BETHLEHEM, West Bank: Graffiti artist Banksy is trying to bring cheer and boost tourism in Bethlehem this Christmas with a series of subversive murals in the town revered as Jesus’ birthplace.

The elusive street artist has painted six provocative new images — including a dove of peace strapped with a bulletproof vest and a young girl with pigtails frisking an Israeli soldier — on buildings around the West Bank town.

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A Panel Discussion on Racism in Quebec.

Saturday, December 8th. 7pm
Center Communautaire Musulman de Montreal (CCMM)
3300 Cremazie East, corner of St. Michel
(Saint-Michel Metro)
Child Care Available.

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November 2007. Tadamon! & l’ASSE Present.

Wednesday, November 14th. 10am, UQÀM, room J-1120 (Pavillon Judith-Jasmin)
In the context of a day of workshops organized
by L’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ).

Tuesday November 20th, 12:30pm. Marianopolis College.
Hosted by the 3rd World Studies Department of Marianopolis College.

Tuesday November 27th, 11am. CEGEP Saint-Laurent.
Hosted by the Mobilization Committee of the Association
étudiante du Cégep de St-Laurent (AÉCSL)

Wednesday November 28th, 12Noon. Collège Marie-Victorin.
Hosted by the Syndicat étudiant du Collège Marie-Victorin (SECMV)

Tuesday, December 11th 12Noon. Collège de Maisonneuve.
Hosted by the Comité de mobilisation de la Société
générale des étudiants et des étudiantes du Collège de Maisonneuve (SOGÉÉCOM)

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The Palestinian Center for Human Rights condemns the Israeli ban on the travel of Gaza Strip students to pursue studies in universities and schools abroad. The Centre calls upon the international community and international organizations, especially UNESCO and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to pressure Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) to allow more than 2,700 students to travel so as to avert the negative consequences on their educational future.

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BEIRUT: Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah cast a broad net on Sunday, vowing that no one could disarm his Hizbullah resistance fighters, recommending early parliamentary elections as a remedy to the standoff over Lebanon’s presidency, and warning that recent Israeli military exercises were preparation for a new conflict.

Nasrallah also reached out to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, many of whom live in camps near neighborhoods known as hotbeds of Hizbullah support, and voiced opposition to the government’s plans to privatize the country’s two mobile-phone networks.

In a televised address to a crowded Hizbullah rally in commemoration of Martyrs Day, Nasrallah promised that no power could force his group to give up its arms.

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BEIRUT: Emile Lahoud left Lebanon’s presidency at midnight on Friday, just hours after announcing the transfer of security responsibilities to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) because Parliament had failed to elect his successor. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora issued a statement shortly thereafter declaring Lahoud’s move unconstitutional.

Lahoud’s announcement explained his gambit by asserting that existing conditions in the country “could lead to a state of emergency,” but Siniora’s statement affirmed that only the Cabinet has the executive authority to declare such a state.

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Tomorrow, November 19th, 2007, the world celebrates the seventh anniversary of the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse. This day comes as millions of children all over the world are exposed to various forms of torture, exploitation, and ill-treatment. Moreover, their rights and freedom are violated, in contradiction with all international conventions, agreements, and laws regarding children’s rights.

This anniversary comes as Palestinian children are exposed to various forms of violent practices and abuses and strict siege by the Israeli Occupation Forces, depriving them of their basic rights and freedom to live in a nurturing and safe environment as well as their rights to education and psychological & physical well-being.

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Nablus: Palestinian security forces are locked in a standoff with armed Palestinian resistance fighters in Ein Beit El-Ma refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday.

The military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, announced Sunday that it would react “fiercely” if Palestinian security forces arrest any of its activists ahead of a peace conference in the United States this month.

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Standing on a hill at the edge of Idhna with the displaced farmers Muhammad Talab and Muhammad Ibrahim Natah, the only visible remnants of their destroyed village is a patch of white dust just on the other side of Israel’s wall. Despite being part of the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military destroyed the 267-person farming village of tents and tin houses west of Hebron on October 29 and allegedly ordered villagers to relocate to Idhna.

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Terrorism is a contested terrain, a political landscape on which the highest levels of international military power engage in a deadly war. In 2007 terrorism remains an ominous threat, a political ghost invoked in the foreign policy rhetoric of Canada’s Conservative government surrounding the ‘War on Terror’.

In 2002 Canada unveiled an official list of ‘terrorist’ organizations, strikingly similar to the US governmental list of an equivalent nature. Today the Lebanese political movement Hezbollah, both the military and political wings, is officially considered a ‘terrorist’ organization by the government of Canada, a policy only endorsed by two additional countries internationally, the US and Israel.

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