Monthly Archives: July 2013
Fukishima leaking radiocative material into sea
The stricken nuclear power plant at Fukushima has probably been leaking contaminated water into the ocean for two years, ever since an earthquake and tsunami badly damaged the plant, Japan’s chief nuclear regulator said on Wednesday. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/world/asia/japanese-nuclear-plant-may-have-been-leaking-for-two-years.html?ref=world In unusually candid comments, Shunichi Tanaka, the head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, also said that neither his […]
17 journalists assassinated in Dagestan for reporting truth
A prominent journalist who had accused local authorities of persecuting and kidnapping Muslims was shot dead in an ambush in the violent Russian republic of Dagestan on Tuesday. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/world/europe/journalist-assassinated-in-violent-russian-republic.html?ref=world&_r=0 The journalist and deputy editor of the independent daily newspaper Novoye Delo, had already survived a January assassination attempt at the same spot just outside the […]
China shoots buddhists on Dalai Lama’s birthday
Chinese police officers opened fire on a crowd of unarmed Tibetans who were celebrating the birthday of the Dalai Lama in a volatile area of Sichuan Province, injuring nine people, two of them critically. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/world/asia/tension-flares-as-tibetans-celebrate-dalai-lamas-birthday.html?ref=world The shootings took place on Saturday, but government restrictions on communications in the region prevented the news from immediately reaching […]
Banksters swindle Spaniards out of savings
About 300,000 Spaniards who, in the midst of a brutal recession, have seen their life savings virtually wiped out in what critics call a deceptive and possibly fraudulent sales campaign by banks that were threatened by the implosion of Spain’s property market. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/world/europe/spaniards-fight-to-get-savings-back.html?ref=world Spaniards were easily misled when bank officials hit on the idea […]
Ecuador passes new law to limit free press
Ecuador’s contentious new news media law killed the country’s only news magazine by creating restrictions that threatened to strangle a free press. “We cannot accept in silence that the government should determine the topics and agendas that we can cover, all freedom of information should be regulated, inspected and that a superintendent chosen by the […]
Privacy group goes to Supreme Court to stop NSA
A privacy rights group, Electronic Privacy Information Center, plans to file an emergency petition with the Supreme Court on Monday asking it to stop the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program that collects the telephone records of millions of Americans. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/us/privacy-group-to-ask-supreme-court-to-stop-nsas-phone-spying-program.html?ref=us The group is taking its case to the Supreme Court because it could not […]
Brazil wants US to stop spying on their citizens
Brazil’s foreign minister expressed “deep concern” over the issue and said his government would press the United Nations to take action that “preserves the sovereignty of all countries.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/world/americas/brazil-voices-deep-concern-over-gathering-of-data-by-us.html?ref=world&_r=0 Reacting to a local news report asserting that the United States has been collecting data on telephone calls and e-mail traffic in Brazil, the foreign minister, […]
Murder of american engineer ruled suicide
A judge ruled Monday that an American engineer, Shane Truman Todd, who was found dead in his apartment in Singapore last year killed himself, rejecting suspicions by the man’s parents that he was murdered because of research into sensitive technology. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/07/07/world/asia/ap-as-singapore-americans-death.html?ref=world Todd’s parents have said they believe he may have been murdered over his research […]
US Special Ops asset arrested for torture killings
Afghan officials confirmed Sunday that they had arrested Zakaria Kandahari, whom they have described as an Afghan-American interpreter responsible for torturing and killing civilians while working for an American Special Forces unit. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/world/asia/suspect-in-torture-is-arrested-in-afghanistan.html?ref=world&_r=0 “Everybody knows and you should know that Zakaria Kandahari and these people with him were there with the Americans and were working […]
FISA usurps Supreme Court on civil liberties
In more than a dozen classified rulings, the nation’s surveillance court has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans while pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people possibly involved in other crimes. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/us/in-secret-court-vastly-broadens-powers-of-nsa.html?hp&_r=0 The rulings reveal that the court has […]
Venezuela, Nicaragua offer asylum to Snowden
Venezuela said Friday that he would offer asylum to the fugitive intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden, who has been stranded in a Moscow airport searching for a safe haven. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/world/snowden.html?ref=world “I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American Edward Snowden” President Nicolás Maduro said during a televised appearance at a military parade […]
Hackers attack Jay-Z, OTO and the surveillance state
Hackers have cloned the Android app of rapper Jay-Z and inserted messages criticising the US government. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23194413 Cloned versions of the app available via unofficial sites contain code that unlocked anti-Obama messages on 4 July. The attack is believed to be part of protests against US government surveillance programs revealed this month. CA timer in […]
South American states rally around Morales
South America’s leaders rallied to support Bolivian President Evo Morales after his plane was rerouted amid suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board. The presidents of Argentina, Ecuador, Suriname, Venezuela and Uruguay joined Morales in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba late Thursday and demanded an apology from France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Morales […]
MSM slow on reporting turn out for Restore the Fourth
The MSM failed to report the Restore the Fourth events across the country and when they did they misrepresented them and failed to acknowledge turnout. Approximately 300 protestors demonstrating against the National Security Administration’s surveillance programs marched three miles from New York City’s Union Square south to Federal Hall on Thursday. The march was one […]
Mail Isolation Control & Tracking the Prism of Snail Mail
The Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program was created after the anthrax attacks in late 2001. Highly secret, it seeped into public view last month when the F.B.I. cited it in its investigation of ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama. It enables the Postal Service to retrace the path of mail for law enforcement. No […]
EU spying brought to light through French Prism
France’s foreign intelligence service intercepts computer and telephone data on a vast scale, like the controversial US Prism programme, according to the French daily Le Monde. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23178284 The data is stored on a supercomputer at the headquarters of the DGSE intelligence service. The operation is “outside the law, and beyond any proper supervision” Other French […]
Ecuadorian embassy bugged by intelligence firm
Ecuador has asked the UK to help an investigation over alleged spying at its embassy in London where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is living. Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told a news conference in Quito the bug was found last month when Ecuadorean technicians reviewed the embassy’s wiring. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23179431 The purpose of the bug, which was […]
Restore Fourth Amendment rally at state capitals Thursday
The Restore the Fourth movement – referring to the US constitution’s fourth amendment – said it wants to end “unconstitutional surveillance”. Reddit, Mozilla and WordPress are among the big web names backing the action, due to take place on Thursday. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23160309 Almost 100 events have been planned across the US. The site quotes a line […]
UK outlaws herbal stimulant used by North Africans
The herbal stimulant khat is to be banned by the UK government, against the advice of its own Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. In January the ACMD said khat should remain a legal substance, saying there was “insufficient evidence” it caused health problems. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23163017 Campaigners said they were “disappointed and concerned” at the […]
US et al interdict Bolivian presidential flight
Bolivia accused the United States of ordering European countries to block President Evo Morales’ flight from their airspace, and accused European governments of “aggression” by thwarting the flight. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/07/03/world/europe/ap-eu-nsa-surveillance.html?ref=world Morales sparked speculation during a visit to Russia after he said that his country would be willing to consider granting asylum to Snowden. Snowden is believed […]
Dirty Babylon 