Israeli troops charged over use of boy as human shield

Israel and Hamas were accused of war crimes in the 22-day war in Gaza

The Israeli military has charged two of its soldiers with endangering the life of a Palestinian boy during Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

The army said the soldiers, who had been searching a building, had instructed the nine-year-old to open bags they suspected were booby-trapped.

This practice, banned by the Israeli military, is known as using someone as a human shield.

Use of civilians as human shields is widely considered a war crime.

The Israeli rights organisation, B’Tselem welcomed the indictments.

But the group repeated its call for an independent investigation of the army’s operation in Gaza.

The war lasted for 22 days starting on 27 December 2008.

‘Breach military norms’

The soldiers, both staff sergeants, were charged with “engaging in unauthorised conduct in a way that endangered life and health”, military sources said.

The bags the Palestinian boy was forced to open turned out to be harmless.

DIFFERENT DEATH TOLLS Palestinians killed during Israeli military offensive in Gaza, 27 Dec to 18 Jan – Palestinian claims followed by Israelis claims: Total dead: 1,434 / 1,166 Fighters: 235 / 710-870 Non-combatants: 906 / 295-460 Women: 121 / 49 Children under 16: 288 / 89 Sources: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Israeli Defence Intelligence Research Dept Israel ‘understated’ Gaza deaths UN receives Goldstone responses Israel condemns UN’s Gaza report Full Goldstone report

The Israeli military has opened about 150 investigations into alleged misconduct during the operation, which was named “Cast Lead”.

About 40 of these are criminal investigations. This is the second to lead to an indictment. In the first, a soldier was jailed for seven months for using a credit card he stole from a Palestinian in Gaza to withdraw money in Israel.

Also, in January, the Israel military said it had reprimanded two top army officers for authorising an artillery attack using white phosphorus shells which hit a UN compound in Gaza last year.

Critics have said it is not sufficient for the military to investigate itself.

B’Tselem called again for an independent investigation into the war in a statement: “Military police investigations are not the appropriate instrument to investigate allegations regarding operation Cast Lead.”

“Israel must appoint an Israeli body, external to the army, to conduct an independent and effective investigation,” it added.

In September 2009, South African judge Richard Goldstone delivered a report to the UN Human Rights Council that concluded that war crimes had been committed by the Israeli military and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs Gaza.

He accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure during the conflict.

Hamas’s use of indiscriminate rocket fire was judged a war crime.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields by conducting military operations from densely populated areas.

Human rights groups say about 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the fighting, though Israel puts the number at about 1,100. Thirteen Israeli also died during the conflict.

bbc.co.uk

Panic was sparked in Georgia

Panic was sparked in Georgia after a TV station broadcast news that Russian tanks had invaded the capital and the country’s president was dead.

The Imedi network report, which brought back memories of the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, was false.

But mobile phone networks were overwhelmed with calls and many people rushed onto the streets.

Imedi said the aim had been to show how events might unfold if the president were killed. It later apologised.

The head of the holding company which owns Imedi TV, George Arveladze, said he was sorry for the distress that the TV report had caused.

‘Disgusting’

For a brief moment on Saturday evening many Georgians thought history was repeating itself, the BBC’s Tom Esslemont in Tbilisi says.

MEDIA HOAXES 1926 – mass anxiety after a BBC report of a murderous riot in London. It was a spoof by a literary priest 1938 – thousands flee after a CBS Radio report on Martians landing in New Jersey. It was a radio version of HG Wells War of the Worlds 1994 – panic in Taiyuan, China, after a TV report of a deadly creature on the loose. It was a commercial for a new brand of liquor

It is only 18 months since Russian tanks came within 45km (28 miles) of the Georgian capital, our correspondent adds.

In its news report, pro-government Imedi TV showed archive footage of the war and imagined how opposition figures might seize power after an assassination of the country’s President, Mikheil Saakashvili.

Although the broadcast was introduced as a simulation of possible events, the warning was lost on many Georgians, our correspondent says.

One local news agency reported that emergency services had received an unusually high volume of calls in the ensuing minutes.

And once calm returned, the report was seen by some as a poorly disguised swipe at the Georgian opposition politicians who recently travelled to Moscow to meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Mr Arveladze told Reuters that the aim was to show “the real threat” of how events might unfold.

That did not stop dozens of journalists and angry Georgians who gathered outside the Imedi TV studios to protest.

One opposition politician who was there labelled the report “disgusting”.

bbc.co.uk

Biden has again condemned Israel over a controversial building project

Joe Biden steps up pressure on Israel over E Jerusalem

Joe Biden: Israeli government’s decision “undermines trust”

US Vice-President Joe Biden has again condemned Israel over a controversial building project, saying approval had undermined trust in the peace process.

Mr Biden was speaking after meeting the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah.

Mr Abbas also said the approval of 1,600 more Jewish homes in East Jerusalem threatened the peace process and called for it to be cancelled.

Israel insists the move has nothing to do with Mr Biden’s visit.

The timing of the move, shortly before Mr Biden’s visit, angered the US.

Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to hold indirect “proximity talks” in a bid to restart the peace process, which has been stalled for 17 months.

However, the Israeli settlement announcement has cast a shadow on those talks, with the Palestinian Authority saying the approval showed Israel believed US negotiation efforts had failed before they had even begun.

ANALYSIS By Tim Franks BBC News, Ramallah Senior Palestinian officials have described as catastrophic Israel’s decision to push ahead with a planning process for 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. This is a part of the city which the rest of the world sees as occupied territory and which the Palestinians want as a capital for their new state. The Americans are still hoping that Israel and the Palestinians will begin a round of indirect talks, but now members of the Arab League are threatening to withdraw their grudging support for fresh negotiations. Before the discussions have even started, accusations of bad faith abound.

Mr Biden said at a joint press conference with Mr Abbas that he would condemn all statements that inflamed the situation or prejudiced the peace process.

He said the US pledged an active and sustained role in the talks process and it was “incumbent on both sides not to complicate the process”.

“Yesterday, the decision by the Israeli government to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem undermines that very trust – the trust that we need right now in order to begin as well as produce profitable negotiations.”

Mr Biden said achieving peace would require both Israel and the Palestinians to take “historically bold” steps.

Mr Abbas said he was addressing the Israeli people in saying that the “time is right for peace based on two states – an Israeli state living in peace and security alongside a Palestinian state”.

He said there should be a “permanent, lasting and just peace” that took in all areas, including Syria and Lebanon.

But he was also highly critical of the planning decision, saying they represented “the ruining of trust and a serious blow” to peace efforts.

Mr Abbas has refused to resume direct negotiations with the Israeli government because of its refusal to put a complete stop to the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israeli denial

In November, Israel announced a 10-month suspension of new building in the West Bank, under heavy US pressure. But it considers areas within the Jerusalem municipality as its territory and the restrictions do not apply.

Israel, deliberately or not, inflicted something close to a humiliation on the Obama administration and the words they chose in reaction reflected that, our correspondent says.

In the shadow of a settlement An Israeli settlement in close-up Middle East ‘haunted by the past’ Press unmoved by Biden visit

Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

During their dinner on Tuesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Mr Biden that he had no prior knowledge of the decision to authorise the new housing units in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Ramat Shlomo, officials said.

He said the plans had been submitted three years ago and had only received initial approval that day.

“The district committees approve plans weekly without informing me,” Interior Minister Eli Yishai, the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, told Israel Radio on Wednesday morning.

“If I’d have known, I would have postponed the authorisation by a week or two since we had no intention of provoking anyone.”

But the US government has not accepted Israel’s explanation that the announcement was essentially part of a bureaucratic process that had no connection with Mr Biden’s visit, says BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in Jerusalem.

The Arab League will meet in Cairo later to decide on a response.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev insisted Israel had “a very good working relationship and a very good personal relationship” with the US.

He dismissed speculation that the interior ministry’s announcement was a deliberate move by some members of Mr Netanyahu’s cabinet to scupper any chance of peace talks.

The US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is scheduled to arrive in the region next week to conduct the second round of proximity talks.

bbc.co.uk

Vatican colapses over child abuse across the globe

Vatican forced to defend itself over abuse cases

By Robert Pigott BBC News religious affairs correspondent

The Pope’s Bavarian homeland has not escaped the scandal

As accusations of historic sexual abuse by Roman Catholics emerge in another European country, the Vatican has insisted it has dealt with “the very serious issue” promptly and decisively.

After recent revelations of widespread abuse in Ireland, and claims of similar mistreatment of children by priests in Austria and Germany, Catholic bishops in the Netherlands have now set up an independent inquiry to look into allegations there.

More than 200 reports of abuse have been made to a victims’ support organisation in the last few days.

Dutch bishops have offered their apologies to those who were abused.

The Church in Ireland is already struggling to repair relations with a disillusioned public after three official reports in the past five years detailed abuse stretching over several decades and condemned the Church for keeping it secret.

Pope Benedict is expected to issue a letter to be read out in Catholic churches in Ireland later this month, in which he will respond publicly to the scandal.

‘Wall of silence’

The allegations from Germany are particularly sensitive, because the Pope was born in the country, and because they include a choir led by his brother Georg.

Reports surfaced last month that Catholic priests had sexually abused more than 170 children at Jesuit schools in Germany.

More scandals could shake people’s faith in the Church, as they have in Ireland

Those have been followed by fresh allegations of abuse at three Catholic schools in Bavaria, and within a boys’ choir that was directed for 30 years by Monsignor Georg Ratzinger.

Monsignor Ratzinger said he was aware that children had been beaten at schools attended by the choristers.

However, he said he knew nothing of the kind of sex abuse now being reported.

In Austria the head of a Benedictine monastery in Salzburg has resigned after admitting to sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy more than four decades ago.

Criticism of the Church has intensified in Germany, with an accusation by the justice minister that bishops behaved secretively in dealing with even severe cases of abuse.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said: “In many schools there was a wall of silence allowing for abuse and violence.”

Church officials called the minister’s remarks “absurd”, and the Vatican insisted that Roman Catholic leaders had “shown a desire for transparency”.

Authority at risk

Its spokesman, Frederico Lombardi said the Church had accelerated the process of unearthing abuse by encouraging victims to speak out about old cases.

Fr Lombardi acknowledged “the gravity of the anguish the Church is going through”, adding that it was striving for better protection for children as well as its own “purification”.

However, he insisted that the problem of sex abuse – although especially reprehensible when it happened inside the Church – was a problem belonging to the whole of society.

The Church is already fighting a battle against secularisation in Western Europe, and the steady erosion of its influence.

There are demands for modernisation, especially the ending of celibacy for priests, fiercely resisted by Pope Benedict.

The experience of the Catholic Church in the United States shows how damaging a long drawn out scandal of sex abuse could be to the Church’s authority and prestige in Europe too.

bbc.co.uk

Beware of cell phone spying

Technology makes it easier to connect with the people in your life, but it can also enable others to connect to you without your knowledge.

Software on cell phones can be used to track the phone’s owner.

People can learn all about your private life through your cell phone, and one woman said she was stalked for three years because of it. Susan, who asked that her real name be kept private because of worry over her safety, said her ex-boyfriend tormented her using only her cell phone to do it.

“He knew where I was all the time,” Susan said. “If I was at dinner somewhere. He would text me and ask me how dinner was. I had no idea how he knew where I was.”

Most people know that the GPS in a cell phone can track your every move, but that’s just the beginning. Widely available software that can be installed on almost any cell phone can track not just your whereabouts but also your private conversations and personal information.

“I thought I was going crazy,” Susan said. “It’s just unnerving knowing that somebody 24/7 knows where you’re at, what you’re talking about, what’s going on, everything about you.”

At the time, Susan didn’t know that her ex-boyfriend installed spying software on her phone when she wasn’t looking. Once installed, he could be anywhere — even in a different state — and follow her every move.

But what was worse, it didn’t just track her whereabouts. He could listen in on her phone calls, read her text messages and turn her personal cell phone into a bugging device. From anywhere, he could activate her speaker phone and listen to everything she was doing.

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“He would text me, ‘How was dinner? Was the date good?’” she recalled.

Susan’s ex-boyfriend would also show up places where she was. She feared for her life and called the police, who put her in protective custody. When her ex-boyfriend violated the restraining order, he was put in jail on felony stalking charges.

“He had every intention of killing me,” she said. “Within 20 minutes of getting out of jail, he was outside my hotel room.”

Security expert Robert Siciliano says he gets countless e-mails from victims of cell phone spying.

“When somebody remotely activates your phone, you’re not going to know it and they can use that phone to monitor the conversations in the room you’re in,” he said. “Your phone could be sitting next to you while you are watching TV, and somebody can actually log into your phone and can actually watch what you are watching on television.”

A 2009 report from the Department of Justice found that one-quarter of the 3.4 million stalking victims in the U.S. reported cyberstalking, and GPS technology and other forms of electronic monitoring were used to stalk one in 13 victims.

“GMA” found thousands of sites promoting cell phone spying software, boasting products to “catch cheating spouses,” “bug meeting rooms” or “track your kids.” Basic cell phone spying software costs as little as $50, but for a higher price the software enables anyone to do exactly what Susan’s ex-boyfriend did.

“Someone can easily install a spyware program on your phone that allows them to see every single thing you do all day long, via the phone’s video camera,” Siciliano said.

“GMA” spent $350 to get the features that remotely activate speaker phones, intercept live calls and instantly notify you every time a call is made.

It’s perfectly legal to sell the software but not necessarily legal to use it, although that’s in the fine print.

For people like Susan, the laws, which vary from state to state, haven’t caught up to the technology. Police say there aren’t specific laws on the books to address this type of stalking, as opposed to the physical stalking that led to the restraining order.

When it comes to cell phone spying, “The cops kept telling me there’s nothing we can do,” Susan said.

Safety experts say that if you believe you’ve been the target of cyberstalking, trust your instincts and ask for help. Organizations such as the National Center for Victims of Crime’s Stalking Resource Center and the National Network to End Domestic Violence’s Safety Net Project advocate for victims.

Indications that spyware might be on your cell phone:

The screen lights up for no reason
The flash on the camera goes off when you’re not taking a picture
You notice ambient noise in the background when you’re on a phone call
You repeatedly get strange text messages from an unknown origin

Tips:

Never let your cell phone out of your control — spyware can be installed on it in as little as a few minutes.

If you think spyware is on your phone, security expert Robert Siciliano says you have two options: Get a a new phone or call your cell phone service provider. They will tell you how to reinstall the operating system. Reinstalling the operating system should wipe out the spyware.

For more information on combating all forms of cyberstalking, CLICK HERE.

abcnews.com