PHOENICIA

Carefully and slowly, first-year Mandarin Chinese students at Bishop Fenwick concentrated hard while trying to pick up pieces of popcorn with their chopsticks Monday.

In the back of the classroom, second-year students' chopsticks couldn't go fast enough.

Each student counted each piece by saying the Chinese numbers.

Siena Shirer, a sixth-grader, admitted she isn't very good with chopsticks, but said her Mandarin Chinese class was the best part of her school day.

"I think it'll be useful in my future," Shirer said.

For 15 days, the Mandarin Chinese classes are celebrating the Chinese New Year and learning the customs, like the rituals and foods that go along with the holiday, as part of Catholic Schools Week, a national celebration of Catholic education.

"It's new to them so they're very excited," Principal Mary Walsh said of the first-year students.

Meanwhile, in the hall outside of the classroom, second -year students Frazier Baker, 13, Alex Weingarth, 12, Molly Nash, 13, and Maddy McCarthy, 13, serenaded four Chinese exchange students with the Chinese New Year, or spring festival, song.

"They're awesome," Qinya Guo said. Guo is a senior who has spent her junior and senior years of high school at Bishop Rosecrans High School, with exchange students Jiaqi Dong, 18, Shaofan Zhang, 17, and Jianquang Ran, 17.

"It's more like a family gathering festival," Dong said. "We have traditional food in the evening, we watch TV, there's a big show with fireworks that are very pretty."

All of the students knew that it's the Year of the Ox and the colors are red and yellow.

"They have very specific rituals," Baker said, adding that the most interesting may be the lantern festival on the 15th day.

"They have lanterns all over the cities that are supposed to send any wayward spirits out," he said.

Bishop Fenwick was one of nine diocesan elementary schools in the state in 2007 to be chosen for a federal grant through the Catholic Diocese of Columbus. More than $640,000 was dispersed among the schools to provide the equipment, teacher and facilitator. The grant was provided by the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security, but the grant expires at the end of this school year.

Walsh said the school is searching for sponsors to not only continue the program for students, but also offer a night or Saturday morning Mandarin Chinese class for adults.

Students are taught by a teacher via video conference, with the help of Jeff Myers, the classroom facilitator. Myers teaches band and music and music at the high school.

Bishop Fenwick Schools will continue to celebrate Catholic Schools Week this week with service-based activities like meal preparations for Christ's Table, pennies for patients, prayer services, a family fun night and open houses.

some of the most things that change me & affect on me are Ziad Rahbani songs and plays... He's not so famouse like other singers because all his works are not commercial!
here you are some information about this genius man:

Ziad Rahbani is the son of the Lebanese famous composer Assi Rahbani and Nuhad Haddad, the famous Lebanese female singer known as Fairouz.

He composed many songs for his mother Fairouz, as well as other singers, and he has released music albums of his own. Many of his musicals satirised the political situation in Lebanon during and after the civil war, often strongly critical of the traditional political establishment; others addressed more philosophical questions. He played the lead role in all his plays, and has generally been reluctant to allow the filming of his plays.

Ziad was married to Dalal Karam and had a son named "Assi Jr" with her. But his marriage was doomed to fail, and they got divorced. That led Dalal to write her life with Ziad in the gossip magazine "Ashabaka". Ziad composed some songs about their relationship like "Marba el Dalal" and "Bisaraha", amongst others.

After the divorce, Ziad had a well-publicized relationship with actress Carmen Lubbos that went on for 15 years before they agreed to separate.

Politically, Ziad Rahbani has a long standing relationship with Lebanese leftist movements, and is a self-declared communist. Being a Christian, his politics have meant that he has been at odds with some of his co-religionists. During the Lebanese civil war, Ziad resided in mainly Muslim West Beirut.

Ziad's first known artistic work was "Sadiqi Allah" (My Friend God), a collection of writings between the years 1967 and 1968 when he was in his teens.

In 1973, at 17, Ziad composed his first music for Fairuz, his mother. Assi Rahbani his father was hospitalized and his mother Fairuz was to play the leading role in "Al Mahatta" by the Rahbani brothers, so Mansour Rahbani, his uncle, who had written the lyrics of a song about Assi Rahbani's forced absence, gave Ziad Rahbani the task of composing its music. The song "Saalouni El Nass" became instantly a great hit.

Ziad has also done many political shows on the radio like "Ba3dna Taybeen Oulou Allah" and "El 3akl Zeeneh" and some music related shows.

Since 2006, he writes a column for the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar.

My friend send me this email!

This is an unusual one. It actually gives you a time tomorrow. Let's see if it works.

GUARDIAN ANGEL

Forward this message the same day you received it
It may sound ridiculous, but it is right on time
We believe that something is about to happen. Angels exist, only sometimes they haven't got wings and we call them friends; you are one of them
Something wonderful is about to happen to you and your friends.
Tomorrow at 8:23 am somebody will address you and tell you something you have been waiting to hear.
Please send it to at least 7 of your friends.

I don't know really it seems ridiculous. i didn't forward it anywhere! will you?

My friend sent my this  file by email. he's from Italy and it seems that war on Gaza became like apartheid problems in South Africa 20 years ago.

all people around the world who believe in freedom and the life right for all humsns becomes angry because of  this war.
what makes me crazy is that the solution that USA & EU find is to stop arms flow to those poor people in Gaza who struggle for the simplest rights in there life!

it's like if a boxer fight a little boy and then all neighbors came to stop this boy crying! who has this gigantic army and so developed arms & banned bombs like  phosphorous bombs! is it Israel or these resisting parties?

what's going on this fucking world?
just see this file it's just some facts!

http://www.blog.co.uk/media/document/the_facts/3154401

The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip is continuing to climb with Israel keeping up its offensive on the territory for a 19th straight day, pushing deeper into densely populated areas.

By last count, 984 Gazans,  many of them women and children, have died in the Israeli assault since it began on December 27.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict meanwhile appeared to make little ground, although Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, arrived in Cairo on Wednesday morning to again push for a ceasefire.

After a comparatively quiet night, large plumes of smoke were seen rising over Gaza City on Wednesday morning. A house near the centre of the city was ablaze after Israelis bombed the area.

Is there any hope?

Painting a bleak picture of the conflict, Robert Fisk, the Middle East expert and author, said he saw no reason for "any optimism at all in the near future, or even in the medium future".

He said no progress can be made, either in the 19-day-old Gaza war, or in the broader Middle East conflict that has continued on and off for more than 60 years, until the issue of the Palestinians is addressed.

"Why are they dispossessed? Why are settlements - colonies for Jews, and Jews only - being built on Arab land, illegally? And still it continues,".
 
"Unless we deal with this, there will not be an end to this war. There might be a ceasefire in Gaza, a ceasefire in the West Bank, but there will not be an end to the war. That is the problem."

The United Nations security council had earlier in the week issued a binding resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip - a measure that has so far gone unheeded.

But Fisk said Israel would get away with flouting the UN call so long as the US continues to back it.

"And its quite clear from Hillary Clinton's [incoming US secretary of state] most recent comments that its going to continue under [a President] Barack Obama. I see no change, I see no hope at all in the future." he said.

Israeli troops in the occupied Golan Heights have come under small arms fire from Syria, Israeli military officials have said.

No one was injured in the incident on Sunday, but it was been reported to the United Nations force that monitors the area, an Israeli army spokesman said.

"In the afternoon, there were a number of bullets fired from Syria at an Israeli army force doing engineering work near the fence," he said.

"No one was hurt but a vehicle was damaged.

"Forces in the field are examining the incident and a complaint was sent to UNDOF which sent a team there. The circumstances of the incident are still unclear."

The Israeli military spokesman said that Israeli troops did not return fire.

There was no immediate comment on the incident from Damascus.

Israeli forces along the country's northern borders have been on alert since the aerial and ground assault on the Gaza Strip, that has killed nearly 900 Palestinians, began 16 days ago.

Three rockets were fired from Syria's neighbour Lebanon on Friday, an attack that Israeli and Lebanese officials blamed on Palestinian refugees.

There have been angry protests in Syria, which is home to a number of exiled Palestinian Hamas leaders, over Israel's actions in the territory.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed the area although the move has not been recognised internationally.

Syria began Turkish-mediated indirect peace talks with Israel last year. Damascus said it had broken off the negotiation after Israel began to bombard the Gaza Strip.

this link contains many images about genocide in Gaza. please take a look at it

http://www.elfarra.org/gallery/gaza.htm

Thank you for your voice.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Wailing in grief, Salah Samouni banged his head against a wall inside the hospital morgue where the bodies of his three young nephews lay on the floor Monday.

After 10 days of a relentless Israeli assault, Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, is overwhelmed. Bodies were crowded two to a morgue drawer, and some — like 3-year-old Issa, 4-year-old Mohammed and 5-year-old Ahmad — were on the floor.

Shifa's shabby halls echoed Monday with the sounds of people screaming and the wail of ambulance sirens. Many of the wounded were being treated in hallways by harried doctors and nurses running on little sleep. The hospital was powered by emergency generators after shelling damaged power lines.

Since Israel began a ground offensive Saturday, most of the dead and wounded arriving at Shifa are civilians, as Israel's offensive shifts from airstrikes to artillery shelling and fighting close to densely populated areas.

Israel says it is targeting only the Hamas militants who control Gaza in an attempt to halt seven years of rocket fire at Israeli communities. But the 550 Palestinians who have been killed include at least 200 civilians, according to Dr. Moaiya Hassanein of the Gaza Health Ministry.

On Monday, 20 children between the ages of 2 and 15 were killed, he said. Since the military offensive began Dec. 27, three Israeli civilians and two soldiers have been killed.

Nurse Ahmad Abdul Salam, 34, red-eyed and smelling of sweat, his clothes stained with blood, said he couldn't sleep. "When my shift ends, I help my colleagues. These are our brothers and friends who are being harmed," he said.

The hospital's most gruesome scene was in its morgue, where blood pooled on the floor and refrigerators meant to hold 35 bodies were crammed with 70, laid side-by-side in drawers.

Lying on a gray mat on the floor, the three Samouni brothers appeared baby-faced and almost as though they were asleep, except for a large bandage wrapped around Issa's head.

The children's father was also killed in what relatives said was an Israeli strike on a house in eastern Gaza City where the family had fled to escape fighting nearby.

Relatives wept Monday and one man screamed for help for other family members he said were buried under the rubble of the house. "For God's sake, rescue them!" he pleaded.

No militants were seen at Shifa. Israel says its forces have killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen, but Hamas has not listed its casualties and it is unclear where militants are being treated or where their bodies were taken.

Shifa has been powered by generators since power completely cut out in Gaza City three days ago. Israel has not replenished Gaza's power station with industrial fuel since fighting began, and airstrikes have badly damaged power lines.

U.N. health official Mahmoud Daher said the generators were meant only as an emergency backup and he feared they would break down with the constant use, imperiling some 70 people hooked up to lifesaving equipment.

Throughout the day, exhausted medics rushed in with the wounded and the bodies of the dead.

Mohammed Salman, 26, a volunteer medic washing blood from the inside of an ambulance, said he had treated people with horrific injuries, including headless children and a woman whose stomach had been torn open.

The woman screamed, "Leave me and save my children," he said, and burst into tears.

Israeli aircraft have hit three ambulances in Gaza since the campaign began, killing seven medics, according to Gaza health officials.

A medical building owned by a relief organization not connected to Hamas was also bombed, said Daher. He said the building was destroyed, along with an ambulance, three mobile clinics and donated medicines.

The Israeli army says it has no records of any of those strikes.

Raed Arini, a Shifa hospital official, said he has stopped filling out the space on death certificates that says "reason for death."

"The reason for death is the Israeli army," he said, as medics rushed in with more wounded people.

It's really brutal war there in Gaza...Israel with its huge forces against forced party!! is there something there called humanity by Israelis?
photos talk..