Netanyahu orders Israeli military to prepare for 'significant expansion' of Gaza ground offensive

July 17, 2014: Smoke from flares rises in the sky in Gaza City, in the northern area of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military Friday to prepare for a "significant expansion" of its ground operation against Gaza militants.

Netanyahu said the military's primary goal would be to destroy underground tunnels used by Hamas to attack the Jewish State. The announcement came hours after Israeli ground troops and tanks struck more than 100 terror targets in Israel's first major ground offensive in Gaza in just over five years.

The offensive follows an Egyptian effort earlier this week to halt hostilities. Israel accepted the terms, but Hamas refused, demanding that Israel and Egypt first give guarantees to ease the blockade on Gaza.

“Since there is no way to deal with the tunnels only from the air, our soldiers are doing it now from the ground," Netanyahu said at the opening of an emergency cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, the Jerusalem Post reported. “We decided to launch the action after we tried all the other ways, and with an understanding that without this operation the price we will have to pay later would be much higher."

Tanks, infantry and engineering forces were operating inside the coastal strip. In a statement, the military said it targeted rocket launchers, tunnels and more than 100 other targets. Throughout the night, the thud of tank shells echoed across Gaza, often just a few seconds apart. Several explosions from Israeli missile strikes shook high-rise buildings in central Gaza City. Pillars of smoke could be seen from the Israeli side of the border.

At Gaza's main Shifa Hospital, casualties quickly began arriving, including several members of the same family wounded by shrapnel from tank shells. Among those hurt were a toddler and a boy of elementary school age, their bodies pocked by small bloody wounds.

At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in the early stage of the ground operation, including three teenage siblings and a 3-month-old boy who died after a shell hit his family's Bedouin tent in southern Gaza, The Associated Press reported, citing Gaza health officials.

The Israeli military said a number of soldiers were wounded throughout the night, and one soldier, Staff Sgt. Eitan Barak, 20, was killed in the fighting. The circumstances behind his death were not immediately clear. Hamas' military wing said it ambushed Israeli units in the northern town of Beit Lahiya and caused casualties but Israeli media said it was likely a case of friendly fire between Israeli troops.

"The ground offensive does not scare us and we pledge to drown the occupation army in Gaza mud," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.

Israeli officials have said the goal is to weaken Hamas militarily and have not addressed the possibility of driving the Islamic militants from power.

However, Hamas has survived Israeli offensives in the past, including a major ground operation in January 2009 from which it emerged militarily weaker, but then recovered. Hamas has since assembled thousands of rockets and built a system of underground bunkers.

Israel had been reticent about launching a ground offensive for fear of endangering its own soldiers and drawing international condemnation over Palestinian civilian deaths.

Since the July 8 start of the air campaign, more than 260 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded, Palestinian health officials said. In Israel, one civilian died and several were wounded.

Israeli public opinion appears to strongly support the offensive after days of unrelenting rocket fire from Gaza and years of southern Israeli residents living under the threat. Gaza militants have fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel over the past 11 days.

Israel said it launched an open-ended assault on several fronts, with the primary aim being to destroy underground tunnels into Israel built by Hamas that could be used to carry out attacks.

On Thursday, 13 heavily armed Hamas militants tried to sneak in through such a tunnel, but were stopped by an airstrike after they emerged some 820 feet inside Israel.

Israeli defense officials said soldiers faced little resistance during the first night of the ground operation, but the longer troops remain in Gaza, the greater the risk for heavy casualties on both sides.

Forces are expected to spend a day or two staking out positions and are working in the north, east and south of the Gaza Strip. Then, they are expected to move to the second phase, which is to destroy tunnels, an operation that could take up to two weeks.

Once Hamas is able to study the military's positions and movements, it may push back more forcefully, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the military's strategy.

"The mission is progressing well," said Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, Israel's military chief. "There were a number of incidents overnight that we overcame and moved forward."

Prior to the Israeli Cabinet meeting, several ministers said they expected a prolonged offensive.

"This operation must be completed to its end and that includes a significant incursion into Gaza," said Uri Ariel, a Cabinet minister from the hardline Jewish Home party.

"We need to go in and finish the job. We need to eliminate every terrorist. They have no immunity."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Psychic scammers find fertile haunting ground in Internet age

By Jeffrey B. Roth

GETTYSBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - As pre-Halloween witches and ghouls sprout up on U.S. lawns, experts are warning people to be wary of modern occult scammers who have moved online to hawk virtual voodoo dolls, revenge spells and otherwise "haunted" items.

While the idea of spending money for a magic spell - to help with an endeavor or to inflict pain on an enemy - has been around for centuries, experts say the anonymity of online transactions can encourage people who would otherwise never think of visiting a storefront psychic to fall for a con.

"It's a new twist on an old idea," said Nicholas Little, legal director of the Center for Inquiry, a Washington-based nonprofit that promotes secular and rational thinking. "It's easy to hide your identity on the Internet, so people are willing to try scams online that they would never be willing to try in person."

While most scammers offer items in the small-dollar range - selling allegedly haunted items on auction sites for under $10 - some go for large sums of money. A Manhattan woman running a fortune-telling business earlier this month was found guilty of conning two women out of $138,000, claiming that the funds would be used to solve problems related to their past lives.

Alexandra Holzer Gargiulo, daughter of paranormal researcher and author, Hans Holzer, is publishing a 50th anniversary edition of her father's book "Ghost Hunter." She said paranormal scams prey on people who are "desperate for answers."

Television shows that depict investigators using gadgets such as electro-magnetic field detectors to document evidence of paranormal activity have driven up demand for those items, Gargiulo said. She added that the shows have also sparked growth in the number of self-proclaimed paranormal investigators, who charge homeowners as much as $1,500 to rid their homes of spirits.

The law relating to such activities is not always definitive, Little said, noting that fortune-tellers and others who offer occult services often use a "for entertainment purposes only" disclaimer to prevent legal problems.

Even as people who sell occult services move online, some continue to run storefronts, offering psychic readings for a small fee and trying to talk customers into paying more to resolve problems.

One New York woman who recently fell victim to such a scam was Maya Battle.

"It was a bad time for me and I was unhappy about a lot of things," said Battle. "Before, I had visited a psychic for a $5 reading for fun, but had never invested a lot of money for a reading."

But one day, while waiting for a friend outside a bar, Battle was approached by a doorway psychic, who told her she was the target of an evil curse.

She persuaded Battle to pay $100 to remove the curse. The psychic used an egg in the ritual, touching it against her forehead, shoulders and heart.

At the end of the ceremony, the psychic instructed Battle to break the egg, which appeared to be half-cooked and filled with black seeds, she said.

"That flipped me out," said Battle.

She said the psychic told her the seeds were the physical embodiment of the curse, and persuaded her to spend another $500 to have the egg properly disposed of.

Battle said she paid the money, but later regretted her decision. She did some research on the Internet and discovered she had fallen prey to a commonly used scam.

(Editing by Scott Malone and Gunna Dickson)

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Wisconsin bridge support beam sinks into the ground, causing huge dip in roadway

Sept. 25, 2013: The Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge is pictured after a support pier sank, causing a dip in the roadway.AP/Press-Gazette Media

This is one bumpy road!

A support pillar for a busy Wisconsin bridge that serves an interstate highway has sank into the ground, causing a dip in the roadway that’s hundreds of feet long.

Wisconsin Department of Transportation officials said Wednesday the Leo Frigo Bridge near Green Bay could be closed for up to a year as engineers work to repair the 400-foot stretch of road, Fox 11 reports.

DOT Secretary Mark Gottlieb said the bridge is “not in any danger of collapse,” and previous inspections revealed no flaws in the bridge’s structure.

Travelers called 911 early Wednesday to report the dip in the bridge. It was later shut down by police while an investigation continues.

“That bridge is sagging in the center. I came over with a tractor-trailer and she jumped that, the wheels came off. There’s something that’s not quite right,” one caller told 911.

The Leo Frigo Bridge is supported by dozens of concrete piers that are dug deep into the ground, but one of the piers sank 3 feet, Fox 11 reports.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said the cost of repairing the bridge is unknown.

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Ex-Congressman Weiner gaining ground in New York mayoral race

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Disgraced former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner is gaining ground on his Democratic rivals in the race for New York City Mayor, according to a new poll.

Weiner, who resigned from office two years ago in a sexting scandal, had the support of 19 percent of Democrats in a Marist poll released on Tuesday. That puts him six points behind early frontrunner City Council speaker Christine Quinn, who had support of 25 percent of Democrats.

A separate poll released on May 22, the day that Weiner formally declared his candidacy, had shown Quinn, who would be the city's first female and lesbian mayor, with a wider 10 point lead.

Another 22 percent of voters told Marist pollsters said they were yet undecided, while 12 percent backed Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and 11 percent were with former city comptroller Bill Thompson, who ran unsuccessfully against Bloomberg four years ago. John Liu, the city's current comptroller, follows with 8 percent.

Weiner, once a popular six-term Congressman representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens, resigned from Congress after admitting he had sent a lewd picture over Twitter and then lied about it repeatedly. He launched his campaign last Wednesday, saying he hoped voters would give him a second chance and pledging to be an advocate for the working class.

More than half of registered voters said Weiner deserves a second chance, while nearly 40 percent said Weiner does not have the character to be mayor, the poll found.

The candidates are due to face off in a Democratic primary in September. If no candidate wins more than 40 percent of the vote, the top two candidates will compete in a run-off election. The winning candidate will face the Republican candidate in November.

"He's a major factor in this race, he's made a run-off all but inevitable and he can't be overlooked," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

All of the Republican contenders, including businessman John Catsimatidis and Joe Lhota, the former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, are regarded as long-shots.

Miringoff said that voters appear to be open to a Weiner candidacy, though Weiner is still hampered by heavy disapproval ratings. He noted that Quinn is viewed favorably by 60 percent of registered Democrats.

"She remains the most popular of all of the candidates," Miringoff said.

The poll was released hours before Weiner is due to participate in his first mayoral debate. Quinn, who has attended dozens of such forums in recent months, has said she will not attend.

The telephone survey of 1,001 New York City adults was conducted May 22 through May 24. There poll included 810 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points, and 492 Democrats, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Scott Malone and Nick Zieminski)

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