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RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei warned Israel that its new restrictions on West Bank roads were undermining the peace process after he himself was stuck at a checkpoint. An angry Qorei told reporters that he had been stoppped for 45 minutes at a mobile checkpoint to the east of the Palestinian Authority's capital in Ramallah as he was driving from his offices in Abu Dis on the outskirts of east Jerusalem. "The Israelis say the road closures are to defend themselves but it is really just a procedure to make our lives difficult, especially during...

According to a U.N. report, pregnant Palestinian women encountering delays in IDF checkpoints run a high risk of medical complications, death to newborns Reuters Sixty-one women have given birth at Israeli checkpoints since 2000 due to delays in getting through the checkpoints, and 36 of their babies died as a result, the United Nations said on Thursday. The incidents took place between September 2000 and December 2004, the World Health Organization said, relying on statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Delays in checkpoints Palestinian women continue to encounter risky delays in 2005, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The nearly 200,000 residents returning to some of New Orleans' neighborhoods beginning next week will face military checkpoints, a lack of clean tap water and a dusk-to-dawn curfew that could keep the good times from rolling for a while.

Palestinians would have been pleasantly surprised if, when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to Ramallah, her convoy had taken the same route through the Kalandiya checkpoint that thousands of Palestinians going to Ramallah take daily. This checkpoint has become the humiliating symbol of what the continued Israeli occupation is all about. Checkpoints between Palestinian cities (and not just between Palestine and Israel) were erected shortly after the eruption of the second intifada. All international peace agreements, including the one accepted by all sides – the road map – call on Israel to remove the tens of checkpoints and...

DOBBS: President Bush tonight signed the Real I.D. Act into law. The legislation will make it much harder for illegal aliens and potential terrors to obtain U.S. driver's licenses. It will also tighten our border security. President Bush signed the measure at the White House a short time ago. The Real I.D. law is attached to the $82 billion supplemental spending bill to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some states, however, are resisting Real I.D. Some of those state officials say they should have the right to regulate their own state driver's licenses. Bill Tucker has the...

As an unembedded freelance journalist in Iraq, I have safely driven through scores of American roadblocks all over this country. I have also spent many hours with U.S. troops as they set up and operate these checkpoints. [...] If the uproar over the shooting leads the Americans to further tighten rules of engagement, that will increase the danger to our troops and make commanders on the ground more reluctant to perform these dangerous operations. As a result, more foreigners and Iraqis will be running the risk of being kidnapped or blown up by suicide bombs. [...] So as investigators try...

HIT, IRAQ - Sgt. Jim Beere of the 23rd Marine Regiment Bravo Company knows something about protecting people. Back home he's an undercover cop in Oakland, Calif., where he works on a special-victims unit tracking rapists and child molesters. He's usually responsible just for himself and, at most, the safety of a partner. But early on Feb. 22, he saved his own life and quite possibly the lives of a dozen other marines from Bravo Company who were taking a well-deserved catnap after an all-night operation in the city of Hit. The split-second decisions by marines like Sergeant Beere are...

Editor's note: On Friday, an Italian intelligence officer was killed and Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was wounded as their car approached a US military checkpoint in Baghdad. The US says the car was speeding, despite hand signals, flashing white lights, and warning shots from US forces. Ms. Sgrena says her car was not speeding and they did see any signals. This personal account, filed prior to the shooting, explains how confusing and risky checkpoints can be - from both sides. It's a common occurrence in Iraq: A car speeds toward an American checkpoint or foot patrol. They fire warning shots;...

MADD dad: Sobriety checks will save lives Web-posted Feb 24, 2005 By HANK SCHALLER Of The Daily Oakland Press Troy resident David Easterbrook will be far more than an interested observer in what may be the latest battle over the legality of sobriety checkpoints in Michigan. "It would be a long shot, but on the off chance that a sobriety checkpoint had been set up on Crooks Road, my daughter might be alive today," said Easterbrook, whose daughter, Ashley, 18, died June 3, 1997, when a drunken driver ran a red light at Long Lake and Crooks roads in Troy....

MADD: Sobriety checks key to stopping drunken driving 1/12/2005, 6:56 p.m. ET By LAURIE KELLMAN The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The best way to further reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities is to set up more sobriety checkpoints, especially in the 10 states, including Michigan, that currently bar them, Mothers Against Drunk Driving said Wednesday. "This is a proven, effective strategy," said MADD President Wendy Hamilton. "It really does have credible scientific backing that proves that it reduces alcohol-related fatalities by 20 percent." Increasing the number of sobriety checkpoints and funding for advertising them is the group's first priority as it...

(BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP, N.J.) A man who had been stopped by police on suspicion of drunken driving was killed while being given a sobriety test when a truck plowed into the scene early Saturday morning, authorities said. When police stopped the driver of the truck less than a mile away they found open containers of alcohol in the vehicle and charged him with driving under the influence, according to prosecutors. The series of events began just after 2 a.m. when an officer stopped the car of William F. Grieb, 34, of Hamilton Township on Route 130 for suspected drunken driving, according...

The Tucson sector is the only area in the Southwestern United States where Border Patrol agents are not allowed to set up permanent checkpoints. Instead, agents rotate to various locations in the sector. "That takes time. That means we're gonna be down for certain periods of time," says agent Andy Adame. The idea behind these temporary checkpoints is to catch smugglers by surprise, but critics say this doesn't work because smugglers usually have someone driving a few miles in front of them, to radio back the location of the checkpoint. The sector's new chief, Mike Nicley, says the solution is...

Oakland, Calif. - The Oakland Police Department has halted its use of D-U-I checkpoints after the city's Hispanic leaders complained that the roadblocks were ensnaring too many illegal immigrants.D-U-I checkpoints allow police officers to demand drivers' licenses and proof of insurance. City leaders agree the roadblocks are an effective way to get drunken drivers off the streets.But Hispanic community leaders and City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente complained that the checkpoints were making life miserable for illegal immigrants who aren't licensed to drive but otherwise obey the law.Police Chief Richard Word has ordered a month-long moratorium on the checkpoints...

Roadblock Conviction Overturned CHATTANOOGA — When Dennis James Varner pulled his van into a checkpoint with an open beer, smelling like alcohol and having slurred speech, it was officers who made a mistake, a Tennessee appeals court ruled. The Court of Criminal Appeals said in an opinion released this week that Hamilton County Sheriff's Department officers did not set up the roadblock primarily to catch drunken drivers, so his arrest and conviction violated constitutional bans on unreasonable search and seizure. ''Significantly, the officers had no equipment at the site for testing blood alcohol content,'' the appeals court said in throwing...

A ten-year-old Palestinian child carrying a large explosive device likely designated for a terror attack inside Israel has been caught. The bomb was later detonated by IDF sappers. The incident took place at a checkpoint near Nablus earlier today (Monday). A Border Guard policewoman at the checkpoint noticed the child and asked him to open the bag he was carrying. A short examination revealed that the bag contained a 6-kilogram (about 13 pounds) explosive device. The child, who is currently being questioned by security authorities, was apparently instructed to deliver the bomb to a Palestinian waiting at the other side...

KARBALA, Iraq - Polish soldiers shot at a bus full of Shiite Muslim pilgrims when it failed to stop at a checkpoint Sunday, wounding several Iraqis and one Pole. A witness said the troops opened fire after the bus apparently lost control of its brakes, hit a minivan and then swerved into a concrete barrier at the checkpoint manned by Iraqi and Polish forces. The Polish military said the troops believed they were coming under attack. Abbas Hassan, a member of the U.S.-trained Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, said the troops used heavy firepower for several minutes, targeting all cars coming...

VISTA, Calif. -- Two U.S. congressmen want the federal government to study whether Border Patrol checkpoints along interstates in Riverside and San Diego counties should be closed. Republican Reps. Darrel Issa of Vista and Ken Calvert of Riverside said Monday that the checkpoints do little to deter illegal immigration and instead cause major traffic problems on Interstate 5 and Interstate 15, the main arteries connecting San Diego County to Orange and Riverside counties.They have asked the U.S. General Accounting Office to compare per-apprehension costs at those checkpoints to checkpoints along the international border, and to investigate why apprehensions at the...

Muhammad Fakih is trying to eke out a living by entertaining Palestinians as they wait at IDF checkpoints in the West Bank. He decided to use his talent as an impressionist when he discovered that he was being forced to spend hours shuttling between his two wives in Bethlehem and Nablus. He has become so famous among Palestinians stranded at checkpoints that some are dubbing him the "Checkpoint Entertainer." Even many soldiers have come to recognize him. Both Palestinians and soldiers sometimes ask the stonemason to imitate Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat or Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Earlier this week,...

IDF expands humanitarian officers program By JOEL LEYDEN It's 2 p.m. at the Kalandia checkpost on a boiling summer's day. A long, crowded line of Palestinians wait to enter Ramallah. Young Israeli combat soldiers are positioned in front of them, standing behind grey concrete barriers and above on a dusty hilltop sweating inside guard towers. The 18-year-old troops appear ready for anything. They have been trained for terrorism and war and keep a watchful eye out for the unusual. It could be a car with a sniper, a young boy holding a package or a women suicide bomber just waiting...

"Palestinianitis" is the latest neurological disease to hit the world stage. Its main cause is "Palestinian Plight-hood" – a widely disseminated fairytale concocted to replace historical fact. It usually affects narrow-minded, biased individuals, who are seemingly unable to use both sides of their brain to distinguish truth from fiction, right from wrong, and good from evil. The latest victim of "Palestinianitis" was a classic case as shown on Sky News today. The scene opens with our sufferer, who is a school teacher called Nick from the U.K., racing through the streets of Nablus, armed, we are told, with nothing more...