seminary serves some 400 high school students and young Israeli soldiers, and many of them carry arms. Jewish seminarians gathered outside the library and screamed for revenge, shouting, Death to Arabs, while in Hamas-controlled Gaza thousands of Palestinians celebrated in the streets. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who called the attack an act of terror and depravity, told Abbas in a phone call Friday that she would do everything in her power to restore calm as soon as possible, said Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh.

Abbas, who condemned the seminary attack, suspended negotiations this week because of the spike in violence in the Gaza Strip, but later backed down under pressure from Rice, who was in the region to push the talks forward. Associated Press writers Dalia Nammari in east Jerusalem and Sarah el Deeb in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.