Hamas vowed “a tough response” to the six deaths, saying it would “shake [Israelis] to the core and destroy them”.Meanwhile, the Hamas leaders continued to appear publicly at rallies and at demonstrations.Yassin addressed a rally on Friday that drew 10,000 supporters, and he said that further attacks were planned. Rantisi and Zahar said similar things to thousands more at another rally that took place in Gaza City.Sitting in the medical clinic he runs, Zahar, a surgeon, promised more attacks. “We will continue the way we started and no one can dictate anything to us, we only fear God, we don’t fear the enemy, and God willing, we will continue to terrorise them,” he said, looking over spectacles balanced on the tip of his nose. “They should not expect Gaza to be a nice trip for them, everyone here will defend the land.”Coming out of a mosque following Friday afternoon prayers, Ismail Abu Shanab, another prominent Hamas leader, acknowledged that he was taking some protective measures. At least one of those steps was visible – his car windows had been recently tinted.”We are doing all that we can, but don’t forget we are freedom fighters and we have to be among our people,” Abu Shanab said (AP). Scattered clashes broke out yesterday as hundreds of police officers blockaded cities and towns in Zimbabwe to thwart street protests called by a coalition of civic groups to demand a new constitution, followed by a fresh presidential election. Riot police were on sidewalks, street corners and at bus and parking lots.

Edwina Spicer, a television journalist, was arrested, together with her husband Newton, apparently while filming police deployments.Zimbabweans collected in small groups for the protests, organised by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a coalition of trade unions, professional organisations, student bodies and church groups. But any gatherings were quickly dispersed by police in riot gear, and none of the protesters were able to reach the planned sites of marches to be addressed by NCA leaders.”We have resorted to guerrilla tactics to try and circumvent the police, said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the NCA. “We are avoiding forming one large group, as this might result in losses of life,”The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has rejected Mr Mugabe’s victory over its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, in last month’s presidential election, which was widely condemned as rigged, but yesterday the President ruled out a fresh election “The next poll will be held in six years … Let that sink into Britain and its surrogates in the MDC,” Mr Mugabe told a meeting of his party’s central committee.Mr Mugabe described the protests as “senseless” on Friday, while the Home Affairs Minister, John Nkomo, issued an order banning them. Hundreds of people were arrested earlier in the week, including about 400 women and children rounded up in the poor suburbs of Harare on Thursday as they were meeting to plan the demonstrations. But the NCA vowed to press ahead, saying it was illegal for the government to ban peaceful protests.Human rights groups say 10 opposition supporters have died and thousands of government critics and opposition activists have been arrested, beaten and tortured since the election as part of a continuing campaign of harassment and violence against government critics. “It’s as if we are being ruled by an occupation force instead of a civilian government,” said Professor Elphas Mukonoweshuro of the University of Zimbabwe..

Tomorrow morning, at the Bavarian regional court in Munich, a judge will read the last rights for the central company in the debt-ridden empire of Leo Kirch. The 75-year-old media mogul has defied his creditors so many times that he must have thought he was going to succeed again. However, this time he was negotiating with Rupert Murdoch, Silvio Berlusconi and Prince Alwaleed It is not surprising that he lost out.
But so did they. The trio were trying to use their minority stakes in KirchMedia, the core business in the Kirch empire, to manoeuvre themselves to grab the choice assets Kirch owned. These include the rights to broadcast the football World Cup this year and in 2006; a share of Formula 1 motor racing; the rights to the Bundesliga, Germany’s football league; the German rights to a slew of Hollywood movies; 52 per cent of ProSiebenSAT.1, the free-to-air TV business; and the controlling interest in Premiere, the struggling pay-TV operation where BSkyB is a minority investor.