Bonjour Planet Earth: April 2014

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Why the US is ignoring four Saudi princesses being starved to death...

It’s a story straight out of a fairy tale. Four beautiful Princesses are being starved to death in a Royal Palace by their tyrannical father for the crime of advocating equal rights and better conditions for their people. The reason the United States and other Western nations will not force a “happily ever after” ending to this story rests on the fact the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the strongest US allies in the region, despite the deplorable living conditions of its subjects. If the same situation was occurring in Syria to President Assad’s daughters, it is an almost certainty that the media would be covering the story in a way that advocated intervention. US Special Forces would be serving as the knights in subdued body armor. They would valiantly storm the Palace, slay the dragon, rescue the imprisoned princesses, place them on the throne, and justice would be restored in the Kingdom. This is not the narrative anyone should expect to hear from the US media about this situation. Western media will continue to ignore the plight of the princesses simply because to raise the issue of their imprisonment, raises the subject of why they were imprisoned to begin with. It certainly wouldn’t do well for the administration’s media lackeys to point out that the United States is propping up a regime that denies equal rights to women, and that the mere advocating of better conditions is punishable by imprisonment and starvation. That storyline just doesn’t fit well with the image of the land of the free that the media is intent on selling the American people. The story began 13 years ago when the Princesses reportedly advocated better living conditions for the people of the country and equal rights for women. Princesses Sahar, Maha, Hala and Jawaher Al Saud have been held captive ever since. Sometime within the last two months, King Abdullah and his sons reportedly cut off food and medicine deliveries to the women. For their part, the Princesses are maintaining their dignity and resistance to King Abdullah. In a recent video plea that has been taken as a call for an uprising, Princess Sahar states that victory is within their grasp. The video, uploaded from confinement in the Royal compound in Jeddah has made waves throughout the Middle East. It brought support from a Saudi Prince, currently living in Tehran, who defected from Saudi Arabia in 2013. He saluted the Princesses for their support of “the oppressed people of the city of Qatif.” Full story...

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Scientists discover proof that humanity is getting dumber, smaller and weaker...

Scientists have found that our bodies and our minds have both deteriorated significantly compared to our ancestors. In fact, just this week a very prominent professor at Cambridge University said that “our most highly trained athletes pale in comparison to these ancestors of ours”. The biggest reason for this, of course, is the degradation of the human genome. Groundbreaking research by Dr. John Sanford of Cornell University and others has shown that our genes contain tens of thousands of mistakes (mutations), and with each passing generation even more errors are added and passed on. So it should be no surprise that our ancestors were bigger, stronger, faster and smarter. The truth is that they had better genes.

This kind of information comes as a shock to many people. It is widely assumed by the general public that humanity is “progressing” and that we are better both physically and mentally than our predecessors were. But that is not the case at all. In fact, research conducted at Cambridge University shows that we are “weaker than we used to be” and that the most highly trained athletes of today “pale in comparison” to those that lived thousands of years ago…

(...)

Most movies and television shows portray our ancestors as short, stupid, hunched-over people that could barely survive in a cold, cruel world.

But the hard science is revealing a very different picture to us.

As I mentioned above, the primary reason for our decline as a species is the systematic deterioration of our genes. According to Dr. John Sanford of Cornell University, the author of Genetic Entropy & The Mystery of the Genome, each one of us already carries tens of thousands of harmful mutations, and each one of us will pass on at least 100 new mutations to future generations. Many scientists believe that this will ultimately lead to something called “mutational meltdown”. Full story...

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Ohhh Moyes ...

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Woman calls Nestle to inquire about fluoride in bottled water, recieves death threats for a month...

A woman who bought a bottle of Nestle's Pure Life Water says she was threatened repeatedly by a company customer service representative who allegedly told her she would "slice her throat" and "watch the blood drain from you" after the woman called with questions about the product.

As a result of the alleged threats, Shimrit Ellis, the customer, filed suit against Pamela Vaughan, the customer service rep, and the company, Nestle USA, as well as Answernet Inc., in Philadelphia.

According to court documents, Ellis claims she bought the water on Aug. 5, 2012, then called Nestle's customer service department to inquire about health issues related to fluoride.

"Shortly thereafter, plaintiff, Shimrit Ellis, started to receive very graphic and violent death threats by phone from an unknown female," the complaint states.

"By way of example, inter alia, some of the treats [sic] that were made to plaintiff by phone were, 'I'm going to slice your throat;' 'I finally found where you live and watched you go to work. You're going to die;' and 'People are going to watch the blood drain from you when I stab you with a knife.'" Full story...

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Pressure mounts on Tony Blair to answer questions over minister child sex abuse cover-up claims...

Pressure mounted on Tony Blair tonight to answer questions over the Mirror’s revelations that a child sex abuse probe was axed after a minister in his government was named as a suspect.

MPs joined forces with a victim of abuse to call on the former Prime Minister to reveal if he knew about the alleged cover up or of any allegations against the politician.

The demands followed our story that an ex-social services boss told police in 1998 the Blair minister made evening visits to a children’s home in Lambeth, south London, run by paedophile Michael John Carroll in the 1980s.

A spokesman for Mr Blair said yesterday that he would not comment.

The Metropolitan Police continued to remain silent about their review into the cover up claims which they launched over a year ago. Full story...

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7 ways Bollywood is contributing to rape culture in India...

Bollywood, churning out films at a rate of a thousand per year, is far and away the largest film industry in the world. More pertinently, at a viewership around 50 million, the industry reaches more Indians than any other cultural phenomenon.

With a few damning exceptions, mentions and depictions of rape in Bollywood movies are anti-rape, featuring a man protecting a woman, or characters condemning the act. Bollywood does not condone nor glorify rape.

That said, Bollywood does condone a culture of misogyny and sexual harassment that contextualizes and allows rape.

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The ubiquity of Bollywood in every aspect of Indian culture has left the country devoid of conventional role models, apart from film celebrities and cricket superstars. Therefore, it is common for Indian men to idolize the male leads of Bollywood movies, many of whom condone a mindset of violence and glorify dominance.

As with many commercial film industries, Bollywood too establishes what is cool. Deepanjana Pal told BuzzFeed that Bollywood has chosen to market strong men who can dominate women as an ideal just as women who submit to men and find fulfillment in life when they are claimed by a man are the feminine role models. Full story...

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Does the FBI use Stasi-style tactics against Muslims?

According to a lawsuit, four people who refused to act as informants have been denied the ability to travel abroad.

A complaint filed this week in a Manhattan federal court alleges that the FBI is cornering innocent people, insisting that they act as informants for the federal government and preventing them from leaving the country if they refuse to collaborate.

Those are the tactics of the Stasi: Spy on other members of society or else. If you refuse? Forget about the ability to travel freely or visit family abroad.

If Tanvir v. Holder is decided on the merits, rather than suppressed in the name of state secrets, we'll find out if the FBI has turned those tactics against Muslim Americans. That's what four plaintiffs allege. The stories they tell are chilling.

Jameel Algibhah is an American citizen who lives in New York City. His wife and three daughters live in Yemen, where he used to visit them for several months each year. Starting in 2010 he was denied permission to board airplanes. As usual, the government won't provide any official explanation. According to the lawsuit, however, the No-Fly List is being used as leverage.

This is the version of events in the complaint: Full story..

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Non-Muslims carried out more than 90% of all terrorist attacks on US soil...

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Hundreds of girls abducted from Nigerian school in night 'have been sold to Islamic militants as wives for £8 each'

Hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped two weeks again are being sold to as wives to Islamic militants for as little as £8 each, it has been claimed.

The teenagers were abducted from their secondary school, in Chibok, in the middle of the night by armed men from Boko Haram and are believed to have smuggled across the borders to Cameroon and Chad Republic.

Some of them have been forced to marry against their will and are being used as servants and sex slaves, according to a community elder.

Pogo Bitrus told The Times the captors were selling the girls aged 16-18 into servitude by forcing them to marry other members of the extremist group.

'If these captors are trying to achieve a political point, I think the best thing is for us to try to make sure that they don’t succeed,' he said.

'But from all indications they are succeeding, due to inaction of government it is helping these people in achieving their objectives.'

He said that the girls had been ferried to Cameroon and Chad by canoe where prospective husbands were paying around 2,000 naira (£8) for a bride. Full story...

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Snowden to reveal secrets of Arab dictators?

Edward Snowden is expected to reveal new secrets, this time pertaining to Arab dictators and Gulf rulers, the Al-Arab Al-Yawm website said Monday.

According to the Al-Arab Al-Yawm website, sources close to Snowden's Arabic translation team revealed that the upcoming leaks will have to do with what Arab rulers used to tell Americans behind closed doors and agreements with the CIA.

"The Arabic part will trigger a tsunami in the Arab world," the website claimed. It will also include leaks on Syria, Palestine and Turkey. Source...

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Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Are Indonesian maids safe in Hong Kong?

Like millions of poor but ambitious young women before her, Rohyati, 26, travelled to Hong Kong to work as a domestic helper.

The daughter of rice farmers from Java, Indonesia, she had previously worked for two years in Singapore.

But when her father died, leaving her to provide for her three younger siblings, she decided to try her luck in China's international financial capital.

Hong Kong is traditionally a sought-after destination for domestic workers because of the relatively high wages offered, a guaranteed rest day once a week and other legal protections not offered in other places.

But, says Rohyati, just two weeks into her job as a full-time, live-in maid, her employer's mother slapped her because the elderly woman, who spoke only Cantonese, was frustrated at being unable to communicate.

Over the next two months, she says she was slapped, punched and choked by her boss as well. Full story...

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Why is Donald Rumsfeld getting Swiss social benefits?

Donald Rumsfeld, the controversial former US secretary of defence, is receiving around 5,000 francs ($5,680) a year in benefits from the Swiss social security system (AHV), according to a news report.

Rumsfeld, condemned for authorizing torture in the Iraq as head of the military under former president George W. Bush, receives 400 francs a month from the AHV, the Tages Anzeiger newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The 81-year-old and his wife have probably been receiving the pension since the summer of 1997, the Zurich-based daily said.

He was entitled to this pension benefit from his position on the board of directors of Swiss engineering and technology company ABB, Tages Anzeiger said.

It said that Rumsfeld was essentially hired by the company as a lobbyist in Washington. Full story...

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German dentist cut off own finger for insurance cash!!!

A racist fan hurled a banana at a Brazilian soccer star, and he reacted with sheer brilliance...

Racism isn’t usually associated with high levels of potassium and Vitamin B6, but that might change after last weekend.

FC Barcelona player Daniel Alves was about to perform a corner kick during an April 27 match against Villarreal when a spectator threw a banana at him – a racial taunt often leveled at players of African descent.

Alves could have ignored the slight. But in a stroke of "middle finger" brilliance, he instead picked up the fruit, peeled it and ate it:

“My father always told me, son, eating a banana prevents cramps LOL,” Alves wrote on Twitter after the game, “how did you guess Hahaha.”

On a particularly racist weekend in pro sports, Alves provided one of the few bright spots. Barcelona went on to win 3-2, a victory the Brazil native humorously attributed to the controversial incident: Full story...

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New vulnerability found in every single version of Internet Explorer...

According to a confirmation by Microsoft late last night, a new zero day vulnerability has been found to affect every version of Internet Explorer. In other words—over a quarter of the entire browser market.

Attacks taking advantage of the vulnerability are largely targeting IE versions 9, 10, and 11 in something called a "use after free" attack. Essentially, the attack corrupts data as soon as memory has been released, most likely after users have been lured to phony websites. Microsoft explains:

The vulnerability exists in the way that Internet Explorer accesses an object in memory that has been deleted or has not been properly allocated. The vulnerability may corrupt memory in a way that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer. An attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit this vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website.

Microsoft is currently investigating the issue and will likely release an out-of-cycle security patch to take care of the problem. Let's just hope it comes soon, because according to security firm Fire Eye, this means that about 26 percent of the entire browser market is at risk.

And since Windows XP users won't be getting the patch for this fairly threatening bug, anyone still running the now-unsupported software is going to have to cough up some big bucks to stay safe. Source...

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Do you need the world's most secure e-mail?

Is privacy and a secure e-mail on your wish list? How does the "most secure e-mail program" sound to you? Or rather, is that still possible in this post- Snowden era?
I finally received my StartMail beta account a year after I signed up for it and am now among the last of the 50,000 beta testers worldwide to use it for free for 90 days. I am curious: will it live up to its claims?

Short of sending an open invitation to hackers, I am considering testing it in different ways, such as forwarding malicious e-mails to my StartMail account - isn't that what beta testing is meant for anyway?

If privacy is sacred to you, you have probably heard of Lavabit, the Texas- based e-mail provider favored by computer geeks and Edward Snowden, the US National Security Agency leaker. Lavabit voluntarily shut down last August rather than "become complicit in crimes against the American people" by defying orders to hand over the crypto keys to the US authorities.

Lavabit recently lost its contempt of court appeal and founder Ladar Levison is currently busy with his Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for his Dark Mail Initiative, an anti-NSA e-mail protocol with end-to-end encryption that will make it impossible to access anyone's messages. The aim is to clean up and release the source code used to power Lavabit, according to Levison. Full story...

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My students don't know how to have a conversation...

Recently I stood in front of my class, observing an all-too-familiar scene. Most of my students were covertly—or so they thought—pecking away at their smartphones under their desks, checking their Facebook feeds and texts.

As I called their attention, students’ heads slowly lifted, their eyes reluctantly glancing forward. I then cheerfully explained that their next project would practice a skill they all desperately needed: holding a conversation.

Several students looked perplexed. Others fidgeted in their seats, waiting for me to stop watching the class so they could return to their phones. Finally, one student raised his hand. “How is this going to work?” he asked.

My junior English class had spent time researching different education issues. We had held whole-class discussions surrounding school reform issues and also practiced one-on-one discussions. Next, they would create podcasts in small groups, demonstrating their ability to communicate about the topics—the project represented a culminating assessment of their ability to speak about the issues in real time. Full story...

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Internet Explorer users risk having their computers taken over...

A major security flaw affecting several versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser was discovered over the weekend, and the percentage of computer users that could be compromised by the exploit is absolutely staggering.

Bill Gates’ Microsoft Corp. announced on Saturday that Internet Explorer versions 6 through 11 are all vulnerable to a glitch that when properly exploited can give hackers remote access to a victim’s computer.

When combined, versions nine through 11 of the browser accounted for 26.25 percent of all web traffic in 2013, security firm FireEye claimed over the weekend. If all vulnerable versions are accounted for, however, then upwards of 56 percent of the browsers currently in use around the world are reportedly in danger of being exploited.

A person with knowledge of the vulnerability may create a fake website that, when visited, allows the hacker to exploit the bug and break into their target’s machine, Microsoft warned.

"An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights," the company advised. Full story...

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Fisk: The children of Fallujah - the hospital of horrors...

The pictures flash up on a screen on an upper floor of the Fallujah General Hospital. And all at once, Nadhem Shokr al-Hadidi's administration office becomes a little chamber of horrors. A baby with a hugely deformed mouth. A child with a defect of the spinal cord, material from the spine outside the body. A baby with a terrible, vast Cyclopean eye. Another baby with only half a head, stillborn like the rest, date of birth 17 June, 2009. Yet another picture flicks onto the screen: date of birth 6 July 2009, it shows a tiny child with half a right arm, no left leg, no genitalia.

"We see this all the time now," Al-Hadidi says, and a female doctor walks into the room and glances at the screen. She has delivered some of these still-born children. "I've never seen anything as bad as this in all my service," she says quietly. Al-Hadidi takes phone calls, greets visitors to his office, offers tea and biscuits to us while this ghastly picture show unfolds on the screen. I asked to see these photographs, to ensure that the stillborn children, the deformities, were real. There's always a reader or a viewer who will mutter the word "propaganda" under their breath.

But the photographs are a damning, ghastly reward for such doubts. January 7, 2010: a baby with faded, yellow skin and misshapen arms. April 26, 2010: a grey mass on the side of the baby's head. A doctor beside me speaks of "Tetralogy of Fallot", a transposition of the great blood vessels. May 3, 2010: a frog-like creature in which – the Fallujah doctor who came into the room says this – "all the abdominal organs are trying to get outside the body."

This is too much. These photographs are too awful, the pain and emotion of them – for the poor parents, at least – impossible to contemplate. They simply cannot be published. Full story...

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Stop using Microsoft's IE browser until bug is fixed, US and UK warn...

It's not often that the US or UK governments weigh in on the browser wars, but a new Internet Explorer vulnerability that affects all major versions of the browser from the past decade has forced it to raise an alarm: Stop using IE.

The zero-day exploit, the term given to a previously unknown, unpatched flaw, allows attackers to install malware on your computer without your permission. That malware could be used to steal personal data, track online behavior, or gain control of the computer. Security firm FireEye, which discovered the bug, said that the flaw is being used with a known Flash-based exploit technique to attack financial and defense organizations in the US via Internet Explorer 9, 10, and 11. Those versions of the browser run on Microsoft's Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, although the exploit is present in Internet Explorer 6 and above.

While the Computer Emergency Readiness Team in England and the US regularly issue browser advisories, this is one of the few times that the CERT team has recommended that people avoid using a specific browser.

FireEye recommends that if you can't switch browsers, then you disable Internet Explorer's Flash plug-in. You also can use IE with Microsoft's Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit security app, but that will not be as secure as simply switching browsers. Full story...

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Monday, April 28, 2014

Former Merck doctor predicts Gardasil will become ‘greatest medical scandal of all time’

A top physician who used to work for drug giant Merck & Co., creator of the Gardasil vaccine for cervical cancer, has made some groundbreaking public admissions about the dangers and ineffectiveness of this controversial jab. During a recent interview with the French magazine Principes de Sante, Dr. Bernard Dalbergue confessed that Gardasil is a worthless vaccine that not only fails to protect against cervical cancer but also puts individuals at risk of paralysis, encephalitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome and a host of other debilitating ailments.

Suggesting that Gardasil will eventually become recognized as “the greatest medical scandal of all time,” Dr. Dalbergue railed against its approval and continued use, claiming that “everyone” involved with it knows that it’s completely worthless. Dr. Dalbergue also brought up another researcher by the name of Dr. Diane Harper who was involved with both Gardasail and Cervarix, the two approved vaccines for the human papillomavirus (HPV). As we we previously reported, Dr. Harper had previously blown the whistle on the dangers and ineffectiveness of these widely pushed vaccines.

“The full extent of the Gardasil scandal needs to be assessed,” reads an English translation of the interview, which was originally published in French. “[E]veryone knew when this vaccine was released on the American market that it would prove to be worthless! … In addition, decision-makers at all levels are aware of it!” Full story...

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Your chocolate addiction is fuelling child slavery...

Yes, I’m very guilty of indulging in those $9, single-origin chocolate bars with the pretty wrapping paper. They’re so delicious, and I can never believe how much I will pay for the price of pleasure. But the gnarly reality is that I’m helping the unending cycle of child laborers in West Africa; many of whom are pressed into service on cocoa plantations, working long hours for such low pay that advocacy organizations deem as child slavery. Chocolate consumers, we’re all going to hell.

Seventy percent of the world’s cocoa supply is grown in just two countries, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, yet despite global demand for their product, cocoa farmers in those countries earn wages that amount to about a third of what’s considered the poverty line. They can’t afford to hire workers to harvest the cocoa crops, so many pull their children out of school to work with them on the plantations. Even direr are the circumstances under which children from neighboring unstable countries such as Burkina Faso are trafficked across the newly permeable borders of Cote D’Ivoire, which emerged from a tumultuous decade characterized by two civil wars in 2011.

In 2009, the US Department of State estimated that more than 100,000 children worked in Cote D’Ivoire’s cocoa industry, with ten percent of them victims of human trafficking. In 2010, the Department found that over 43 percent of Ghanaian children between the ages of five and 14 worked on cocoa plantations. To get some background on this intensely controversial issue, I spoke with Abby Mills, director of campaigns at the International Labor Rights Forum in Washington, DC. Full story...

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Bernie Ecclestone accused of biggest ever personal tax dodge...

The Inland Revenue made a secret deal with Bernie Ecclestone allowing him to settle a £2 billion tax bill for just £10 million, it has been alleged.

HMRC spent nine years investigating the tax affairs of the Formula One supremo and his family after he transferred a large portion of his assets to his then wife Slavica in 1996.

The money was later transferred into one of the Ecclestone family trusts based in Liechtenstein.

Mr Ecclestone always denied having any control over the trusts, but admitted his tax liability would have been in excess of £2 billion if it could be shown he had some involvement in the funds.

It has now emerged that after splitting from his 6ft 2in second wife in 2009, Mr Ecclestone has been receiving payments from her worth £60 million a year. Full story...

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Obama's cynical Malaysian sojourn...

For anyone in Southeast Asia with an interest in fair, honest and even-handed government, the disappointing visit of President Barack Obama to Malaysia is a victory for political expediency that largely glossed over growing discontent over racial tensions, corruption and abuses of judicial power by the ruling coalition.

Obama, according to most reports, walked a careful line on such issues, roaming the stage at a town meeting with students to tell them the country can’t succeed if minorities are suppressed.

But the president also continued to call the prime minister a friend and reformer. What kind of friend is this exactly?

The fact is that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was a willing perpetrator as defense minister in the looting of the public purse to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars – in bribery and kickbacks from the French munitions maker DCN over a US$1 billion submarine deal, as well as other deals involving patrol boats that were never delivered, Russian Sukhoi jets that cost vastly more than what other countries paid and other equally dubious transactions that have been repeatedly exposed by the opposition and printed on opposition websites, to no avail.

On top of that, Najib heads a country that is slipping backwards fast on human rights issues, with its most prominent opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, facing jail for the second time on what are clearly bogus charges of sexual deviance and another, Karpal Singh, who was about to be railroaded out of parliament on specious sedition charges when he was killed in a car accident. Full story...

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Microsoft rushes to fix Internet Explorer after attacks; no fix for Windows XP users...

Microsoft is rushing to fix a bug in its widely used Internet Explorer web browser after a computer security firm disclosed the flaw over the weekend, saying hackers have already exploited it in attacks on some US companies.

PCs running Windows XP will not receive any updates fixing that bug when they are released, however, because Microsoft stopped supporting the 13-year-old operating system earlier this month. Security firms estimate that between 15 and 25% of the world's PCs still run Windows XP.

Microsoft disclosed on Saturday its plans to fix the bug in an advisory to its customers posted on its security website, which it said is present in Internet Explorer versions 6 to 11. Those versions dominate desktop browsing, accounting for 55% of the PC browser market, according to tech research firm NetMarketShare.

Cybersecurity software maker FireEye said that a sophisticated group of hackers have been exploiting the bug in a campaign dubbed "Operation Clandestine Fox." Full story...

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Former Malaysian PM Mahathir lays blame on Boeing for MH370 disappearance...

(...)

“The loss of the plane is due to the makers, Boeing. How can Boeing produce a plane that is so easily disabled?” he said.

Dr Mahathir said in an era where passenger planes can be tracked on mobile phone, and spy satellites operated by some countries can photograph and identify a person on the ground, Boeing must explain how all these means of tracking the plane “can be disabled, can fail”.

“Either Boeing technology is poor, or it is not fail-safe,” he said.

“I would not like to fly in a Boeing aircraft unless Boeing can explain how all its system can fail or be disabled.”

Dr Mahathir said Boeing, a multinational corporation based in Chicago, must “demonstrate possible ways for the communication system to be disabled”.

“Boeing must accept responsibility for building an aircraft that can disappear in mid-air so completely,” he said. Full story...

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Bangladeshi factory collapse survivor: "Do Americans want us to die?"

Aklima Khanam’s story is a familiar one in Bangladesh. She is among the country’s 4 million workers who stitch together clothes for the world’s multibillion-dollar garment industry. She was also one of the more than 3,000 workers who were in the Rana Plaza factory when it collapsed a year ago.

She didn’t want to enter the building that day. There was a crack. It looked unstable. But a quota of 24,000 pieces needed to be filled. And so, facing verbal and physical abuse from the factory’s bosses, and threats to withhold wages, she and her coworkers hesitatingly went in.

A few hours later, the roof collapsed onto the building, and Khanam was trapped under a machine for 12 hours.

“When I was crushed, I was terrified,” she said. “I didn’t think I was going to live anymore.”

(...)

This lack of action is why Khanam, with the help of the United Students Against Sweatshops, made the over 8,000 mile trek from Dhaka to the United States to share her story.

“If I don’t tell people, then you won’t be able to know what actually happened,” Khanam told America Tonight. “You won’t be able to know what the situation of the Bangladeshi worker is.”

Along her journey, she visited stores like Walmart and Children’s Place, and was struck by the costs. “They make a lot of money and we make so little. I saw a T-shirt that was selling for $55. We don’t even get half of that.” Full story...

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Nigerian abducted girls' families fast losing hope of rescue...

The families of more than 230 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by Islamist insurgents more than 10 days ago say they are fast losing hope of seeing their daughters again despite government assurances they will be found.

The mass abduction of the girls watched over by government soldiers is the most devastating in a series of recent attacks on state schools – and comes as the government debates extending a year-long state of emergency across three north-eastern states from which the militants have operated for five years. On the same day as the kidnappings, a massive bombing by Boko Haram insurgents killed more than 75 commuters hundreds of miles south on the outskirts of the capital.

The girls, who were mostly between 16 and 18 years old, were rounded up at gunpoint after militants overpowered a military guard assigned to a boarding school in Chibok, in north-eastern Borno state. They had just finished their final school exams. The school was the only one still open in the area following threats and attacks by Boko Haram, whose ideology opposes both so-called western education, and particularly women's education. Full story...

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Sunday, April 27, 2014

Demented Tony Blair recites the Saudis' creed in his latest speech...

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the core group of al-Qa'ida, may well chortle in disbelief if he reads a translation of Tony Blair's latest speech on the Middle East delivered last week. If Blair's thoughts are used as a guide to action, then the main beneficiaries will be al-Qa'ida-type jihadist movements. Overall, his speech is so bizarre in its assertions that it should forever rule him out as a serious commentator on the Middle East. Reading it, I was reminded of a diplomat in Joseph Conrad's Secret Agent called Mr Vladimir who fancies himself an expert on revolutionaries: "He confounded causes with effects; the most distinguished propagandists with impulsive bomb throwers; assumed organisation where in the nature of things it could not exist."

The speech, entitled "Why the Middle East matters", is about the threat from radical Islam, what it consists of and how it should be countered. Mr Blair says that "there is a titanic struggle going on within the region between those who want the region to embrace the modern world and those who, instead, want to create a politics of religious difference and exclusivity." On one side stand those who want "pluralistic societies and open economies", on the other those who want to impose an exclusive Islamic ideology.

Here the reader might suppose that Blair is building up towards some sharp criticism of Saudi Arabia and its fundamentalist Wahhabi creed. What could be more opposed to pluralism in politics and religion than a theocratic absolute monarchy such as Saudi Arabia which is so notoriously intolerant of other versions of Islam, such as Shi'ism, as well as Christianity and Judaism, and is, moreover, the only place in the world where women are not allowed to drive? Here is the home country of 15 out of 19 of the 9/11 hijackers and of the then leader of al-Qa'ida, Osama bin Laden, whose religious views are rooted in mainstream Wahhabism. Full story...

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India leads the world in Facebook censorship...

Facebook (FB) published its second transparency report on Friday morning, and this one includes more than just instances of governments seeking information about social network users. Now Facebook also reveals times when governments restrict access to content because it violates local laws. As an example, Facebook cites German laws against Holocaust denial. Sure enough, German authorities asked Facebook to restrict such content 84 times in the last six months of 2013.

But by far the most censorious government was India, where Facebook said authorities restricted content 4,765 times. India’s approach to Internet speech has been a flash point for years, with the government saying it wants to regulate content that is offensive to religious or ethnic groups, and companies such as Facebook and Google (GOOG) bristling at the restrictions. Turkey also ranks high on the list, which is unsurprising given its recent attempts to restrict Twitter (TWTR) use.

(...)

In large part the countries asking for information were the same ones asking for material to be taken down. Of the eight countries issuing the most requests for user information, six of them also asked that some content be taken down locally. The exceptions were the U.S. and Brazil, whose governments are very curious but apparently not so censorious. Full story...

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Victory for mom who sued TSA over breast milk screening...

The Transportation Security Administration has agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a lawsuit with a Hermosa Beach mother who sued the agency after a disagreement over breast milk at a security checkpoint.

The settlement will be finalized next month. As part of the agreement, TSA screeners will have to be retrained on how to deal with mothers traveling with breast milk.

Surveillance video from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport shows Stacey Armato, 34, arriving at a TSA checkpoint with two containers of breast milk. Armato didn't want the milk to be X-rayed, so she asked for an alternate screening. She says that touched off a 40-minute ordeal at the hands of several TSA agents.

"I was told right off the bat that the milk had to go through either X-ray or to be thrown in the trash," said Armato.

Armato had just given birth to a baby boy when the surveillance video was shot back in January 2010. Full story...

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How a 700-page economics book surged to No. 1 on Amazon...

"Capital in the Twenty-First Century," at first glance, seems an unlikely candidate to become a best-seller in the U.S. After all, it's 700 pages long, translated from French, and analyzes centuries of data on wealth and economic growth.

But the book, from economist Thomas Piketty, is now No. 1 on Amazon.com's best-seller list, thanks to rave reviews and positive word of mouth. Beyond that, however, the book has something else going for it: "Capital" has hit a nerve with Americans with its message about income inequality.

An economics book becoming a best-seller is "unusual, and it speaks to the fact that Piketty is addressing a really fundamental issue," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. "He has his finger on a great dynamic, and is changing the terms of our discussion. Rather than asking why low-wage workers are not doing well, it focuses on the wealthy and the role of capital."

The main thrust of the book is that, in the jargon of economists, the rate of return on capital has far outstripped the rate of economic growth. The book also portrays the post-World War II period of economic progress across all classes as an anomaly, not the norm.

The result: mounting income inequality, as the wealthiest Americans gain a growing share of the nation's economic spoils -- and political power. Full story...

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Rise of the 'super workers' who never take time off...

A ‘super’ working class is emerging made up of well-educated rich people who work longer hours than the poor and who do not see leisure time as preferable to the office, research suggests.

Oxford University has found that working hours for the rich have risen substantially since the 1960s.

Economists claim that as better educated people more away from manual jobs, work has become more satisfying both intellectually and emotionally, meaning they don’t feel the need for as much time off.

Whereas once leisure time was a symbol of social power, as typified by the 19th century gentleman, many high fliers today see it as a sign of indolence and unemployment.

“The best educated men used once to work much shorter hours for pay, an echo, still in the 1960s, of the end-of-the 19th century leisure-class ideology,” the report authors write. Full story...

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Saturday, April 26, 2014

Saudi princess calls for uprising against ruling regime...

One of the daughters of Saudi King Abdullah has called on people across the kingdom to rise against the ruling regime.

The eldest daughter, Sahar, who is under house arrest along with three of her sisters in the city of Jeddah, said in a video message that victory is theirs.

“Greetings to martyrs and to free men in jail. It is an honor for me to learn the meaning of freedom, rights and dignity from you revolutionary people,” the 42-year-old Saudi princess said.

“We promise to follow in your footsteps and not to let go of your hands. God’s hand will be above us. We learn determination from Ayatollah Nimr al-Nimr, the Sheikh of free men. For this reason, we will press ahead on the path by our own will,” she added.

She was referring to prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was arrested over calls for the release of political prisoners. More + video...

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Singapore match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal arrested in Finland...

Convicted football match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal is being held by Finnish police on an international arrest warrant, officials say.

The Singaporean has already served time in Finland for match-fixing.

After his release he was extradited to Hungary where he was believed to have been assisting police.

Perumal has admitted being a key part of a Singaporean-based syndicate which he said rigged matches both at club and international level.

Singaporean authorities confirmed on Thursday that they were making efforts to extradite Perumal.

Police said in a statement that they had been "notified of the developments in Finland" and were "currently working with the relevant authorities".

It is not clear to what the extradition request refers. Full story...

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