Israel Rejects UN War Crimes Resolution

Jerusalem:  Israel has responded angrily to a United Nations resolution that accuses the Jewish state of war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israel says the United Nations General Assembly is "completely detached from reality," after it endorsed the Goldstone Report accusing the Jewish state of war crimes during the Gaza conflict last December and January. The report also accuses the Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza of war crimes, but the international focus has been on Israel.

The resolution was approved by 114 countries with 18 opposed and 44 abstentions. It calls on both Israel and Hamas to open credible investigations into the report's charges within three months.

Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor says the investigation by the U.N.-appointed Goldstone Commission was one-sided and biased from the beginning.

"The mandate of the commission already pre-establishes Israel's guilt; it says clearly that Israel is guilty of massive human rights violations and a number of crimes that are already listed in a mandate," said Palmor.

Israel says it will not open an investigation because that would be tantamount to acknowledging guilt and accepting the legitimacy of the Goldstone Commission.

"The commission was really a farce of a human rights fact-finding commission; it wasn't a real effort to seek the truth," he said.

Israel launched its offensive against Gaza's militant Hamas rulers in an attempt to halt years of rocket fire at Israeli towns. The fighting killed 13 Israelis and nearly 1,400 Palestinians, many of them civilians.

The resolution endorses a report by an expert panel chaired by South African jurist Richard Goldstone. The report concluded that both Israel and Palestinian militants committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the Gaza war.

If Israel does not cooperate, the Goldstone Report could be handed over to the U.N. Security Council which could pass it on to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. But Israel hopes that the United States, which holds a veto in the Security Council, will block any attempt to put Israeli officials on trial for war crimes.

Windows 7 Is Strong, But PC Lift Unclear

TECHNOLOGY:  Consumers snapped up copies of Microsoft Corp.'s new Windows 7 operating system during its first week on store shelves, though it's too soon to tell to what extent the software will ignite sales of new personal computers.

Sales of Windows 7 have been "fantastic" since the launch, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said at a press event in Tokyo Thursday, without providing details.

The first glimpse into demand for Windows 7 came from NPD Group, a research firm that tracks retail sales. NPD said unit sales of boxed copies of Windows 7 in U.S. stores were 234% higher during the .....

Fort Hood Shooter Was to Serve in Afghanistan.

One Civilian Among the 13 Dead; Army Psychiatrist Is Suspected and in Stable Condition.

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FORT HOOD,Texas:  U.S. Army officials said Friday that the alleged shooter in the military-base massacre that left 13 people dead and dozens wounded had been scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan to counsel soldiers suffering from combat stress.

The suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was in stable condition Friday as investigators interviewed witnesses and tried to piece together details of one of the worst incidents of soldier-on-soldier violence in U.S. history.

Army Col. Steven Braverman said during a morning news briefing that military psychiatrist Maj. Hasan hadn't been a disciplinary issue since recently being transferred to Fort Hood from Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. Col. Braverman declined to elaborate on the man at the center of the rampage, noting that a detailed probe was ongoing.

"We had no problems with job performance while he was working with us," said Col. Braverman, one of Maj. Hasan's superiors.

Army Col. John Rossi called Thursday's shooting a "tragic incident" and said that investigators had spent the night carefully interviewing witnesses. Officials disclosed that one of the 13 killed in the shooting was a civilian, while the rest were members of the military.

Military officials said the focus now is on the wounded soldiers who continue to need medical care. Half of those hospitalized required surgery and are in stable condition, Col. Braverman said.

At Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, about 30 minutes east of Fort Hood, medical staff were treating 10 victims suffering from gunshot wounds to the head, abdomen, neck and chest. Some had been struck multiple times. Six were in critical condition in the intensive-care unit following surgery, while four others were in the regular inpatient wing with less serious injuries. One patient may be released as early as Friday, hospital officials said.

"Some of them are not out of the woods," W. Roy Smythe, chair of the hospital's surgery department, said of the victims.

Col. Kimberly Kesling, deputy commander of clinical services at Darnall Army Medical Center, the hospital at Fort Hood, said Friday morning Maj. Hasan had appeared to be a dedicated professional. She described him as quiet, respectful and appropriate in attire and demeanor since arriving on base in July.

"To date, he had been performing quite well," Col. Kesling said.

His job as a psychiatrist was intense, she said. Some Army mental-health professionals experience burnout from the burden of hearing so many horror stories from traumatized veterans. But she had seen no sign that Maj. Hasan was under that type of stress.

"It's a shock," she said. "You would hope you never know someone who would have such a demon."

News that the suspected shooter was an Army psychiatrist alarmed Sgt. Howard Appleby, an Iraq veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and had been seeing a military psychiatrist daily since returning from the war last summer.

On Thursday, he was turned away at the hospital door as he walked in for his regular appointment, told that it had been postponed due to an emergency. He drove to the scene and began helping triage victims and load them into ambulances.

Friday morning, Sgt. Appleby said he was not sure he wanted to return to his regular schedule of Army counseling. "They need to evaluate all psychiatrists," he said. "I'm thinking twice about going to a psychiatrist now."

The shooting rampage Thursday was halted by a female civilian police officer who shot him, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the top military commander on the base. Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire. She was in stable condition Friday and is expected to recover from wounds sustained in the gun battle. (Read more about Sgt. Munley.)

Maj. Hasan, 39 years old, was hospitalized after the shooting, Lt. Gen. Cone said, and "his death is not imminent." He was on a ventilator and unconscious in a hospital after being shot four times during the shootings at the Army's sprawling Fort Hood, post officials said.

In the early chaos after the shootings, authorities believed they had killed him, only to discover later that he had survived.

Military officials added that they were probing how the alleged shooter may have gotten weapons into the base, where personnel other than civilian police don't typically carry weapons. They noted that security personnel conduct random car checks in search of guns.

President Barack Obama on Friday urged people not to jump to conclusions while law-enforcement officials gather facts about the shootings. The president ordered flags at the White House and other federal agencies to be flown at half-staff until Veterans Day as a tribute to those who lost their lives.

The alleged shooter is originally from Virginia, and had been recently promoted to major before his transfer to Fort Hood. His professional specialties include post-traumatic stress disorder, combat stress and other emotional issues common to the troops implicated in earlier incidents of military fratricide.

Authorities on Friday seized Maj. Hasan's home computer, searched his apartment and took away a dumpster.

Maj. Hasan was slated to serve for the first time in Afghanistan in coming weeks, military officials said. It was originally reported that he was to serve in Iraq. An official at the Pentagon added there were indications that Maj. Hasan was deeply upset about the pending assignment.

Maj. Hasan's cousin, Nader Hasan, told Fox News that his cousin was deeply traumatized about seeing wartime service.

"We've known for the last five years that that was probably his worst nightmare," Nader Hasan said. "He would tell us how he hears horrific things...that was probably affecting him psychologically."

The cousin said Maj. Hasan had joined the military out of high school against the wishes of his parents. He added that Maj. Hasan, a Muslim, hired a military lawyer and had been trying since September to avoid deployment and leave the Army.

The shooting began about 1:30 p.m. local time in two small buildings, adjacent to a processing center where soldiers receive medical checkups as they prepare to deploy overseas, officials said.

Lt. Gen. Cone said the victims, mostly soldiers, were waiting for treatment. Soldiers at the base don't routinely carry weapons and, therefore, would have been unarmed at the time of the attack. Maj. Hasan used two handguns, he said, including a semiautomatic weapon.

The injuries of the wounded varied significantly, he said.

Quick action by base personnel protected about 600 people who were in a nearby theater to attend college-graduation ceremonies for 138 soldiers, Lt. Gen. Cone said.

Thursday's attack was one of the Army's worst single-day losses of life since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama said in a nationally televised address that the attack on soldiers in the U.S. was particularly unsettling.

"It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas," he said. "It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."

Fort Hood, is the largest U.S. military facility in the world. It houses the 1st Cavalry Division and the First Army Division West, as well as an array of smaller aviation, logistics, and military police units.

More than 45,000 soldiers are assigned to the base, with many deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq at any one time. About 9,000 civilians also work at Fort Hood, and thousands of families live on the base and in nearby Killeen -- about 160 miles southwest of Dallas.

The shooting rattled service members at Fort Hood. "It's heavy on the hearts of soldiers," said Dionte Turner, a 29-year-old military police officer stationed who has been deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Killings "can happen anywhere," he said, "but you don't expect it to happen in your backyard."

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Write to Yochi Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com

Play.com hit by ordering glitch

Customers of Play.com have contacted the BBC to report problems with the online retailer's ordering system.

Many customers have received e-mails from Play.com reporting the despatch of an order they did not place.

Those opening the orders found contact details, including names and addresses, for other Play.com customers.

The problem appears to be widespread with many reporting Play.com help lines were jammed as they called to find out what had happened.

Simon Hurley from Clevedon near Bristol said he woke up this morning to find more than 80 e-mails from Play.com.

"I'm a big customer of theirs but not that big," he said. "I opened up each individual e-mail and it came up with another customer's name and their order."

Although there were no credit card details visible in the e-mails, Mr Hurley said all the messages had scrambled text at the bottom that could hide some information.

"People are being told to shred documents and then you have a big company like Play.com sending out hundreds of wrong e-mails to their customers," he said.

Mr Hurley said he rang Play.com to find out more but it took a long time to get through because the lines were "jammed solid".

Once he reached someone in customer services he was told that Play.com had a "massive problem."

So far it is not clear how many Play.com customers have received other people's e-mails nor how many e-mails have been sent out.

However, in other discussion forums on the web some customers talked about how many erroneous e-mails they had received.

On some forums customers said they were told that a "system error" was behind the sending of the e-mails.

In a statement a Play.com spokesperson said: "We were alerted to an incident that appears to have affected some customers for a short period of time in the early hours of this morning, and the first thing we'd like to say is that we apologise for any inconvenience our customers have experienced as a result.

"We'd like to reassure our customers that the cause of the incident has been identified and resolved.

"We take these matters very seriously and are now investigating how this incident occurred in the first place, so that we can prevent it happening in the future."

Play.com is among the most popular online shops in the UK for DVDs. CDS, games and movies. In February 2009, Play.com was the top retailer in the National Consumer Satisfaction Index.

Reaction: US military base shootings

Thirteen people have been killed and 30 injured in a shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, in an act described by President Barack Obama as "a horrific outburst of violence"

People who were at the base, or who had loved ones there, have told the BBC of their fear and despair in the moments after the attack.

Fort Hood was sealed off after the attack.

"We are saddened here and upset, and we want to go home," said a serviceman who was caught in the lockdown and who asked not be named.

He said the shooting came just before the base shut for the day at 1500 local time - Thursday being the shortest working day in the week.

"It's arranged this way so that we soldiers can spend quality time with our families," he said. "This is so terrible and frightening."

Carol, the wife of one serviceman who works at the base said she "felt sick with worry for almost an hour" as she tried in vain to reach her husband by phone.

"I can't tell you what was going through my head. I was just praying he would be okay," she said from her home in San Antonio.

"After 45 minutes of feeling so much distress, he called me. All he could say was 'I'm okay' and he put the phone down. I'm so relieved," she added.

First response

Another woman, Elizabeth, lives three blocks from the base where her husband works.

She told the BBC: "My husband came home and got his assault pack. He's on the immediate response team so he was called to get to the base as quickly as possible."

"He's clearing up now and policing the area. I can't talk to him or get hold of him.

"I heard sirens going off. I heard announcements going off - possibly for the lockdown. The sirens are mounted on poles so they are really loud."

Hard emotions

Alex, a student, said his school was placed under a "soft lockdown" for about 40 minutes.

He said teachers were instructed to lock the classroom doors, close the blinds, and keep students away from the windows.

"The students in my class were scared until we learned about the situation via the internet," he said.

"When we learnt about what was going on, I calmed down. I feel much safer now."

Local resident Wendy Park said her reaction was one of disbelief.

"I can't believe somebody would do this," she said.

"I mean, so much has happened in Fort Hood since the war started, it's hard to believe one of our own could do something like this."

But another woman, Carla Niswonger, saw the shooting as linked to the US military's operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"[I'm] very humbled, but yet not thoroughly surprised because of this being the largest military installation in the free world," she said.

"You know, we have a lot of people with a lot of problems from serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam - as my husband did - and it's just hard to control our emotions sometimes."

Sharon Gregory, 48, who lives just a few roads away from Fort Worth said the community had long feared an attack.

"I kind of thought after 9/11, it was only a matter of time before there was a terrorist attack here. I almost wish it had been," she told the Texas Statesman newspaper.

Saudi TV presenters covered from head to toe

Saudi Awtan TV presenters appear with full veil.

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JEDDAH :  A new TV show that discusses issues concerning teenage girls and female university students was recently broadcast with Saudi presenters dressed in black from head to toe, the Saudi English-language Arab News reported on Thursday.

The show entitled Asrar al-Banat (Secrets of girls) is broadcast on Awtan TV, a Saudi religious channel that was first aired in August 2008 and has women broadcasters who are covered in the all-enveloping abaya and niqab.

There are over 60 religious satellite channels that are broadcast across the Middle East. The channels represent different extremes when it comes to women presenters.

Channels such as Iqraa and al-Resalah have women presenters who do not cover their faces and dress in different colors, not necessarily black. On the other hand, channels such as al-Majd have no women presenters. Awtan is perhaps one that toes the middle line by allowing women to appear but only when covered from head to toe, the Saudi daily said.

Sawsan Salah Eddin, a 26-year-old Saudi BA graduate in Media and Guidance, is the presenter of Asrar al-Banat.

Sawsan presents the show with her sister, Sarah, a specialist in blood diseases, and psychologist Nawal Dawood.

The newspaper quoted Sawsan, who is from Riyadh, as saying she has long been looking to work as a journalist and has previously tried writing for the print media. She, however, said that she found TV shows effective in conveying her message.

She said that Saad al-Obaid, the program's director, " presented the idea to me and I liked it. He gave me the main points and I’ve been preparing the discussions ever since,” she said.

“Basically, this is my hijab and I don’t wear it because of the channel. The channel is an Islamic one and has a rule that I appear in full hijab,” Sawsan said.

Sawsan, who is appearing on TV for the first time, said she was initially anxious. Her family has, however, been supportive, particularly since “people will not see me” and the program reaches out to young women.

Speaking about a woman who criticized her appearance on TV Sawsan questioned why would people criticize her while she is in full hijab and leave other women who appear in improper dresses on various channels.

Asrar Al-Banat, which discusses different issues relating to teenage girls, is aired weekly and receives live phone calls from viewers.

US Army base shooting leaves at least 12 dead. Report

Washington:  At least one gunman opened fire on a US Army base in Texas on Thursday, killing 11 people before being shot and killed by police, authorities said.

An additional 31 people were wounded in the incident at Fort Hood and were being treated in nearby hospitals, Lieutenant General Robert Cone, the base commander, said. The dead gunman was a soldier and was armed with two handguns, he said.

'It's a terrible tragedy. It's stunning,' Cone said.

Two other soldiers were in custody and being questioned for possible involvement in the shootings, he said. There were eyewitness accounts of a a second or third shooter, he added.

Cone could not say what the motive was behind the attack that took place in a readiness centre, where soldiers are processed and medically examined before deploying to battle.

'We don't know that right now,' he said. 'This is all under investigation.'

One of the deceased victims was a civilian police officer on the base, Cone said.

The base, the largest US military installation in the world, was immediately placed on lockdown and traffic into and out of the base was closed, Cone said. A message on the Fort Hood website said: 'Effective immediately Fort Hood is closed' and ordered all commanders to account for personnel.

Fort Hood, which lies about 95 kilometres north of Texas's capital city Austin, houses several units that have been deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

More than 40,000 soldiers and their families live on the base.

US President Barack Obama broke from his planned remarks at a Native American conference in Washington, calling the attack 'tragic' and a 'a horrific outburst of violence.'

'It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas,' he said. 'It is horrifying that they should come under fire on an Army base in the United States.'