Israel has claimed that everything was done to protect innocent lives during its recent military operation in the Gaza Strip. But according to statements from Israeli soldiers there were malicious acts of destruction, white phosphorus was used and civilians were deliberately targeted.

The report is an account of acts of brutality. The Israeli human rights organization Breaking the Silence spent several months interviewing veterans of the Gaza war that took place in January of this year. The responses by 54 of the veterans paint a completely different picture of Israel's campaign against the Islamist organization Hamas from that provided by the Israeli military leadership. According to the report, the commanders hammered it into their soldiers that they were not to show any consideration for the Palestinian civilian population, so as not to risk the lives of Israeli troops.

 In this Jan. 16 photo, a Palestinian man inspects his burnt-out home in Gaza City after it was hit by Israeli tanks. The statements by reservists, conscripts, soldiers and officers, which are consistent with and reinforce each other, substantiate for the first time the suspicion that the Israeli military in many cases ignored one of the basic tenets of the international laws of war: the distinction between combatants and innocent bystanders. The three-week war claimed the lives of about 1,400 Palestinians, many if not most of them civilians.

According to the report by Breaking the Silence, Hamas's cynical conduct of war can no longer be solely blamed for the large number of civilian casualties. The Islamists deployed their fighters in densely populated areas, making it difficult for the Israelis to distinguish between Hamas soldiers and civilians. Many of the wounded and dead are clearly the result of a lesson Israel learned in the Lebanon war of 2006: no hesitation, no scruples.

When First Lt. James Brown and his team of bomb investigators arrived at the shredded remains of the truck, the grim significance of the attack became clear. One of the dead was a hard-charging commander who, more than any officer in this restive district of Logar Province, had helped fight a shadowy network of local bomb makers.

"If he wasn't trying so hard, if he was taking bribes, taking naps, he'd be alive right now," Lieutenant Brown said of the commander, Gul Alam.

This is the war in Afghanistan today, where death is measured less by the accuracy of bullets than by the cleverness of bombs. And though the Afghan insurgency's improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.'s, are less powerful or complex than those used in Iraq, they are becoming more common and more sophisticated with each week, American military officers say.

Al-Qaeda has issued its first threat against China with a vow to attack Chinese workers in North Africa in retaliation for Beijing's treatment of Muslim Uighurs.

The threat, issued by the Algeria-based al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), highlights the risks faced by China as it expands its economic investments overseas.

"Although AQIM appear to be the first arm of al-Qaeda to officially state they will target Chinese interests, others are likely to follow," an intelligence report from Stirling Assynt, a London-based risk analysis firm, says.

The warning followed deadly unrest in China's westernmost region of Xinjiang last week, when 184 people died and 1,680 were injured -- most of them Han Chinese killed by Uighurs.

^{Infrastructure spending rose during boom times but failed to trickle down to the roadways partly due to graft. The abysmal network has become a drag on the economy and a horror story for truckers.}

By Megan K. Stack, Los Angeles Times

Over the last decade, as Vladimir V. Putin presided over an oil-rich, newly assertive nation, outside observers marveled at Russia's resurgence. But daily life inside the would-be superpower is still strained by mundane, fundamental failures.

As anybody who has tried to explore the country by car can testify, Russia's abysmal road infrastructure is perhaps the most pointed reminder of all the things left undone during long years of economic boom.

Outside the major cities, the roads are harrowing -- narrow and perilously pitted with potholes; groaning with cargo trucks; edges dropping off abruptly onto earth without a shoulder.

Even fresh pavement often ripples in waves, which are often coated with winter ice, sending tires skidding back and forth. And in many parts of Russia, the roads are simply unpaved.

Although spending on infrastructure has tripled over the last few years, drivers and experts agree that the cash has failed to trickle down meaningfully to the roadways, partly because it got snared in local corruption.

And now, with the GDP shrinking and the International Monetary Fund predicting zero economic growth in 2010, there is a growing fear that Russia may have squandered its best chance to reinvent itself.