American life for Afghans killed for fun

U.S. soldiers during a military patrol on the Afghan border with Pakistan last month (Reuters)
A military court in Washington state north of the western United States on Thursday sentenced to life in the U.S. Sergeant Calvin Gibbs is accused of killing three Afghan civilians in 2010, for entertainment.
U.S. sergeant convicted of Calvin Gibbs - the accused at the instigation of his subordinates on the slaughter of three Afghan civilians - on charges of murder, conspiracy and other charges.
Gibbs accused of killing four soldiers and unarmed men during a patrol in Kandahar province early last year.
Gibbs acknowledged (26 years) during the trial, which lasted seven days of Lewis base Makeshord Seattle cut off the fingers of the victims and the uprooting of their teeth to keep them as trophies of war. But he insisted he was not involved in the killings the first and third.
The group accused of trying to "conceal these crimes as acts photographed by self-defense." According to the indictment, the soldiers tried to shoot their dead as rebel fighters were killed in the field of battle.
Prosecutors said that Gibbs and his co-defendants knew that the victims do not pose any danger, and put weapons near their bodies to make it look as combatants.
Admitted three out of five defendants of the charges against them and sentenced them to prison terms ranging between 3 and 24 years old, while still in the fifth, named Michael and the anion is awaiting trial.
Phil Stackhouse, and insisted on Gibbs's lawyer that "they conspired to blame him for their actions," and said the issue was a "betrayal of the infantry."
According to Regulation accusatory, the Gibbs led a group of five soldiers who were serving in the Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan and put the "scenarios" were killed under which three Afghan civilians for entertainment between January and May / May 2010, and some cutting up some of the bodies and retain portions of them and take pictures to Along with the dead.
The jury deliberated for about four hours before his conviction. At the conclusion of the deliberations concluded the jury of five military personnel, to be Sergeant Calvin Gibbs guilty of 15 charges against him, including three counts of murder.
Asked Phil Stackhouse lawyer Gibbs of the jury for clemency on his behalf, pointing out that the Gibbs may be eligible for parole after ten years.
According to the sentence, the convicted will be able to after spending a decade behind bars to apply for parole.


 Source: Agencies

Israeli army more than the number of troops

Israeli patrol near the border with Egypt (French - Archive)

Israel tends to increase the troop strength of regular and reserve army in the border areas and the West Bank, starting next year through the recruitment part of the reserve forces are exceptional.

The Haaretz newspaper reported on Friday that the IDF will increase the number of troops in the border areas and the West Bank by 20%, and to this end, the Army will require 10% of the reserve forces of the military service exceptional, exceeding the limits prescribed by Reserve Act.

This text overtaking Reserve Act requires special approval from the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Knesset, and that the General Staff and the Committee on Foreign and Security - According to Haaretz - are engaged in the deliberations of the last period of the call for the ratification of the reserve.
Reasons for the increaseThe plan explains the Israeli army, to changes at the borders of Israel and especially the situation at the border with Egypt, and that during recent months intensified armed activities on the Egyptian side of the border.
The peak of the attack by gunmen in August / last August that killed eight Israeli soldiers and five Egyptians, the Israeli army fire, causing a crisis between the two countries.

According to the Israeli army, the armed activities in the Sinai stems from the chaos prevail Sinai, and the inability of the Egyptian authorities to control the situation.

Haaretz said that the Israeli army recently reduced its forces in the West Bank after increasing them significantly in the past months claiming fear of an escalation of security and organizing demonstrations in conjunction with the Palestinian approach to the United Nations for full membership.

The newspaper added that the General Staff of the Israeli army is now braced the probability of escalation of security in the West Bank next year, so it forces will be transferred again to the West and the border with the Gaza Strip.

Source: UPI

Rights Watch has accused Syria of war crimes

Organization accused the Syrian regime for crimes against humanity in Homs
Accused Human Rights Watch, human rights - in a report released on Friday - the Syrian regime of committing "crimes against humanity" in Homs. She explained that the government forces exercised "massive violations" include acts of torture and unlawful killings.
The organization called - for the defense of human rights, based in New York - the Arab League at its meeting expected in Cairo on Saturday to freeze the membership of Syria, and request the Security Council to impose an arms embargo and sanctions on individuals responsible for "violations", and refer Syria to the Criminal Court International.
She said the organization - in a statement the report - that "the systematic nature of abuses against civilians in Homs by the Syrian government forces - including the crimes of torture and extrajudicial killings - constitute crimes against humanity."
The Organization said that the Syrian security forces killed at least 104 in Homs since the second of November, when the Syrian government approved a plan developed by the Arab League to end the violence and start a dialogue with opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.
The organization said that these killings came after the killing of at least 587 civilians in the Homs between the months of April / April and August / August, the largest number of death toll in any province of Syria.
The Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa in the organization Sarah Leah Whitson, "The Homs scale model D over the cruelty of the Syrian government. And the Arab League to tell President al-Assad that the breach of the agreement with the University has consequences, and that the university supports the Now move the Security Council to stop murder. "
The organization described the access to accurate information that the task of "challenging", and was based on the FAO report on interviews with 114 residents of Homs who either fled to neighboring countries or talked over the Internet from within Syria.

WHO said it had documented 17 deaths in custody in Homs, including 12 due to torture

Systematic torture
Said Human Rights Watch that security forces "routinely used heavy machine guns, including anti-aircraft guns are placed on armored vehicles to fire on neighborhoods to terrorize people."

The organization said that thousands of Homs in Syria and the rest are subjected toarbitrary arrests, enforced disappearance, systematic torture during detention. And most of the detainees were released after several weeks, but several hundred are still missing.

The organization said it had documented 17 deaths in custody in Homs, including 12 at least clear that they died because of torture. Adding that she spoke with 25 former detainees in Homs, they all said they had been subjected to various forms of torture.

The report quoted one man was detained at the base of a military intelligence in Homs as saying that he was beaten with cables and suspended from his hands.

"I leave it hanging there for almost six hours, they hit me and poured water over me, then use lightning electricity."
 

Source: Agencies

Israel detains Iranian TV correspondent

The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned at the continued detention of journalist Hassan Ghani TV correspondent, "Press TV" Iran by Israel.


The coordinator of the Committee's program in the Middle East and North Africa, Mohamed Abdel Dayem, "said Hassan Ghani was in connection with the performance of professional duty, and on Israel to release him unconditionally."


The Israeli soldiers were on Friday to ship humanitarian aid were heading to the Gaza Strip, and climbed on board and arrested a Ghanaian and four others, Ayman al-Zubayr Al-Jazeera, and Casey Kauffman of Al Jazeera English, and Lina Atallah releases of "The Egyptian Today" (the English version ), in addition to Jihan Hafiz of "Democracy Now."


Israeli forces have seized some equipment four journalists and video clips, before releasing them and deport them all, except the Ghanaian - a Briton of Pakistani origin - which is still under arrest accompanied by a large number of those who were on board the vessels.


The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the journalist Hassan Ghani refused to sign a statement written in Hebrew says that he entered Israel illegally, and emphasized that in turn brought forcibly to Israel.


The channel said, "Press TV" in English-speaking Israeli authorities refused to divulge the place of detention correspondent. Also spoke to Lina Atallah for separation from the rest of Ghanaian prisoners who were with him, and attributed it to a vehicle belonging to the Iranian media, as well as his participation earlier in the Marmara Turkish ship.

 Source: websites

Russian probe, Mars lost its way

Russian probe "soil Vobs" such as the start of the rule of "Baikonur" in Kazakh (French)

Russia raced against time to save the spacecraft launched towards Mars and lost its way in the Earth's orbit, leaving only days after the end of the opportunity to save them.
The Russian news agency in a report that attempts stations Russian ground to get the data from the probe, "March Grant" or "soil Phobos" failed on Thursday, which may affect the completion of ambitious task which Russia seeks new ways to strengthen its position in space exploration .
Attempts are still continuing to receive any information concerning the relative distance enables scientists to calculate the path of the vehicle that is designed to be launched to Mars and then landing on the moon "Phobos", after which the return of samples from the soil in the task is supposed to take 34 months.
At the start of the probe towards Mars engines did not work, who was scheduled to push the vehicle out of Earth orbit toward Mars on schedule, leading to the survival of the vehicle in Earth orbit.
He said the world is responsible for the mission of the Institute of Space Research, Russian Alexander Zakharov, "so far not succeeded, all attempts to connect to the vehicle," and pointed out that they are experimenting with everything, including visual aids to try to assess the imbalance, but the situation does not inspire much hope, hinting at possible loss of probe Forever.
And unable to Russian experts at the center of the ground control to communicate with Probe unmanned's cost of $ 163 million, which was launched early on Wednesday from a launching pad "Baikonur" Russian Kazakh, but stuck in low orbit degree represent serious than the cause of the problem may lead to his downfall on the planet.
The probe will not save a stab to the pride of the Russian space industry in Russia added to the earlier series of embarrassing failures.

 Source: Agencies

Men the victims of the Internet more than women

Image via CrunchBase


A survey conducted on more than 1,600 Internet users in the United States and Britain that men are victims of deception more easily than women on social networking.


The company conducted the survey "house Devind" t concerned with electronic anti-virus,and showed the results published by the Daily Mail newspaper that 64.2% of womenalways refuse requests for friendship on sites such as Facebook compared to 55.4% of men.


The study showed that men tend to accept friend requests from scantily clad women orstimuli every sense of the possible applications of the presence of viruses, while women are more cautious in this regard.


The study revealed that men are more likely to accept friend requests from strangers, and disclosure of their sites, and ignore the standards of privacy, and leave their accountsopen to all, and not to read the privacy policies of the site.


The figures showed that a quarter of men to allow strangers to see their accounts, search,compared with 16% of women.

He said 25.6% of the men they reveal their positions compared to 21.8% of women. It is interesting that the survey showed that American men are more inclined to take risks on the Internet than their counterparts in Britain.
 

 
Source: UPI