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The Syrian President Bachar al-Assad today congratulated Hamas for its “victory” in the three-week Israeli offensive in Gaza.

According to the official Sana agency, Assad “congratulated the Palestinian people by the victory of resistance in the Gaza Strip” during a meeting with a delegation of Hamas, led by Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader in Damascus.

“The failure of Israel in achieving the objectives of its aggression, while it has more deadly weapons used, is proof of the commitment of the Palestinian people to his right to land and the deep belief in the victory against the occupation,” said Assad, quoted by the agency Sana.

A delegation of Hamas said “assess the role of Syria who has worked at all levels to support the resistance of the Palestinian people in Gaza during and after, the Israeli aggression,” the agency said.

A delegation of Hamas in Gaza is in Egypt to further discussions on a lasting truce with Israel, the Cairo as mediator. The discussions will focus on consolidation of the fragile cease-fire, ordered separately last Sunday by Israel and Hamas, and the opening of crossing points.

The Islamist movement requires the lifting of the blockade imposed on the territory and the opening of borders to accept any formal truce.

The current cease-fire was declared after 22 days of Israeli offensive that have killed 1,330 on the Palestinian side.

More than 200 schools in Gaza, managed by the United Nations, opened today for the first time since the entry into force of a cease-fire that ended the three-week Israeli offensive against Hamas.

The 221 schools of the territory administered by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) are attended by about 200 thousand children.

Many were used as refuge for thousands of Palestinians during the Israeli offensive, which ended last Sunday.

The bombing victims have made in three schools and the main complex of UNRWA. The most deadly was more than 40 dead, 6 January, a school in Jabaliya in northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli offensive has a total of 1,330 dead, 437 of them children, according to the medical services of the Palestinian territory.

Christopher Gunness, spokesman of UNRWA, reported that 53 UN facilities were damaged or destroyed during the conflict. Of these, more than 30 schools were.

Although they have not yet finished the work of recovery, the agency wants to reopen the schools to create a feeling of return to normality. “UNRWA’s commitment to restoring a sense of normality for the next generation of Gaza is a test of our humanity and we decided to respond to the challenge,” he said.

About 1.5 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, most refugees are highly dependent on international humanitarian aid, an area subjected to an Israeli blockade.

The fighting stopped on January 18 when Israel and Hamas declared, each, a cease-fire. On Wednesday, the Israeli army announced having withdrawn all its troops from the territory.

Portugal is a founding member of the first International Agency for Renewable Energies (IRENA), which will be formally established on Monday in Germany to help in the fight against global warming.

According to the German Minister of Environment, Sigmar Gabriel, the initiative is a “huge step in the sector, with many potential environmental and even economic.”

“The main target will advise and support the developed countries and those under development to focus on renewable energy production,” he said.

The initiative to create IRENA from Germany, Spain and Denmark, but are more than 100 countries that are represented in Bonn to sign the formation of the Agency, whose funding for its creation amounts to 20 million.

Portugal will be a founding member of the International “given the importance of renewable energy under the Portuguese energy policy,” the source told the Lusa Ministry of Economy.

The Bonn will represent Portugal in the Director-General of the Directorate General for Energy and Geology, José splutter, the assistant director-general, Benedict Morais Sarmento, and the Portuguese ambassador in Germany, José Caetano da Costa Pereira.

In June 2009 the member states of the agency decide where to locate its headquarters.

Last Thursday, at the 24th Iberian Summit held in Zamora, Spain, the Prime Minister José Sócrates and Jose Rodriguez Zapatero signed an agreement to establish a Center for Iberian Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Director for this Center, which is based in Badajoz, Spain, was named the Portuguese Antonio Sa da Costa, current chairman of the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association and vice president of the European Federation of Renewable Energies.

The airport of Barajas, in Madrid, this Friday suspended all its operations following a strong snow that is affecting the premises and hinder the flights to / and for the Spanish capital.

According to airport authorities, the suspension occurred at a time (11:45 local, 10:45 in Lisbon) where access by road to the airport Madrid were already practically blocked.

The snow affecting Madrid is causing chaos in the movement, with over 300 kilometers of roads in the region with traffic blocked or hindered movement.

Also in the north of the country, in the Catalonia region, several roads closed to traffic or conditioning and isolated locations.

The protests again this Friday to capita Greek, Athens, with about 3 thousand teachers and students to express themselves against the policies of the government of Costas Karamanlis.

The thousands of demonstrators responded well to the call of their unions, in a protest organized to mark the anniversary of the disappearance of Professor Nikos Temponi, killed in 1991 by members of the more conservative wing of the New Democracy Party, according to the Greek press.

Teachers and students met at the headquarters of the University of Athens, parades after several streets to the Parliament.

The center of Athens was closed to traffic and the forces were deployed anti-riot.

Greece has been in the last month, the scene of violent demonstrations and riots

A huge wall of cement, with 650 meters long and three in height, will soon encircle the slum of Morro Dona Marta, in Botafogo, south zone of Rio de Janeiro, preventing its expansion. The measure, which raised great controversy and accusations of segregation, was taken by the state governor, Sergio Cabral Filho, and work should begin later this month.

Officially, the wall will be built to protect the forest which limits the slums on one side and in the official version, is being threatened by the advance of disorderly constructions of Dona Marta, which has 7,500 inhabitants and to grow. But the community leaders, who say they have not until now been heard on the issue, aware that only the press, consider the wall a symbol of segregation and have expressed their disagreement.

Employed by the police since 19 November, the Dona Marta favela is seen as the sole government of Rio de Janeiro totally free of traffickers, who were expelled and are now living hidden in the forest to the side, protecting itself in the dense tangle of trees that extends to Corcovado. And that, for many people, is the main reason the construction of the wall, which serve as a barrier between the drug traffickers and slums, limiting the movement of criminals and their actions and influence in the community.

Some people linked to social movements even fear that the wall surrounding the Dona Marta might be just the first of other surrounding other Rio slums, occupied or to be occupied by the police, which would make it, argue, further marginalized the inhabitants of these areas.

European countries without gas closed schools and factories
The gas crisis, involving Russia and Ukraine, forced several European countries to order the closure of factories and schools. A meeting between delegations from Moscow and Kiev ended yesterday without results and the European Union put forward the proposal of sending observers.

Countries such as Hungary, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Serbia and Turkey have been forced to take emergency measures, and called on Moscow to Belgrade to send gas through Belarus.

It is recalled that Russia cut off gas supplies through Ukraine, which accuses of closing their pipelines.

The proposal of sending monitors to check the flow of gas in Russia and Ukraine was welcomed by Moscow. The observers will be ready in two days.

At least four people died and about two hundred others were injured following a powerful earthquake recorded yesterday in Costa Rica, revealed Friday that local authorities.

According to the National Commission of Emergencies, the earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.2 degrees on the open Richter scale, affected 42 communities in the center and north of the country and caused huge material damage.

Israel decided this Friday formally continue the offensive in the Gaza Strip, despite the cease-fire appeal of the Security Council of the United Nations.

The UN resolution 1860 – adopted last night by 14 of the 15 members of the Security Council “calls for an immediate cease-fire, lasting and flatly registered.”

However, the Israeli operations and the launching of Palestinian rockets into Israel continued during the night, taking the office of state security Israel has decided today to continue the offensive.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walterr STEINMO, announced that it will meet tomorrow in Egypt with President egípico, Hosni Mubarak, and the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abas. The head of German diplomacy follows then to Israel, where he will meet with the Israeli authorities.

Poland put an end to its mission to support the U.S. troops in Iraq, announcing the withdrawal by the end of October of last 900 soldiers, during an official ceremony in the center of the country.

The ceremony took place at a military base in Diwaniyah, 180 kilometers south of Baghdad, which is called the Polish contingent, with the attendance of the Minister of National Defense, Bogdan Klich, and the commander of American forces in Iraq, General Raymond Odierno.

During the ceremony, the flag of the coalition was arriada and delivered to the Minister Klich, thus symbolizing the end of the mission of Poland.

The Polish army is in Iraq since 2003 when they began armed intervention led by the United States against the regime of Saddam Hussein.

The quota of Poland had 2600 soldiers, was however reduced to 900. Since the conflict began 21 Polish soldiers have been killed and other 70 injured, according to data released this Saturday by the military authorities of Poland.

“We are responsible for the future of Iraq. The conclusion of our mission does not mean however the end of our commitment,” said Bogdan Klich, ensuring that his country will continue to “cooperate with Iraq in the economic and financial fields.”

For its part, General Odierno pointed out that this is a “good time” to the forces of Poland to leave Iraq.

“This is a good moment for the Polish forces leave because the security conditions improved. They will be replaced by U.S. troops, but in smaller numbers,” he explained to journalists.

A total of five years, over 10,500 soldiers from Poland participated in the U.S. operation in Iraq, according to data from the U.S. command.

The coalition led by the United States and participating countries account for a fortnight now 150 thousand men, of which 144 are American.