Bonjour Planet Earth: June 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Russians join in call for Pussy Riot trio's release...

Now, nearly four months after three women were arrested for performing a protest anthem inside Moscow's most important Orthodox church, Christ the Saviour cathedral, a growing number of Russians are joining calls for their freedom.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Ekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alehina – all members of the anarchic Pussy Riot punk band – have been in prison since March, held on charges of hooliganism which could eventually mean a seven-year sentence. Many Muscovites were happy enough to see a tough response to the band's irreverent act of rebellion, which was aimed at President Vladimir Putin. But with no trial date set, no signs that they will be released and opposition to Putin spreading, support for the trio has grown, even among those who at first condemned them.

"Their actions insulted me, because I'm religious," said Alexander Ivanov, a popular musician. "It's not what they said, it's where they did it. I was offended – but for them to get seven years in jail for an unsuccessful experiment, that's going too far."

Ivanov is one of more than 100 cultural figures who signed an open letter last week calling on the state to release the women, in an indication that popular unease at their plight is growing. Full story...

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Danish farmer cures illnesses in pigs by reverting to GM-free diet...

A Danish farmer has gained huge public recognition for publishing his simple method for ridding his pigs of illness- removing genetically modified (GM) ingredients from their diet.

Published in the farming magazine Effektivt Landbrug on 13 April 2012 [1], the farmer Ib Borup Perderson describes how his pigs suffered from symptoms including chronic diarrhoea, birth defects, reproductive problems, reduced appetite, bloating, stomach ulcers, weaker and smaller piglets, and reduced litter sizes. This was not just a problem for the animals themselves but also the profitability of the farm, with fewer healthy animals, mounting costs of medicines and added labour costs.

After researching the health hazards of GM foods and associated herbicides, Pederson decided to stop feeding his 450 sows with GM soybean, replacing them with fishmeal and non-GM soybean instead. He began to notice health benefits after two days of a GM-free diet. The farmer’s account has since been published in an English dossier compiled by scientist Brian John of GM-free Cymru (Wales), with collaboration from Pederson, published online by GM Watch.

This finding adds to the continual flow of new evidence appearing in peer-reviewed scientific studies, farmers’ reports and witness accounts of the devastating health impacts of glyphosate-based herbicides and the associated GM crops modified to tolerate it. Birth defects from glyphosate exposure were detected in the 1980s in lab animals performed by Monsanto. Full story...

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Man in India gets severe headaches ... when he watches porn!!!

A man plagued by porn-induced headaches has to take painkillers 30 minutes before watching the X-rated movies, according to a case study. a The unnamed "unmarried male software professional," 24, complained of "severe, exploding" headaches that developed gradually and peaked 10 minutes into the sexy scenes.

"Progressively, he started to refrain from viewing videos as a means of avoiding headaches," researchers from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in New Delhi, India, wrote in the case study published in the June issue of Archives of Sexual Behavior.

The cause of the man's ill-timed headaches, triggered only by porn and not by sex or masturbation, is unclear.

"This guy is interesting because he's just watching porn and not actually having sex," said Dawn Buse, associate professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and director of behavioral medicine at the Montefiore Headache Center in New York. "But he probably still gets aroused and excited, which may be even worse than having sex because there's no release." Full story...

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The American people are angry...

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Mali Islamists destroy holy Timbuktu sites...

Al Qaeda-linked Mali Islamists armed with Kalashnikovs and pick-axes began destroying prized mausoleums of saints in the UNESCO-listed northern city of Timbuktu on Saturday in front of shocked locals, witnesses said.

The Islamist Ansar Dine group backs strict sharia, Islamic law, and considers the shrines of the local Sufi version of Islam idolatrous. Sufi shrines have also been attacked by hardline Salafists in Egypt and Libya in the past year.

The attack came just days after UNESCO placed Timbuktu on its list of heritage sites in danger and will recall the 2001 dynamiting by the Taliban of two 6th-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan.

"They have already completely destroyed the mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud (Ben Amar) and two others. They said they would continue all day and destroy all 16," local Malian journalist Yeya Tandina said by telephone of the 16 most prized resting grounds of local saints in the town. Full story...

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Pastor in Nigeria runs mad while praying for mad man...

PEOPLE living at Oke-Ado area of Ibadan, Oyo State, as well as shop owners and automobile dealers along Molete road in the town, on Thursday, watched a drama involving a pastor and a mad man.

The pastor, whose name is Timothy, according to an eyewitness, got to Ososami junctions of Oke-Ado around 5.20 p.m and went to meet the mentally-deranged man, popularly known as Tunde, who was sitting in front of a building in the area.

According to Semiu, a shop owner around the spot of the incident, the pastor began to read the Bible on sighting the mad man, while he moved closer to him and laid the hand on his head. Full story...

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Haiti: Money sent to help earthquake victims used to build 5-star hotels...

As part of the country's "Reconstruction", The Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund recently invested $2 million in the Royal Oasis Hotel, a deluxe structure to be built in a poverty-stricken metropolitan area "filled with displaced-persons camps housing hundreds of thousands”. Royal Oasis belongs to a Haitian investment group (SCIOP SA) and will be managed by the Spanish chain Occidental Hotels & Resorts.

AP reported in April that funds raised by the former US Presidents to help the neediest Haitians are now being used to build a hotel for "rich foreigners" including tourists as well many foreign NGO "aid workers" currently in Haiti. (Daniel Trenton, AP: New hotels arise amid ruins in Haitian capital, Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, April 29, 2012)

It is worth noting that Western governments have insisted that aid money for Haiti be given to NGOs and foundations rather than to the Haitian government, which they consider to be "corrupt".

In the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake, people in the US, Canada and the EU, who made donations to those humanitarian organisations and NGOs did not realize that their contribution to Haiti's reconstruction would be channeled towards the building of five star hotels to house foreign businessmen. Their expectation was that the money would be used to provide food and housing for the Haitian people. Full story...

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Sensual sunset...

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How remote Indian state of Manipur uses rock music against mainstream Indian culture...

In the far north-east of India, cut off from the rest of the country except via a narrow land bridge, perhaps the only way to make yourself heard is loud, really loud, rock music.

For White Fire's drummer Elangbam Kumar, that explains why their cover version of the Guns N'Roses song "Welcome To The Jungle" has become an anthem for the band and a big hit with their fans in the remote state of Manipur.

The state, which is 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers) from the capital New Delhi, borders on Myanmar and has struggled for decades with separatist violence, a society divided among competing tribes and grinding poverty.

It is also an unlikely hub for rock and heavy metal music, boasting a burgeoning festival scene and local stars who have defied social and cultural boundaries to pursue their music. Full story...

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YouTube developing secret weapon against the Internet's worst commenters...

Long considered home to the worst commenters on the internet — racist, cruel, idiotic, nonsensical, and barely literate — YouTube is in the process of upgrading its comment system in order to better tame its most loathsome members.

Word of the overhaul slipped out during the Q&A portion of a YouTube developer session at Google I/O, the annual developers conference from the video-upload hub’s owner, Google.

A member of the audience, which was stocked heavily with online video publishers, asked for advice on handling negative comments within his YouTube channel. Dror Shimshowitz, a YouTube “head of product,” replied that “comments are kind of the Wild West of video” and can be turned off. But Google doesn’t like it when people do that, he said, because it cuts off the community. So the company is working on fixing the system.

“We’re working on some improvements to the comment system, so hopefully we’ll have an update on that in the next few months,” Shimshowitz said. Full story...

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Put bankers in the dock! MPs demand judicial inquiry and police action as rage grows over bank corruption scandal...

The ‘shoddy and deceitful’ behaviour of banks should be probed at a public inquiry, David Cameron was told.

Following an extraordinary week of scandal and disgrace, senior politicians and church leaders called for a financial equivalent of Lord Leveson’s Press inquiry.

Labour leader Ed Miliband wants the Prime Minister to set up a judicial investigation into the banking world that would lead to a standards board and code of conduct.

Revelations that traders conspired for years to rig key interest rates have created a widespread feeling that only a truth and reconciliation inquiry can restore trust in an industry vital for economic recovery.

To make matters worse, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland were censured yesterday for selling risky and inappropriate insurance to thousands of small firms. Full story...

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Mexicans blame the State for drug violence...

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Zimbabwe diamond wealth finding way to ‘pockets of a few’

A FEW hundred metres from the sandy tracks of Sakubva township in eastern Zimbabwe, Chinese workers are putting the finishing touches to a luxury hotel most locals can only dream of staying in.

With its chandeliers, rose-studded tables and junior executive suites, the Golden Peacock Villa Hotel is the latest hideout of strongman Robert Mugabe’s diamond barons.

Two men hammer away at pale benches near a red pagoda-style shelter. Built next to an airstrip that offers easy access to the Chiadzwa diamond fields less than 60 miles away, a night in a “villa” here costs £577.

The 88-year-old president was at the commissioning of the Golden Peacock last week, telling guests the hotel “provides clear evidence of downstream benefits flowing from the diamond mining.” But critics say the benefits are only flowing in one direction – to Mugabe’s cronies. Full story...

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The death diamonds of Zimbabwe...

Zimbabwe: mysterious deaths in a diamond mine...

Bushmen being starved in Botswana to make way for diamond mining...

Next time you want to buy some gold, you might want to look at this first...

Corporate profits at all-time high; wages at all-time low...

This week, David Segal at the New York Times broke the news to America that not only was Apple -- the computer and gadget manufacturer formerly seen as a symbol of good old American ingenuity -- making its profits on the backs of abused factory workers in China, but also on poorly paid store employees here in the US.

Apple store workers, he wrote, make up a large majority of Apple's US workforce—30,000 out of 43,000 employees in this country—and they make about $25,000 a year, or about $12 an hour.

Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute notes that that's just a dollar above the federal poverty level. This for a company that paid nine of its top executives a total of $441 million in 2011.

“The discrepancy between Apple’s profits/executive pay and its compensation to its workers is a particularly glaring example of what is occurring in the wider economy,” Mishel writes. Full story...

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Cost of Prince Charles rises to £2.2m...

Public funding to support Prince Charles rose by 11% during the past financial year, taking the contribution from the taxpayer to almost £2.2m, it was disclosed on Friday.

The accounts, an annual glimpse into the finances of the royal household, also showed that the Prince of Wales' spending rose by 3.6% to over £20.2m. They cover the period in which the wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton took place, the cost of which royal aides have said was shared between the families of the bride and groom.

The accounts also showed an increase of 3% in the income that the Prince of Wales receives from the Duchy of Cornwall, the estate given to the heir to the throne to provide him with a living, to £18.3m.

The increased contribution from the public purse has largely been spent on the official overseas tours undertaken by Charles, his wife Camilla, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, according to Clarence House. Full story...

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Why are the Queen, wealthy people and corporations receiving EU farm subsidies?

Friday, June 29, 2012

What happens when you don't clean up your dog's poop...

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Bankers fleeing Europe crisis head to Singapore...

A 37-year-old Paris-based French investment banker, who’s worked in London and New York, has been looking for a job in one of Asia's financial hubs, Singapore, for the past six months.

A director at an asset management firm owned by one of France’s big banks, she asked to stay anonymous, but told CNBC that even her husband, a portfolio manager, was on the lookout for work in Singapore.

She added that they would move to the city-state with their two children as soon as one of them lands a job.

“Singapore seems like a very green field compared to Paris,” she said. “It looks like what Europe was 20 years ago, in the sense it’s got a lot of opportunities in terms of new prospects for the markets.”

The French investment banker is one among a growing number of bankers looking to leave Europe as deteriorating economic conditions together with tougher regulations have slowed business and led to job cuts. Full story...

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China's incoming president Xi Jinping's family 'has wealth of hundreds of millions'

The family of China's next president has amassed a fortune running into hundreds of millions of pounds, according to a hugely damaging new report.

The revelation comes as the Communist party faces increasingly difficult questions about how its leaders, who are paid ministerial salaries of just £8,000-a-year, live such gilded lives.

Xi Jinping, who turns 59 this month, is all but certain to be unveiled later this year as China's next paramount leader.

Mr Xi has carefully fostered a reputation for clean government, and there is no evidence that he has a personal fortune. Chinese officials are forbidden from accumulating significant wealth.

However, his daughter Xi Mingze studies at Harvard University under a pseudonym and an investigation by Bloomberg revealed yesterday that Mr Xi's other relatives have built an enormous empire. Full story...

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Tap water 'better than bottled brands'

Buying expensive bottled water rather than getting it out of a tap could not only be a waste of money, but have much fewer health benefits than advertisers would like consumers to believe, a German watchdog said on Thursday.

Consumer rights watchdog the Stiftung Warentest tested 29 different brands of bottled water and also tap water, for mineral content, contamination levels and retail price.

They found that two thirds of bottled water contained barely any of the minerals that they claimed to have and in many cases, drinking a glass of the wet stuff from a tap was by far more beneficial health-wise.

Germs are also tricky for the bottled water industry - as in over a third of the bottles tested the Warentest experts found some sort of bacteria. This would not necessarily be dangerous, but the potential was there for people with weakened immune systems, and babies, to become ill. Full story...

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The story of bottled water...

My name is Hana and I live in Nigeria...

Bottled water? Thanks, but no thanks...

Woman forced to throw away £2,000 gold necklace by Heathrow airport security...

Heathrow operator BAA has launched an investigation after a Ukrainian woman was forced to throw away a £2,000 piece of gold jewellery by an over-zealous security officer.

The 34-year-old woman, who works for Ukrainian television, was passing through security at Terminal 5 when staff took exception to the necklace she was wearing - which features a gold bullet pendant hanging from the chain.

The officer allegedly told the woman to dispose of the necklace in one of the bins usually reserved for shampoos, razors and other items not allowed to be taken aboard passenger planes amid concerns that it could be “dangerous”.

With her was Andrey Yermak, an international lawyer, who has lodged a complaint with BAA demanding return of the item or for the woman - who wishes to remain anonymous - to be recompensed. Full story...

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Mission Chinese...

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75% of teenagers in Singapore do not know how to use a condom...

About 75% of teenagers in Singapore do not know how to use a condom.

That was the finding of a survey carried out by the National University of Singapore involving 900 sexually active teens in the republic, reported China Press.

The survey found that more than three-quarter of the teens who took part in the exercise did not know how to use the form of protection.

Last year, there were 1,737 pregnancies involving girls under 20 in the republic. Full story...

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How the French promote anti-AIDS sex!!!

Catholic Church in Kerala offers "incentives" to encourage more babies!!!

Chinese condoms "too small" for South Africans!!!

Seek knowledge, not education...

(...)

Education has a different meaning depending on who is doing the educating. William Torrey Harris, the once US Commissioner of Education, probably best defined education in the US in 1906 when he said that "substantial education, which, scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual."

H.L. Mencken explained further in arguing that the "aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality."

That is why, really, the only education that matters is to teach someone how to think critically. Once someone is armed with that ability, then they can seek knowledge in whatever they wish to learn, and be able to think critically in order to separate what is truth from what is fabrication. Note that the last thing a child would ever be taught in a public school is logic, rationality, and critical thinking, which would be counter to the intended goal.

Margaret Mead put it simply when she said, "Children must be taught how to think, not what to think."

Richard Dawkins expanded on that, stating, "Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you."

What masquerades as education today in public schools in the Western world is, for the most part, brainwashing, subjugation, and mass control. Full story...

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Runaway bride in India returns to husband's home ... after toilet is installed!

A young woman, who ran away from her in-laws’ house for its lack of toilet, returned Wednesday — to the same house with an ultra-modern toilet and a reward of Rs.2 lakh from Sulabh International. With her were two other women who too had similarly walked out from their in-laws’ houses.

Priyanka Bharti was mobbed as she arrived decked up like a bride for her ‘gauna’ ceremony to her Vishnupur Khurd village in a sports utility vehicle (SUV).

Amidst blowing of conch shells and ‘aarti’, tears rolled down her cheeks as she was ushered in by her in-laws and shown the new toilet and bathroom.

Later, she along with the two other ‘runaway brides’ - Priyanka Kumari from Siddharthanagar and Jyoti from Sant Kabeernagar - and Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of sanitation NGO Sulabh International, took centre stage in an enclosure.

Priyanka narrated to the gathered villagers, numbering around 500, how she took the “extreme and difficult” step of walking out of her husband’s home because she was asked to defecate in the open. Full story...

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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Graphic video: Syrian family 'slain by rebels' in Hama massacre...

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Investigation finds widespread abuses at Apple China factories...

New York-based China Labour Watch said a four-month investigation of 10 suppliers to Apple in southern and eastern China uncovered violations of workers' rights, including excessive overtime and hazardous work conditions.

"This investigation of 10 different Apple factories in China finds that harmful, damaging work environments characterised by illegally long hours for low levels of pay are widespread in Apple's supply [chain]," it said.

The report was based on surveys and interviews of 620 workers, as well as first-hand observations by a team of six, including some who entered the factories undercover.

The lengthy report followed findings announced in March by the Fair Labour Association (FLA), which toured three Chinese suppliers with Apple's consent and also reported on forced overtime and other problems. Full story...

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Democracy suffers in Maldives in the face of rising fundamentalism...

The Indian Ocean paradise Maldives, until recently a moderate Muslim state, is the latest Asian country to witness a troubling rise in ultraconservative Wahhabi Islam imported from the Middle East.

On June 2, Ismail Rasheed, popularly known as ‘Hilath,’ was attacked outside his home when his throat was slit through his trachea, missing a vital artery by millimetres. Rasheed, an outspoken blogger advocating freedom of religion and a fierce critic of the growing religious extremism in the archipelago country, is expected to survive the near-fatal attempt on his life, the second. The gruesome assault on Rasheed cannot be treated as an isolated episode. It is an upshot of the rising religious radicalization in Maldives, whose constitution does not allow any national to practice a religion other than Islam.

Religious intolerance has been rising steadily in the country, which lies about 700 km south of the Indian coast. According to a 2010 US State Department report, “NGO sources …stated that in general the media practice self-censorship on issues related to Islam due to fears of being labelled ‘anti-Islamic’ and subsequently being harassed.” The Ministry of Islamic Affairs blocks antic-Islamic websites as well as sites featuring information on Christianity. Statements contrary to government policy or to the government's interpretation of Islam are blocked by law. Full story...

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Why England should withdraw from international football...

After the latest England exit from an international tournament – on penalties of course – the manager, Roy Hodgson, declared himself, "delighted with the players, and the way they've responded to the demands of an England shirt. They've shown they're capable of stepping up to the plate." Is he kidding?

The Groundhog Day inevitability of yet another dismal attempt to compete with a top football nation prompts the thought that perhaps it would be better if the England team withdrew from international competition for a while. Because until the culture of our national game changes from the grassroots up, England will never win a major tournament. That's never, ever.

The next World Cup in two years is in Brazil. England will not win it. In fact they might not even qualify. But if they do it's highly likely that the same old failings will emerge. An inability to pass the ball and keep possession will prove terminal against a top team – as exposed so mercilessly by the sublime Andrea Pirlo, who ran rings around England's midfielders as they huffed and puffed during Sunday night's game. Full story...

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Dachshund puppy and crab...

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Sri Lanka's Muslims under siege? First they came for the Tamils and I said nothing...

Colombo’s suburb of Dehiwala is probably best known for housing the Colombo Zoo. But late last month, it became the site of a wild protest at a small mosque, a protest that has many Muslim leaders in Sri Lanka worried.

On the morning of May 30, police officials reportedly informed the leader of the Dehiwala branch of the Association of Muslim Youth of Seylan that an illegal demonstration was likely to take place at the group’s mosque. Sheikh Ramsy was instructed to cancel madrassa lessons.

True to the warning, by midday, some 200 demonstrators led by several dozen Buddhist monks allegedly converged on the small Islamic center and began throwing stones and rotten meat over the gate at the mosque. Fortunately, most projectiles landed harmlessly in front of the mosque. Protestors shouted slogans demanding the closure of the mosque, claiming it was performing daily animal sacrifices, a charge the mosque denies.

(...)

During, the 30-year civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam and the central government, the island’s Muslims, though Tamil-speaking, sided with the government against the LTTE. This was in part a result of thousands of Muslims being ejected from Jaffna in the early 1990s. During the conflict, the Sinhalese Buddhist majority courted the island’s Muslims, and many Muslims rose to prominent bureaucratic positions, while a handful even served in the Sri Lankan armed forces.

A Muslim bureaucrat in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, who spoke on condition of anonymity, believes that the status of Muslims has changed since the end of the war in 2009. “The government view of Muslims has changed since they defeated the ‘Tigers’. We are no longer seen as a loyal asset,” the official says. “Now we’re seen as a liability. I know Muslims who have inexplicably lost positions in the customs office and regional agencies in the past year.” Full story...

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Minitel: The rise and fall of the France-wide web...

Many years ago, long before the birth of the web, there was a time when France was the happening-est place in the digital universe.

What the TGV was to train travel, the Pompidou Centre to art, and the Ariane project to rocketry, in the early 1980s the Minitel was to the world of telecommunications.

Thanks to this wondrous beige monitor attached to the telephone, while the rest of us were being put on hold by the bank manager or queueing for tickets at the station, the French were already shopping and travelling "online".

Other countries looked on in awe and admiration, and the French were proud.

As President Jacques Chirac boasted: "Today a baker in Aubervilliers knows perfectly how to check his bank account on the Minitel. Can the same be said of the baker in New York?" Full story...

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Texas college hacks US government drone!!!

There are a lot of cool things you can do with $1,000, but scientists at an Austin, Texas college have come across one that is often overlooked: for less than a grand, how’d you like to hijack a US government drone?

A group of researchers led by Professor Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas at Austin Radionavigation Laboratory recently succeeded in raising the eyebrows of the US government. With just around $1,000 in parts, Humphreys’ team took control of an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by the US Department of Homeland Security.

After being challenged by his lab, the DHS dared Humphreys’ crew to hack into their drone and take command. Much to their chagrin, they did exactly that.

Humphrey tells Fox News that for a few hundreds dollar his team was able to “spoof” the GPS system on board the DHS drone, a technique that involves mimicking the actual signals sent to the global positioning device and then eventually tricking the target into following a new set of commands. And, for just $1,000, Humphreys says the spoofer his team assembled was the most advanced one ever built. Full story...

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"Fuck Euro" say Ukraine's topless FEMEN protestors...

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Syria: Attack on TV staff 'worst massacre against journalism'

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi put the responsibility for killing of seven TV staffers on the EU, Arab and International organizations. He called it “the worst massacre against journalism and the freedom of media.”

Seven journalists and workers in the Syrian al-Ikhbaryia Satellite Channel were killed on Wednesday morning in an attack by an armed group targeting the headquarters of al-Ikhbaryia. The assault occurred some 20 kilometres south of the capital Damascus.

They planted explosive devices at the headquarters of al-Ikhbaryia following their ransacking, and destroying the Satellite Channel studios, including the newsroom.

An employee at the station told Associated Press that several people were wounded in the attack and guards were kidnapped. He did not give his name for fear of repercussions, but said the gunmen drove him about 200 meters away, and then he heard the explosion of the station being destroyed. More + video + photos...

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Barclays boss under pressure to quit after interest rate cheating...

The chief executive of Barclays, Bob Diamond, is under pressure to resign after the bank was fined £290m ($450m) for trying to manipulate interest rates at which banks lend to each other.

The Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Oakeshott, said that if Mr Diamond had any shame, he would resign.

Former City minister Lord Myners told the BBC that the people at the top should take responsibility.

Barclays has said its actions "fell well short of standards".

In response, chief executive Bob Diamond and three other top executives at the bank are to give up their bonuses this year. Full story...

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74% Pakistanis consider United States an enemy country...

Three-in-four Pakistanis consider the United States an enemy country, a new survey conducted by the Washington-based Pew Global Attitudes Project indicates.

The Pew survey, which was published on its website on Wednesday, said that last year 69 percent used to hate the US but in 2012 the figure jumped to 74 percent.

The survey also showed an exceptionally low regard for US President Barack Obama among Pakistanis. They believe Obama is as bad a leader as former US President George W. Bush had been during his final year in office.

US-Pakistan relations have been strained over the civilian casualties caused by the non-UN-sanctioned US drone attacks, and over a number of other issues. Full story...

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Mysterious Baltic Sea object raises more questions...

The divers exploring a 'UFO-shaped' object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea say their equipment stops working when they approach within 200m.

Professional diver Stefan Hogerborn, part of the Ocean X team which is exploring the anomaly, said some of the team's cameras and the team's satellite phone would refuse to work when directly above the object, and would only work once they had sailed away.

He is quoted as saying: 'Anything electric out there - and the satellite phone as well - stopped working when we were above the object.

'And then we got away about 200 meters and it turned on again, and when we got back over the object it didn’t work.' Full story...

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Did UFO cause power failure at US nuclear missile base?

The weird red rain of India was an alien invasion?

Megaupload search warrants were illegal, declares High Court judge...

A High Court judge has ruled that police search warrants used to seize property from Kim Dotcom were illegal.

Justice Helen Winkelmann found that the warrants used did not properly describe the offences to which they were related.

The FBI agents had been accused of underhanded behaviour by Dotcom's lawyers in the High Court after they secretly copied data from his computers and took it overseas.

Justice Winkelmann has also ruled it was unlawful for copies of Dotcom's computer data to be taken offshore.

Police said they were considering the judgment and were in discussions with Crown Law "to determine what further action might be required". Full story...

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Why are young Indians killing themselves?

In the end, wrote Albert Camus, one needs more courage to live than to kill oneself.

If new research is to be believed, a disturbingly high number of young Indians are losing the courage.

A study published in the medical journal The Lancet shows that suicide has become the second leading cause of death among the country's young adults, after road accidents in men, and childbirth-related complications in women.

There were 187,000 deaths from suicides in India in 2010, the study says - this is higher than the official figure of 134,599 suicide deaths from the National Crime Records Bureau. (Researchers attribute this gap to under-reporting or misreporting as friendly or bribe-seeking coroners often sign off suicide deaths as ones caused by accidents to protect the victim's family from police harassment and social stigma.) Full story...

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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Ethiopian blogger found guilty of "terrorist" links...

A court in Ethiopia has found prominent journalist and blogger Eskinder Nega guilty of violating controversial anti-terrorism legislation.

Eskinder and 23 others were accused of links with US-based opposition group Ginbot Seven, which Ethiopia considers a terrorist organisation.

The prosecutor has asked for life in prison, rather than the death penalty.

"This is a dark day for justice in Ethiopia," said Amnesty International's Claire Beston.

Last month, Eskinder was awarded the prestigious Pen America's "Freedom to Write" annual prize for his work. Full story...

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BBC says its journalists "got carried away" covering the Arab Spring...

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TSA agent spills grandfather's ashes, laughs about it...

A man's attempt to bring the ashes of his grandfather home to Indianapolis ended with an angry scene in a Florida airport, with the ashes spilled on the terminal floor.

John Gross, a resident of Indianapolis' south side, was leaving Florida with the remains of his grandfather -- Mario Mark Marcaletti, a Sicilian immigrant who worked for the Penn Central Railroad in central Indiana -- in a tightly sealed jar marked "Human Remains."

Gross said he didn't think he'd have a problem, until he ran into a TSA agent at the Orlando airport.

(...)

"She didn't apologize. She started laughing. I was on my hands and knees picking up bone fragments. I couldn't pick up all, everything that was lost. I mean, there was a long line behind me." Full story...

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