Six In The Morning Tuesday November 4

4 November 2014 Last updated at 04:17

GCHQ head says tech firms 'in denial' on extremism

US technology companies have become "the command and control networks of choice" for extremists, the new head of GCHQ has claimed.

Writing in the Financial Times, Robert Hannigan says some US tech companies are "in denial" about how their services are being misused.

He also said UK security agencies needed support from "the largest US tech companies which dominate the web".

Extremist groups in Syria and Iraq had "embraced the web", he added.

Mr Hannigan argues that the big internet firms must work more closely with the intelligence services, warning that "privacy has never been an absolute right".

"However much they may dislike it, [US technology companies] have become the command and control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals, who find their services as transformational as the rest of us," he writes.

Woman jailed in Iran for attending volleyball match begins hunger strike

Ghoncheh Ghavami, a British-Iranian law graduate from London, accused of spreading anti-regime propaganda

• Agence France-Presse in London
• The Guardian, Tuesday 4 November 2014 07.42 GMT

A British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran after trying to watch a volleyball match is on a hunger strike, refusing food or liquids, her brother has said.

Ghoncheh Ghavami, a 25-year-old law graduate from London, is protesting because the judge has yet to confirm her one-year prison sentence, Iman Ghavami said.

“She’s been on hunger strike from Saturday,” he said. “She’s not eating any solid foods and she’s not drinking any liquids.”

UN hopes to end 'scourge of statelessness' within 10 years

As many as 10m people worldwide are stateless

CAHAL MILMO 

 

 

Tuesday 04 November 2014

The scourge of statelessness, which leaves some 10m people around the world deprived of a nationality and the basic rights that come with it, should be eradicated within the next decade, the United Nations will state today.

A campaign to end the problem which leaves millions unable to claim entitlements and services from the vote to education is being launched with the aim of persuading states to extend citizenship to minorities caught in a position legal limbo.

In an open letter endorsed by celebrities and opinion formers including Angelina Jolie, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has said an acceleration in countries signing two UN treaties seeking an end to statelessness means that a permanent solution to the issue could be within reach.

Sierra Leone loses fifth doctor to Ebola

Sierra Leone has lost its fifth local doctor to Ebola. Dr. Godfrey George had driven himself to Freetown after feeling unwell. Sierra Leone's meager health system has just over 100 doctors for its 6 million people.

Sierra Leone's chief medical officer Brima Kargbo said Dr. George had checked himself into "the Chinese hospital at Jui outside Freetown," but died of the virus on Monday.

He said the late Dr. George, who was medical superintendent at Kambia Hospital in northern Sierra Leone, might have contracted the virus from a patient he treated for another illness. He had not directly treated Ebola patients.

Stop touching

Although international help is gradually arriving, the head of the UN mission in Sierra Leone, Anthony Banbury, said more assistance was needed. He also urged Sierra Leoneans to stop touching their sick and dead.

Body in Irish bog identified as IRA victim

November 4, 2014 - 4:30PM

Dublin: A body discovered in a remote bog in Ireland has been identified as an IRA victim murdered and secretly buried 36 years ago.

Brendan Megraw was abducted from his home in Belfast and killed by the IRA in April 1978. The 23-year-old was one of 16 victims known as "the disappeared" who vanished during the conflict in Northern Ireland.

After a series of unsuccessful searches over the years, investigators following a new lead discovered the remains in Oristown Bog in County Meath in October.

"The results positively indicate that the remains found are those of Brendan Megraw," the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains said after DNA tests.

Corrupt fighting the corrupt in Bolivia? Majority of prosecutors linked to crimes

A recent Senate resolution calls on Bolivia's attorney general to suspend the 300 public prosecutors who have been formally accused of corruption or some other offense.

By Elyssa Pachico, InSight Crime

According to Bolivia's Congress, there are some 300 public prosecutors who are currently under investigation for allegedly committing a crime, a figure that suggests a high degree of judicial corruption in the Andean country. 

This number comes from a resolution written by a conservative party senator, first presented in August and approved by the Senate on Oct. 30, La Razon reported. The resolution called on Bolivian Attorney General Ramiro Guerrero to suspend around 300 public prosecutors – nearly 60 percent of the country's prosecutors – who had been formally accused of corruption or some other offense.

In August, Mr. Guerrero said that about 200 of Bolivia's 508 public prosecutors were facing disciplinary action and that "some other quantity" were the focus of a criminal investigation. He said some 45 prosecutors had already been disbarred in 2014 – nearly double the 26 who were removed from their posts the previous year.