We find it both questionable and objectionable that a well-respected and ostensibly objective international organization such as Amnesty could produce a report on Operation Cast Lead without properly recognizing the unbearable reality of nine years of incessant and indiscriminate rocket fire on the citizens of Israel. The slant of their report indicates that the organization succumbed to the manipulations of the Hamas terror organization.

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi told a Knesset committee meeting Tuesday that Hezb'allah has more rockets than before the Second Lebanon War and is boosting it's power in South Lebanon ahead of the country's upcoming elections.

Angeles Lakers routed the Houston Rockets Tuesday night to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.

With the series being tied 2-2, the Los Angeles Lakers are heading back to Staples Center where they will host the Houston Rockets for game five of the Western Conference semi-finals.

Another rough-and-tumble game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets turned bloody. This time, though, the Lakers defended their home court. Kobe Bryant scored 40 points, Pau Gasol added 22 points and 14 rebounds and the Lakers won Game 2 111-98 on Wednesday night to even the Western Conference semifinal series. Ron Artest, one of two players ejected in the game, scored 25 points and Carl Landry added a career playoff-high 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Rockets, who overcame a 14-point deficit in the first half only to trail most of the second half.

Blood flowed, players were sprawled on the court and the Houston Rockets came into Staples Center and outmuscled Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Yao Ming, who briefly left with a knee injury in the closing minutes, had 28 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Rockets to a physical 100-92 victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah stepped up his fiery rhetoric against Israel, warning the Jewish state not to contemplate another war with Lebanon, like the previous one in July 2006, because the next war will be much costlier.

The U.N. Security Council called for an "immediate" and "durable" cease-fire in Gaza in a resolution Thursday night even as fighting between Israel and Hamas raged — with early morning airstrikes killing seven Palestinians and pushing the death toll to about 760 in the near two-week conflict.suspended food deliveries to Gaza and the Red Cross