Palestinians retaliate after Israelis kill Hamas leader

Palestinians retaliate afterIsraelis kill Hamas leader
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Defiant Palestinian militants pounded Jewish settlements in the southern Gaza Strip with mortar fire today, following the killing of a top Hamas militant in an Israeli airstrike.
The Islamic militant group threatened attacks on Israel to avenge Adnan al-Ghoul, a founder and deputy chief of the Hamas military wing. A lower-ranking militant was also killed in the airstrike Thursday night.
Al-Ghoul, 46, was a top bombmaker and was responsible for Hamas' weaponry, including anti-tank missiles and Qassam rockets the group has been firing at Israeli communities, the Israeli army said. Held responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israelis, he had escaped previous attempts on his life.
Following the killing of al-Ghoul, around 15 mortar rounds were fired at the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim and adjacent military posts, damaging four houses but causing no casualties. Settlers reported mortar shells falling on two other south Gaza settlements, but causing no damage.
One militant was killed and another gravely injured as they prepared to fire a mortar at Neve Dekalim, Palestinians and the army said.
More than 4,300 picked upin prostitution crackdown
SEOUL, South Korea -- A crackdown on prostitution in South Korea has netted 4,365 people in the month since it was launched, police said today.
The majority were men who bought or tried to buy sex at brothels, massage parlors and other sex shops, the National Police Agency said. Also detained were 849 brothel owners and 660 prostitutes, it said. Most of those detained were released with a warning, but 171 were arrested and warrants are being sought for 120 others, the agency said in a statement.
Prostitution has been banned in South Korea since 1961, but the sex industry has thrived because police rarely enforced the law.
Studies estimate 600,000 to 1 million women work in the sex trade, about 2 percent of the country's 48 million people.
Thousands of prostitutes and pimps have held outdoor rallies saying the crackdown was driving them out of business.
New legislation, backed by women's rights groups, more than doubled the penalties for brothel owners, with fines of up to $87,000 or a prison term of up to 10 years.
Customers of prostitutes face large fines or up to a year in jail.
Climbers rescued
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- Rangers rappelled down Yosemite's most forbidding peak and then carefully climbed back up the sheer 3,200-foot face of the snowy mountain, rescuing two climbers and carrying the bodies of two others on their backs.
The dramatic rescue Thursday on El Capitan came as other teams of park rangers airlifted out nearly two dozen other hikers and climbers stranded by an early winter storm, which brought whiteout conditions and 50 mph wind gusts as it dumped several feet of snow across the Sierra Nevada.
Two teams of rangers were dropped off by a helicopter and spent the night in deep snow on the top of El Capitan before beginning their rescue and recovery effort Thursday morning, after the weather finally cleared.
One group rappelled down to recover the bodies of a Japanese man and woman. They were already dead when a helicopter crew managed to fly close enough late Wednesday to spot their bodies, blue and dripping with icicles, as they dangled from their ropes about two-thirds of the way up the precipice.
The Japanese climbers had been ill-prepared for the weather, a ranger said.
Castro emphasizeshe is still in control
HAVANA -- Demonstrating he retains firm control over Cuba after fracturing his knee and arm in a fall at a public event, President Fidel Castro told of conducting government business by cellular phone during an ambulance ride and later refusing general anesthesia.
"I have not stopped attending to the tasks that I am responsible for, in coordination with the other comrades," Castro, 78, wrote in a lengthy note read Thursday night on state television.
Castro said he underwent a 3 hour, 15 minute operation to repair his left knee, which was broken in eight pieces, and the immobilization of his left upper arm, which suffered a hairline fracture.
He said he remained awake the whole time, anesthetized only from the waist down, so he could "attend to numerous important issues" with his chief of staff, who dressed in surgical scrubs.
Castro said earlier he remained in contact with his office via cellular phone during the ambulance ride back to Havana from Santa Clara, the central city about a three-hours drive away where the accident occurred.
Associated Press