Saturday, 4 May 2013
Dutch police may get hacking powers
The Dutch government has announced plans to give police much greater powers to fight cybercrime including the right to hack computers abroad.
Seabirds can help track ocean pollution
By Stephanie PappasLiveScience The best tools for tracking how well pollution-reduction laws are working may be seabirds.Seabirds, including pelicans, gulls and terns, are at the top of the food chain, and they absorb the toxins and pollutants contained in the fish they eat, researchers write in Friday's issue of the journal Science. And because seabirds forage over wide areas of oceans but come b..
How freeloading yeast cheat the system
By Tanya Lewis LiveScienceCooperation is common in nature, but there will always be some who cheat the system. A new study on yeast shows that cheaters can persist in populations but put the entire group at greater risk for extinction.A colony of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) survives by breaking down sugar (sucrose) into simpler sugars. Freeloading yeast that survive by mooching off others can..
Japanese Research Scandal Expands To A Second Trial And A Novartis Employee
A Japanese research scandal, which has so far centered on actions taken by the once-prominent cardiologist Hiroaki Matsubara, has now expanded. As has been previously reported, several papers authored by Matsubara have been retracted, including, most notably, the main publication of the Kyoto Heart Study in the European Heart Journal.
The Plan B Absurdity: Emergency Contraception Is Treated Like A Drug That Could Be Abused
One of the main objections I've heard against expanding over-the-counter access to Plan B, the morning after pill, is expressed here by Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America (CWA):
“It makes no sense that kids need parental permission to take aspirin at school,
Top 8 sites for researching your next employer
Finding a good job these days is tougher than ever. There are so many factors to take into consideration but, thankfully, the Internet provides you with means to figure it all out if you're willing to invest the time. Whether you are at the beginning of your job search or preparing for an interview, being armed with as much knowledge as possible about the prospective company is in your best interest. Not only will it help you formulate more insightful questions, it will boost your confidence as well.
Alimentos para la longevidad
“Eres lo que comes”: Cicerón
Mi querido viejo: la sentencia “eres lo que comes”, atribuida a Cicerón y a muchos sabios más, y repetida aun en libros con ese título, habla de una verdad absoluta: nuestro cuerpo sólo puede funcionar con lo que lo alimentamos: si lo alimentamos con “chatarra”, se convertirá en chatarra; si lo alimentamos en exceso, el cuerpo se inflará en exceso; si no lo alimentamos, el cuerpo adelgazará y morirá, y si lo alimentamos sanamente, nuestro cuerpo funcionará sanamente, así de simple.
Y te digo esto porque con motivo del interés generalizado en la sociedad de combatir los trastornos de la conducta alimentaria, que son la obesidad y la extrema delgadez, consecuencia de la anorexia, se habla mucho de técnicas y métodos, de cápsulas, pastillas, brebajes, emplastos, tisanas, etc., para lograr la salud alimentaria, y eso no se logra con métodos mágicos, sino entendiendo bien qué es la alimentación sana y qué debemos hacer al respecto.
Y en nuestros años viejos el cuidado de la alimentación es fundamental, porque lamentablemente muchos de nuestros queridos viejos se deterioran rápidamente ¡por desnutrición! Sí, por falta de una alimentación sana y balanceada, y eso no debe ser.
Cuida tu dentadura y arréglala si es preciso, y come bien, con calma, come sabrosamente, no tienes por qué comer al ritmo de los demás, no hay prisa, saborea cada bocado, es un placer porque no hay prisa.
Pero además, como lo han dicho algunos expertos, puedes escoger, junto con tu comida habitual, algunos que se han llamado “alimentos para la longevidad”, ¿por qué? Porque contienen sustancias antioxidantes que hacen que nuestras células se mantengan sanas porque contienen licopenos —sustancias antioxidantes que dan el color rojo a algunas frutas—, porque contienen ácido fólico, esencial para la vida, porque contienen omega 3, que protege nuestras arterias y mejora la circulación; no hay magia ni brujería en estos productos, son buenos para tu salud y bienestar.
¿Cuáles son esos productos?: el tomate, el aceite de oliva, las uvas rojas, el ajo, las espinacas, los granos enteros, el salmón y las nueces, y ya desde ahora puedes imaginar una sabrosa ensalada con lechuga, tomate, espinacas, granos enteros y nueces, aderezada con aceite de oliva, o puedes imaginar un buen trozo de salmón con una salsa bearnesa, o una crema de queso, verduras y ejotes, o una ensalada de endivias con queso azul o queso camembert y aceite de oliva.
Mi querido viejo, tienes el derecho de disfrutar la comida tanto o más que cuando comías a toda prisa, y si esos alimentos están en tu dieta, mucho mejor. Comer es un placer, el único que podemos tener tres veces al día. ¡A disfrutarlo! ¿Y el vino? Otro día hablaré de las maravillas del vino.
Médico y escritor
Y te digo esto porque con motivo del interés generalizado en la sociedad de combatir los trastornos de la conducta alimentaria, que son la obesidad y la extrema delgadez, consecuencia de la anorexia, se habla mucho de técnicas y métodos, de cápsulas, pastillas, brebajes, emplastos, tisanas, etc., para lograr la salud alimentaria, y eso no se logra con métodos mágicos, sino entendiendo bien qué es la alimentación sana y qué debemos hacer al respecto.
Y en nuestros años viejos el cuidado de la alimentación es fundamental, porque lamentablemente muchos de nuestros queridos viejos se deterioran rápidamente ¡por desnutrición! Sí, por falta de una alimentación sana y balanceada, y eso no debe ser.
Cuida tu dentadura y arréglala si es preciso, y come bien, con calma, come sabrosamente, no tienes por qué comer al ritmo de los demás, no hay prisa, saborea cada bocado, es un placer porque no hay prisa.
Pero además, como lo han dicho algunos expertos, puedes escoger, junto con tu comida habitual, algunos que se han llamado “alimentos para la longevidad”, ¿por qué? Porque contienen sustancias antioxidantes que hacen que nuestras células se mantengan sanas porque contienen licopenos —sustancias antioxidantes que dan el color rojo a algunas frutas—, porque contienen ácido fólico, esencial para la vida, porque contienen omega 3, que protege nuestras arterias y mejora la circulación; no hay magia ni brujería en estos productos, son buenos para tu salud y bienestar.
¿Cuáles son esos productos?: el tomate, el aceite de oliva, las uvas rojas, el ajo, las espinacas, los granos enteros, el salmón y las nueces, y ya desde ahora puedes imaginar una sabrosa ensalada con lechuga, tomate, espinacas, granos enteros y nueces, aderezada con aceite de oliva, o puedes imaginar un buen trozo de salmón con una salsa bearnesa, o una crema de queso, verduras y ejotes, o una ensalada de endivias con queso azul o queso camembert y aceite de oliva.
Mi querido viejo, tienes el derecho de disfrutar la comida tanto o más que cuando comías a toda prisa, y si esos alimentos están en tu dieta, mucho mejor. Comer es un placer, el único que podemos tener tres veces al día. ¡A disfrutarlo! ¿Y el vino? Otro día hablaré de las maravillas del vino.
Médico y escritor
Tasa de transacciones financieras
La semana pasada Intermón Oxfam (IO), una organización no gubernamental que trabaja temas sociales en varios países del mundo, publicó un documento muy conciso y claro sobre la urgente necesidad de establecer, no sólo en Europa sino en todo el mundo, la denominada Tasa sobre las Transacciones Financieras (TTF). Más de diez países del continente europeo ya habían anunciado su aplicación a partir de enero de 2014, entre ellos los dos principales de la región, es decir Alemania y Francia, lo cual indica que seguramente dentro de poco tiempo lo hará la Unión Europea en su conjunto.
La razón fundamental para el establecimiento de esta tasa, misma que algunos designan de “Robin Hood”, es la lacerante situación de más de mil 200 millones de seres humanos que viven en situación de pobreza, de los cuales 870 millones sufren hambre; en México, según los últimos datos, son casi ocho millones de personas las que la padecen. Y, por desgracia, todos los especialistas indican que esta cifra crecerá en el corto plazo, debido a la crisis que se vive en la actualidad, principalmente en el continente europeo.
Sin embargo, como bien indica IO, el sistema financiero goza de buena salud. Sólo hay que considerar que, a nivel mundial, las transacciones financieras superan en 75 veces a las transacciones de la economía real, es decir, del conjunto de las actividades productivas que compone el comercio de bienes y servicios; así como que el mercado de divisas es 15 veces superior al Producto Interno Bruto (PIB) del planeta y 60 veces mayor que el comercio. Crece la economía irreal y también crece la pobreza en el mundo; ésta es la cruda realidad.
En muchos países se han hecho cálculos sobre cuánto representaría la TTF, misma que se propone fijar en 0.1% sobre la compraventa de acciones y bonos, y únicamente de 0.01% sobre el intercambio de los llamados productos derivados, es decir, sobre las operaciones de más alta especulación. El Instituto de Estudios Económicos Alemán ha hecho cálculos y considera que con esas pequeñas tasas podrían recaudarse alrededor de 37 mil millones de euros.
Cada día aumentan la pobreza y la desigualdad; y esto fue reconocido en el pasado Foro Económico Mundial efectuado en Suiza, en el que se mencionaron como los dos riesgos más graves a nivel planetario, la desigualdad en los ingresos y los desequilibrios fiscales, derivados no de un gasto público excesivo sino de la debilidad de los sistemas impositivos de casi todos los países, por supuesto, incluyendo al nuestro.
Si, tal como estima el Instituto de Desarrollo Internacional del Reino Unido, a esta situación tan grave le agregamos que, debido a la recesión mundial, los países pobres perderán 184 mil millones de euros por el descenso del comercio; que habrá recortes en la ayuda que tradicionalmente otorgan los países desarrollados a los primeros mencionados y que descenderán las remesas, se vuelve urgente realizar una reforma tributaria que abarque a toda la población, en donde no se suban los impuestos ni se penalice el ahorro de la mayoría de los causantes, que incorpore a la economía informal dentro del sistema y se incrementen las tasas impositivas a las grandes fortunas, a las grandes empresas y a los grandes defraudadores, quienes utilizan la llamada ingeniería financiera para pagar lo menos posible y enriquecerse lo mayormente posible, como ocurre en nuestro país, para que sean quienes aporten los recursos necesarios para reducir la desigualdad.
La aplicación de la TTF debe garantizar que los recursos obtenidos sean destinados en primer lugar al combate a la pobreza para que no acaben siendo destinados a otro posible rescate de los bancos. Por ello, tendría que estar ya en el orden del día de los gobiernos y parlamentos, puesto que no estamos hablando de papeles o asientos contables electrónicos, sino de cientos de millones de personas de todas las edades que ayer, hoy y mañana pasan y pasarán hambre.
Sin embargo, como bien indica IO, el sistema financiero goza de buena salud. Sólo hay que considerar que, a nivel mundial, las transacciones financieras superan en 75 veces a las transacciones de la economía real, es decir, del conjunto de las actividades productivas que compone el comercio de bienes y servicios; así como que el mercado de divisas es 15 veces superior al Producto Interno Bruto (PIB) del planeta y 60 veces mayor que el comercio. Crece la economía irreal y también crece la pobreza en el mundo; ésta es la cruda realidad.
En muchos países se han hecho cálculos sobre cuánto representaría la TTF, misma que se propone fijar en 0.1% sobre la compraventa de acciones y bonos, y únicamente de 0.01% sobre el intercambio de los llamados productos derivados, es decir, sobre las operaciones de más alta especulación. El Instituto de Estudios Económicos Alemán ha hecho cálculos y considera que con esas pequeñas tasas podrían recaudarse alrededor de 37 mil millones de euros.
Cada día aumentan la pobreza y la desigualdad; y esto fue reconocido en el pasado Foro Económico Mundial efectuado en Suiza, en el que se mencionaron como los dos riesgos más graves a nivel planetario, la desigualdad en los ingresos y los desequilibrios fiscales, derivados no de un gasto público excesivo sino de la debilidad de los sistemas impositivos de casi todos los países, por supuesto, incluyendo al nuestro.
Si, tal como estima el Instituto de Desarrollo Internacional del Reino Unido, a esta situación tan grave le agregamos que, debido a la recesión mundial, los países pobres perderán 184 mil millones de euros por el descenso del comercio; que habrá recortes en la ayuda que tradicionalmente otorgan los países desarrollados a los primeros mencionados y que descenderán las remesas, se vuelve urgente realizar una reforma tributaria que abarque a toda la población, en donde no se suban los impuestos ni se penalice el ahorro de la mayoría de los causantes, que incorpore a la economía informal dentro del sistema y se incrementen las tasas impositivas a las grandes fortunas, a las grandes empresas y a los grandes defraudadores, quienes utilizan la llamada ingeniería financiera para pagar lo menos posible y enriquecerse lo mayormente posible, como ocurre en nuestro país, para que sean quienes aporten los recursos necesarios para reducir la desigualdad.
La aplicación de la TTF debe garantizar que los recursos obtenidos sean destinados en primer lugar al combate a la pobreza para que no acaben siendo destinados a otro posible rescate de los bancos. Por ello, tendría que estar ya en el orden del día de los gobiernos y parlamentos, puesto que no estamos hablando de papeles o asientos contables electrónicos, sino de cientos de millones de personas de todas las edades que ayer, hoy y mañana pasan y pasarán hambre.
Columnista:
China ofrecerá visados de cinco años para atraer a talentos extranjeros
China lanzará este junio dos tipos de “visados para talentos”, uno de ellos con una validez de hasta cinco años para poder facilitar la entrada de profesionales cualificados, informan las autoridades chinas.
Los visados R1y R2 se expedirán para los profesionales extranjeros sénior o de reconocida experiencia. La visa R1 permite a su poseedor la residencia durante hasta de cinco años, mientras que la R2 ofrecerá múltiples entradas con una duración máxima de 180 días y tendrá que ser renovada cada seis meses.
A este tipo de visados pueden acceder expertos “reconocidos por su gobierno y profesionales que China necesite urgentemente”, destacan las autoridades chinas.
Los visados R1y R2 se expedirán para los profesionales extranjeros sénior o de reconocida experiencia. La visa R1 permite a su poseedor la residencia durante hasta de cinco años, mientras que la R2 ofrecerá múltiples entradas con una duración máxima de 180 días y tendrá que ser renovada cada seis meses.
A este tipo de visados pueden acceder expertos “reconocidos por su gobierno y profesionales que China necesite urgentemente”, destacan las autoridades chinas.
Portugal announces 4.8 billion euros in cuts
Portugal's center-right government has announced cuts to public sector jobs and an increase in work hours. The measures are to help save the country several billion to meet EU and IMF stipulations for its bailout funds.
Más de 80 detenidos por robos de equipajes en vuelos de Alitalia
La Policía italiana ha detenido a más de 80 personas por robos realizados en los equipajes facturados en vuelos de la compañía aérea Alitalia.
Entre los detenidos figuran 49 empleados de esa aerolínea y 37 trabajadores de empresas subcontratadas. De ellos, 19 se encuentran en arresto domiciliario.
La investigación ha durado prácticamente todo el año 2012 y los responsables de los robos se enfrentan a una pena de seis años de prisión y a la pérdida de sus puestos de trabajo, indicó la agencia AFP.
Entre los detenidos figuran 49 empleados de esa aerolínea y 37 trabajadores de empresas subcontratadas. De ellos, 19 se encuentran en arresto domiciliario.
La investigación ha durado prácticamente todo el año 2012 y los responsables de los robos se enfrentan a una pena de seis años de prisión y a la pérdida de sus puestos de trabajo, indicó la agencia AFP.
Habrá cortes de agua si se agrava la sequía en el país
Habrá cortes de agua si se agrava la sequía en el país: Se prevé "monitorear" el fenómeno con la ayuda de satélites en Estados Unidos y, de no caer el nivel de lluvia esperado, la Conagua tienen la facultad de restringir el uso del líquido, primero para las zonas agrícolas y después, si la emergencia persiste, para las zonas urbanas
Obama to US: We need Mexico more than ever
Even before his trip to Mexico and Costa Rica, President Barack Obama began hammering home his message to U.S. audiences: When you hear “Mexico,” don’t think only about immigration, drug trafficking.
Decades-Old Stroke Damage Reversible with Oxygen Therapy
Up to 20 years after suffering a stroke, patients in Israel are reporting remarkable improvements in brain function with callibrated oxygen treatments inside hyperbaric chambers
Plagian en Morelos a camiones con pasaje
CUERNAVACA, 4 de mayo.— Asociaciones de transportistas de Morelos denunciaron una nueva modalidad del crimen organizado para extorsionarlos, en la que secuestran camiones con todo y pasajeros, para pedir rescates y liberar dichas unidades.
De acuerdo con Enrique Ramos Zepeda, presidente de la Alianza de Transportistas, “se suben a bordo de la unidad, roban a los pasajeros, más bien se los llevan a algún lugar apartado, roban al pasaje, lo bajan y se llevan la unidad con el operador a lugares indeterminados, porque depende de dónde te lo roban”.
Al mes se registran más de 40 secuestros de las diferentes empresas, sobre todo en la zona oriente y sur del estado, pero esta modalidad ya comenzó a registrarse en la zona metropolitana de Cuernavaca, manifestó el dirigente gremial.
“Y ya hablan con los directivos de la ruta y le piden dinero por regresarles la unidad, y regresarles el operador y cada uno tiene su precio, es mucho dinero, no te podría decir porque es una imprudencia, pero es mucho dinero lo que piden, al grado que se quedan tres, cuatro días o una semanas, porque no se tiene el dinero para rescatarlos”.
Control criminal
Las unidades que son secuestradas con todo y pasajeros son llevadas a lugares apartados, donde esos grupos delictivos controlan los accesos, por lo que ha sido imposible rescatarlas, pese a que algunas de ellas cuentan con localizadores satelitales.
Incluso la denuncia se ha dificultado, debido a que los operadores los reconocen y saben que durante las comparecencias los familiares de los criminales o sus cómplices se presentan con el fin de amenazarlos y esto ha derivado en que los choferes prefieren renunciar y no presentar denuncia por temor a ser asesinados.
De acuerdo con el líder de los transportistas, el secuestro de los camiones se realiza principalmente contra las unidades de modelos recientes y pese a la denuncia de los plagios, las autoridades no actúan porque este delito no está tipificado en la ley y los seguros, tampoco cubren los daños patrimoniales porque no forma parte de la cobertura.
Por su parte, Alejandro Morales Merino, dirigente del Frente de Transportista Urbano de Cuautla, manifestó que la delincuencia organizada pide rescates que van de los diez mil pesos a los 40 mil pesos y las bandas delictivas piden 50 mil por liberar a los choferes de las unidades.
Sobre el tema, uno de los operadores de transportes de pasajeros, quien pidió guardar el anonimato, manifestó que los asaltos se llevan a cabo muy temprano, cuando los morelenses salen de sus comunidades o en la tarde, sobre todo fuera de los balnearios de la localidad morelense.
Incremento
Por otra parte, Andrés Tufiño Barrera, líder de transportistas en Morelos, de la CTM, manifestó que el sur del estado ha registrado un incremento significativo en los ilícitos.
Por ello, exigió al gobierno local la creación de operativos de seguridad para acabar con los asaltos carreteros.
La Asociación Mexicana de Empresas de Seguridad Privada e Industria Satelital dio a conocer que el horario más frecuente en el que se presentan los robos es alrededor de las 8:00 horas, con casi 11 por ciento de los crímenes.
Según Ramos Zepeda, líder de transportistas, la delincuencia también les “ha cobrado derecho de piso en algunos lugares y en algunos sitios de taxis; vemos que esto está creciendo, entonces lo que hemos hecho con el gobierno del estado es el compromiso de que todos afrontemos el tema de la inseguridad”.
Ante ello, mencionó que “el próximo jueves 9 de mayo vamos a firmar un pacto por la seguridad y la modernización del transporte, que implica aproximadamente 12 puntos, en donde vamos a tratar el tema del transporte seguro”.
Explicó que se va a equipar a cada una de las unidades con cámara, botón de pánico y un dispositivo, para que sea localizable a través del internet.
Comentó que esta situación empezó aproximadamente hace tres meses, a principios prácticamente del año y a partir de enero se agudizó.
Además, Ramos Zepeda indicó que el 80 por ciento de los delincuentes está libre por falta de denuncias.
Al mes se registran más de 40 secuestros de las diferentes empresas, sobre todo en la zona oriente y sur del estado, pero esta modalidad ya comenzó a registrarse en la zona metropolitana de Cuernavaca, manifestó el dirigente gremial.
“Y ya hablan con los directivos de la ruta y le piden dinero por regresarles la unidad, y regresarles el operador y cada uno tiene su precio, es mucho dinero, no te podría decir porque es una imprudencia, pero es mucho dinero lo que piden, al grado que se quedan tres, cuatro días o una semanas, porque no se tiene el dinero para rescatarlos”.
Control criminal
Las unidades que son secuestradas con todo y pasajeros son llevadas a lugares apartados, donde esos grupos delictivos controlan los accesos, por lo que ha sido imposible rescatarlas, pese a que algunas de ellas cuentan con localizadores satelitales.
Incluso la denuncia se ha dificultado, debido a que los operadores los reconocen y saben que durante las comparecencias los familiares de los criminales o sus cómplices se presentan con el fin de amenazarlos y esto ha derivado en que los choferes prefieren renunciar y no presentar denuncia por temor a ser asesinados.
De acuerdo con el líder de los transportistas, el secuestro de los camiones se realiza principalmente contra las unidades de modelos recientes y pese a la denuncia de los plagios, las autoridades no actúan porque este delito no está tipificado en la ley y los seguros, tampoco cubren los daños patrimoniales porque no forma parte de la cobertura.
Por su parte, Alejandro Morales Merino, dirigente del Frente de Transportista Urbano de Cuautla, manifestó que la delincuencia organizada pide rescates que van de los diez mil pesos a los 40 mil pesos y las bandas delictivas piden 50 mil por liberar a los choferes de las unidades.
Sobre el tema, uno de los operadores de transportes de pasajeros, quien pidió guardar el anonimato, manifestó que los asaltos se llevan a cabo muy temprano, cuando los morelenses salen de sus comunidades o en la tarde, sobre todo fuera de los balnearios de la localidad morelense.
Incremento
Por otra parte, Andrés Tufiño Barrera, líder de transportistas en Morelos, de la CTM, manifestó que el sur del estado ha registrado un incremento significativo en los ilícitos.
Por ello, exigió al gobierno local la creación de operativos de seguridad para acabar con los asaltos carreteros.
La Asociación Mexicana de Empresas de Seguridad Privada e Industria Satelital dio a conocer que el horario más frecuente en el que se presentan los robos es alrededor de las 8:00 horas, con casi 11 por ciento de los crímenes.
Según Ramos Zepeda, líder de transportistas, la delincuencia también les “ha cobrado derecho de piso en algunos lugares y en algunos sitios de taxis; vemos que esto está creciendo, entonces lo que hemos hecho con el gobierno del estado es el compromiso de que todos afrontemos el tema de la inseguridad”.
Ante ello, mencionó que “el próximo jueves 9 de mayo vamos a firmar un pacto por la seguridad y la modernización del transporte, que implica aproximadamente 12 puntos, en donde vamos a tratar el tema del transporte seguro”.
Explicó que se va a equipar a cada una de las unidades con cámara, botón de pánico y un dispositivo, para que sea localizable a través del internet.
Comentó que esta situación empezó aproximadamente hace tres meses, a principios prácticamente del año y a partir de enero se agudizó.
Además, Ramos Zepeda indicó que el 80 por ciento de los delincuentes está libre por falta de denuncias.
Cancer recall over doctor fears
Hundreds of women are called back for further breast cancer tests after claims a junior doctor failed to follow guidelines.
US counter-terror database jumps to 875,000 names – report
The Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) database has reached 875,000 names from 540,000 just five years ago, an anonymous official told Reuters. The increase in names is due in part to security agencies using the system more in the wake of the failed 2009 attack on a plane by "underpants bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in Detroit.
US agencies use the database to build other catalogs of possible terrorists, such as the ‘no-fly’ list. The list is maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center.
The vast size of TIDE came into the spotlight after last month’s Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others.
Twenty-six-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was proved to have been on the list since 2011, after the CIA received a request from Russian authorities to investigate him for suspected radical Islamist activities.
After being put in the TIDE system, Tsarnaev’s name was entered in another database maintained by the Homeland Security Department’s Customs and Border Protection bureau. Tsarnaev was flagged on that database when he left the US for Russia in January 2012, but no alarm was raised.
When he returned from Russia six months later, he had been automatically downgraded in the database, as there was no new information requiring that he be placed under further scrutiny.
Tsarnaev’s inclusion in the list, as well as the tip-off from the Russian government, prompted many to criticize the US for allowing the alleged terrorist to fall through the cracks.
But officials say that simply being listed in TIDE is not enough to justify special attention by law enforcement, and that Tsarnaev was not known to be an active threat.
TIDE has been scrutinized in the past for being so large and vague. However, an official familiar with the latest statistics said that the growing database does not mean the information is any less manageable. He said that intelligence agencies have become better at extracting information from the sea of data.
But others are less optimistic about the database’s growth, fearing it could have negative consequences on TIDE’s efficiency.
"What you want is more focus, not less focus. It can't be just about quantity. It has to be about specificity," said Karen Greenberg, expert in counter-terrorism policy at Fordham University.
Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government? | Glenn Greenwald
A former FBI counterterrorism agent claims on CNN that this is the case
The real capabilities and behavior of the US surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done by the US government, it operates behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy. But a seemingly spontaneous admission this week by a former FBI counterterrorism agent provides a rather startling acknowledgment of just how vast and invasive these surveillance activities are.
Over the past couple days, cable news tabloid shows such as CNN's Out Front with Erin Burnett have been excitingly focused on the possible involvement in the Boston Marathon attack of Katherine Russell, the 24-year-old American widow of the deceased suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. As part of their relentless stream of leaks uncritically disseminated by our Adversarial Press Corps, anonymous government officials are claiming that they are now focused on telephone calls between Russell and Tsarnaev that took place both before and after the attack to determine if she had prior knowledge of the plot or participated in any way.
On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could:
BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It's not a voice mail. It's just a conversation. There's no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?"All of that stuff" - meaning every telephone conversation Americans have with one another on US soil, with or without a search warrant - "is being captured as we speak".
CLEMENTE: "No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It's not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.
BURNETT: "So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.
CLEMENTE: "No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not."
On Thursday night, Clemente again appeared on CNN, this time with host Carol Costello, and she asked him about those remarks. He reiterated what he said the night before but added expressly that "all digital communications in the past" are recorded and stored:
Let's repeat that last part: "no digital communication is secure", by which he means not that any communication is susceptible to government interception as it happens (although that is true), but far beyond that: all digital communications - meaning telephone calls, emails, online chats and the like - are automatically recorded and stored and accessible to the government after the fact. To describe that is to define what a ubiquitous, limitless Surveillance State is.
There have been some previous indications that this is true. Former AT&T engineer Mark Klein revealed that AT&T and other telecoms had built a special network that allowed the National Security Agency full and unfettered access to data about the telephone calls and the content of email communications for all of their customers. Specifically, Klein explained "that the NSA set up a system that vacuumed up Internet and phone-call data from ordinary Americans with the cooperation of AT&T" and that "contrary to the government's depiction of its surveillance program as aimed at overseas terrorists . . . much of the data sent through AT&T to the NSA was purely domestic." But his amazing revelations were mostly ignored and, when Congress retroactively immunized the nation's telecom giants for their participation in the illegal Bush spying programs, Klein's claims (by design) were prevented from being adjudicated in court.
That every single telephone call is recorded and stored would also explain this extraordinary revelation by the Washington Post in 2010:
Every day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications.It would also help explain the revelations of former NSA official William Binney, who resigned from the agency in protest over its systemic spying on the domestic communications of US citizens, that the US government has "assembled on the order of 20 trillion transactions about US citizens with other US citizens" (which counts only communications transactions and not financial and other transactions), and that "the data that's being assembled is about everybody. And from that data, then they can target anyone they want."
Despite the extreme secrecy behind which these surveillance programs operate, there have been periodic reports of serious abuse. Two Democratic Senators, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, have been warning for years that Americans would be "stunned" to learn what the US government is doing in terms of secret surveillance.
Strangely, back in 2002 - when hysteria over the 9/11 attacks (and thus acquiescence to government power) was at its peak - the Pentagon's attempt to implement what it called the "Total Information Awareness" program (TIA) sparked so much public controversy that it had to be official scrapped. But it has been incrementally re-instituted - without the creepy (though honest) name and all-seeing-eye logo - with little controversy or even notice.
Back in 2010, worldwide controversy erupted when the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates banned the use of Blackberries because some communications were inaccessible to government intelligence agencies, and that could not be tolerated. The Obama administration condemned this move on the ground that it threatened core freedoms, only to turn around six weeks later and demand that all forms of digital communications allow the US government backdoor access to intercept them. Put another way, the US government embraced exactly the same rationale invoked by the UAE and Saudi agencies: that no communications can be off limits. Indeed, the UAE, when responding to condemnations from the Obama administration, noted that it was simply doing exactly that which the US government does:
"'In fact, the UAE is exercising its sovereign right and is asking for exactly the same regulatory compliance - and with the same principles of judicial and regulatory oversight - that Blackberry grants the US and other governments and nothing more,' [UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al] Otaiba said. 'Importantly, the UAE requires the same compliance as the US for the very same reasons: to protect national security and to assist in law enforcement.'"That no human communications can be allowed to take place without the scrutinizing eye of the US government is indeed the animating principle of the US Surveillance State. Still, this revelation, made in passing on CNN, that every single telephone call made by and among Americans is recorded and stored is something which most people undoubtedly do not know, even if the small group of people who focus on surveillance issues believed it to be true (clearly, both Burnett and Costello were shocked to hear this).
Some new polling suggests that Americans, even after the Boston attack, are growing increasingly concerned about erosions of civil liberties in the name of Terrorism. Even those people who claim it does not matter instinctively understand the value of personal privacy: they put locks on their bedroom doors and vigilantly safeguard their email passwords. That's why the US government so desperately maintains a wall of secrecy around their surveillance capabilities: because they fear that people will find their behavior unacceptably intrusive and threatening, as they did even back in 2002 when John Poindexter's TIA was unveiled.
Mass surveillance is the hallmark of a tyrannical political culture. But whatever one's views on that, the more that is known about what the US government and its surveillance agencies are doing, the better. This admission by this former FBI agent on CNN gives a very good sense for just how limitless these activities are.
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SOPA reincarnated? Norway readying draconian anti-piracy internet law
The proposed amendments make it easier to locate both website owners and end-users of unauthorized material online.
Thus, the new legislation would allow rights-holders to take to court site owners involved in illegal content sharing and order the internet service providers (ISPs) to “prevent or impede access” to sites that have “extensively made available material that clearly violates copyrights”, Torrenfreak quotes the amendments.
And if the website owner is unknown or cannot be located “the case can be decided without the person concerned being given an opportunity to comment.” This would make it very easy to block off sites whose owners wish to remain anonymous.
Also, the introduced amendments exempt pursued individuals in question from the protection of Electronic Communications Act when a legal claim is underway.
“If it is likely that copyright or other rights under this law have been violated, the court may, notwithstanding the confidentiality provided by the Electronic Communications Act, at the request of the licensee, require a provider of electronic communications to disclose information that identifies the owner of the subscription used for the violation,” according to the amendments.
In order to waive confidentiality the court “must find that the arguments in favor of disclosure outweigh the interest of confidentiality.”
Experts are saying that the bill will most certainly be passed.
Even though the amendments need to go through a second parliamentary hearing before being formally adopted, it is unlikely that the outcome would be any different from the first hearing, Jens Christian Koller of the Parliamentary Information Service told Teknofil.no.
“In practice therefore these amendments to the Copyright Act have been adopted, but it is still not correct to say that it has already been formally adopted by the parliament. What you can say is that it is now very difficult to stop this law,” he stated.
This issue of piracy versus privacy is not new in Norway and has partly been trigged by The Pirate Bay website case, according to Torrentfreak.
In March 2009, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and other local movie studios asked Norway’s largest ISP Telenor to block subscribers’ access to The Pirate Bay, the world’s largest file-sharing site. Telonor refused to proceed with the request, citing no legal precedent.
Telenor was taken to court, where a ruling confirmed that ISP is not obligated to block access to sites such as The Pirate Bay.
Then the Ministry of Culture in May 2011 announced new proposals to amend the existing Copyright Act. In January the amendments were presented and on this past Monday the parliament voted on them for the first time. The ruling parties were in favor of the bill, while only the opposition voted against it.
The Pirate Bay website, which was the force behind the new amendments, was created in Sweden in 2003.
In 2009 the website’s founders were charged with facilitating illegal downloading of copyrighted material and sentenced to a year in a prison and a US$3.5 million fine. Since then in order to stay online the site’s domain keeps moving to different countries, with the latest relocation to Iceland.
Internet users are equating the Norwegian amendments to the US Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was introduced in October 2011 and proposed to broaden law enforcement’s rights to fight online copyright infringement and trade of counterfeit good. Proposal included introduction of court orders to ban advertising networks and payment facilities from doing business with infringing websites, prohibiting search engines from linking to the websites, and requesting ISPs to block access to the websites.
Many internet users and organizations heavily criticized the plan. On January 18, 2012, the internet blackout was used by more than 7,000 websites, including Wikipedia, Reddit and Google, marking the WWW-wide protest against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), which was then shelved indefinitely just days after the action.
Thus, the new legislation would allow rights-holders to take to court site owners involved in illegal content sharing and order the internet service providers (ISPs) to “prevent or impede access” to sites that have “extensively made available material that clearly violates copyrights”, Torrenfreak quotes the amendments.
And if the website owner is unknown or cannot be located “the case can be decided without the person concerned being given an opportunity to comment.” This would make it very easy to block off sites whose owners wish to remain anonymous.
Also, the introduced amendments exempt pursued individuals in question from the protection of Electronic Communications Act when a legal claim is underway.
“If it is likely that copyright or other rights under this law have been violated, the court may, notwithstanding the confidentiality provided by the Electronic Communications Act, at the request of the licensee, require a provider of electronic communications to disclose information that identifies the owner of the subscription used for the violation,” according to the amendments.
In order to waive confidentiality the court “must find that the arguments in favor of disclosure outweigh the interest of confidentiality.”
Experts are saying that the bill will most certainly be passed.
Even though the amendments need to go through a second parliamentary hearing before being formally adopted, it is unlikely that the outcome would be any different from the first hearing, Jens Christian Koller of the Parliamentary Information Service told Teknofil.no.
“In practice therefore these amendments to the Copyright Act have been adopted, but it is still not correct to say that it has already been formally adopted by the parliament. What you can say is that it is now very difficult to stop this law,” he stated.
This issue of piracy versus privacy is not new in Norway and has partly been trigged by The Pirate Bay website case, according to Torrentfreak.
In March 2009, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and other local movie studios asked Norway’s largest ISP Telenor to block subscribers’ access to The Pirate Bay, the world’s largest file-sharing site. Telonor refused to proceed with the request, citing no legal precedent.
Telenor was taken to court, where a ruling confirmed that ISP is not obligated to block access to sites such as The Pirate Bay.
Then the Ministry of Culture in May 2011 announced new proposals to amend the existing Copyright Act. In January the amendments were presented and on this past Monday the parliament voted on them for the first time. The ruling parties were in favor of the bill, while only the opposition voted against it.
The Pirate Bay website, which was the force behind the new amendments, was created in Sweden in 2003.
In 2009 the website’s founders were charged with facilitating illegal downloading of copyrighted material and sentenced to a year in a prison and a US$3.5 million fine. Since then in order to stay online the site’s domain keeps moving to different countries, with the latest relocation to Iceland.
Internet users are equating the Norwegian amendments to the US Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was introduced in October 2011 and proposed to broaden law enforcement’s rights to fight online copyright infringement and trade of counterfeit good. Proposal included introduction of court orders to ban advertising networks and payment facilities from doing business with infringing websites, prohibiting search engines from linking to the websites, and requesting ISPs to block access to the websites.
Many internet users and organizations heavily criticized the plan. On January 18, 2012, the internet blackout was used by more than 7,000 websites, including Wikipedia, Reddit and Google, marking the WWW-wide protest against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), which was then shelved indefinitely just days after the action.
Psychiatry in Crisis! Mental Health Director Rejects Psychiatric "Bible" and Replaces With Nothing
What is mental illness? Schizophrenia? Autism? Bipolar disorder? Depression? Since the 1950s, the profession of psychiatry has attempted to provide definitive answers to these questions in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . Often called The Bible of psychiatry, the DSM serves as the ultimate authority for diagnosis, treatment and insurance coverage of mental illness. Now, in a move sure to rock psychiatry, psychology and other fields that address mental illness, the director of the National Institutes of Mental Health has announced that the federal agency--which provides grants for research on mental illness--will be " re-orienting its research away from DSM categories ." Thomas Insel's statement comes just weeks before the scheduled publication of the DSM-V , the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual . Insel writes: [More]
Toxic pesticides burn up in California wildfire
The wildfire erupted in Southern California at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, forcing residents near Camarillo to evacuate their homes. The raging fire has already burnt more than 12 ½ sq. miles, and 15 homes have already sustained damage. A group of recreational vehicles in a mobile home park have been completely destroyed. About 2,000 other homes are at risk of destruction as the flames lick the edges of communities 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles. A small, local university canceled classes for the week as the fire threatened its campus, AP reports.
And while smoke inhalation is never healthy, the fumes of this wildfire are particularly dangerous: fire officials on Thursday warned that a store of highly toxic pesticides caught fire at an agricultural property in Laguna Farms, near the university campus. Fire officials have sent out health warnings, urging residents to avoid inhaling smoke – even if no flames are nearby.
Inhaling pesticides can burn internal organs and harm the respiratory system, making it difficult to breathe. Doing so may also cause the pesticides to become absorbed in the bloodstream and disperse throughout the body. Severe cases of pesticide poisoning can lead to loss of reflexes, inability to breathe, unconsciousness or death. External exposure to pesticides can also burn through skin and eyes, in some cases causing blindness.
Firefighters in hazmat suits are currently dealing with the hazardous materials, and the Ventury County Fire Department is assessing the damage throughout the day on Friday, fire spokesman Bill Nash told AP. Wind gusts contributed to the spread of the fire, and unusually dry conditions have caused it to spread quickly. Friday “may be the hottest day of the week, and the humidity we do expect to plummet,” Nash told NBC.
“We’re faced with a situation right now where the vegetation on the hillsides, the moisture level is what we typically see in August.”
Ventura Country Fire Department spokesman Tom Kruschke warned the public that the fire is still growing rapidly, and that residents should keep away from it.
“We have conditions that are very dramatic, very dangerous for firefighters. This fire is growing,” he said. “We are asking members of the public to be very aware: This is very dangerous. This is still a moving fire. If you were asked to evacuate, it will be a while before you are allowed in. And if at one point you are uncomfortable, please leave the area. It’s not safe to stay.”
As of 2 a.m. Pacific time, the fire was within “seven or eight miles” of Malibu, Nash told NBC. But he reassured his team’s commitment to containing the flames. As of early Friday, the fire had reached about 10,000 acres and was 10 percent contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.
“We’ve got hot, dirty, unglamorous firefighting work going on right now, guys with shovels trying to scratch out lines on the ground,” he said. “We’ve got those guys on these steep hillside in the dark with nothing but the light of the fire and a flashlight.”
Meanwhile, residents who left their homes near Camarillo were waiting at evacuation centers. Mark Brewer, a 52-year-old man, told AP that the risk of wildfires is one that he always expected.
“This is a part of being in Southern California, just like earthquakes,” he said.
But it is rare that large stockpiles of pesticide go up in flames and threaten the health of surrounding communities. The last major pesticide fire occurred in June 1985 in Anaheim, California, after a warehouse storing organophosphates and carbamates went up in flames. The fire caused the evacuation of about 11,500 people and the closing of a freeway as the Coast Guard toxic waste team was called in to extinguish it.
Fire officials are still investigating the cause behind this week’s fire in Southern California.
US military secrets leaked to Chinese hackers for three years
QinetiQ North America was attacked by a Shanghai-based hacker group from 2007 to 2010, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The hacking collective has been coined the “Comment Crew” by security experts.
The company is known for its contributions to national security – including software used by US forces in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Comment Crew’s continuous spying reportedly provided China with a wealth of secret information on QinetiQ’s drones, satellites, military robotics, and the US Army’s combat helicopter fleet. The spies also stole several terabytes – equivalent to hundreds of millions of pages – of documents and data on weapons programs.
China’s military may have also stolen programming code and design details that it could use to disable some of the most sophisticated US weaponry. The situation could have a crippling effect on America’s defense capabilities.
“God forbid we get into a conflict with China but if we did we could face a major embarrassment, where we try out all these sophisticated weapons systems and they don’t work,” said Richard Clarke, former special adviser to President George W. Bush on cyber security.
But the hacking could have been easily prevented, if QinetiQ would have picked up on one of the many warnings it received along the way.
Failing to connect the dots
QinetiQ ignored the first sign of spying in 2007, when an agent from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service notified the company that two people were apparently losing classified information on their laptops.
QinetiQ failed to act with caution, according to Brian Dykstra, a forensics expert hired to conduct the investigation into the lost data.
“They just felt like it was this limited little thing, like they’d picked up some virus,” he said.
Dykstra was given only four days to complete the investigation. He said the company didn’t give him the time or data necessary to determine whether more employees had been successfully targeted. In his report, Dykstra warned that QinetiQ is “likely not seeing the full extent” of the intrusion.
His assumptions were soon proved correct. In 2008, NASA alerted the company that hackers had tried to enter its system from one of QinetiQ’s computers.
But QinetiQ still failed to connect the dots, treating each series of attacks over the next several months as unrelated incidents. The company’s ignorance was welcomed by Comment Crew, who continued to raid servers and gather more than 13,000 internal passwords in the first 2 ½ years.
An easy hack?
In 2010, the hackers logged onto QinetiQ’s system with incredible ease – through the company’s remote access system, just like an ordinary employee.
The hack was made easy because of QinetiQ’s failure to use a two-factor authentication, allowing Comment Crew to use the stolen password of a network administrator. But it gets even worse – the company had discovered its own vulnerability months before, but failed to fix it the problem.
Over the course of four days, the hackers attacked at least 14 servers, eventually hitting the jackpot when they discovered an inventory of weapons-systems technology and source code throughout the company.
When QinetiQ finally caught on in 2010 and hired two outside firms to help combat the hackers. It was soon revealed that Comment Crew had established near permanent residence in the company’s computers.
The firms also discovered that the hackers had walked away with information on microchips that control the company’s robots.
The chip architecture could help China test ways to take over or defeat US robots or aerial drones, said Noel Sharkey, a drones and robotics expert at Britain’s Sheffield University.
The hackers also targeted at least 17 employees working on the Condition Based Maintenance program, which collects data on Apache and Blackhawk helicopters deployed around the world.
Thus far, there has been no word from the State Department regarding Comment Crew’s hacks into QinetiQ systems. Washington has the power to revoke the company’s charter to handle military technology if it finds negligence.
However, it appears the US government is doing just the opposite. In May 2012, QinetiQ received a $4.7 million cybersecurity contract from the US Transportation Department.
Chicago teacher suspended for showing tools to students
The Rutherford Institute has filed a civil rights suit on behalf of Doug Bartlett, a Chicago public school teacher who was suspended for four days during the 2011-2012 school year for bringing wrenches, screwdrivers, a pocket knife and other tools into the classroom.
During an August 8, 2011 class, Bartlett led a group of second graders through a curriculum-mandated “tool discussion” that went over the basics of elementary implements. To assist, Bartlett brought what his attorney call several “garden-variety tools,” including a box cutter, a 2.25" pocketknife, wrenches, screwdrivers and pliers.
“The visual aids were used in an effort to facilitate student understanding and remembrance of the curriculum,” his attorney told a United States District Court judge in a legal filing last month. “As he displayed the box cutter and pocketknife, [Bartlett] specifically described the proper uses of these tools. Neither of these items was made accessible to the students.”
Bartlett thought he was just being a good teacher, but word of that day’s lesson plan soon got out. A week later an observer made a complaint about the instruction, and Bartlett was in turn charged with possessing a weapon, negligently supervising children, inattention to duty and violating school rules.
According to the student handbook used to discipline Bartlett, “Any object that is commonly used to inflict bodily harm, and/or an object that is used or intended to be used in a manner that may inflict bodily harm, even though its normal use is not as a weapon.”
For bringing the tools into school, Bartlett was suspended without pay for four-days. His attorneys say as a result their client "suffered humiliation, embarrassment, mental suffering and lost wages,” and are now asking a judge in the Northern District of Illinois for "nominal and compensatory damages" and for the suspension to be expunged from the teacher's record.
"This school district's gross overreaction to a simple teaching demonstration on basic tools such as wrenches and pliers underscores exactly what is wrong with our nation's schools," Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead said in a statement.
"What makes this case stand out from the rest is that this latest victim of zero tolerance policies run amok happens to be a veteran school teacher," Whitehead said.
Bartlett’s counsel has filed the complaint against the City of Chicago School District and Valeria Newell, the elementary school principal that approved of his suspension. They are asking for a trial by jury.
Russia celebrates Easter as Holy Week draws to an end
The holy day is being celebrated by believers worldwide, with large-scale festivities to be held in Russia on Sunday.
Easter services are also organized at all Russian Orthodox churches across the world, the number of which exceeds 30,000.
But the largest service, helmed by Patriarch Kirillis, is being held at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The service lasts several hours, well into the early hours of Sunday.
Watch RT’s LIVE coverage from the Cathedral in central Moscow.
A group of pilgrims have also delivered the Holy Fire from the Old City of Jerusalem to the Russian Cathedral of Christ the Savior. It is lit each year at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on the day preceding Orthodox Easter. Tens of thousands of pilgrims visited Jerusalem on Saturday to observe the ‘Holy Fire’ ceremony.
The Holy Fire has been perceived by generations of Orthodox believers as a miracle. It’s through divine intervention that the first flame comes to life, the faithful believe. Pilgrims say it doesn’t burn in the first minutes after it has been lit. Parts of the Holy Fire are ‘spread out’ between churches across the country, placed in torches akin to those used to transport the Olympic Flame.
After parishioners lit the candles from the Holy Fire, Kirill started the procession around the cathedral, glorifying the Resurrection. Priests and believers carrying crosses and icons get going around the church. The procession climaxed when the Patriarch announced “Christ is risen!”, meaning the Holy Day has started.
After midnight and for the next 40 days after Easter Sunday, Orthodox Christians will be greeting each other with the words "Christ is risen!" expecting the reply "He is risen indeed!" The end of the short dialogue is celebrated by three traditional kisses.
The festivities at the Christ the Savior Cathedral where attended by President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.
Christians celebrate Easter to mark the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion. The Resurrection of the Savior symbolizes his victory over sin and death.
Preparations for Easter celebrations begin on the last day of the Holy Week, known in Russia as Passion Week. On Holy Saturday believers come to churches to have their paschal cakes and eggs blessed by priests.
Easter is preceded by a long period of fasting. Believers abstain from meat, fish, eggs and dairy products for 48 days, spending time in prayer.
The real challenge is to help people refine their souls and learn to restrain desire.
Russians celebrate the end of Lent by painting colorful eggs – as a rule red, as a symbol of the blood of Christ - they exchange with each other, and preparing rich Easter cakes with raisins and nuts.
Easter is a moveable feast. Eastern and Western Christianity base their calculations on different calendars. The former uses Julian calendar, the latter Gregorian, so their Easter days differ.
Last year it was marked by the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant and Anglican churches on the same day, which happens quite rarely.
In 2012 nearly half a million Muscovites flocked to the country's churches to take part in evening and night services across the Russian capital. The largest service drew 6,000 people and was held at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Patriarch Kirill, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church, led the Easter service in Moscow's landmark Cathedral.
‘Astronomical costs’: Gitmo consumes $900,000 per prisoner annually
The prison camp situated at the US naval base in Cuba costs over $900,000 annually per prisoner, placing it far above the country’s maximum security prisons, which in comparison, cost $60,000 to $70,000 per prisoner. With 166 detainees, Gitmo devours over $150 million each year.
“That ... may be what finally get us to actually close the prison. I mean the costs are astronomical, when you compare them to what it would cost to detain somebody in the United States,” Ken Gude, chief of staff and vice president at the liberal Center for American Progress think tank told Reuters.
The expense of maintaining the camp has led Obama to reiterate the necessity to close the prison, instated during the Republican presidency of George W. Bush, after having failed to fulfill his initial election promise to close the prison within a year of taking office as he had promised.
The cost of the camp is so astronomical because the offshore location of the detention center and weak international ties between Cuba and America, mean that food, construction materials and other goods have to be shipped in from outside.
Debate over the prison’s expenses has peaked during the course of budget battles between Obama and the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. Broad-scale spending cuts and the ‘sequestration’ of $109 billion have been set in place.
The $900,000 annual cost per prisoner equates to the pay that was allocated to nearly seven states to help serve home delivered meals to the elderly, reports Reuters. Some $129,497 per state has been cut through sequestration.
“No one has any particular affection for Guantanamo Bay, but no one has come up with a practical solution that's better,” a Republican aide with the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee observed.
Out of 166 detainees, as many as 130 are now currently taking part in a mass hunger-strike, their lawyers say. Official reports state that one hundred have joined the action.
The strike began around February 6 and was instigated by widespread searches of detainees’ Korans – perceived as religious desecration – as well as searches and confiscation of other personal items, according to the strikers’ lawyers. Later, it grew into a protest against indefinite detention.
The weakened state of the inmates has led to the authorities force-feeding them through nasal tubes – a practice which was condemned by the UN’s human rights office as a form of torture earlier this week.
“If it's perceived as torture or inhuman treatment – and it's the case, it's painful – then it is prohibited by international law,” Rupert Coville, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights told AFP on Wednesday.
American officials themselves have spoken out against the way in which the prison is administered.
“Our taskforce was unanimous – we just do not believe that it fits into the laws and the ethics and the values of America to have indefinite detention, and to not allow a court of law – an adjudication of the charges against a person – to go through an orderly process,” America's former ambassador to Mexico, James Jones, told RT on Friday.
He later pointed out that officials in charge have no reason to be holding more than half of the detainees.
“We have actually prosecuted similar cases against other countries who have not followed what we say we ought to do, and we’re not following and practicing what we are preaching,” he said.
“That ... may be what finally get us to actually close the prison. I mean the costs are astronomical, when you compare them to what it would cost to detain somebody in the United States,” Ken Gude, chief of staff and vice president at the liberal Center for American Progress think tank told Reuters.
The expense of maintaining the camp has led Obama to reiterate the necessity to close the prison, instated during the Republican presidency of George W. Bush, after having failed to fulfill his initial election promise to close the prison within a year of taking office as he had promised.
The cost of the camp is so astronomical because the offshore location of the detention center and weak international ties between Cuba and America, mean that food, construction materials and other goods have to be shipped in from outside.
Debate over the prison’s expenses has peaked during the course of budget battles between Obama and the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. Broad-scale spending cuts and the ‘sequestration’ of $109 billion have been set in place.
The $900,000 annual cost per prisoner equates to the pay that was allocated to nearly seven states to help serve home delivered meals to the elderly, reports Reuters. Some $129,497 per state has been cut through sequestration.
“No one has any particular affection for Guantanamo Bay, but no one has come up with a practical solution that's better,” a Republican aide with the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee observed.
Out of 166 detainees, as many as 130 are now currently taking part in a mass hunger-strike, their lawyers say. Official reports state that one hundred have joined the action.
The strike began around February 6 and was instigated by widespread searches of detainees’ Korans – perceived as religious desecration – as well as searches and confiscation of other personal items, according to the strikers’ lawyers. Later, it grew into a protest against indefinite detention.
The weakened state of the inmates has led to the authorities force-feeding them through nasal tubes – a practice which was condemned by the UN’s human rights office as a form of torture earlier this week.
“If it's perceived as torture or inhuman treatment – and it's the case, it's painful – then it is prohibited by international law,” Rupert Coville, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights told AFP on Wednesday.
American officials themselves have spoken out against the way in which the prison is administered.
“Our taskforce was unanimous – we just do not believe that it fits into the laws and the ethics and the values of America to have indefinite detention, and to not allow a court of law – an adjudication of the charges against a person – to go through an orderly process,” America's former ambassador to Mexico, James Jones, told RT on Friday.
He later pointed out that officials in charge have no reason to be holding more than half of the detainees.
“We have actually prosecuted similar cases against other countries who have not followed what we say we ought to do, and we’re not following and practicing what we are preaching,” he said.
VIDEO: Footage shows tornado strike Italy
A powerful tornado has hit towns and villages close to the Italian city of Bologna, injuring 11 people.
Dubai aims to triple tourism income by 2020
DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai aims to triple its annual income from tourism to 300 billion dirhams ($82 billion) by 2020, which would involve doubling the number of its hotel rooms, a senior official said.
Marijuana: 27 kilos d'herbe saisis dans le canton de Zurich
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La police cantonale zurichoise a saisi vendredi 27 kilos de marijuana lors d'une perquisition dans une maison à Steg im Tösstal (ZH). Le trafiquant présumé, un Australien de 33 ans, a été arrêté.
Vatican 'orders Cardinal Keith O'Brien to leave Scotland'
Britain's most senior priest, who retired over inappropriate sexual conduct, has been advised against Dunbar move, report says
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Britain's most senior priest, has been ordered by the Vatican to leave Scotland, it has been reported.
The cardinal, who retired from the leadership of the church in Scotland after admitting inappropriate sexual conduct with priests, has been advised against going ahead with his plan to move to a house in Dunbar in East Lothian after vacating his official residence in Edinburgh, according to the Herald.
The archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia, wrote to the pope's envoy in London to warn of the possibility of damage to the Catholic church if O'Brien maintained a public profile in Scotland, the paper reported.
"The cardinal has been advised not to relocate to the parish in Dunbar and has been told he should leave the country," an anonymous source told the paper. "That's extremely disappointing and not a Christian way to treat someone. There's clearly pressure from within and outwith the Church and no show of unity."
Canon John Creanor, of the Our Lady of the Waves in Dunbar, said he had no knowledge of any instructions from the Vatican to O'Brien to leave the country.
"If that was the case, I would be horrified. The people of Dunbar are keenly awaiting his arrival," he said.
The Scottish Catholic Media office did not respond to inquiries.
O'Brien is originally from Northern Ireland but does not want to return there. Even though he has retired, he remains the most senior priest in Scotland and no one outside Rome has the authority to prevent him playing a role in public life.
O'Brien resigned after the Observer revealed in March that three priests and a former priest had complained about inappropriate behaviour.
Due to retire in April, O'Brien had been an outspoken opponent of gay rights, condemning homosexuality as immoral, opposing gay adoption, and most recently arguing that same-sex marriages would be "harmful to the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of those involved". Last year he was named "bigot of the year" by the gay rights charity Stonewall
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Anti-Jewish rally in Hungary capital
Hundreds of members of Hungary's far-right Jobbik party stage a rally in Budapest against the hosting of the World Jewish Congress.
One year teacher education to start soon
Stockholm University is planning to start a one-year fast-track training course for science teachers, reports Swedish Television SVT. The hope is to provide a solution to the shortage of teachers in science subjects.
Inside Denmark's 'fixing rooms', where nurses watch as addicts inject in safety
Away from public view, this safe haven for drug users has 1,000 regulars. Crime is down, the streets are safer. Could it work in Britain?
Maja Petersen, 38, a prostitute, could not wait a moment longer for her fix. She had made her way to Copenhagen's drug consumption room, hoping to inject there, away from public view and within sight of its nurses. But the room – a place where addicts can use class A drugs free of fear of prosecution – doesn't open its doors to the city's 8,000 addicts until 8.30am.
At 8am last Wednesday, she sat down on the cobbled street outside and plunged a syringe into her arm, flushing cocaine into her bloodstream. Speaking shortly afterwards, with tears welling in her eyes, she estimated that she would inject herself another 20 times that day with cocaine, methadone, or a mixture of the two – her usual routine. "With cocaine you want more and more and more. If you have it, you take it," she said. "I hate life. I don't have a life any more. But I have never taken too much. I have never tried to die."
Not wanting to die is the reason why Petersen, like the 1,000 regulars at what the Danes call the "fixing room", make their way to this small health centre in a square that it has made its own, walled off from view, in Copenhagen's Vesterbro area – the city's former meat-packing district.
Even the most addled addict is unlikely to die here under the watch of medics and social workers. It is why, back in Britain, Brighton's public health leaders will meet this summer to "give serious consideration" to establishing a similar facility in the city, where 110 people died drug-related deaths between 2009 and 2012.
Copenhagen's drug consumption room is small, but it is the latest incarnation of the idea of a safe haven for addicts and those behind it have learned lessons from about 90 others around the world. Last month's revelation in the Observer that there is a movement championing a similar facility on the south coast of England drew predictable fire from the rightwing commentariat. If Brighton does go ahead, it may wish to learn from Denmark.
In Copenhagen's fixing room, eight people at a time, and another four in a van parked up in the courtyard, inject, in the knowledge that they are being watched over by nurses and are taking their drugs in a clean environment using sterile needles, a dose of saline solution, a cotton bud and a pump, all provided by staff.
A large anatomical drawing of a man shows users the location of their main veins and arteries, and there is even a machine addicts can use that illuminates a healthy vein to spike. The atmosphere is tense; drug-takers can be mercurial and outbreaks of violence have been known. But, incongruously, it has the atmosphere of a library, as the addicts crouch in their booths, complete with small desk lamps, offering few words beyond the odd call for hush to those who make a noise. Those who inject cocaine – the favoured drug in this area – become extremely sensitive to noise while high.
It is not a pleasant place, but it is very popular. There have been more than 36,000 injections in the room since it opened in October, with the addicts getting through as many as 350 syringes a day. There have been an additional 13,000 injections in the van, about 40 a day. Most users, about 75%, are male and two thirds are aged 31-50.
Crucially, while nurses in the room have dealt with 36 overdoses in the last seven months, not one has been fatal – as is the pattern in the other drug-consumption rooms around the world. Dealing in drugs is forbidden and the police carefully monitor those hovering outside. They will enter the room and its courtyard if necessary, but they don't come in for "the sake of it", said Superintendent Henrik Orye.
The lives of addicts are without doubt being saved. All the evidence, here and internationally, suggests so. But there is much more to it than that, proponents say. When Petersen and the others have finished with their needles, they put them in a sharps bin. Up to 10,000 syringes used to be picked up off the streets of Vesterbro every week before the room opened. Everyone in the area appears able to tell a tale of a child they know who has been spiked, although none of them appears to have been infected. Since the launch of the room, the quantity of drug paraphernalia collected from gutters, playgrounds, stairwells and doorways in the area has halved.
Vesterbro also appears to be a place where the desperate are seemingly becoming a little less desperate. Year on year, burglaries in the wider area are down by about 3%, theft from vehicles and violence down about 5%, and possession of weapons also down. "From the police perspective, I can see the benefits," said Orye. "It feels calmer."
Critics say that such rooms make it easier for drug users to abuse themselves and send the wrong message. Only five people using Copenhagen's room have been put on treatment since October.
Petersen, like many others using the room or floating around the courtyard outside, said that she does not want and would never seek treatment. But every day that she comes here to inject she meets health professionals, social workers and people offering treatment in case she suddenly want to rise from rock bottom, say the room's staff. Petersen might change her mind one day, said Nanna Gotfredsen, a lawyer who campaigned for the room.
Michael Olsen, a local resident who was a key figure in persuading authorities to accept the idea of a consumption room, said that he felt moved to champion the cause when he found addicts taking drugs in his bins, and women urinating in a phone box because all the toilets in the area had been sealed to stop addicts injecting there. "There is no country that has solved this problem, so surely, until we solve it, we can meet their basic needs – access to food, a toilet, medical help and a safe place to take their drugs," he said. Ivan Christensen – who runs a nearby hostel for the homeless which, in partnership with the Copenhagen town hall, manages the consumption room – said that ultimately it is about harm reduction rather than treatment. "We don't do this to get people out [of drugs]," he said. "We are happy when we do, but at first it is helping people in the situation they are in.
"We just intervene when they ask for help because we do not demand that they change, or push them to change. The philosophy is that we can't change people, people can change themselves and we can be there when they want to change."
Frank Nealson, 42, who has been using cocaine and heroin, among other drugs, for 27 years, is surprised that anyone could believe consumption rooms encourage use. "The reasons I use drugs, and where and how I use drugs, are two separate things. This place makes sure I don't do it in the street, don't pick up diseases from dirty needles, and that is it."
There is a plan to open a second facility, with a smoking room, further up the road. It will be called The Cloud. But the local authority is struggling to win acceptance from all residents. The high school, which is across the road from the current consumption room, is worried for its students, said Michael Knudsen, the caretaker. "We can't live with it so close."
Martin Petersen, 43, who lives on the road where the second room is planned, said that he believed the consumption room had reduced the number of addicts he saw injecting on the street by half. Pointing to the blood splatter on the archway above the door to his flat, caused by an addict injecting in a neck artery, he said: "That used to be normal."
But Petersen said that he was also concerned about the location. "It is a good idea, but there is a lot you need to get right." A warning for Brighton then. But experience of the Copenhagen room also offers a great deal of encouragement.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Nicolas Maduro assassination claims 'immature'
Alvaro Uribe, the Colombian former president, has dismissed as "immature" allegations that he has been plotting to assassinate Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan leader
Força Aérea de Israel ataca carregamento de armas na Síria
Mísseis teriam sido lançados sobre carga destinada à milícia Hisbolá. Na Costa Rica, Obama desconsidera o envio de soldados contra Assad, mas fornecimento de armas dos EUA a rebeldes sírios está em pauta.
‘We want to survive’: Hundreds protest planned chemical plant in China
"Give me back a beautiful Kunming. We want to survive, we want health, get out of Kunming," read the banners.
Some estimated the crowd to be up to 2,000 strong, but Xinhua news agency reported that around 200 people had gathered to protest. Many wore masks printed with slogans including “No PX in Kunming.” There were no reports of any violence at the protest, which also attracted around 1,000 onlookers.
China National Petroleum Corp, the country’s largest oil and gas producer and supplier, announced in February that it had approved the building project. The refinery is set to produce gasoline, diesel, various chemicals and fertilizers, and PX, the company said in its submission to the National Development and Reform Commission.
The factory will be located at Anning in Kunming Prefecture, Yunnan Province. It is located 17 miles southwest of Kunming, a city of 6.4 million people.
Also on Saturday, police lined the streets of Chengdu – the capital of China’s Sichuan province. The heavy police presence was prompted after residents planned to protest a nearby chemical plant, locals told AFP.
"There were a lot of police outside government offices, public spaces and important crossroads in the city," a resident said. He added that fliers posted around the city in recent days had called for a protest but the government called on people not to demonstrate. Locals said online that the protest did not take place.
Saturday’s demonstration in Kunming is the most recent sign that China’s increasingly affluent population has begun to reject the country’s growth model, which is negatively impacting the environment.
Last November, the eastern city of Ningbo suspended a petrochemical project after days of street protests. The year prior, protests against a PX plant in the northeastern city of Dalian forced the city government to suspend it.
China’s fast pace of industrialization – along with its reliance on coal power and quick growth of car ownership – has been blamed for hazardous smog in Beijing. In January, the city’s air pollution levels reached far beyond the permissible level, prompting local authorities to advise residents to stay indoors.
Some estimated the crowd to be up to 2,000 strong, but Xinhua news agency reported that around 200 people had gathered to protest. Many wore masks printed with slogans including “No PX in Kunming.” There were no reports of any violence at the protest, which also attracted around 1,000 onlookers.
China National Petroleum Corp, the country’s largest oil and gas producer and supplier, announced in February that it had approved the building project. The refinery is set to produce gasoline, diesel, various chemicals and fertilizers, and PX, the company said in its submission to the National Development and Reform Commission.
The factory will be located at Anning in Kunming Prefecture, Yunnan Province. It is located 17 miles southwest of Kunming, a city of 6.4 million people.
Also on Saturday, police lined the streets of Chengdu – the capital of China’s Sichuan province. The heavy police presence was prompted after residents planned to protest a nearby chemical plant, locals told AFP.
"There were a lot of police outside government offices, public spaces and important crossroads in the city," a resident said. He added that fliers posted around the city in recent days had called for a protest but the government called on people not to demonstrate. Locals said online that the protest did not take place.
Saturday’s demonstration in Kunming is the most recent sign that China’s increasingly affluent population has begun to reject the country’s growth model, which is negatively impacting the environment.
Last November, the eastern city of Ningbo suspended a petrochemical project after days of street protests. The year prior, protests against a PX plant in the northeastern city of Dalian forced the city government to suspend it.
China’s fast pace of industrialization – along with its reliance on coal power and quick growth of car ownership – has been blamed for hazardous smog in Beijing. In January, the city’s air pollution levels reached far beyond the permissible level, prompting local authorities to advise residents to stay indoors.
Suicide Used As Plot Device in Car Ad, Public Health Norms Be Damned
On May 3, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report showing that suicide among middle-aged Americans has risen substantially. Perverse coincidence perhaps, but that document arrived about a week after Hyundai Europe pulled an ad that sparked sustained outrage because it shows a guy trying to commit suicide with fumes from his SUV, only to find his efforts stymied because his fuel-cell-powered vehicle emits only water vapor, not carbon monoxide. [More]
Suman al menos 15 personas asesinadas en Sinaloa en las últimas horas
SINALOA, 4 de mayo.- Los cuerpos de seis personas fueron hallados a un costado de la carretera México-Nogales tras haber sido descubiertos por conductores quienes avisaron a las autoridades. Los cuerpos fueron localizados en el municipio de Ahome maniatados; dos de ellos decapitados. Con estos cadáveres suman al menos 15 las personas muertas en el estado en las últimas horas.
La Procuraduría General de Justicia del estado dio información de otro caso, dos hombres asesinados en el municipio de Angostura. En tanto que en Navolato y Mazatlán, fueron encontrados dos hombres más sin vida.
El reporte incluye también los de tres jóvenes asesinados en la sindicatura Juan José Ríos. En tanto que en Culiacán fue hallado el cadáver de un hombre no identificado.
En Los Mochis, un policía fue asesinado en la sindicatura de San Blas.
Fg
La Procuraduría General de Justicia del estado dio información de otro caso, dos hombres asesinados en el municipio de Angostura. En tanto que en Navolato y Mazatlán, fueron encontrados dos hombres más sin vida.
El reporte incluye también los de tres jóvenes asesinados en la sindicatura Juan José Ríos. En tanto que en Culiacán fue hallado el cadáver de un hombre no identificado.
En Los Mochis, un policía fue asesinado en la sindicatura de San Blas.
Fg
News Analysis: In Latin America, U.S. Focus Shifts From Drug War to Economy
Conceding leadership of the drug fight to Mexico hews to a guiding principle of President Obama’s foreign policy, in which American supremacy is played down, at least publicly
Italian minister removed after a day for gay 'ghetto' comment
Italy's equal opportunities minister has been removed from her post only a day after being sworn in
Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson Apologizes For 'Stupid And Tactless' Remarks About Keynes
Harvard professor Niall Ferguson caused a furore today after reports emerged that he had linked John Maynard Keynes's economic philosophy to a lack of concern for future generations — a result, Ferguson apparently said, of Keynes's own lack of children and homosexuality.
Now Ferguson, in an email to Business Insider, apologized for the "stupid" and "insensitive" comments.
Ferguson has also sent out the following Tweet, and posted the apology to his personal website.
Now Ferguson, in an email to Business Insider, apologized for the "stupid" and "insensitive" comments.
Ferguson has also sent out the following Tweet, and posted the apology to his personal website.
I apologize deeply and unreservedly for stupid and tactless remarks about Keynes that I made on Thursday bit.ly/13cZ6B7Here's the full apology:
— Niall Ferguson (@nfergus) May 4, 2013
During a recent question-and-answer session at a conference in California, I made comments about John Maynard Keynes that were as stupid as they were insensitive.
I had been asked to comment on Keynes’s famous observation “In the long run we are all dead.” The point I had made in my presentation was that in the long run our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are alive, and will have to deal with the consequences of our economic actions.
But I should not have suggested – in an off-the-cuff response that was not part of my presentation – that Keynes was indifferent to the long run because he had no children, nor that he had no children because he was gay. This was doubly stupid. First, it is obvious that people who do not have children also care about future generations. Second, I had forgotten that Keynes’s wife Lydia miscarried.
My disagreements with Keynes’s economic philosophy have never had anything to do with his sexual orientation. It is simply false to suggest, as I did, that his approach to economic policy was inspired by any aspect of his personal life. As those who know me and my work are well aware, I detest all prejudice, sexual or otherwise.
My colleagues, students, and friends – straight and gay – have every right to be disappointed in me, as I am in myself. To them, and to everyone who heard my remarks at the conference or has read them since, I deeply and unreservedly apologize.
Niall Ferguson
The swiftness and apparent sincerity of the apology has been noted — Felix Salmon wonders if it could have saved Ferguson's career:It's conceivable that Niall Ferguson managed to rescue his career with this. niallferguson.com/blog/an-unqual…
— felix salmon (@felixsalmon) May 4, 2013
Reforzará EU control de visas estudiantiles tras ataques de Boston
WASHINGTON, 4 de mayo.- Las autoridades federales de Estados Unidos aumentarán la revisión de las visas de estudiantes que entren al país para "verificar su validez" en respuesta a los atentados de abril pasado en Boston, que han revelado un "serio agujero" en seguridad nacional, indicó hoy el congresista republicano Michael McCaul.
McCaul, presidente del comité de Seguridad Nacional de la Cámara de Representantes, afirmó que el hecho de que "un ciudadano extranjero fuera capaz de volver a entrar en Estados Unidos con lo que aparentemente era un visa válida, ya que los agentes de inmigración no identificaron que había vencido es un gran agujero en seguridad nacional".
El congresista se refería a Azamat Tazhayakov, estudiante kazajo amigo del presunto coautor de los atentados del pasado 15 de abril Dzhokhar Tsarnaev y que se encuentra detenido acusado de obstruir a la justicia y destruir evidencias de la investigación criminal.
Aparentemente, Tazhayakov regresó a Estados Unidos el 20 de enero, aunque con una visa cuya validez había expirado el pasado 30 de agosto y había dejado la Universidad de Massachusetts Dartmouth, donde conoció a Dzhokhar.
En un informe del Congreso divulgado a finales de esta semana, se precisa cómo la Agencia de Aduanas y Protección fronteriza de Estados Unidos deberá a partir de ahora y con "efectividad inmediata" a verificar las visas de los estudiantes que entren en el país.
De este modo, los agentes de inmigración tendrán acceso más rápido a las bases de datos informáticas sobre la validez de las visas estudiantiles concedidas por el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional.
Asimismo, Dias Kadyrbayev, también detenido por obstruir a la justicia, reconoció ante el juez que había dejado de acudir a las clases universitarias, requisito exigido para mantener la validez de su visa.
Los dos estudiantes kazajos, ambos de 19 años, están acusados de haber recogido varias evidencias de la habitación de Tsarnaev y haber tratado de destruirlas, después de conocer que su amigo era uno de los sospechosos del atentado que se cobró la vida de tres personas e hirió a cerca de 280 el pasado 15 de abril.
jrr
El congresista se refería a Azamat Tazhayakov, estudiante kazajo amigo del presunto coautor de los atentados del pasado 15 de abril Dzhokhar Tsarnaev y que se encuentra detenido acusado de obstruir a la justicia y destruir evidencias de la investigación criminal.
Aparentemente, Tazhayakov regresó a Estados Unidos el 20 de enero, aunque con una visa cuya validez había expirado el pasado 30 de agosto y había dejado la Universidad de Massachusetts Dartmouth, donde conoció a Dzhokhar.
En un informe del Congreso divulgado a finales de esta semana, se precisa cómo la Agencia de Aduanas y Protección fronteriza de Estados Unidos deberá a partir de ahora y con "efectividad inmediata" a verificar las visas de los estudiantes que entren en el país.
De este modo, los agentes de inmigración tendrán acceso más rápido a las bases de datos informáticas sobre la validez de las visas estudiantiles concedidas por el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional.
Asimismo, Dias Kadyrbayev, también detenido por obstruir a la justicia, reconoció ante el juez que había dejado de acudir a las clases universitarias, requisito exigido para mantener la validez de su visa.
Los dos estudiantes kazajos, ambos de 19 años, están acusados de haber recogido varias evidencias de la habitación de Tsarnaev y haber tratado de destruirlas, después de conocer que su amigo era uno de los sospechosos del atentado que se cobró la vida de tres personas e hirió a cerca de 280 el pasado 15 de abril.
jrr
Luxembourg: Ils expulsent un sans-papiers en jet privé
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Un avion privé sera spécialement affrété ce dimanche pour renvoyer chez lui un jeune Marocain sans papiers. Lors des précédentes tentatives d'expulsion, il avait réussi à s'échapper.
28,000 acres ablaze
Strong winds are expected to die down today, but firefighters have contained only about 20% of the blaze
Freight train carrying toxic chemicals derails in Belgium
At least one person has died and 14 others were injured when a freight train transporting highly toxic tanks of chemicals derailed near the Belgium town of Ghent. Two similar accidents occurred last year.
Acusações de homofobia causam baixa no governo italiano
A secretária de Estado para a Igualdade de Oportunidades em Itália renunciou ao cargo um dia após ter tomado posse no novo Governo de coligação. Em causa está o fato de ter afirmado que os homossexuais.
El rei busca rellançar la imatge de la corona
Joan Carles I pretén donar “un fort impuls” a la institució intensificant el seu paper d'“àrbitre i moderador”
Advoca per “propiciar pactes, acords i consensos” per sortir de la crisi econòmica
Advoca per “propiciar pactes, acords i consensos” per sortir de la crisi econòmica
Japan and China start new (bidding) war (for gold)
Mrs. Wang, China’s mythical housewife is buying Gold hand over fist, so is Japan’s mythical housewife Mrs. Watanabe. Unlike during past downturns in the price of Gold, the peasants (anyone not a partner at Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan) are reacting with long queues at the local bullion dealer with fistfuls of fiat, fractional bank reserve notes to swap for the currency of kings: Gold.
Apparently, the emerging world ‘gets it.’ There will never be an exit from the Quantitative Easing by any of the world’s central banks. (The ECB has just reduced rates to ½% to match the UK). The Fed in America is sticking to their ultra-low rates and Japan led the parade decades ago with their Kamikaze ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) monetary madness.
In private conversations, the world’s central bankers let slip that their plan is to keep interest rates close to zero for 10, 15 years or longer - however long it takes to increase the global population enough to create enough 'violence growth' to start retiring some of the $100 trillion in debt on these bank’s books.
In other words, there is no exit. There can be no exit. There will only be more money printing and all fiat currencies around the world will continue to be debased until the sheer size of the global population is so great growth occurs as overpopulated areas start fighting each other for air, water, and food. This is the banker’s plan: everybody fighting everybody with the survivors needing credit (inflation) and the losers dying (deflation).
Citizens of America’s biggest creditors; China and Japan, aren’t waiting around, they are doing the equivalent to picking up their pitchforks and torches and buying gold in record amounts. On the NYSE $16 bn. in ‘paper gold’ was sold via the exchange traded fund GLD while Chinese housewifes (and other members of their households) bought that amount and then some. The wealth that is Gold is being transferred from West to East. Paper gold is being swapped for physical.
And what about the China and Japan saber rattling the disputed Senkaku islands? I implore both the Chinese and the Japanese to see past this silly island dispute and instead focus your combined, massive buying power to take enough physical gold and silver off the market to put the Western paper bugs and market manipulators out of business. Your skirmish over islands is a rear-guard action that will amount to nothing. Instead, fight the real enemy: the US dollar and the bankers who - by virtue of the Dollar as world reserve currency - get your people to finance America’s wars in the Mid-East and Africa.
This is the time to do some deep soul searching and realize the enemy is not each other China and Japan, but the common enemy, the US dollar.
Apparently, the emerging world ‘gets it.’ There will never be an exit from the Quantitative Easing by any of the world’s central banks. (The ECB has just reduced rates to ½% to match the UK). The Fed in America is sticking to their ultra-low rates and Japan led the parade decades ago with their Kamikaze ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) monetary madness.
In private conversations, the world’s central bankers let slip that their plan is to keep interest rates close to zero for 10, 15 years or longer - however long it takes to increase the global population enough to create enough 'violence growth' to start retiring some of the $100 trillion in debt on these bank’s books.
In other words, there is no exit. There can be no exit. There will only be more money printing and all fiat currencies around the world will continue to be debased until the sheer size of the global population is so great growth occurs as overpopulated areas start fighting each other for air, water, and food. This is the banker’s plan: everybody fighting everybody with the survivors needing credit (inflation) and the losers dying (deflation).
Citizens of America’s biggest creditors; China and Japan, aren’t waiting around, they are doing the equivalent to picking up their pitchforks and torches and buying gold in record amounts. On the NYSE $16 bn. in ‘paper gold’ was sold via the exchange traded fund GLD while Chinese housewifes (and other members of their households) bought that amount and then some. The wealth that is Gold is being transferred from West to East. Paper gold is being swapped for physical.
And what about the China and Japan saber rattling the disputed Senkaku islands? I implore both the Chinese and the Japanese to see past this silly island dispute and instead focus your combined, massive buying power to take enough physical gold and silver off the market to put the Western paper bugs and market manipulators out of business. Your skirmish over islands is a rear-guard action that will amount to nothing. Instead, fight the real enemy: the US dollar and the bankers who - by virtue of the Dollar as world reserve currency - get your people to finance America’s wars in the Mid-East and Africa.
This is the time to do some deep soul searching and realize the enemy is not each other China and Japan, but the common enemy, the US dollar.
Israel ataca depósito de mísseis na Síria
JERUSALÉM - Caças das forças de segurança de Israel atacaram um depósito de mísseis no Aeroporto Internacional de Damasco. Segundo fontes, as armas pertenciam ao Irã e seriam levadas da Síria para o Líbano. O bombardeio aconteceu na noite de sexta-feira (3), após o primeiro-ministro Benjamin Netanyahu e seu gabinete terem aprovado a investida em um encontro secreto na quinta-feira.
De acordo com fontes israelenses, os mísseis de longo alcance seriam entregues para o Hezbollah, mas autoridades não deram mais detalhes sobre o ataque. Apesar das circunstâncias do bombardeio serem vagas, Netanyahu já havia alertado nas últimas semanas que Israel iria atacar se armas químicas ou outras armas sofisticadas fossem enviadas da Síria para o grupo islâmico libanês.
Fontes, que não quiseram ser identificadas, disseram à emissora americana CNN que os caças israelenses não chegaram a invadir o espaço aéreo sírio para realizar o ataque. Segundo a agência Reuters, a aeronáutica de Israel dispõe de mísseis que podem atingir alvos a quilômetros de distância, o que permite que caças possam bombardear a Síria ou o Líbano sem sair de seu território.
A escalada da violência na guerra civil síria tem aumentado tensões na região e temores de que o conflito envolva radicais islâmicos, como extremistas da al-Qaeda, ou que o governo de Bashar al-Assad esteja recebendo apoio do grupo libanês xiita Hezbollah, considerado por Israel como inimigo.
O presidente dos Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, reiterou na sexta-feira que não pretende mandar tropas para interferirem no conflito na Síra . No entanto, fontes afirmaram ao jornal “New York Times” que autoridades dos EUA estariam considerando a possibilidade do envio de militares, incluindo o uso de aeronaves para bombardeios.
De acordo com fontes israelenses, os mísseis de longo alcance seriam entregues para o Hezbollah, mas autoridades não deram mais detalhes sobre o ataque. Apesar das circunstâncias do bombardeio serem vagas, Netanyahu já havia alertado nas últimas semanas que Israel iria atacar se armas químicas ou outras armas sofisticadas fossem enviadas da Síria para o grupo islâmico libanês.
Fontes, que não quiseram ser identificadas, disseram à emissora americana CNN que os caças israelenses não chegaram a invadir o espaço aéreo sírio para realizar o ataque. Segundo a agência Reuters, a aeronáutica de Israel dispõe de mísseis que podem atingir alvos a quilômetros de distância, o que permite que caças possam bombardear a Síria ou o Líbano sem sair de seu território.
A escalada da violência na guerra civil síria tem aumentado tensões na região e temores de que o conflito envolva radicais islâmicos, como extremistas da al-Qaeda, ou que o governo de Bashar al-Assad esteja recebendo apoio do grupo libanês xiita Hezbollah, considerado por Israel como inimigo.
O presidente dos Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, reiterou na sexta-feira que não pretende mandar tropas para interferirem no conflito na Síra . No entanto, fontes afirmaram ao jornal “New York Times” que autoridades dos EUA estariam considerando a possibilidade do envio de militares, incluindo o uso de aeronaves para bombardeios.
Yes, the UN has a duty to intervene. But when, where and how?
As Britain pushes for more intervention in Syria, a debate rages over if it is acceptable to use force in international relations
The Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, in a recent interview, produced a piece of paper from his pocket with a quote from Alexander Gorchakov, a 19th-century Russian prince who served as the tsar's foreign minister.
"Foreign intervention into domestic matters," intoned Lavrov to Susan Glasser, Foreign Policy's editor-in-chief, "is unacceptable. It is unacceptable to use force in international relations, especially by the countries who consider themselves leaders of civilisation."
As ministers in the US, UK and France push for greater intervention to prevent Syria's bloodshed, Lavrov's remark stands not only as a rebuke to the ambitions of those who would do more to stop Bashar al-Assad, but to an entire doctrine of humanitarian intervention – Responsibility to Protect (R2P) – whose future is uncertain.
Drawn up by the UN in response to the wars of the 1990s, not least in Bosnia and Rwanda, which both saw atrocities that would be defined as genocidal, R2P was adopted by the UN as a "norm" for dealing with conflicts where civilians were under attack in 2005.
Its language has been referred to – or invoked directly – to justify the French interventions in Ivory Coast in 2011, in Mali earlier this year, and the Nato-led no-fly zone imposed over Libya during the conflict that led to the fall of the Gaddafi regime. But now, facing precisely the kind of terrible conflict the doctrine was designed to mitigate or largely prevent, the brave new UN model for protecting civilian victims of war has stalled.
As both the US and the UK's defence secretaries indicated last week that they are examining different military options, a debate has erupted over the future of military interventions on humanitarian grounds, and their claimed necessity.
Those arguments have ranged from the moral to the utilitarian and the self-interested – witness the argument that by not acting the US, in particular, damages its future "credibility" when it threatens the use of force. They have been made amid a rethinking of how these military interventions are actually conducted, from the large-scale operations and expensive, flawed, nation-building efforts that were seen in Iraq and Afghanistan to "lighter footprint" interventions seen recently in Libya, Mali and Ivory Coast.
Opponents of different kinds of intervention in Syria have cited complex practical problems, including how to arm a rebel side numbering a significant minority of jihadist fighters. But one of the biggest stumbling blocks has been how R2P itself has been applied in the recent past – not least in Libya.
Gareth Evans, Australia's former foreign minister, is also an international lawyer jointly responsible for drafting the document taken on by the UN in 2005. He is among those who admit that a doctrine designed to give meaning to the promises of "never again" made after the Holocaust and the killing fields of Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda has met difficulties. "What punctured the optimism that the world might be on its way to ending internal mass atrocity crimes once and for all," said Evans, "is the controversy that erupted in the security council in 2011 about the way the norm was applied in the Nato-led intervention in Libya, and the paralysis that in turn generated in the council's response to Syria." Last year Evans spoke of a collapse of international consensus that had led to "paralysis" over Syria.
"I believe that – like most midlife crises – this one will prove survivable … but I can't pretend that its full realisation will not be a work in progress for a long time to come."
The deliberations over Libya, Evans argues, marked the "high water mark" of R2P – seeing the new norm referred to in two UN security council resolutions authorising "all necessary means" in the conflict. But the subsequent "backlash" is still being felt today.
"The concern was about what came after when it became rapidly apparent [to Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] that the three permanent council-member states driving the intervention [the US, UK and France, or "P3"] would settle for nothing less than regime change, and do whatever it took to achieve that.
"Particular concerns were that the interveners rejected ceasefire offers that may have been serious, struck fleeing personnel that posed no immediate risk to civilians and locations that had no obvious military significance [like the compound in which Gaddafi relatives were killed] and, more generally, supported the rebel side in what rapidly became a civil war, ignoring the very explicit arms embargo in the process."
For Russia, Libya provided confirmation of its objections to R2P in the first place. For other countries such as South Africa, which had backed the principle of a new norm for intervention to prevent atrocities, the use of R2P for regime change in Libya – and the refusal of the P3 to report on the progress of the operation and its new parameters – were seen as betrayal.
Jennifer Walsh, professor of international relations at Oxford University who has studied the development of R2P, agrees with Evans's analysis. But she also identifies a "moral hazard" inherent in R2P – that it can create a perception in conflicts that a rebel force may be only a regime-sponsored atrocity away from international interveners coming to its aid. The incentive for rebels to find a negotiated solution is thus reduced.
As Walsh points out, the suspicion that recent interventions have been too easily dominated by the agenda of the US, Britain and France has led to a push-back, led by Brazil.
The Brazilians and others are seeking to insist that any future military interventions on humanitarian grounds authorised by the UN should be guided both by a "prudential" assessment of the practicality of achieving the desired outcome in complex conflicts and informed by a mechanism for transparent, real-time reporting of the progress of operations to council members, to prevent resolutions being used as blank cheques by the P3 countries.
This leaves the question of what the international community could do if it were proved definitively that chemical weapons had been used by the Assad regime in Syria, evidence that the British and US governments were backing away from last week.
Some US officials in private have suggested that at best any change in policy would see the provision of small arms to the "right rebels" in groups not tainted by association with jihadist elements, an even lighter footprint than the intervention in Libya. Others, including senators – such as John McCain, and analysts, have been calling for full-blown intervention. Options that have been mooted range from air strikes, to no-fly zones, the creation of safe havens and humanitarian corridors, and even a Bosnian-style soft partition of the country.
The Lib Dem peer, Paddy Ashdown, who was a soldier in Northern Ireland and then high representative in Bosnia after the war there, disagrees that Libya set a damaging precedent, but adds it would be "folly" to intervene in Syria or lift the EU arms embargo.
"R2P was in some respects a way of legitimising the intervention in Kosovo. I thought it would remain an aspiration but the effect of Libya was to turn from being a collection of words into being a precedent. It remains, however a principle subject to the will of the powerful to enforce it."
Ashdown believes, too, that the more limited intervention in Libya – despite the country's post-Gaddafi unrest and political instability – remains a far better model than the occupation of Iraq, leaving Libyans in charge of their own destiny.
"It was not perfect but it was far less of a mess than Iraq."
Nonetheless, he argues forcefully that, even with the existence of R2P, a key test for intervention is whether it is both practically applicable or whether it will do more harm than good.
"One of the key lessons of interventions is the unintended consequences that follow," he adds. Ashdown warns: "There has been a tendency to see Syria in simplistic black and white – powerless civilians against a brutal dictator – without trying to understand the wider regional tension involved."
Echoing Ashdown last week was Daniel C Kurtzer, a former US ambassador to Egypt and to Israel, writing in the New York Times.
"Before making a momentous decision on intervention – especially if the president is considering unilateral intervention – we ought to first do serious diplomacy to see whether an international consensus can be reached on the question of intervention …
"Indeed, the Syria crisis presents an opportunity to turn away from unilateralism and to adopt instead a more strategic, multilateral approach to resolving international crises."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Twenty Tory MPs demand Europe referendum bill
Twenty Conservative MPs today step up pressure on David Cameron to hold an EU referendum before the next general election
Após ataques aéreos, Obama diz que Israel tem de se proteger do Hezbollah
SAN JOSÉ - O presidente dos EUA, Barack Obama, disse neste sábado (4) que Israel tem o direito de se proteger contra a transferência de armas avançadas para o Hezbollah, um dia depois de Israel atacar um depósito de mísseis destinado ao Hezbollah, na Síria.
Israel há muito tempo deixou claro que está preparada para recorrer à força a fim de impedir que armas avançadas sírias cheguem ao Hezbollah ou a rebeldes jihadista. Aviões israelenses foram atrás do carregamento dentro da Síria, onde ocorre uma guerra civil há dois anos.
Obama, em uma entrevista para a rede Telemundo, como parte de uma turnê de três dias na América Latina que terminou na Costa Rica, não quis comentar se os ataques aéreos tinham de fato ocorrido. "Eu vou deixar o governo israelense confirmar ou negar qualquer ataque que tenham feito", disse.
Mas Obama, que visitou Israel em março, deixou claro que os ataques seriam justificados. "O que eu disse no passado, e eu continuo a acreditar, é que os israelenses justificadamente têm de se proteger contra a transferência de armamento avançado para organizações terroristas como o Hezbollah. Nós coordenamos de forma muito próxima com os israelenses, reconhecendo que eles estão muito perto da Síria, e muito perto do Líbano", afirmou.
O governo de Obama está tentando determinar se a Síria usou armas químicas contra seu próprio povo para reprimir a rebelião. Ele falou, na sexta-feira, que não prevê o envio de tropas dos EUA para a Síria, independentemente se o uso de armas químicas for constatado, mas que tem uma série de outras opções em análise.
Israel há muito tempo deixou claro que está preparada para recorrer à força a fim de impedir que armas avançadas sírias cheguem ao Hezbollah ou a rebeldes jihadista. Aviões israelenses foram atrás do carregamento dentro da Síria, onde ocorre uma guerra civil há dois anos.
Obama, em uma entrevista para a rede Telemundo, como parte de uma turnê de três dias na América Latina que terminou na Costa Rica, não quis comentar se os ataques aéreos tinham de fato ocorrido. "Eu vou deixar o governo israelense confirmar ou negar qualquer ataque que tenham feito", disse.
Mas Obama, que visitou Israel em março, deixou claro que os ataques seriam justificados. "O que eu disse no passado, e eu continuo a acreditar, é que os israelenses justificadamente têm de se proteger contra a transferência de armamento avançado para organizações terroristas como o Hezbollah. Nós coordenamos de forma muito próxima com os israelenses, reconhecendo que eles estão muito perto da Síria, e muito perto do Líbano", afirmou.
O governo de Obama está tentando determinar se a Síria usou armas químicas contra seu próprio povo para reprimir a rebelião. Ele falou, na sexta-feira, que não prevê o envio de tropas dos EUA para a Síria, independentemente se o uso de armas químicas for constatado, mas que tem uma série de outras opções em análise.
British lawmaker held in rape case
The deputy speaker of Britain's House of Commons, Nigel Evans, was arrested Saturday in northwest England on suspicion of rape and sexual assault, a source familiar with the arrest told CNN
Thursday, 2 May 2013
Secret US court approved every single domestic spying request in 2012
The agency, which oversees requests for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents on US soil, released the report to Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), showing that by approving the 1,856 inquiries “for foreign intelligence purposes,” it had granted every single government request in 2012. The FISC's approval rating actually jumped by five per cent from 2011 - when it also approved every application.
The FISC was instituted as part of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978, expanded under the George W. Bush administration, and then reauthorized by Congress for another five years in December of 2012.
The act, commonly referred to act the “warrantless wiretapping” law, authorizes the government to monitor US citizens' phone calls and emails without first proving probable cause as long as they’re believed to be corresponding with an individual overseas.
“The 1,856 applications include applications made solely for electronic surveillance, applications made solely for physical search, and combined applications requesting authority for electronic surveillance and physical search,” the report read. “Of these, 1,789 applications included requests for authority to conduct electronic surveillance.”
David Kris, a former top anti-terrorism attorney at the Justice Department, wrote in the 2012 edition of National Security Investigations and Prosecutions that the FISA Amendments Act also gives the government domestic spying power while stripping away accountability.
“For example, an authorization targeting Al-Qaeda – which is a non-US person located abroad – could allow the government to wiretap any telephone that it believes will yield information from or about Al-Qaeda, either because the telephone is registered to a person whom the government believes is affiliated with Al-Qaeda, or because the government believes that the person communicates with others who are affiliated with Al-Qaeda, regardless of the location of the telephone,” Kris wrote, as quoted by Wired.
In February of this year the American Civil Liberties Union tried to sue the government in a bid to nullify the law. However, the Supreme Court ruled that, because the court proceedings are kept secret and the American Civil Liberties Union has no way to know if it’s been targeted by the FISA Act, they had no legal standing to sue.
When the powers under the law were extended last year, the Senate refused to include any amendments that would have prohibited the CIA from reviewing information taken from government surveillance, one of which was proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon).
“The amendment I fought to include would have helped bring the Constitutional principles of security and liberty back into balance and I intend to work with my colleagues to see that the liberties of individual Americans are maintained,” Wyden said after the vote.
The FISC was instituted as part of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978, expanded under the George W. Bush administration, and then reauthorized by Congress for another five years in December of 2012.
The act, commonly referred to act the “warrantless wiretapping” law, authorizes the government to monitor US citizens' phone calls and emails without first proving probable cause as long as they’re believed to be corresponding with an individual overseas.
“The 1,856 applications include applications made solely for electronic surveillance, applications made solely for physical search, and combined applications requesting authority for electronic surveillance and physical search,” the report read. “Of these, 1,789 applications included requests for authority to conduct electronic surveillance.”
David Kris, a former top anti-terrorism attorney at the Justice Department, wrote in the 2012 edition of National Security Investigations and Prosecutions that the FISA Amendments Act also gives the government domestic spying power while stripping away accountability.
“For example, an authorization targeting Al-Qaeda – which is a non-US person located abroad – could allow the government to wiretap any telephone that it believes will yield information from or about Al-Qaeda, either because the telephone is registered to a person whom the government believes is affiliated with Al-Qaeda, or because the government believes that the person communicates with others who are affiliated with Al-Qaeda, regardless of the location of the telephone,” Kris wrote, as quoted by Wired.
In February of this year the American Civil Liberties Union tried to sue the government in a bid to nullify the law. However, the Supreme Court ruled that, because the court proceedings are kept secret and the American Civil Liberties Union has no way to know if it’s been targeted by the FISA Act, they had no legal standing to sue.
When the powers under the law were extended last year, the Senate refused to include any amendments that would have prohibited the CIA from reviewing information taken from government surveillance, one of which was proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon).
“The amendment I fought to include would have helped bring the Constitutional principles of security and liberty back into balance and I intend to work with my colleagues to see that the liberties of individual Americans are maintained,” Wyden said after the vote.
High school student faces 20 years in prison for Facebook messages
Authorities have set bond at one million dollars for Cameron B. D’Ambrosio of Methuen, MA following a Thursday afternoon arraignment one day after he was apprehended at his home around 30 miles north of Boston.
Police say D’Ambrosio, a senior at Methuen High School Student, authored eye-catching messages this week with his personal social networking account.
In a joint statement released by the offices of the superintendent of schools and the Methuen Police Department Wednesday, authorities say an anonymous student alerted the school that afternoon of a Facebook message from D’Ambrosio that contained “disturbing verbiage.” Once the assistant principal was made aware of the issue the school quickly reached out to law enforcement, who in turn apprehended D’Ambrosio at his home at around 1:30 p.m. He was not in class at the time officials were made aware of the alleged threats and, according to Methuen Police Chief Joe Solomon, only around 30 minutes passed between when time the school made contact with law enforcement and when they had the suspect in custody.
“He posted a threat in the form of rap where he mentioned the White House, the Boston Marathon bombing and said, ‘everybody you will see what I am going to do, kill people,” Methuen Police Chief Joe Solomon told the Valley Patriot on Wednesday. “[H]e did threaten to kill a bunch of people and specifically mentioned the Boston Marathon and the White House. The threat was disturbing enough for us to act and I think our officers did the right thing.” A YouTube account has since surfaced of D’Ambrosio showcasing his amateur rapping.
Solomon added that the student “did not make a specific threat against the school or any particular individuals,” but that the content of his posts were alarming enough to warrant a police response.
“I’m not in reality, So when u see me (expletive) go insane and make the news, the paper, and the (expletive) federal house of horror known as the white house, Don’t (expletive) cry or be worried because all YOU people (expletive) caused this (expletive),” reads a redacted version of one post presented to Weymouth and made available to the Herald.
“(Expletive) a boston bominb wait till u see the (expletive) I do, I’ma be famous rapping, and beat every murder charge that comes across me!” the post continued.
Superintendent of Schools Judy Scannell told the local Valley Patriot that the school is grateful that one of the students knew to speak up about the messages. “Once again we have to commend the Methuen High School Student who came forward, we always say, if you see something, say something, and that’s what this student did," Scannell said. "We also want to commend the school safety officers and the administration for bringing this to our attention immediately. Threats of this kind of violence is unacceptable and will not be tolerated, not in Methuen they won’t.”
“Methuen Public Schools as well as the Methuen Police Department has zero tolerance for this behavior. We believe that all students deserve to learn in a welcoming, non-threatening environment free from intimidation and physical threats,” continued the joint statement issued by Scannell and Solomon on Wednesday.
Court records and police reports obtained by the Boston Herald show that police seized an Xbox 360 gaming console and computer equipment from D’Ambrosio’s home. The Associated Press reports that "Detectives are also looking deeper at his Facebook page," and the Valley Patriot called into question other potential items of interest discovered on his account:
“He also had a disturbing satanic photo posted as well as a photo of himself on a “Wanted Poster” that reads “Wanted Dead or Alive” [sic] a quick perusal of his Facebook page shows D’Ambrosio’s unusual interest in gangs, violence and a criminal lifestyle,” wrote the paper.
D’Ambrosio pleaded not guilty during his Thursday morning arraignment faces up to 20 years if convicted on one count of making a bomb threat.
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