Israel closes Gaza crossings in response to rocket
JERUSALEM, July 4 (Agencies): Israel says it is keeping Gaza's border crossings closed in retaliation for a rocket attack.
Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner says all cargo passages remained shut Friday morning. He says the decision came Thursday after Palestinians fired a rocket toward Israel. No injuries were reported.
The rockets and closure are violations of a June 19 cease-fire. Since then, the army says 11 rockets and mortars have been fired toward Israel. The cargo crossings have been closed for a total of seven days, including Friday.
Israel imposed a blockade on the territory of 1.4 million Palestinians a year ago, after Hamas overran Gaza. Only food and medicine have been allowed in and Palestinians report severe shortages in everything from gasoline to cement and shoes.

Report: Iran warns against military action
TEHRAN, IRAN, July 4 (Agencies): Iran would consider any military action against its nuclear facilities as the beginning of a war, the country's top Revolutionary Guards commander said in remarks published Friday.
General Mohammed Ali Jafari's comments, carried by Iran's official news agency, come as speculation of possible military action against Iran's nuclear facilities mounts. The U.S. has said all options are on the table, and there are worries that Israel might be considering a unilateral strike. Both countries, which accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, say they favor a diplomatic solution.
Jafari said any country that attacks Iran would regret doing so.
"Any action against Iran is regarded as the beginning of war," Jafari said late Thursday, according to the IRNA news agency report. "Iran's response to any military action will make the invaders regret their decision and action."
In a newspaper interview last week, Jafari warned that if attacked, Iran would barrage Israel with missiles and choke off the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a narrow outlet for oil tankers leaving the Persian Gulf.
However, the general was also quoted as saying that he thinks a strike by Iran's adversaries is unlikely.
Iran's top diplomat, Manouchehr Mottaki, told The Associated Press in New York on Wednesday that the United States and Israel would not risk the "craziness" of attacking his country and possibly provoking a wider Middle East war or driving oil prices into uncharted heights.
An Israeli military exercise last month was seen as a strong warning to Iran. The U.S. and Israel say Iran's nuclear program is a cover for weapons production, while Iran insists it is only for power generation.
Mottaki called the speculation of a military strike part of "psychological warfare," according to Friday's IRNA report.
Iran's foreign minister has also signaled a willingness to restart talks with the West.
"Tehran is ready to settle Iran's nuclear issue in a comprehensive agreement," Mottaki was quoted as saying Thursday by the Web site of Iran's state TV.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - as well as Germany have offered new talks if Iran signals it is prepared to suspend its enrichment of uranium.

Pakistani Islamists rally for Red Mosque anniversary
ISLAMABAD, July 4 (Agencies): Hundreds of Islamists gathered outside Islamabad's Red Mosque on Friday and chanted slogans against President Pervez Musharraf to mark the anniversary of the bloody storming of the building.
Government forces laid siege to the hardline mosque on July 3, 2007 after clashes with Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants holed up inside, and stormed it one week later. More than 100 people were killed during the operation.
Carrying the mosque's signature black flags with crossed swords, around 700 protesters gathered after Friday prayers and shouted "Hang Musharraf, Musharraf is a murderer, America's friends are traitors", an AFP reporter said.
Local religious leaders vowed to lead a "revolution" in memory of Abdul Rashid Ghazi, one of the mosque's main leaders, who was killed in the July 10 raid on the mosque.
"We will continue the mission of Ghazi, who laid down his life for the glory of Islam and implementation of Islamic law in Pakistan," local cleric Amin Zeb told the crowd outside the mosque, which has since been repainted beige.
Riot police equipped with batons and shields cordoned off the area during the demonstration, which ended peacefully.
About 100 burqa-clad female students from an girls' religious school that was attached to the mosque and demolished after the operation played Islamist songs on tape recorders during the demonstration.
The female students became a symbol of the hardline mosque's defiance last year, and it was their kidnapping of several Chinese nationals allegedly involved in prostitution that sparked the deadly siege.
Ghazi's nephew Omar Farooq called for the release of the mosque's leader, Abdul Aziz, who was captured while trying to flee the mosque dressed in a burqa on the second day of the siege.
"The Red Mosque operation was launched on the orders of the US by its stooge, Pervez Musharraf," he told AFP, adding that authorities should reopen the mosque for Islamic schooling.
A lawmaker from the country's ruling coalition also joined the protest and called on Muslims to "foil conspiracies hatched by Islamic forces".
"Ghazi embraced martyrdom for Islam and his sacrifice will not go in vain," said Tariq Fazal, a member of former premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party.

Pentagon extends tour of Marines in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON, July 4 (Agencies): The Pentagon has extended the tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan, after insisting for months the unit would come home on time.
The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is doing combat operations in the volatile south, will stay an extra 30 days and come home in early November rather than October, Marine Col. David Lapan confirmed Thursday.
Military leaders as recently as Wednesday stressed the need for additional troops in Afghanistan. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has often praised the work of the 24th MEU in fighting Taliban militants in Helmand Province.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, however, has repeatedly said he did not intend to extend or replace the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, calling their deployment there an extraordinary, one-time effort to help tamp down the increasing violence in the south.
Asked about the possibility of an extension in early May, Gates said he would "be loathe to do that." He added that "no one has suggested even the possibility of extending that rotation."
Lapan said Thursday that commanders in Afghanistan asked that the Marines stay longer.
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the longer tour does not open the door to an extension beyond the 30 days, nor to the possibility of replacing them with other U.S. troops when they come out in November. "This is a slight addition to this tour and nothing more," he said.
He added that commanders in Afghanistan "asked for 30 more days to milk the fighting season to the bitter end and cement the gains they have made in the south."
The Pentagon announced in January that the Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was being ordered to Afghanistan, largely because efforts to press other NATO nations to increase their troop levels at the time had failed.
At the same time, about 1,000 members of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, which is based at Twentynine Palms, Calif., was ordered to deploy also. That unit has been used to train Afghan security forces. As a result of the MEU's extended deployment, Marines from both units are now expected to return home at about the same time.
Commanders faced with increasing violence have said they need at least 7,500 more troops in Afghanistan. And President Bush and defense officials have said they hope to identify additional units by the end of the year that could go to Afghanistan early next year.
The Pentagon has said that more U.S. forces cannot be sent to the Afghan fight until decisions are made to further reduce troop levels in Iraq. In the last two months, violence in Afghanistan has led to more U.S. and coalition casualties there than in Iraq, and June was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war began.
"The Taliban and their supporters have, without question, grown more effective and more aggressive in recent weeks ... as the casualty figures clearly demonstrate," Mullen told a Pentagon press conference Wednesday.
The heavy fighting has claimed the lives of a dozen members of the Marine units. One other Marine's death was not related to combat.
"It's a very complex problem, and it's tied to the drug trade, a faltering economy and, as I've said many times, the porous border region with Pakistan," said Mullen. "There's no easy solution, and there will be no quick fix."
There are 32,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, including 14,000 serving with the NATO-led coalition and another 18,000 conducting training and counterinsurgency.
The NATO force includes more than 52,000 troops from as many as 40 countries.