- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ |
Spyware used on key figure in Netanyahu trial: reports
Reports that police may have used spyware on a key witness in the trial of former premier Benjamin Netanyahu dominated Israeli headlines Thursday amid global scrutiny of Israeli-made surveillance technology.
In a recording aired by Channel 12 news, police are heard allegedly discussing tapping a phone belonging to Shlomo Filber, a former Netanyahu ally turned state witness.
"It's as if it's illegal" a police officer says, continuing "to install the application".
Police declined to comment on the recordings that emerged late Wednesday.
But a spokesperson told AFP "the Israeli police will cooperate fully and transparently" with an investigation team appointed by the attorney general, which is probing potential police misuse of spyware.
Netanyahu, who served as premier from 2009 until last year, faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, allegations he has denied.
His trial is expected to last for several more months and appeals could take years.
Israeli media reported last month that he was negotiating a plea deal with the attorney general that would include admission of "moral turpitude", an offence which carries a seven-year ban from politics.
Netanyahu has denied the deal.
The allegation that police spied on Filber surfaced amid a broader probe into unauthorised police surveillance of Israeli phones.
Israel's justice minister had pledged to investigate after a report in the business daily Calcalist found police had used NSO Group's Pegasus spyware on protesters against Netanyahu.
Police had initially denied the allegations, but on Tuesday appeared to backpedal, saying "new elements changed certain aspects of the matter".
Pegasus is a surveillance programme that can switch on a phone's camera or microphone and harvest its data. It sparked controversy worldwide following revelations last year it was used to spy on journalists and dissidents in countries including Hungary, Poland, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
NSO last month would neither confirm nor deny it sold technologies to the Israeli police, stressing it does "not operate the system once sold to its governmental customers and it is not involved in any way in the system's operation".
The allegations do not specify whether Pegasus or a different spy programme was used against Filber.
The reported spying on Filber included photographs, phone numbers, messages and apps that were extracted without authorisation and without a court-issued warrant, according to a report on Channel 13 News.
Filber declined an interview request from AFP but tweeted in jest Wednesday: "My wife responds: 'Finally someone is listening to your prattling.'"
J.Fankhauser--BTB