Bring them home

'We could have saved all of them': Israelis go on strike as hostage deaths trigger demand for Gaza deal

Protests and general strikes swept Israel on Monday as frustration and anger mounted over the failure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to secure a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would free Israeli hostages held by the militant group in Gaza for nearly 11 months.

The action comes after Israel's military recovered the bodies of six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

Goldberg-Polin's funeral was held Monday in Jerusalem. He was 23.

Protesters want Netanyahu do more to bring home the remaining 101 hostages, a third of whom Israeli officials estimate have died in captivity. They say Netanyahu is delaying doing a deal for his own political purposes. His ruling coalition government is propped up by far-right allies bitterly opposed to any kind of agreement with Hamas.

Netanyahu blames Hamas for the lack of progress.

Still, a cousin of Carmel Gat, one of the hostages whose body was recovered by Israel's Defense Forces on Sunday, told a press conference on Monday that "delays" by Netanyahu were the main obstacles to an agreement.

"All six of them were held together and all six of them were killed in captivity," Gal Dickmann said.

"We could have saved all of them."

Sad

and if she hadn't left her 12-year-old daughter in the car, there might have been another hostage, possibly a death. Two other hostages, bank employees, are expected to recover, after being thrown or escaping from the SUV during the chase, one of them shot, apparently. Misty Holt-Singh, however, was killed as robbers used her as a human shield, and it is unclear which side the bullet that killed her came from. So sad. My condolences to the family. You never know when an innocuous trip on an average day can lead to something like this. Hug your loved ones, and tell them you love them whenever possible.

Bank customer-turned-hostage recalled as loving mother

It should be of no surprise

that I fell asleep for awhile. Then YKWIA called and we had a great talk for over an hour. So now for a bit of blogging before bed. Here are some stories I've been following:

Standoff in Alabama Ends in Boy’s Rescue and Kidnapper’s Death
FBI: Bombs found in Alabama kidnapper's bunker

Yay! I'm so glad that he's freed. I wish him and his family well. Thank goodness he made it through this, and just in time for his sixth birthday.

Brain infection, not scarlet fever, may have caused Mary Ingalls' blindness

The Real Richard III: 3D reconstruction and linguistic research reveal English king’s face, voice

Astronomers finally crack mystery of solar system’s strange ‘ribbon of energy’

New York Times Revises Ed Koch Obit To Include AIDS

and then there's this--not news, but something that I saw on Facebook, proving the folks at BBCAmerica have a sense of humour:

Speaking of the Superbowl, did you see this?

San Francisco, Baltimore libraries place friendly wager on Super Bowl -- so I guess it'll be Poe that's recited. I do love 'The Raven'. :)

Okay, good night!

Still praying this will work out

Alabama bunker suspect faced court date, neighbors say

Investigators have communicated with the suspect through a length of PVC pipe that extends out of the bunker. They've sent down coloring books and crayons for the child, state Rep. Steve Clouse said. They've also sent prescription medicine for the boy, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he said.

The boy's family is "holding on by a thread," Clouse said. They do not know Dykes, according to Clouse, who has been speaking with the family. Investigators are still communicating with the suspect and "have no reason to believe that the child has been harmed," Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said Wednesday evening.

"Pray, pray," Olson told reporters.

Tense Negotiations in Alabama Kidnapping

A man with a history of violent behavior and a 5-year-old boy he abducted from a school bus on Tuesday remained holed up in the man’s homemade underground bunker in rural Alabama on Thursday morning.

The negotiations, described as tense and delicate, began Tuesday afternoon, when local law enforcement officials, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and SWAT teams surrounded the bunker off a dirt road in Midland City, a small town in southern Alabama peanut country, near the Florida and Georgia borders.