Six In The Morning

Footage of a young Afghan woman accused of adultery being shot at with an automatic rifle at close range in front of a crowd of around 150 cheering men. The killing took place last month in a village in Parwan province, near Kabul

Wireless firms flooded by requests to aid surveillance

　Law enforcement agencies seek text messages, caller locations and other information

By ERIC LICHTBLAU
In the first public accounting of its kind, cellphone carriers reported that they responded to a startling 1.3 million demands for subscriber information last year from law enforcement agencies seeking text messages, caller locations and other information in the course of investigations. The cellphone carriers’ reports, which come in response to a Congressional inquiry, document an explosion in cellphone surveillance in the last five years, with the companies turning over records thousands of times a day in response to police emergencies, court orders, law enforcement subpoenas and other requests. The reports also reveal a sometimes uneasy partnership with law enforcement agencies, with the carriers frequently rejecting demands that they considered legally questionable or unjustified. At least one carrier even referred some inappropriate requests to the F.B.I.

DNSChanger may take 300,000 offline
DNSChanger malware, which began spreading in 2007, could prevent up to 300,000 computers worldwide from connecting to the internet

Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk, Monday 9 July 2012 07.22 BST
As many as 300,000 people could see their computers go offline on Monday, as the effects of an FBI battle with a gang of Estonian cyberthieves over a piece of malware called "DNSChanger" reaches its climax. People whose PCs won't connect to the net from Monday may have to call ISPs to figure out a fix, which will involve changing settings in their computer used to look up websites. Those affected, who will already have ignored multiple warnings from services such as Google, may find that task challenging; more skilled internet users will already have heard about the problem.

The rebel sheikh defying Hezbollah to take aim at Assad
The Long View

Robert Fisk Monday 09 July 201
Yes, the former president of Syria and father of the president regime incumbent is roasting away there, and has been since he died of a heart attack while chatting on the phone to the Lebanese president in 2000. I have this on the authority of Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir, the Sidon Salafist who has blocked the road between Sidon and Beirut and who promises me that his huge beard –a great field of graying hair that hangs proudly down his chest – took 20 years to grow. Being a sceptic about religion as well as biology, I’m not sure I accept either the Assad-in-hell or the beard claims.

Trial of Mladic for war crimes and genocide resumes today
The Irish Times - Monday, July 9, 2012

PETER CLUSKEY in The Hague
THE WAR crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb commander Gen Ratko Mladic will resume this afternoon to hear its first witnesses, after being suspended in disarray on May 17th – despite a defence demand at the end of May for a six-month delay. Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia halted the case – which is expected to last up to four years – when it emerged that prosecution lawyers had failed to disclose thousands of pages of evidence to the Mladic defence team.

Afghan woman executed by Taliban on 'trumped up' adultery charge
Husband caught on camera shooting her nine times while cheering villagers looked on, then said 'take my video' .

MATTHEW ROSENBERG and SANGAR RAHIM July 9, 2012 - 2:48PM
The scene that Afghan officials say was caught on video last month near Kabul was as horrific as it was once common in Afghanistan: a Taliban fighter executing a woman with repeated shots to the back of her head as his compatriots and scores of villagers watched and then cheered. The crime the woman was accused of: adultery. The video, which has begun circulating in Kabul, recalls the Taliban's five-year reign in Afghanistan, when public executions were advertised on the radio and people accused of crimes were shot in front of crowds that packed the capital's stadium. Adultery was among the crimes punishable by death.

West Africa grows impatient with Mali's dithering
West African leaders are growing ever more impatient with Mali's political crisis, which has seen extremist rebels seize more than half its territory.

09 Jul 2012 06:48 - AFP
Bearing the brunt of their frustration is Cheick Modibo Diarra, Mali's interim prime minister who heads a transitional government meant to be restoring the country's territorial integrity and overseeing the return to civilian rule after a March 22 coup. At a conference in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou on Saturday, six national leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) said Diarra must create a "unity government" by July 31 that can provide a clear timeline to exit the crisis. If not, Ecowas would no longer recognise the government of Mali and the country would be suspended from sub-regional groups.