Where oil rigs go to die
When a drilling platform is scheduled for destruction, it must go on a thousand-mile final journey to the breaker’s yard. As one rig proved when it crashed on to the rocks of a remote Scottish island, this is always a risky business
by Tom Lamont
Tuesday 2 May 2017 05.30 BST
It was night, stormy, and the oil rig Transocean Winner was somewhere in the North Atlantic on 7 August 2016 when her tow-line broke. No crew members were on board. The rig was being dragged by a tugboat called Forward, the tethered vessels charting a course out of Norway that was meant to take them on a month-long journey to Malta. Within the offices of Transocean Ltd, the oil-exploration company that owned the rig, such a journey might have been described with corporate seemliness as an “end-of-life voyage”; but in the saltier language heard offshore, the rig was “going for fucking razorblades” – for scrap, to be dismantled in a shipbreaking yard east of Malta. In that Atlantic storm, several thousand miles from her intended destination, Winner floated free.
Kashmir attacks: Indian soldiers mutilated and police shot dead
Indian army accuses Pakistan of unprovoked attack on troops as militants kill five officers and two staff in bank raid
India’s security forces have suffered a double blow in Kashmir, with five police officers shot dead in a bank raid and two soldiers killed in an attack on the border with Pakistan.
Early on Monday, the Indian army accused Pakistan of killing two of its soldiers and mutilating their bodies in an “unprovoked” rocket and mortar attack in the disputed border region.
The army said Pakistani troops attacked a patrol operating between two border posts on the de facto frontier known as the line of control in the remote Himalayan region.
Has Iran's bad boy singer been forced to campaign for the religious authorities?
For the past few months, the fans of Iranian singer Amir Tataloo have been scratching their heads. What has got into their idol? Tataloo, well known for his scandalous lyrics, is usually a fixture of Tehran’s underground scene and a regular sight at some of the city’s hidden bars and night clubs. Yet he recently made a surprising announcement on social media: he was supporting the presidential campaign of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran’s ultra-conservative mayor. Has Tataloo just changed his mind… or is something more sinister going on?
Tataloo is one of Iran’s most popular singers. For proof, just look at his Instagram account, which boasts four million followers. With his multiple tattoos and piercings, Tataloo looks more like a bad boy than a traditional religious conservative.
Tataloo’s song lyrics are all about love and sensuality: “How I miss the taste of your lips”, “I’m yours, so take this body and fix it”, and “Your body is glued to mine and I can’t sleep any other way” are just a few prime examples. There’s no doubt that these kind of lyrics definitely fall into the “immoral” category for the conservative, religious Iranian authorities.
North Korea crisis: Former ambassador to Australia Fu Ying warns of apocalypse
One of China's top diplomats, former ambassador to Australia Fu Ying, has cited an apocalyptic science fiction novel to warn that North Korea and the United States must talk to avoid a tipping point in the Korean Peninsula nuclear crisis.
Madam Fu recounted her personal involvement in talks between North Korea, China and the US in 2003, and gave three possibilities of how the current crisis could end.
Regime change, which she said had been the Obama administration's "main goal" in imposing financial sanctions, may not be realistic in the short term, because Kim Jong-un had stabilised North Korea's domestic situation.
She says North Korea won't give up nuclear weapons to avoid sanctions because the regime started nuclear testing after sanctions began.
The FBI translator who went rogue and married an ISIS terrorist
Updated 0340 GMT (1140 HKT) May 2, 2017
An FBI translator with a top-secret security clearance traveled to Syria in 2014 and married a key ISIS operative she had been assigned to investigate, CNN has learned.
The rogue employee, Daniela Greene, lied to the FBI about where she was going and warned her new husband he was under investigation, according to federal court records.
Greene's saga, which has never been publicized, exposes an embarrassing breach of national security at the FBI—an agency that has made its mission rooting out ISIS sympathizers across the country.
CYBERSECURITY FOR THE PEOPLE: HOW TO KEEP YOUR CHATS TRULY PRIVATE WITH SIGNAL
Micah Lee
Whether your private conversations are personal, professional, or political, what you say or type into your phone may be of interest to snooping governments, both foreign and domestic. Criminals might be interested as well, especially when you send someone a password or credit card number. There are others you might worry about too: You might want to apply for a job without your current employer finding out. You might discuss something with a lawyer. You might talk to your friends about attending a protest, getting an abortion, or buying a gun. You might send private selfies to your partner that you don’t want anyone else to see. You might be dating someone new and not want your coworkers to find out. The list goes on.
Fortunately, privacy is a fundamental human right.
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