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Are Palestinian children less worthy? Although Palestinian children endure lives of suffering, Obama's love for their Israeli counterparts knows no limit.

Are Palestinian children less worthy?

Although Palestinian children endure lives of suffering, Obama's love for their Israeli counterparts knows no limit.

During the first and second intifada, more than 700 Palestinian children were killed, and a further 313 children died in the Israeli shelling of Gaza in December 2008-July 2009 [GALLO/GETTY]

Al Jazeera journalist released from detention

Dorothy Parvaz, who disappeared on assignment in Syria 19 days ago, was sent back to Doha by Iranian authorities.

Al Jazeera has confirmed the release of its journalist, Dorothy Parvaz, who was detained in Syria upon her arrival in Damascus while on an assignment, and then deported to Iran.
Parvaz landed in Doha, Qatar on May 18 on a flight from Iran.

An Al Jazeera spokesman said: "I'm delighted to let you know that Dorothy Parvaz has been released and is safe and well and back with us in Doha. She has been in contact with her family, and we are with her now to find out more about her ordeal over the last 19 days."
Her fiancé Todd Barker, posted on Facebook: "She is safe in Doha and will be coming to Vancouver BC soon. We can't wait to see her."

US imposes sanctions on Syrian president

US officials say sanctions are to increase pressure on Bashar al-Assad to end his violent crackdown on protesters.

Syrian rights activists say at least 700 civilians have been killed in two months of clashes [Reuters]

The United States is to impose sanctions on Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and six senior Syrian officials for human rights abuses over their brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
The White House announced the sanctions on Wednesday, a day before Barack Obama, the US president, was to deliver a major speech on the uprisings throughout the Arab world with prominent mentions of Syria
The sanctions are part of "an effort to increase pressure on the government of Syria to end its violence against its people and begin transitioning to a democratic system," a US official told the AFP news agency on the condition of anonymity.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama said he issued the new sanctions order as a response to the Syrian government's "continuous escalation of violence against the people of Syria".
Obama cited "attacks on protesters, arrests and harassment of protesters and political activists, and repression of democratic change, overseen and executed by numerous elements of the Syrian government".
The sanctions will freeze any assets Assad and the six Syrian government officials have in US jurisdiction and make it illegal for Americans to do business with them.

Syrian rights activists say at least 700 civilians have been killed in two months of clashes between goverment forces and protesters seeking an end to his 11-year rule.

Swiss sanctions
The US announcement came as Switzerland announced new sanctions against Syria on Wednesday, saying that it was following the European Union's lead in imposing an embargo on arms and equipment used for internal repression.

"The new edict on measures against Syria includes an embargo on military assets and equipment that could be used for internal repression," the Swiss economic ministry said in a statement.

"It also includes financial sanctions and travel restrictions on 13 people from the Damascus regime," it added.

The ministry said that through the new sanctions, "Switzerland is joining sanctions announced on May 9, 2011 by the European Union against Syria."
EU heavyweight Germany, meanwhile, is pushing for further sanctions against Bashar.
"Our demands are clear. Violence and repression against peaceful demonstrators must be stopped immediately," Guido Westerwelle, Germany's foreign minister, said.

Tighten sanctions
European governments agreed on Tuesday to tighten sanctions against the Syrian leadership, but said they would decide next week about whether to include Assad on the list.

The EU put 13 Syrian officials on its sanctions list in what it described as a move to gradually increase pressure.
Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said his country would not support any UN resolutions on the use of force against the Syrian government.

"As for a resolution on Syria, I will not support such a resolution even if my friends and acquaintances ask me about it," Medvedev told reporters during a rare news conference on Wednesday, arguing Syria must be allowed to settle its domestic affairs.
He did not specify what he meant, adding that such resolutions were open to interpretation.
Last month, Obama signed an executive order imposing a first round of US sanctions against Syria's intelligence agency and two relatives of Assad's for alleged human rights abuses.

Britain Queen to make first visit to Ireland

Britain's Queen set to make groundbreaking visit to Ireland amid London bombing threat.

British police are on alert after a dissident Irish group warned of a bomb attack in London.

The alert came hours ahead of a groundbreaking but sensitive visit to the Republic of Ireland by Britain's Queen - the first by a British monarch.

Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons reports.

Queen visits Ireland after bomb scare

First visit by a British monarch in a century sparks security concern after three devices found near Dublin.

The queen's visit went ahead despite the bomb scare, the foreign office said [Reuters]

Queen Elizabeth II, the British queen, has arrived Ireland in the first visit by a UK royal in a century, despite a bomb being found on a bus near Dublin, the Irish capital.
The four-day trip is intended to highlight good Anglo-Irish relations following years of animosity and peace in Northern Ireland.

Earlier on Tuesday defence forces said they had carried out a controlled explosion on a "viable" explosive device found on a bus heading for Dublin.

"It was on a bus and by the time our team was called in the bus was evacuated and parked at a bus stop," an army spokesman said.

"The device was made safe in situ," he added.
Andrew Simmons, Al Jazeera's reporter in Dublin, said: "The [first] device was on the outskirts in the commuter belt. It was inside a luggage compartment of a bus, and that bus was headed for the capital."
"[There are] are no claims of responsibility but you can certainly say that it's highly likely that dissident Republican groups are involved in the attempts at disruption of this historic visit."

A controlled explosion was also carried out on a second device, which turned out to be a hoax, the defence forces said.
A third device found in the Summerhill area of Dublin also turned out to be a hoax.

Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, said the queen's visit would not be affected by the incidents, and the British foreign office and Buckingham Palace, the monarch's official residence, said the state visit would still go ahead.

"This is an historic and symbolic visit and it is dealing with the conclusion of the past and a message for the future," Kenny told RTE state radio.

"These things happen when global personalities visit any countries ... and whether it be Ireland or other countries, adequate security arrangements are put in place."

The queen is the first British monarch to visit Ireland since its independence from the UK in 1921. It severed its last ties to the British monachy in 1948, but the north of the island remains part of the United Kingdom.
Queen Elizabeth II's itinerary includes a visit to Croke Park, a Gaelic sports stadium where British troops killed 14 people in 1920 during Ireland's uprising against British rule.

Her arrival also coincides with the 37th anniversary of bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, the single bloodiest day in a three-decade sectarian battle over Northern Ireland.

Thousands of police have shut down key roads in the Irish capital and erected pedestrian barricades for several kilometers, while 1,000 Irish troops are on standby for her visit.
Tuesday's events come a day after British police said they had received a bomb threat for central London from
Irish dissident republicans.

Iranian aid ships turned back from Bahrain

Two ships carrying Iranian activists return to docks after facing "threats" from warships en route to Bahrain

Pro-democracy protests in February were followed by a crackdown on dissent by Bahraini authorities [REUTERS]

Two ships carrying 120 Iranian activists sailed for Bahrain on Monday in an act of solidarity with the island country's Shia majority population.
The Iranian government ordered the two boats to return, while activists threw into the water letters they were carrying as "moral support" to Bahraini Shia, a journalist for Iran's English-language Press TV reported live aboard one of the vessels.

The ships turned back towards Iran at a halfway point after facing "the emergence of threats" from warships belonging to a coalition of Gulf states which have lent support to Bahrain in its crackdown on anti-government demonstrators, the Washington Post reported, citing an announcement on the activists' website.
Iranian authorities did not try to stop the ships' trip, the website said, according to the Washington Post.
Mahdi Eghrarian, an organiser of the trip, earlier told the semi-official Fars news agency that the ships had embarked at the southwestern port of Dayyer.

A third of the activists were women, 10 were children, and nobody on board was armed, Eghrarian said.
The group is carrying 5,000 letters which convey the Iranian people's "moral support", he said, for the Shia of Bahrain.
"We've started moving towards international waters. We will carry on sailing towards Bahrain's borders as far as possible in order to be able to hand over letters and messages of the Iranian nation to the Bahraini nation," Eghrarian said according to Fars.

Last month, Iranian authorities stopped two boats carrying Iranian students from leaving the southern port city of Bushehr for Bahrain in a similar show of solidarity.
Bahrain, a tiny island country in the Gulf, has a majority Shia population but is ruled by a Sunni king, who has cracked down on dissent since pro-democracy protests broke out in February.

Pakistan protests over border strike

Two security personnel wounded as NATO helicopter opens fire on checkpoint near Afghan-Pakistan frontier.

Pakistan's army has lodged a strong protest and demanded talks with NATO commanders after an allliance helicopter hit a Pakistani checkpoint, injuring two security personnel.

"It [the incursion] happened early morning," a Pakistani intelligence official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media, told the Reuters news agency.
"The helicopter hit a Pakistani checkpoint on the border in the Datta Khel area."

A Western military official in Kabul, told Reuters that two NATO helicopters supporting a base in eastern Afghanistan had returned fire after being attacked from Pakistan.
Pakistan's military said it had sought a meeting with NATO commanders over the incursion, which came a day after US senator John Kerry met Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, amid tensions in the country's relations since the killing of Osama bin Laden earlier this month.

Pakistan has condemned the US for conducting that operation in violation of its national sovereignty.
Tuesday's incident came hours before Yusuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister, arrives in China on a visit seen by some as a diplomatic effort to seek closer and more productive ties with another major power.

Taliban stronghold
Many fighters loyal to al-Qaeda, including foreign ones, are based in Datta Khel, a frequent target of US drone strikes. The place is also a stronghold of fighters loyal to Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a key Pakistani Taliban commander.
A drone attack in the same place on Monday left seven suspected fighters dead, Pakistani officials said.

A Western military official said Tuesday's operation started before dawn, when a NATO base in Afghanistan came under intermittent direct and indirect fire from the Pakistani side of the border.

Two helicopters flew into the area to provide support, one of which fired across the border after being fired at twice from the Pakistani side, the official said.

In a statement, the Pakistani army said its troops fired on a helicopter after it entered Pakistani airspace in the early hours of the morning. Two of its troops were injured when the helicopter returned fire, it said.

'NATO investigating'

NATO, which confirmed the incident, said it was still trying to determine whether the helicopter crossed into Pakistani airspace, Lieutenant Colonel John Dorrian, the NATO spokesman, said.

"We're investigating the incident to determine a flight path by examining GPS waypoints in the helicopter computer, to construct a sequence of events and ultimately determine what led to the exchange of fire," said Dorrian.

He declined to say which coalition country was involved. But most of the helicopters that fly in that part of Afghanistan are American.
Dorrian said NATO would work with the Pakistani government to determine what happened, saying they expect it will reflect the same good co-operation seen in recent military operations along the border.

In recent weeks, NATO and Pakistan have launched co-ordinated offensives against fighters loyal to al-Qaeda on their respective sides of the border.
"This is going to be transparently looked into," Dorrian said.
North Waziristan is the base of the Haqqani network, a group of fighters allied to the Taliban which NATO says is fuelling the conflict in neighbouring Afghanistan. US-led drone aircraft have repeatedly targeted the area over the past year.