Panetta warns Israel getting more isolated

Panetta warns Israel getting more isolated

ON BOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is warning that Israel is becoming increasingly isolated in the Middle East, and says Israeli leaders must restart negotiations with the Palestinians and work to restore relations with Egypt and Turkey.

Panetta, who was flying to Israel Sunday night, says it is “not a good situation” for Israel during a time of upheaval in the Arab world.

The Pentagon chief says Israel’s “military edge” is not enough, adding that real security also requires “a strong diplomatic effort.”

Panetta is scheduled to meet with top Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week, and then travel to a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

Suspect accused of trying to hit agent

DETROIT

A federal judge in Michigan has ordered a man suspected of supporting terrorist groups held on allegations he tried to crash into the car of an FBI agent who was following him as part of heightened security for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Reed S. Berry, 26, of St. Joseph was under surveillance because of his suspected terrorist links, according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.

The government has said the links include Internet communication with one or more groups involved in international terrorism.

Syria opposition warns of civil war

BEIRUT

Syrian dissidents on Sunday formally established a broad-based national council designed to overthrow President Bashar Assad’s regime, which they accused of pushing the country to the brink of civil war. Syrians took to the streets in celebration, singing and dancing.

In a restive northern area, meanwhile, gunmen killed the 21-year-old son of Syria’s top Sunni Muslim cleric in an ambush, the state-run news agency reported. The cleric, Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun, is considered a close supporter of Assad’s regime and has echoed its claims that the unrest in Syria is the result of a foreign conspiracy.

Gadhafi’s son denies corruption allegations

TRIPOLI, Libya

Moammar Gadhafi’s son, al-Saadi, denied allegations of corruption and intimidation and called Interpol’s decision to put him on the equivalent of its most-wanted list political, according to an email sent Sunday.

Al-Saadi Gadhafi is under house arrest in Libyan neighbor Niger, where he fled after Tripoli fell to revolutionary forces. His father and two of his brothers are in hiding, presumably inside Libya, as fighting between revolutionary forces and Gadhafi’s loyalists continues on three fronts.

Al-Saadi “regrets the issue of a red notice by Interpol and strenuously denies the charges made against him,” an email forwarded to The Associated Press said.

Villagers on rooftops

MANILA, Philippines

Rescuers scrambled Sunday to deliver food and water to hundreds of villagers stuck on rooftops for days because of flooding in the northern Philippines, where back-to-back typhoons have left at least 59 people dead.

Typhoon Nalgae slammed ashore in northeastern Isabela province Saturday, then barreled across the main island of Luzon’s mountainous north and agricultural plains, which were still sodden from fierce rain and winds unleashed by a howler just days earlier. Nalgae left at least three people dead Saturday. Typhoon Nesat killed 56 others and left 28 missing in the same region before blowing out Friday.

Associated Press