Topic: DRUGS - on July 12, 2013 at 3:02:00 PM CEST
Hundreds of Marijuana Plants Sprout in German City
The German university city of Göttingen is being taken over by marijuana plants. Behind the phenomenon is a group of pro-pot activists who planted seeds around town to stir debate over the plant's illegal status. City authorities are not amused.
The university town of Göttingen is getting greener and greener. But not everyone is pleased: The new plants sprouting up in parks, planter boxes and gardens across the city aren't part of an official city beautification project. They're part of a pro-marijuana protest.
In early June, a group calling itself "A Few Autonomous Flower Children" spread several kilograms of marijuana seeds through the city. Only now are the fruits of their labor beginning to emerge from the soil. "We can't set eyes on this useful and beautiful plant because it's absolutely forbidden in Germany to grow it," the group wrote in a letter claiming responsibility for the action. And they say that's not right.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 12, 2013 at 3:01:00 PM CEST
Pakistan says $96m worth of hashish, cocaine seized
Pakistani and Belgian authorities have seized cocaine and hashish worth more than US$76 million (S$96 million) in a series of drug raids in which three foreigners were arrested, Islamabad said Friday.
A consignment of 3,000kg of hashish en route from Afghanistan to Belgium was impounded in a joint operation and 1,000kg of cocaine intercepted separately, the Pakistani government said.
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Topic: SECURITY - on July 12, 2013 at 2:57:00 PM CEST
Tired of helping the CIA? Quit Facebook, Venezuela minister urges
A Venezuelan government minister on Wednesday urged citizens to shut Facebook accounts to avoid being unwitting informants for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, referring to recent revelations about U.S. surveillance programs.
Edward Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor who is stuck in a Moscow airport while seeking to avoid capture by the United States, last month leaked details about American intelligence agencies obtaining information from popular websites including Facebook.
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Topic: SECURITY - on July 12, 2013 at 2:55:00 PM CEST
Edward Snowden to meet Amnesty and Human Rights Watch at Moscow airport – live coverage
NSA whistleblower to meet human rights groups at Sheremetyevo airport to discuss his next steps forward as he claims US is illegally denying his right to seek asylum
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Topic: SECURITY - on July 12, 2013 at 1:49:00 PM CEST
Snowden ist ein Glücksfall für die Gesellschaft
Sind die Überwachungsprogramme der amerikanischen und britischen Geheimdienste illegal? Ja, sagte der Passauer Sicherheits- und Internetrechtler Dirk Heckmann. Er ruft im Interview zu Klagen gegen Prism auf - und warnt vor dem Entstehen eines totalitären Systems.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Herr Heckmann, müssen wir uns damit abfinden, dass große Teile unseres Verhaltens im Internet von ausländischen Geheimdiensten aufgezeichnet und überwacht werden?
Heckmann: Wir sollten es zumindest nicht. Wir müssen uns klar machen, dass da offenbar Dinge passieren, die nach unserem Verfassungsrecht nie passieren dürften.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Warum?
Heckmann: Dass Geheimdienste für unsere Sicherheit sorgen wollen, ist an sich legitim. Der Zweck heiligt aber nicht die Mittel. Man stelle sich vor, jeder Vermieter würde heimlich einen Wohnungsschlüssel an den Geheimdienst liefern und dazu Informationen zu Grundriss, Mobiliar, und wann seine Mieter nicht zu Hause sind. Und das wäre noch harmlos im Vergleich zu dem Ausmaß, in dem das NSA-Programm Prism in die Privatsphäre eingreift.
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Topic: SECURITY - on July 12, 2013 at 12:59:00 PM CEST
US-Bedienstete von Polizei, Zoll und Militär übernehmen Sicherheitsaufgaben in Deutschland und der EU
Die gegenwärtige Auseinandersetzung um die digitale Bespitzelung durch Behörden der USA und Großbritanniens dreht sich vornehmlich um die Geheimdienste. Entsprechende Absprachen oder Abkommen (etwa gemäß dem sogenannten “NATO-Truppenstatut”) werden unter Verschluss gehalten; sogar der Regierungssprecher wollte hierzu in der Bundespressekonferenz am Montag keine Angaben machen.
Im Polizei- und Zollbereich jedoch unterhält vor allem Deutschland beste Beziehungen zu den USA. Der frühere Innenminister Wolfgang Schäuble nutzte die EU-Präsidentschaft Deutschlands 2007, um einen “transatlantischen Raum der Freiheit, der Sicherheit und des Rechts” einzufädeln. Auf der Webseite des Weißen Hauses liest sich das so:
Counterterrorism and Law Enforcement Cooperation: Germany and the United States have a robust cooperative relationship on counterterrorism, law enforcement and homeland security matters.</p>
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Topic: SECURITY - on July 12, 2013 at 12:57:00 PM CEST
Neue Snowden-Enthüllungen zeigen Details der Kollaboration von NSA und Microsoft
Microsoft hat gerade ein Problem. Der Guardian berichtet über neue ausgewertete Dokumente, die das PRISM-Überwachungsprojekt weiter beschreiben. Demnach arbeitet Microsoft und seine Tochterfirma Skype sehr eng mit dem FBI und der NSA zusammen, um diesen Zugriff auf die Kommunikation der eigenen Kunden zu ermöglichen. Grob war das durch die ersten Prism-Enthüllungen bekannt. In dem Artikel “Revealed: how Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages” beschreibt der Guardian detaillierter, wie die Zusammenarbeit funktioniert.
netzpolitik.org Wer Microsoft seine Daten anvertraut, handelt fahrlässig
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Topic: SECURITY - on July 12, 2013 at 12:56:00 PM CEST
How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian.
The files provided by Edward Snowden illustrate the scale of co-operation between Silicon Valley and the intelligence agencies over the last three years. They also shed new light on the workings of the top-secret Prism program, which was disclosed by the Guardian and the Washington Post last month.
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Topic: SECURITY - on July 12, 2013 at 12:55:00 PM CEST
Edward Snowden: US officials are preventing me claiming asylum
The NSA surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden has said US officials are waging a campaign to prevent him from taking up asylum offers as he called a meeting in Moscow airport with human rights groups.
In a letter sent to groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the former intelligence agency contractor claimed there was "an unlawful campaign by officials in the US government to deny my right to seek and enjoy … asylum under article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" and invited them to meet him at 5pm local time.
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Topic: SEX - on July 11, 2013 at 6:19:00 PM CEST
Man arrested for having sex with pool raft
Owner of raft told police that the suspect took the raft with him after being shouted at to stop.
A Hamilton man repeatedly arrested for public indecency has again been indicted after a child saw him engaging in sex with a rubber raft last month, according to police.
Edwin Charles Tobergta, 34, of 1320 Harmon Ave., was arrested June 17 for allegedly stepping out his back door naked at about 1:20 p.m. and having “sexual relations with a rubber pool float,” according to the Hamilton police report.
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Topic: NATURE - on July 11, 2013 at 5:51:00 PM CEST
Dammit Mother Nature: Weird-Ass Living Rocks With Guts
“Period Rock? You’re calling me Period Rock now? Guys, seriously, I might look like a stone, but that doesn’t mean I have the heart of one. Why doesn’t anyone ever just call me Michael?”
Despite appearances, this is not some kind of cruelly bisected alien stone organism or a tomato thunderegg. This is Pyura chilensis, a sea creature that lives on the rocky coast of Chile and Peru. And if (like me, very recently) you’ve never seen one of these before, you’ll probably be interested to know that in Chile, they are fished commercially, and the locals eat them raw or cooked with salad and rice because apparently they’re delicious.
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Topic: POLITIK - on July 11, 2013 at 4:33:00 PM CEST
Israel gets Green Light to Launch Major Sinai Offensive against Hamas & Muslim Brotherhood
Israel Thursday July 11 approved a major Egyptian offensive for curbing the mounting aggression in Sinai of armed Salafis gangs, Muslim Brotherhood raiders and Hamas terrorists. A day earlier, Egypt’s Second Army commander, Maj.-Gen. Ahmad Wasfi, who is assigned to lead the offensive, escaped unhurt from an attempt on his life. Some of his bodyguards and soldiers were killed.
Maj.-Gen. Wasfi arrived in Sinai just four days ago to set up headquarters in the northern town of El Arish. He was targeted for the first attempt by radical Islamists to murder a high-ranking Egyptian general. As a close associate of Defense Minister Gen. Fattah El-Sisi, Wasfi took part in the military coup which ousted President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo on July 3.
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