Monthly Archives: March 2013
Cypriot depositors to lose 60-75%
Savers at the Bank of Cyprus may be forced to accept losses on their deposits that exceed 60 percent in order to keep the stricken bank afloat. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/business/global/some-savers-in-cyprus-may-lose-60-percent.html?hp The more sizable haircut, coming soon after the imposition of tough capital controls, is the latest and perhaps most profound reminder of the financial punishment being visited […]
Banksters get off the hook for Libor scandal
The world’s biggest banks won a major victory on Friday when a judge dismissed a “substantial portion” of the claims in private lawsuits accusing them of rigging global benchmark interest rates. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/business/global/judge-rejects-much-of-libor-lawsuit-against-banks.html?hp The banks had been accused of conspiring to manipulate Libor, a benchmark at the heart of more than $550 trillion in financial products. […]
US soldier fights with Al Qaeda
A former American soldier who served in the United States Army from 2000 to 2003, entered Syria in January and participated in attacks on Assad forces led by the Al Nusra Front, which officials say is part of Al Qaeda in Iraq, a designated terrorist group. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/world/middleeast/american-ex-soldier-charged-with-aiding-terror-group.html?ref=world The soldier was charged in Alexandria, Va., with […]
Honey bee collapse attributed to pesticides
Scientists have found that two types of pesticides called neonicotinoids and coumaphos are interfering with the honey bee brain’s ability to learn and remember. Experiments revealed that exposure was also lowering brain activity, especially when the two pesticides were used in combination. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21958547 We found neonicotinoids cause an immediate hyper-activation – so an epileptic type […]
CIA promotes duplicity and torture
A C.I.A. officer directly involved in the 2005 decision to destroy interrogation videotapes and who once ran one of the agency’s secret prisons has ascended to the top position within the C.I.A.’s clandestine service. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/us/officer-tied-to-tapes-destruction-moves-up-in-cia.html?ref=world The officer, who spent years working inside the agency’s Counterterrorist Center and once was in charge of a so-called black […]
Vouchers to eviscerate public schools
Instead of simply financing a traditional system of neighborhood schools, legislators and some governors are headed toward funneling public money directly to families, who would be free to choose the kind of schooling they believe is best for their children. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/education/states-shifting-aid-for-schools-to-the-families.html? hp&_r=0 By drawing money away from public schools, such programs weaken a system left […]
UK and big business share cyber intelligence
The Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CISP) – has emerged out of a 2012 pilot scheme known as Project Auburn. Eighty companies from five sectors of the economy – finance, defense, energy, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals – were encouraged to share information with the UK government. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21945702 At a new London base, large screens will monitor […]
Fracking causes earthquakes
Scientists say wastewater injection from hydraulic fracturing was linked to a magnitude-5.7 earthquake that struck the US state of Oklahoma. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21952428 The practice risks causing seismic events and contaminating groundwater. The study in Geology shows that “induced seismicity” can occur years after wastewater injection begins. The new study adds to an increasing body of evidence […]
Mobile devices can unknowingly disclose identity
Scientists say it is remarkably easy to identify a mobile phone user from just a few pieces of location information. Whenever a phone is switched on, its connection to the network means its position and movement can be plotted. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21923360 This data is given anonymously to third parties, both to drive services for the user […]
Spy goggles raise privacy concerns
Protesters against Google Glass surveillance goggles are concerned that privacy will be impossible when surveillance products become ubiquitous and have started a campaign, Stop the Cyborgs, to limit their use. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21937145 The camera-equipped headset suspends a small screen in front of an owner and pipes information to that display. Glass can surreptitiously take pictures and […]
Pinpointed by mapping technology
Apple has bought indoor-mapping specialist Wifislam as it looks to expand its maps product to compete with Google. Google’s service also draws data from nearby wifi hotspots and signal towers to pinpoint location in a way which is more accurate than satellite positioning. Wifislam’s technology works by using smartphones to “pinpoint its location (and the […]
Guantanamo gets an upgrade
The United States Southern Command has requested $49 million to build a new Camp 7 prison building at Guantánamo Bay where so-called high-value detainees were formerly held by the Central Intelligence Agency and complete other renovations they say are necessary since Congress has decided to keep it open indefinitely. http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/pentagon-wants-to-build-new-prison-at-guantanamo/ The potential taxpayer bill for […]
US and Afghan militant carousel
The decision by the US to hand over of the Bagram Prison was said to have been eased in part by “private assurances” from Afghan officials. “We are on the same page,” Kerry said. “I don’t think there is any disagreement between us,” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/world/asia/us-cedes-control-almost-on-afghan-prisoners.html?pagewanted=1&ref=world Among those released in recent years by Afghan officials or Afghan […]
ICE confinement amounts to abuse
The United States has come under sharp criticism at home and abroad for relying on solitary confinement in its prisons more than any other democratic nation in the world. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/us/immigrants-held-in-solitary-cells-often-for-weeks.html?ref=us&_r=0 Immigration and Customs Enforcement places its jailed immigrants in solitary, this practice is startling because those detainees are being held on civil, not criminal, charges. […]
Police shown to be profiling
New York Police Department’s use of stop-and-frisk tactics has centered on whether officers engage in racial profiling. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/nyregion/bronx-officers-recording-suggests-race-is-factor-in-stops.html?hp&_r=0 A recording shows that, in at least one precinct, a person’s skin color can be a deciding factor in who is stopped. The way to suppress violent crime, an inspector in a Bronx precinct said, was for […]
UK to restrict free press
“A free press cannot be free if it is dependent on and accountable to a regulatory body recognized by the state," http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/world/europe/british-newspapers-new-press-rules.html?ref=world “The bitter irony is this long-drawn out debate comes when the Internet — which, being global, has no regulatory restraints — is driving newspapers out of business.” “If politicians had devoted half as […]
Obsolete technology tsunami
Cardboard boxes, stacked in teetering rows, 9 feet high and 14 feet deep, were so sprawling that the inspectors needed cellphones to keep track of each other. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/us/disposal-of-older-monitors-leaves-a-hazardous-trail.html?hp&_r=1& The layer of broken glass on the floor and the lead-laden dust in the air was so thick that the inspectors soon left over safety concerns. Flat-screen […]
Journalist jailed by Somali government
The Western supported Somali government imprisoned a journalist for interviewing a woman who alleged she had been raped by security forces. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21822368 Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, 27, and his interviewee were jailed in February after being convicted of offending state institutions.
Afghans protest special forces presence
300 demonstrators from Wardak Province staged a noisy but peaceful demonstration calling for President Hamid Karzai’s order that the Americans remove all Special Operations troops from the province, after complaints about night raids in which victims disappeared to be obeyed. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/world/asia/objections-to-us-troops-intensify-in-afghanistan.html?ref=world&_r=0 Some were apparently relatives of people who disappeared in raids by Afghans who work […]
US knew of Guatemalan genocide
When Gen. Efran Ríos Montt controlled Guatemala his soldiers intensified a scorched-earth campaign across the Maya highlands begun by his predecessor in 1981 to flush out leftist guerrillas. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/world/americas/victims-of-guatemala-civil-war-eagerly-await-dictators-trial.html?ref=world The military marched into villages, torturing, raping and killing those who could not run away. They burned down houses and crops, and butchered livestock. Attacks on […]
Dirty Babylon 