Israeli artillery Monday bombarded the Gaza International Airport in Rafah, south of Gaza, according to witnesses.
Ambulances headed to the scene after reports of injuries, they said.
Israeli armored vehicles also carried out incursions Monday east of Rafah. The vehicles bombed a Palestinian house and destroyed parts of it. There are no immediate reports of injuries.
Israeli forces bombed al-Zaytoun neighborhood in eastern Gaza Sunday night, killing one Palestinian and injuring several others.
The Israeli army had killed one Palestinian Wednesday and injured 10 others
Israeli aircrafts also launched strikes east of Jabalya, north of Gaza, and agricultural land east of Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, with no injuries reported.
Israeli bombing of Gaza came as retaliation after a missile struck the southern Israeli city of Beersheba for the first time in two years, which came in response to several violent incidents in Gaza including an Israeli killing of an Islamic Jihad fighter in northern Gaza earlier last week.
Beersheba is the largest city in the Naqab desert of southern Israel, often referred to as the ‘capital of the Naqab,’ and is the seventh largest city in Israel with a population of 194,800.
@'PNIA'

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HSBC profits double to almost £12bn

HSBC revealed that its highest paid banker took home more than £8.4m last year as it reported that profits more than doubled to $19bn (£11.8bn) in 2010.
The UK's largest bank said 280 of its most senior employees had shared in bonuses of $374m. Some 186 of these were in the UK and their share of the bonuses was $172m. This means key bankers in the UK get paid an average of $920,000 verses $1.3m group-wide, although this is partly because the UK numbers include lower-paid staff involved in monitoring the bank's risks.
Stuart Gulliver, who took over as chief executive at the start of the year, is to take his £5.2m bonus in shares. His total pay was £6.1m, down on the £10m he received a year ago when he was the highest paid employee of the bank.
While the chief executive's office is Hong Kong, Gulliver joked that he lives on Cathay Pacific and British Airways, spending a third of his time in the UK, a third in Hong Kong and a third in the air.
For 2010, the highest paid banker – who is not named – received between £8.4m and £8.5m; one took £6.8m and three received between £6.3m and £6.4m.
HSBC provides more information about pay than other financial institutions because it is listed in Hong Kong, which demands disclosure of the five highest paid staff. In banking, the biggest earners are often outside the boardroom.
Under Project Merlin, the deal between major banks and the UK government, the disclosure is different and only requires the pay of the five highest paid executives outside the boardroom – rather than all bankers and traders – to be disclosed. Under this measure the highest paid executive received £4.2m.
The information about the bonus pool for senior staff is being provided to comply with a new Financial Services Authority rule which requires so-called "code staff" – those deemed to be high paid and taking big risks – to have their pay published in aggregate.
Gulliver replaced Michael Geoghegan as chief executive after a very public boardroom reshuffle. For 2010 Geoghegan received £5.8m after his £2m salary and benefits were topped by a £3.8m bonus. He is also to receive £1m for 2011 and a pension contribution of £401,250 under the terms of his contract. While he stepped down at the end of December, he will receive £200,000 in consultancy fees to 1 April which he will donate to charity.
The bank cut its long-term return on equity target to 12-15% from a previous 15-19% target, blaming the costs caused by regulations which demand banks hold more capital and extra liquid instruments that can be sold quickly in a crisis. The shares fell 4% to 682p as the market digested numbers which, Gulliver admitted, showed income was flat, costs were up and that profits have been bolstered by the $12.4bn fall in impairments to $14bn – the lowest level since 2006.
"We've targeted 12 to 15% through the cycle for return on equity, principally taking into consideration what we view as a somewhat unstable and uneven economic recovery over the coming years as well as much higher capital requirements," said new finance director Iain Mackay.
Commenting on the profits, which were below the $20bn estimated by analysts, Gulliver said: "Underlying financial performance continued to improve in 2010 and shareholders continued to benefit from HSBC's universal banking model. All regions and customer groups were profitable, as personal financial services and North America returned to profit. Commercial banking made an increased contribution to underlying earnings and global banking and markets also remained strongly profitable, albeit behind 2009's record performance, reflecting a well-balanced and diversified business."
HSBC's new chairman Douglas Flint – who was the finance director until he replaced Stephen Green in December – said the group will "not forget" the financial crisis and support from governments around the world, adding the group entered 2011 "with humility". Green's departure to join the government as trade minister caused the bank to reorganise its top team last year.
But Flint hit out against George Osborne's permanent levy on bank balance sheets, saying that if the chancellor removed the levy – which will cost HSBC around $600m – the bank would increase its payouts to shareholders. The final dividend was announced at 12 cents, up from 10 cents at the same point last year.
Flint was also concerned about the new rules that force banks to hold more liquid instruments such as government bonds. "It will be a near impossibility for the industry to expand business lending at the same time as increasing the amount of deposits deployed in government bonds while, for many banks but not HSBC, reducing dependency on central bank liquidity support arrangements," Flint said. It is to be hoped that the observation period, which starts this year and precedes the formal introduction of the new requirements, will inform a recalibration of these minimum liquidity standards.
For 2009 the bank reported a 24% fall in pretax profit to $7bn (£4.63bn), which included a total bill for salaries and bonuses of $18.5bn, down 11%.
Jill Treanor @'The Guardian'

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English subtitles

Thousands of Screws Make a 3D Portrait

Meet Andrew Myers, one of the most patient modern-day sculptors around. This Laguna Beach, California-based artist goes through a multi-step process to create incredible works of art you almost have to see (or touch) to believe. He starts with a base, plywood panel, and then places pages of a phone book on top. (Cool fact: He'll use pages from his subjects' local area.) He then draws out a face and pre-drills 8,000 to 10,000 holes, by hand. As he drills in the screws, Myers doesn't rely on any computer software to guide him, he figures it out as he goes along. "For me, I consider this a traditional sculpture and all my screws are at different depths," he says.

One of the most challenging parts is getting rid of the flat drawing underneath because he then has to paint over each of the screw heads, individually, so that in the end, the sculpture looks like an actual portrait.

@'My Modern Met'

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'Whoonga' threat to South African HIV patients

HIV patients in the South African township of Umlazi live in fear of being robbed of their live-saving anti-retroviral drugs.

They have become attractive targets for gangs who steal their pills, which are then combined with detergent powder and rat poison to make "whoonga" - a highly toxic and addictive street drug.
Smokers use it to lace joints, believing the anti-retroviral Stocrin increases the hallucinogenic effects of marijuana - though there is no scientific proof of this.

The threat to HIV patients in this poor community of KwaZulu-Natal province is very real.

"On the one hand, we are battling to stay alive," says 49-year-old Phumzile Sibiya, who has been taking ARV drugs for six months.
"Now we have to worry about thugs who will want to rob us for a chance to live because that's what they are stealing from us when they take our pills."
Ms Sibiya and other HIV patients now visit the clinic in a group to ensure their safety.
"I just don't feel safe at all when I come to collect my pills. You never know where they could be waiting for you. This is very painful," she says as she shuffles along a long queue at Ithembalabantu Clinic, south of Durban...