Snowden's Christmas message: Defend privacy |
US whistleblower warns of dangers posed by loss of privacy and urges end of mass surveillance in address on UK channel.
Last updated: 26 Dec 2013 06:47
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Former US National Security Agency contractor has addressed British public through a televised Christmas message, warning of the dangers posed by a loss of privacy.
Edward Snowden, who revealed details of electronic surveillance by American and British spy services, appeared in a two-minute video recorded in Moscow and broadcast by Britain's Channel 4 television station on Wednesday.
The US whistleblower said that modern surveillance was more invasive than any envisioned in the novel "1984" by George Orwell, and warned that children today would grow up without knowing what it means to have an unrecorded or private moment.
Violence flares in new anti-government protests in Thailand
Police have used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters attempting to disrupt preparations for Thailand’s elections. It is the latest confrontation between police and anti-government demonstrators.
A crowd of around 500 gathered outside a sports stadium on Thursday where political parties were registering for the elections, scheduled for February 2. Three police officers were injured when demonstrators - some using slingshots and throwing rocks - reportedly used a truck to smash through the gates of the stadium.
Police Lt. General Prawut Thavornsiri told news agency AFP one officer had been shot in the arm by a bullet fired from demonstrators, with around 1000 police officers deployed to keep the crowd at bay.
Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said in a televised address that "protesters are not peaceful and unarmed as they claimed."
Struggle for resources at root of Central Africa religious violence
BANGUI
Mariam watched in horror as militiamen burst through the gate of her home in Central African Republic's capital Bangui and demanded her husband say whether he was Muslim. When he said yes, they shot him dead.
"They killed him just like that in front of our child," said Mariam, who fled through the back door. "Then they hacked and clubbed our neighbors, a husband and wife, to death."
The two-day frenzy of violence in Bangui this month - in which militia killed 1,000 people, according to Amnesty International - fed fears that Central African Republic was about to descend into religious warfare on a scale comparable to Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
What's a walk in the park worth in Peru?
Lima is trying to expand access to public parks beyond upscale zones to poorer districts - but it comes at a cost.
In the Lima neighborhood of Villa Salvador, sand spills into the streets, and most of the concrete and brick houses have only the front façade painted, if anything at all. Most of its residents migrated here over the last thirty years – many fleeing rural violence during Peru’s civil war.
Despite shabby outward appearances, Villa Salvador has come a long way, says Mercedes Masa, who moved here almost twenty years ago. Take the local public park, for example, and its entrance fee for anyone over 12 years old – about $0.50 on weekdays, and $1 on weekends.
“This park wasn’t like this before,” Ms. Masa says. "Now there’s even a pool and a theater in here. Before it was just filled with sand."
Israeli society will pay the 'price' for settler vigilantism, rights group warns
The group warns that condoning the militant "price tag" movement, which punishes Palestinians for Israeli curbs on settlements, amounts to appeasement.
By Shira Rubin19 hours ago
When Ahmad Milhem heard earlier this month that Jewish extremists had scrawled “Mohammad is a pig” on the walls of his local mosque, he feared for both his Arab and Jewish neighbors.
“If our young (Arab) residents had caught the perpetrators, it could’ve led to a lynching,” said Mr. Milhem, head of the public regional committee of Baqaa al-Gharbiyeh inNorthern Israel. “We were lucky this time, but that day will come – soon.”
The incident was one of a growing number of attacks carried out by “Tag Mehir,” or “Price Tag,” a group of Jewish ultra-nationalists who say they will exact a “price” for every attempt by the Israeli government to curb Jewish settlement in the West Bank – a land Palestinians see as part of their future state – as well as retribution for Arab offenses against Jews.
Start-Up Spirit Emerges in Japan
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: December 25, 2013
TOKYO — The 20-somethings in jeans sipping espresso and tapping on laptops at this Tokyo business incubator would look more at home in Silicon Valley than in Japan, where for years the surest signs of success were the gray suits of its corporate salarymen. But for those hoping the nation’s latest economic plan will drag Japan from its long malaise, the young men and women here at Samurai Startup Island represent a crucial component: a revival of entrepreneurship.
The signs of that comeback are still new, and tentative enough that the statistics on start-ups and initial public offerings have not caught up. But analysts and investors report that hundreds of new Internet and technology-related companies have sprung up in the last two to three years, creating an ecosystem of incubators like Samurai Startup Island and so-called accelerator new venture investment funds, which invest in early-state start-ups in hopes of cashing in.
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