Topic: WAR - on September 2, 2013 at 4:32:00 PM CEST
Sarin chemicals' export claim rejected by UK
The Government was accused of “breathtaking laxity” in its arms controls last night after it emerged that officials authorised the export to Syria of two chemicals capable of being used to make a nerve agent such as sarin a year ago.
The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, will today be asked by MPs to explain why a British company was granted export licences for the dual-use substances for six months in 2012 while Syria’s civil war was raging and concern was rife that the regime could use chemical weapons on its own people. The disclosure of the licences for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride, which can both be used as precursor chemicals in the manufacture of nerve gas, came as the US Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had evidence that sarin gas was used in last month’s atrocity in Damascus.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: MUSIK - on September 2, 2013 at 2:03:00 PM CEST
DRUMMER einigen Gitarren
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: POLITIK - on September 2, 2013 at 2:02:00 PM CEST
Angela Steinbrück
Merkel's Germany Necklace' clear winner of debate on Twitter
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: EU - on September 2, 2013 at 2:01:00 PM CEST
EU plans to fit all cars with speed limiters
Under the proposals new cars would be fitted with cameras that could read road speed limit signs and automatically apply the brakes when this is exceeded.
Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, is said to be opposed to the plans, which could also mean existing cars are sent to garages to be fitted with the speed limiters, preventing them from going over 70mph.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SECURITY - on September 2, 2013 at 2:00:00 PM CEST
'Anonymous' to Reg hack: We know SEA leaders' names
Following the Syrian Electronic Army's (SEA's) attack on a Melbourne IT reseller which resulted in the temporary compromise of domain name records for targets as diverse as The New York Times and Twitter, a group claiming association with Anonymous now says it has compromised SEA databases and servers.
As first reported here (in French with NSFW images) and here by Brian Krebs, the attackers say they have compromised SEA servers, obtained members' names along with user IDs and passwords, and have copied gigabytes of SEA data.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SECURITY - on September 2, 2013 at 1:58:00 PM CEST
Stork detained in Egypt on suspicion of spying
The bird was put behind bars after a man fishing in the Nile in Qena, some 280 miles south-east of Cairo, spotted an electronic device attached to its feathers.
Thinking it was an undercover agent, he captured the stork and took it to a police station near his home, said Mohammed Kamal, head of security in the Qena region.
Puzzled officers examined the bird, fearing the gadget was a bomb or spying equipment, and then called in veterinary experts.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SECURITY - on September 2, 2013 at 1:57:00 PM CEST
Snowden-Dokumente: Extremisten wollten US-Geheimdienste unterwandern
Wer sich bei der CIA bewirbt, wird durchleuchtet. Bei diesen Hintergrundchecks tauchen laut "Washington Post" immer wieder Verbindungen zu Terroristen und feindlichen Geheimdiensten auf. Wie Papiere des Whistleblowers Snowden belegen, hat jeder fünfte suspekte Bewerber solche Kontakte.
Washington - Nur zu gern wüssten Terrorgruppen und feindliche Geheimdienste, was in den US-Spionagezentralen vor sich geht. Dazu versuchen diese offenbar regelmäßig, eigene Leute bei CIA, NSA und Co. einzuschleusen. Die "Washington Post" liefert nun eine grobe Einschätzung der Dimension dieser Infiltrierungsversuche.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: DRUGS - on September 2, 2013 at 1:56:00 PM CEST
Britain named the European capital of drug addiction
This country is now the “addictions capital of Europe”, according to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), the think tank established by Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary.
The abuse of drugs and alcohol costs the nation a total of £36 billion annually with an “epidemic of drink-related conditions” and an emerging problem from other substances which are currently technically legal.
Christian Guy, the director of the CSJ, said: “While our addiction problem damages the economy, it is the human consequences that present the real tragedy.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: DRUGS - on September 2, 2013 at 1:54:00 PM CEST
Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.’s
For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to an enormous AT&T database that contains the records of decades of Americans’ phone calls — parallel to but covering a far longer time than the National Security Agency’s hotly disputed collection of phone call logs.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SECURITY - on September 2, 2013 at 1:52:00 PM CEST
"Hemisphere Project": US-Drogenbehörde nutzt größere Telefondatenbank als NSA
Die US amerikanische Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) und das Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) haben 2007 Hemisphere ins Leben gerufen. In Zusammenarbeit mit dem US amerikanischen Provider AT&T erlaubt das Programm den Mitarbeitern der DEA und anderen Behörden auf alle Verbindungsdaten von Telefongesprächen zurückzugreifen, die über AT&T Switches liefen. So zeigen Präsentationsfolien, die der New York Times durch Friedensaktivisten Drew Hendricks zur Verfügung gestellt wurden, dass AT&T seit 1987 alle Verbindungsdaten aus den eigenen Netzen vorhält und täglich etwa 4 Milliarden Datensätze dazukommen.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SECURITY - on September 2, 2013 at 1:50:00 PM CEST
We interviewed the guy who prank-called the NSA
The NSA is in dire need of customer service training — at least in the case of Bahram Sadeghi, a Dutch-Iranian filmmaker who decided to call the surveillance agency for “help” after one of his e-mails was accidentally deleted. In a three-minute exchange with NSA spokespeople, Sadeghi manages to confound one with his request (you can almost hear the relief in her voice when Sadeghi asks to speak to someone else) and gets a curt reply from another.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
