A Group of U.N.-appointed experts says Israeli forces violated International Law“including international Humanitarian and human rights law” during and after their raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May.
The U.N. Human Rights Council’s fact-finding mission says Israel’s naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was “unlawful” because a humanitarian crisis there at the time.
The three-member panel says Israel’s military response to the flotilla was “disproportionate” and “betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality.”
Eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American were killed in the raid.
Israel says the soldiers acted in self-defense. The country’s mission to the U.N. in Geneva couldn’t immediately be reached for comment late Wednesday.
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China’s main nuclear power company is in talks with Pakistan to build a one-gigawatt nuclear power Plant in the South Asian country, a newspaper reported Tuesday.The state-run China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC), which has already helped Pakistan build a civilian reactor at Chashma in Punjab province, is also finishing a second one there and has agreed contracts to build two others.
“Both sides are in discussions over the CNNC exporting a one-gigawatt nuclear plant to Pakistan,” company vice president Qiu Jiangang was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal.
Qiu added that the first reactor was running safely, and that the second would be onstream by year’s end.
Officials at CNNC had no immediate comment when contacted by a French News Agency.
The United States has conveyed its concerns to Pakistan over the contracts for the third and fourth reactors, saying such plans required special approval from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
The group brings together nuclear energy states that forbid exports to nations lacking strict International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.
China joined the NSG in 2004. Pakistan has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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Americans are spending more time consuming news than a decade ago, adding online news to a diet of traditional media such as print newspapers, radio and television , according to a new survey.
The survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that Americans spend an average of 57 minutes a day getting news from print newspapers, radio and television, the same amount of time as in 2000.
“But today, they also spend an additional 13 minutes getting news online , increasing the total time spent with the news to 70 minutes,” Pew said.
“In short, instead of replacing traditional news platforms, Americans are increasingly integrating new technologies into their news consumption habits,” Pew said.
Pew said the news consumption totals did not include Americans who get news on cellphones so the likely average amount of time exceeds 70 minutes.
Pew said 83 percent of Americans get news in one form or another on a daily basis while 17 percent reported consuming no news at all.
Thirty-six percent of the 3,006 adults surveyed by Pew said they got news from digital and traditional sources the previous day while 39 percent said they relied solely on traditional sources.
Only nine percent of those surveyed said they got news through the Internet or mobile devices without also using traditional sources.
Twenty-six percent of those surveyed said they read a print newspaper the previous day, down from 30 percent two years ago and 38 percent in 2006.
Online newspaper readership is growing, the survey found, with 17 percent of Americans saying they visited a newspaper website the previous day, up from 13 percent in 2008 and nine percent in 2006.
The survey also found that more Americans are using Internet Search Engines to track down news on topics of interest. Thirty-three percent said they regularly use search engines to find news, up from 19 percent in 2008.
Thirty-one percent of those surveyed said they access the Web with their mobile phone but just eight percent said they regularly use the device to get news.
The survey was conducted between June 8 and June 28 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
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