Israel lauds war crimes investigator's reversal

Many modern armies have struggled with how to battle an enemy who uses human shields, perhaps none more so than Israel.

So Israeli leaders were especially pleased Sunday after an admission by Richard Goldstone - a Jewish U.N. investigator who became persona non grata in the Jewish state - that war crimes accusations contained in his report on Israel's offensive in Gaza two years ago should be reconsidered.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the United Nations to nullify Goldstone's report. Defense officials urged the international community to rewrite the laws of war. Commentators alternated between attacking Goldstone for causing what they said was irreparable damage to Israel and praising him for admitting he made a mistake.

"There are very few instances in which those who disseminate libels retract their libel. This happened in the case of the Goldstone report," Netanyahu told his Cabinet.

Battle rages as Kadhafi man quits

THE oil town of Brega saw more heavy fighting as rebels advanced then fell back after being ambushed.

Former foreign minister and UN General Assembly president Ali Treiki became the latest official to abandon Kadhafi, after the flight to Britain of foreign minister and regime stalwart, Mussa Kussa earlier in the week.

A British delegation was also reported to be in the Libyan rebel bastion of Benghazi in the east, nearly a month after a botched bid by special forces to contact the insurgency caused red faces in London when the team was captured.

Rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani confirmed the presence of a British group in the country's second largest city for talks with the Transitional National Council (TNC).

A British Foreign Office spokesperson also confirmed the trip, saying the team was led by Christopher Prentice, who also visited Libya last week.

Israel Grapples With Retraction on Gaza Report

The disavowal, by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge who led a panel of experts for the United Nations, appeared in an opinion article he published in The Washington Post. He said that he no longer believed that Israel had intentionally killed Palestinian civilians during its invasion of Gaza.

Many here considered the essay truly significant. Commentary, came in a flood, ranging from gracious praise to vindictive indignation. Some cited the message of Proverbs 28:13 that whoever confesses and renounces his sins “finds mercy.”

Still, the question remained whether the harm the Goldstone Report caused — the ammunition it gave to those who view Israel as a pariah state and question its right to exist, the campaigns that have stopped some Israeli officials from traveling abroad for fear of arrest for war crimes — could be undone.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that Israel would work “to formulate practical and public diplomacy measures, in order to reverse and minimize the great damage that has been done by this campaign of denigration against the State of Israel.”

Syrian mourners say government snipers carried out massacre

Thousands of protesters returned to the streets of Greater Damascus as funerals for those killed in a reported massacre by government forces last Friday were held in a suburb of the capital city.

Human rights groups have claimed at least 15 people were shot dead on Friday during pro-reform demonstrations in the neighbourhood of Douma, which lies eight miles north-east of the Syrian capital. Some non-governmental organisations claim up to 22 protesters may have been killed, with more than 100 wounded, including 20 in a critical condition.

Angry mourners chanted "down with the regime" as eight of Friday's victims, believed to have been targeted by government snipers, were buried.

"This was the systematic killing of peaceful and unarmed citizens by security forces," said Radwan Ziadeh, head of the Damascus Centre for Human Rights, one of several organisations that has collated matching witness accounts of the incident.

Nigerian election pushed back a week

A day after an election official announced that Nigeria's parliamentary election was postponed for two days, the nation's election commission announced that all elections would be pushed back a week. The Independent National Election Commission said the parliamentary, presidential and gubernatorial elections would be put off because of the late arrival of voting materials. "We cannot proceed with these elections if we want them to be free, fair and credible if there are no result sheets," said Attahiru Jega, chairman of the election commission, on Saturday, when the parliamentary race was supposed to happen. "We cannot bury our heads and say there are no problems. It is regrettable. It is unfortunate. It should not have happened." Jega also had said he took full responsibility for the fiasco but he said a vendor that was supplying results sheets and ballots was unable to deliver them on time. The vendor, said Jega, cited the diversion of planes to carry relief supplies to earthquake-stricken Japan as the reason for the delay.