Sunday, May 31, 2015
Mass surveillance under the microscope
Two years on from the Snowden leaks, the surveillance debate continues.
The US Patriot Act is the legislation that enabled the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct mass surveillance on American citizens - as revealed by one if its former contractors, Edward Snowden, nearly two years ago - and on June 1, 2015 one of the most controversial sections of that act will expire.
It will be up to the US Congress to decide on whether or not to renew the law. If undecided, there is a piece of legislation lying in wait called the USA Freedom Act which will reform the NSA and effectively end aspects of the surveillance programme as we know it.
However this debate is not only taking place in Washington. Earlier this month a meeting was held behind closed doors in Britain involving a who is who of tech giants and former intelligence chiefs, all there to discuss the future of surveillance.
Six In The Morning Sunday May 31
European Union anger at Russian travel blacklist
- 4 hours ago
- Europe
The European Union has responded angrily to Russia's entry ban against 89 European politicians, officials and military leaders.
Those banned are believed to include general secretary of the EU council Uwe Corsepius, and former British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.
Russia shared the list after several requests by diplomats, the EU said.
The EU called the ban "totally arbitrary and unjustified" and said no explanation had been provided.
Many of those on the list are outspoken critics of the Kremlin, and some have been turned away from Russia in recent months.
'No Diet Coke for you': Islamophobia at 30,000 feet leads to viral United Airlines boycott
Muslim chaplain Tahera Ahmad’s Facebook post alleges discrimination, saying man next to her was served beer as airline says it will ‘get a better understanding
What happens when you ask for an unopened can of Diet Coke on an airplane? If you’re a Muslim woman, according to one report, you don’t get served.
And the man sitting next to you gets an unopened can of beer just fine.
Tahera Ahmad, a Muslim chaplain at Chicago’s Northwestern University, documented these allegations from onboard a United Airlines flight this weekend in an episode that almost immediately went viral – and led to pledges to boycott the airline.
On her Facebook page, Ahmad claimed a flight attendant was “clearly discriminating against me” after she asked for an unopened of soda for hygienic reasons and says was told, “Well, I’m sorry. I just can’t give you an unopened can, so no Diet Coke for you.”
German soldier who died fighting for UK in Battle of Waterloo should be removed from museum display and given dignified funeral, say historians
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China says South China Sea air defense zone depends on security
SINGAPORE |
China will take a decision on establishing an air defense identification zone around disputed waters in the South China Sea based on its assessment of the security situation, a senior Chinese military official said on Sunday.
Land reclamation work by China around disputed islands has led to speculation it will declare an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), which will require overflying aircraft to identify themselves to Chinese authorities. The United States has expressed concern that China's actions threaten freedom of navigation and security in the Asia-Pacific.
Admiral Sun Jianguo, a deputy chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army, told a regional security forum that China's actions are peaceful and legitimate, calling on other countries to stop trying to "sow discord" over the matter.
Africa borrows on the open market
The decades when the continent couldn’t raise major funds on ordinary commercial markets are over, but there are still worries about over-indebtedness.
The nations of sub-Saharan Africa, in the post-independence euphoria of the 1960s, wanted to end the international division of labour under which they exported raw materials and imported manufactured goods. They diversified their economies through industrialisation and improved production capacity, but soon encountered the problem that none (except for South Africa and Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, both then governed by a white minority) could access international capital markets without the credit rating agencies’ approval. They could only use private funds guaranteed by states, bilateral funds lent by the Paris Club (1), and multilateral funds from the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB).At the same time, much-needed export revenue was shrinking, mainly because of a global fall in agricultural commodity prices (the index went from 155 in 1977 to 94 in 2002), while the cost of Africa’s imports climbed. In 1979 a rise in US interest rates — a unilateral decision to halt the depreciation of the dollar — significantly worsened Africa’s debt burden.
Can Modi save the Ganges River?
May 31, 2015
The river that has been the life blood of millions of Indians has been choking from pollution. While PM Modi tries to revive the Indian economy and infrastructure, will he be able to save the Ganges (Hindi Ganga), the holiest river of the Hindus? Or will the river be further sacrificed at the altar of progress and development?
On May 13, 2015, the Modi government announced a Special Ganga Protection Law which will make polluting the Ganga an illegal act, National Mission to Clean Ganga (NMCG). The cabinet has approved Namami Ganga, or in the name of Ganga, a comprehensive program to clean the river with unprecedented levels of funding (Rs. 20,000 Crores or $3 Billion).
The river is deeply intertwined with Hindu mythology and identity that its ongoing pollution invariably reflects the ills of modern Indian society. PM Modi’s ability to clean up the river may be a litmus test, perhaps, an unadulterated measure of his first term in office.
After all PM Modi conducted aarti at the ghats in Varanasi after his landmark victory a year ago.
Take me to the River
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Six In The Morning Saturday May 30
Sepp Blatter: Europe's 'hate' campaign against Fifa
- 30 May 2015
- Europe
Fifa president Sepp Blatter has condemned what he described as a "hate" campaign against football's world governing body by European officials.
And he said he was "shocked" by the comments of US prosecutors following the arrests of Fifa officials under an American anti-corruption warrant.
The 79-year-old Swiss was re-elected on Friday at a Fifa congress in Zurich.
European football governing body Uefa's president Michel Platini had urged Mr Blatter to step down ahead of the vote.
Mr Blatter's rival, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, forced a second round of voting on Friday but then withdrew. Mr Blatter won 133 to Prince Ali's 73 in the first round, just short of the 140 votes needed for an outright win.
US wants China to halt South China Sea land reclamation
US ‘deeply concerned’ about scale of reclamation and prospect of further militarisation
US defense secretary Ash Carter said on Saturday that Beijing’s island-building in the South China Sea was undermining security in the Asia-Pacific but, despite his blunt remarks, the response from Chinese officials was measured.
Mr Carter, speaking to top defense officials from the Asia-Pacific at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, acknowledged that several countries had created outposts in the region’s disputed islands, but he said the scope of China’s activity created uncertainty about its future plans.
“China has reclaimed over 2,000 acres, more than all other claimants combined ... and China did so in only the last 18 months,” Mr Carter told the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum.
Russia releases travel ban blacklist
Russia has published a blacklist of 89 European Union politicians and military leaders banned from the country. The move is said to be in response to EU sanctions placed on Moscow over Crimea and Ukraine.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte used a weekly press conference on Friday to announce that two Dutch parliamentarians and a Dutch member of the European Parliament were on Russia's blacklist.
“Russia yesterday [Thursday] handed over a list of people to diverse EU embassies who may not enter Russia any longer,” Rutte said.
According to a letter from Belgium's Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, the list contains 89 names, Belgium MEP Mark Demesmaeker tweeted.
The Dutch foreign ministry confirmed the letter was genuine adding that Russia had requested the letter not be made public.
Moscow created the list in response to EU imposed sanctions and travel bans over Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its supposed involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Dutch Prime Minister Rutte said.
Renowned Angolan journalist sentenced on libel charge
Angolan court finds Angolan investigative journalist guilty of criminal libel.
The internationally renowned Angolan investigative journalist Rafael Marques de Morais has been given a six-month suspended sentence after the Luanda provincial court found him guilty of criminal libel against generals of the Angolan military.
The generals had agreed to drop charges against the 43-year-old journalist last week. These involved allegations in his 2011 book, Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola, that they were involved in 100 killings and 500 incidents of torture linked to mining operations in the country’s diamond-rich Lunda Norte province.
The generals were claiming $1.2-million in damages and a nine-year prison term.
In court documents, lawyers for the generals and two mining companies that had filed similar charges declared they had no further interest in pursuing the prosecution.
FIFA arrests resonate in Brazil, still smarting from World Cup waste
Brazilians reacted with a sense of vindication to the racketeering, money laundering, and other corruption charges brought against FIFA officials and corporate executives.
RIO DE JANEIRO; AND MEXICO CITY — The US criminal probe into alleged corruption in international soccer has hit hard this week in Latin America and the Caribbean, where 13 out of the 14 indicted figures reside.
But perhaps nowhere in the region do the charges resonate as much as in Brazil, where Wednesday’s news of the racketeering, money laundering, and other corruption charges against past and present FIFA officials and corporate sports executives was greeted with a sense of vindication.
Starting in 2013, hundreds of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets to protest the billions of dollars of public money spent on preparing for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
India heat wave tests water supply as deaths near 2,000
Hospitals urged to give emergency treatment to people suffering from heatstroke as hundreds more die over past day.
30 May 2015 06:09 GMT
Dizzying temperatures have caused water shortages in thousands of Indian villages and killed hundreds more people over the past day, driving the death toll from a weeks-long heat wave to at least 1,826, officials have said.
Hospitals were urged to give emergency treatment to people suffering from heatstroke as authorities on Friday cancelled doctors' leave, set up water distribution points and warned people not to venture out.
"The main thing is prevention in this situation to ensure that preventive measures are being taken," said Charan Singh, additional director of public health in Delhi, where top temperatures have hit 45 degrees Celsius.
Friday, May 29, 2015
Six In The Morning Friday May 29
Fifa corruption scandal: Blatter and Ali vie for presidency
- 21 minutes ago
- Europe
The 209 members of Fifa are to vote for their new president at a congress in Zurich, as football's world governing body faces a major corruption scandal.
Sepp Blatter, the favourite, is seeking a fifth term. He is being challenged by Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan.
The vote comes two days after seven top officials were held in Zurich in a US fraud inquiry that indicted 14 people.
Opening the second day of the congress, Mr Blatter told delegates Fifa faced "troubled times".
Mr Blatter has been called on to quit but has already made clear he is not responsible for the scandal and wants to combat corruption.
South-east Asia migrant crisis: numbers are now 'alarming', talks told
Thailand’s foreign affairs minister, Thanasak Patimaprakorn, tells meeting of 17 countries that Burma must reconsider its treatment of Rohingya
The surge of migrants in south-east Asia has reached an “alarming level”, said Thailand’s foreign affairs minister on Friday.
He has called for regional governments to address the root causes of the crisis – a reference to the swelling number of refugees who have fled persecution in Burma.
Speaking at the opening of a regional meeting in Bangkok aimed at tackling the issue, Thanasak Patimaprakorn said, “No country can solve this problem alone.”
Asian nations have been struggling with the growing waves of desperate migrants who are landing on the shores of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In the past few weeks, at least 3,000 people have washed ashore or been rescued by fishermen and several thousand more are believed to still be at sea after people smugglers abandoned boats after a regional crackdown.
Nearly 500 bodies exhumed from mass graves in Iraq
"There were several layers of bodies all piled on top of each other," he said, adding that 50 bodies were found in a second site and nine more in the two remaining graves.
"The work to exhume Speicher victims continues," Hammoud said.
Buhari to be sworn in as Nigeria’s president after historic win
Latest update : 2015-05-29
Muhammadu Buhari becomes Nigeria's new head of state on Friday, in an unprecedented ceremony after he won the first opposition victory over a sitting president in the nation's history.
The 72-year-old takes charge of Africa's most populous nation, which is facing crises on several fronts, from severe economic turmoil to Boko Haram's still-raging Islamist insurgency.
The inauguration, before visiting heads of state and dignitaries, comes 32 years after the former army general seized power in a military coup. He was ousted after 20 months in office.
Buhari has described himself as a "converted democrat" and vowed to lead an administration committed to the needs of Nigeria's 173 million people by cracking down on the scourge of corruption.
But analysts said his first task may be managing the expectations of a nation that has struggled for decades with woeful infrastructure, crippling unemployment and widespread unrest.
Don't point fingers says Myanmar at migrant summit
Delegates from 17 governments, along with international organizations, have met in Thailand to address the refugee crisis in Southeast Asia. Myanmar has taken exception to being blamed for the problem.
At an intergovernmental meeting on Friday, Thailand's foreign minister called for Southeast Asian nations to work together to combat the "alarming level" of refugees fleeing anti-Muslim persecution in Myanmar.
Representatives of 17 governments from across Asia as well as from the United States and Switzerland, along with organizations such as the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, attended the summit in Bangkok convened to address the area's migrant crisis. Over 3,500 starving Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees have come ashore in Malaysia and Indonesia in recent months, and thousands more are thought to be stranded on rickety boats at the mercy of human traffickers in the Bay of Bengal.
"No country can solve this problem alone," said Foreign Minister Thanasak Patimaprakorn.
Why do Western women join Islamic State?
May 29, 2015 - 5:48PMKarla Adam
Western women in the Islamic State are playing a crucial role in disseminating propaganda and are not simply flocking to the region to become a "jihadi bride," according to a new British research report.
The report published Thursday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College London called the view that women are joining the Islamic State primarily to marry a foreign fighter "one-dimensional."
Women are drawn to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, by a number of factors, including a sense of isolation, a feeling that the international Muslim community is under threat, and a promise of sisterhood, which was especially important for teenage girls, the report said.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
America's War Workers
From India to Dubai and Afghanistan, we probe the system that brings foreign labourers to US military bases abroad.
Today there are nearly 40,000 foreign contract workers on bases in the US military’s Central Command.
Hailing primarily from India and Nepal, these labourers serve American troops in facilities in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere - doing jobs including cooking, housekeeping and driving.
The US military subcontracts these manual jobs to private companies, which in turn subcontract hiring to Gulf-based contractors and local recruiters.
The promise of high salaries makes these so-called 'third country nationals' believe heading to a war zone is worth the risk.
To get the jobs, many dip into their savings and take out loans to pay thousands of dollars in local agents fees. But in Afghanistan, they find wages far lower than anticipated. Locked into an indentured workforce, they nevertheless remain to earn enough funds to repay their loans.
So, has the US military come to rely on an indentured workforce?
Six In The Morning Thursday May 28
Fifa scandal: Visa sponsorship threat compounds calls for Blatter to quit
English FA chairman Greg Dyke and Diego Maradona say embattled Fifa president must go, as Visa says it could reassess football sponsorship deals
Visa – one of Fifa’s key sponsors – has threatened to reassess its relationship with football’s world governing body as Sepp Blatter faced increasing pressure not to seek re-election as its president.
Nine senior officials at the organisation, as well as five sports media and promotions executives, were charged by US prosecutors on Wednesday over bribes totalling more than $150m (£100m) over 24 years. It followed the arrest of senior officials at a Zurich hotel and the announcement of a separate Swiss investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
The accusations of “rampant, systemic and deep-rooted” corruption have sent shockwaves through the football world, with many questioning whether Fifa can continue in its current form.
British schoolgirls 'will never leave Syria', senior female Isis commander claims as teenagers reportedly make contact with their families
Art World Hunt: The Quest for Hitler's Lost Treasures
By Konstantin von HammersteinA Dutch detective and Berlin police spent months searching for art commissioned by Hitler that went missing after German reunification. Officials finally recovered the dubious works in raids last week -- here's how they did it.
Moss has money and a fake Picasso, but no first name -- he simply goes by "Moss." He's in his early sxities and lives near Dallas, Texas. According to a major American law firm, Moss has $250 million (€228 million) at his disposal at all times, but no one knows how he made his fortune.
In January, Moss fell in love with two bronze horses created by one of Adolf Hitler's favorite artists, the sculptor Josef Thorak. They had disappeared for a long time, but now Moss had learned that an art dealer was selling the pair for $8 million. Not a problem for Moss.
UN report: Number of hungry people down by 200 million since 1990
The number of hungry people in the world declined by about 200 million over the last 25 years, according to the United Nations’ annual hunger report. The report marks the end of the monitoring period for the Millennium Development Goals.
Global hunger continues its gradual decline.
In the last 25 years, the number of hungry people in the world fell by about 200 million, with the most pronounced decreases found in developing countries, despite a population surge, according to the United Nations’ yearly hunger report, released Wednesday by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the World Food Program.
The report marks the end of the monitoring period for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a list of eight objectives established by the international community and the UN in 2000, and sets the stage for the way forward, post-2015. In the report, the FAO documents global progress towards eradicating hunger by looking at efforts that succeeded, as well as those that didn’t.
Nebraska abolishes death penalty after veto-override
- 9 hours ago
- US & Canada
The US state of Nebraska has abolished the death penalty after a veto-override was passed through its legislature.
The measure was backed by a coalition of conservatives who oppose execution as a form of punishment.
Nebraska joins 18 other states and the federal district of Washington, DC, in banning capital punishment, and is the first traditionally conservative state in four decades to do so.
The state has not executed an inmate since a 1997 electrocution.
The unicameral legislature passed the measure 30 to 19 - the exact number of votes needed to override Governor Pete Ricketts earlier veto.
India's heat wave drags on, with sprinkles of relief
Updated 0738 GMT (1438 HKT) May 28, 2015
Mallayia Baddula sits barefoot beneath the shelter of his hut in Perepally, a small village outside Hyderabad.
He's 76-years old and mourning the death of his son Venkatesham, who at half his age succumbed to the heat during the recent hot, dry spell.
"He had gone to get some medicine for me," Baddula told CNN. "I am informed that he died of sunstroke."
Venkatesham is one of the 70 people who have died in the district of Nalgonda, and one of the 340 deaths recorded in Telangana state.
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