Amid mounting international pressure, Israel rejects a proposed 48 hour ceasefire against Hamas in Gaza.  Prime Minister Ehud Olmert discussed France’s proposal to end the assault with his cabinet.  During the closed door meeting, Israeli officers say that the meeting ended with the decision to continue with the operation.

Israeli jets and assault helicopters continue to pelt gaza with missiles and bombs on its fifth day of attack.   Ground forces have also began using artillery for the first time.

US President George W. Bush, The European Union, The United Nations and Russia have been urging Israel for an immediate ceasefire.  Reports indicate that the death toll for Gaza has reached 374 with more than 60 civilians dead.  Israel has also lost four soldiers and three civilians.

Israel had began destroying underground tunnels to Gaza cutting off its lifeline.  Supplies and weapons are being smuggled into Gaza through underground tunnels which border Egypt.  According to sources who spoke anonymously, 120 tunnels have been destroyed by Israel since the conflict began.  There are around 200 tunnels being used by Hamas.

In Israel more than two dozen rockets and mortar shells were fired into the country Wednesday.  An empty school building was hit and a small farming community.  No casualties were reported.

Israel has began mustering up its ground crews, indicating that Israel plans to continue with the offensive.  6,700 soldiers are being called with an additional 2,500 more reserved soldiers being called into action.  Israeli officials say that their leaders want Hamas to agree to stop the rocket fire before it agrees to a truce.

After 21 years, two Super Bowl wins, the Denver Broncos fired head coach Mike Shanahan, Tuesday.  The decisonon was made by team owner Pat Bowlen who has supported Shanahan for many years.

“I appreciate the 21 years that Mike Shanahan has given to the organization as an assistant and head coach, and the two Super Bowl wins in that time,” Bowlen said. “His contributions hold a special place in Broncos history.”

The Broncos ended this season with an 8-8 record after losing to a lopsided game against San Diego last Sunday night. They also squandered a 3 game lead in the AFC West and missed a shot at the playoffs.  He was also fired as Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the Broncos.

The move stunned players, owners and other coaches in the NFL.  He had the second longest tenure behind Titan’s Jeff Fisher.  He is 15th overall on the NFL’s all-time list of coaching wins with a 146-91 record with the Broncos

One week following the time when Mychall Bell got busted for shoplifting, Bell, a Jena Six teen, was hurriedly ran into a hospital last Monday. According to the AP, the cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

Bell was once a member of the six black teenagers who faced adult crime charges in the 2006 beating of a white classmate in the town of Jena.The beating followed months of racial tensions in the community to blacks at Jena High School. Also, the case of the “Jena 6″ attracted a  lot of attention nationally.

Police officers thought that Bell was troubled over media coverage for getting arrested for stealing from a Dillard’s son on Christmas Eve, thus resulting to his suicide. However, according to his lawyer, everything was an accident. Bell was merely cleaning a gun when he shot himself in the shoulder but he had never attempted to kill himself.

The former congresswoman and presidential candidate for the Green Party, Cynthia McKinney, was one of the 16 people aboard a medical supply ship bound for Gaza which clashed with an Israeli warship and was compelled to turn back.

The 66-foot yacht ‘Dignity‘, flying the flag of Gibraltar, departed Larnaca Monday with roughly about 4 tons of Cypriot-donated supplies. According to the the organizers, the yacht has with it 16 passengers which includes former US Representative Cynthia McKinney, Cyrpiot lawmaker Eleni Theocharous and activists originating from Britain, Ireland, Australia and Tunisia.

McKinney was aboard the yacht to assess the impact of Israeli’s aerial attacks on residents of Gaza strip as said by the human rights group Free Gaza. It was the group who had organized the delivery of more than 3 tons of supplies. McKinney said in her interview with CNN Tuesday morning that their yacht was rammed for three times, two times in the front and once on the side after the Israeli patrol boats tracked them for about 30 minutes. She further stated, “Our mission was a peaceful mission. Our mission was thwarted by the aggressiveness of the Israeli military.

There was an issuance of a call for the Israeli government to “STOP attacking the civilian residents of Gaza and STOP using violence so that human raights and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.

Ellie Nesler who gained notoriety in 1993 when she put five bullets in the head of the man accused of molesting her son has died.  She was 56.

Ellie Nesler shot Daniel Driver five times in the head in a Tuolumne County courtroom while on a break.  The killing ignited the debate on vigilante justice.  Driver was in a preliminary hearing for allegedly abusing four boys including Nesler’s then 6 year-old son, William at a Christian camp.

She served for three and a half years as her case was winding down.  She later agreed to  plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was later released to her son and daughter.

Nesler died at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento from complications with cancer.  She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1994 .  Her case was made into a TV movie, “Judgment Day: The Ellie Nesler Story”.