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AP News : AP Exclusive : High civilian death toll in Gaza house strikes

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C’est beaucoup moins que les estimations de l’Onu et des autorités palestiniennes. A suivre...

By KARIN LAUB, FARES AKRAM and MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH
Published: Today

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In this Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014 photo, Mohammed Al-Bayoumi, 39, and his son Mahmoud stand on the rubble of their family home in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. A July 31 Israeli airstrike killed 13 people from two families, including his son. The number of civilian deaths has been a key issue in the highly charged battle over the dominant narrative of last summer’s 50-day war, the third and most destructive confrontation between Israel and Hamas since 2008. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - The youngest to die was a 4-day-old girl, the oldest a 92-year-old man.

They were among at least 844 Palestinians killed as a result of airstrikes on homes during Israel’s summer war with the Islamic militant group, Hamas.

Under the rules of war, homes are considered protected civilian sites unless used for military purposes. Israel says it attacked only legitimate targets, alleging militants used the houses to hide weapons, fighters and command centers. Palestinians say Israel’s warplanes often struck without regard for civilians.

The Associated Press examined 247 airstrikes that - according to witness accounts and site visits - hit residential compounds, out of the some 5,000 Israeli strikes during the conflict. Its reporters compiled a detailed casualty count, determining 844 dead in those strikes.

#gaza

Village bloodbath highlights Egypt’s new agony

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For Egyptians, the current violence is reminiscent of the Islamist insurgency that raged in through part of the 1980s and 1990s. Hundreds were slain on both sides. Security forces stormed villages and killed dozens; militants on motorcycles assassinated officers. Foreigners and Egyptian Christians were targets of terrorist attacks.

“These days are back,” said policeman Yasser Abdel-Hamid, speaking at the Police Hospital in Cairo after visiting his injured boss. After five days of deadly street battles with pro-Morsi supporters, “I can’t sleep for the sound of whistling sniper fire,” he said.

#violence

Egypt: Islamists hit Christian churches
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After torching a Franciscan school, Islamists paraded three nuns on the streets like “prisoners of war” before a Muslim woman offered them refuge. Two other women working at the school were sexually harassed and abused as they fought their way through a mob.

In the four days since security forces cleared two sit-in camps by supporters of Egypt’s ousted president, Islamists have attacked dozens of Coptic churches along with homes and businesses owned by the Christian minority. The campaign of intimidation appears to be a warning to Christians outside Cairo to stand down from political activism.

AP News: Secret to Prism program: Even bigger data seizure
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... interviews with more than a dozen current and former government and technology officials and outside experts show that, while Prism has attracted the recent attention, the program actually is a relatively small part of a much more expansive and intrusive eavesdropping effort.

Americans who disapprove of the government reading their emails have more to worry about from a different and larger NSA effort that snatches data as it passes through the fiber optic cables that make up the Internet’s backbone. That program, which has been known for years, copies Internet traffic as it enters and leaves the United States, then routes it to the NSA for analysis.

#prism