Saturday, February 7, 2015

Six In The Morning Saturday February 7

7 February 2015 Last updated at 08:19


India election: Delhi votes in first real test for Modi

Voting is under way in Delhi in state elections billed as the first real test of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.
Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded former policewoman Kiran Bedi as its pick for chief minister.
But polls suggest she is likely to lose to Arvind Kejriwal, an anti-corruption activist who heads his own party.
Mr Modi won convincingly in last summer's general election, and has ridden a wave of popularity ever since.

Over 13 million people are eligible to vote at over 12,000 polling centres in the state assembly elections.


Richard Engel Reports From Front Line in War on ISIS in Iraq

BY RICHARD ENGEL AND JAMES NOVOGROD

N EAR THE MOSUL LAKE DAM, Iraq — The Kurdish commander raised his radio to his ear.
He could hear the ISIS fighters stationed some distance away. Monitoring their frequency, he knew what was coming.
"We're going to get attacked," he announced.
Minutes later, a mortar landed with a thud on a nearby hilltop, a few hundred yards away from the small outpost here.
From a high spot, Kurdish fighters stood and gazed at the smoke rising across the valley. The mortar had flown overhead, overshooting the outpost.


Extremist Buddhists spearhead anti-Muslim sentiment in Burma

Social media and free expression may be working against Muslim 4% of population


Jennifer Duggan

Burmese political blogger Nay Phone Latt was jailed for sharing news online about the monk-led saffron revolution in 2007 against the country’s brutal military dictatorship. Released under an amnesty for political prisoners three years ago, he is involved in another kind of revolution, one against hate speech targeting Muslims that is becoming more and more prevalent in Burmese society.
The internet in Burma was once among the most restricted in the world but, since the lifting of censorship, people can now access whatever they want. Internet availability is still scarce but, with telecommunications infrastructure developing at a fast pace, many use the internet via mobile phones. Social media, especially Facebook, has become a popular way to discuss politics and share views and opinions, something not possible before. However, not only has it led to greater political debate, it has also lead to an outpouring of hateful and racist sentiment towards Muslims who make up about 4 per cent of the population.

How North Korea built up a cadre of code warriors prepared for cyberwar

There's still debate over North Korea's role in the Sony hack and its technical skills to orchestrate the breach, but since then the US military has redoubled efforts to contain – and potentially dismantle – the hacker squads within that wild-card nation.


By , Staff writer


When Steve Sin was an Army intelligence officer in 2009, North Korea was starting to make its mark as a player in the burgeoning realm of cyberwarfare, and South Korea was its new battleground.
Then a major in the Pentagon’s South Korea branch of its Directorate of Intelligence, Mr. Sin was given an assignment: track the Korean press and hacker forums, then report back. At that time, even Army specialists stationed in the south had little insight into precisely how skilled these new North Korean computer warriors were becoming.
“The cyber thing was new, even in 2009, and we were really interested in their military capabilities,” says Sin, now a senior researcher at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland. “We didn’t have a lot of classified data at all, so we figured, ‘Well, this is a good place to start.’ ”

Angola's fearful culture of silence

 LOUISE REDVERS
The divided country is celebrating 40 years of independence but it has been denied the chance to confront the past and heal its wounds.

Angola will be commemorating 40 years of independence from Portugal this year, so expect the usual pomp and ceremony associated with such an anniversary.
But beneath the official celebratory façade lies a divided country still struggling to come to terms with its past and understand its future. A protracted liberation struggle staged by three separate movements, followed by 27 years of civil war, have left deep emotional and political scars.
There was no Truth and Reconcil­iation Commission in Angola, simply a declaration of peace following the death in 2002 of Unita leader Jonas Savimbi and a blanket amnesty for all those involved in the war.
The wounds may have been hidden from international view, thanks to impressive economic growth and investment opportunities, but they are still festering.










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