Tag: InternationalNews

{The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world — but not in the United States — that allows the U.S. to conduct surveillance on those machines, The New York Times reported Tuesday.}

The Times cited NSA documents, computer experts and U.S. officials in its report about the use of secret technology using radio waves to gain access to computers that other countries have tried to protect from spying or cyberattacks. The software network could also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks, the Times reported.

The Times reported that the technology, used by the agency for several years, relies on radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted covertly into the computers. The NSA calls the effort an “active defense” and has used the technology to monitor units of China’s army, the Russian military, drug cartels, trade institutions inside the European Union, and sometime U.S. partners against terrorism like Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan, the Times reported.

Among the most frequent targets of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, the Times reported, has been China’s army. The United States has accused China’s army of launching regular attacks on American industrial and military targets, often to steal secrets or intellectual property. When Chinese attackers have placed similar software on computer systems of American companies or government agencies, American officials have protested, the newspaper reported.

The NSA says the technology has not been used in computers in the U.S.

“NSA’s activities are focused and specifically deployed against — and only against — valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements,” Vanee Vines, an agency spokeswoman, said in a statement to the Times. “We do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of — or give intelligence we collect to — U.S. companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.”

Parts of the program have been disclosed in documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the former NSA systems analyst, the Times reported. A Dutch newspaper published the map showing where the United States has inserted spy software, sometimes with the help of local authorities. Der Spiegel, a German newsmagazine, published information about the NSA’s hardware products that can secretly transmit and receive signals from computers, according to the Times.

The Times said that it withheld some of those details, at the request of U.S. intelligence officials, when it reported in summer 2012 on American cyberattacks on Iran.

China’s ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to faxed queries from The Associated Press seeking comment on the article. Chinese officials in the past have stressed that China is a victim of international cyber-espionage and have pushed for international coordination on controlling such espionage.

Zhu Feng, an international security expert at Peking University, said: “Those spying activities show that the U.S. says one thing while doing another thing, and the spying activities are being conducted in an irregular way without rules. Other countries may follow suit, leading to a fierce arms race on the Internet. So, it is time to set up rules and regulations in cyberspace with coordination from the international community.”

{BRITAIN has granted asylum to an atheist from Afghanistan due to fears he would be prosecuted back home, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind. }

The unnamed man was brought up a Muslim but after arriving in Britain in 2007 at the age of 16 gradually lost his faith, according to the university whose law school helped his case.

His leave to remain was due to expire in 2013 but he feared being sent back to Afghanistan, where he risked being prosecuted for abandoning his faith.

The man’s case was taken up by Kent Law Clinic, a free service provided by students from the University of Kent in southeast England and supervised by qualified lawyers.

Claire Splawn, the undergraduate law student who prepared his case, said they argued that an atheist should be entitled to protection “in the same way as a religious person is protected.”

Her supervisor, Sheona York, added that they were “absolutely delighted for our client”, who had originally come to Britain after a conflict with his family.

“We believe that this is the first time that a person has been granted asylum in this country on the basis of their atheism,” she said.

“The decision represents an important recognition that a lack of religious belief is in itself a thoughtful and seriously-held philosophical position.”

In a submission to the Home Office, the lawyers included detailed evidence that the man’s return to Afghanistan could result in a death sentence for being an apostate unless he remained discreet about his atheist beliefs.

They argued that remaining discreet would be virtually impossible, however, because every aspect of daily life and culture in Afghanistan is permeated by Islam.

A Home Office spokeswoman refused to comment on an individual case, but said Britain had a “proud history” of granting asylum to those who needed it.

Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, welcomed the government’s action.

“Freedom of belief for humanists, atheists and other non-religious people is as important as freedom of belief for the religious, but it is too often neglected by Western governments who focus too narrowly on the rights of Christians abroad, as we have seen recently,” he said.

“It is great to see Britain showing a lead in defending the human rights of the non-religious in the same way.”

news.com.au

{ Israel’s defense minister was quoted Tuesday as deriding U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s Mideast peace efforts as naive and foolhardy, triggering an angry response from Washington and rekindling simmering tensions with Israel’s closest and most important ally.}

The quotes appeared ahead of another visit by Kerry, who is expected in the region in the coming weeks to deliver his ideas on a framework for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Kerry has already submitted to Israel a series of proposals for ensuring Israel’s security as part of a future peace deal.

In the comments published by the Yediot Ahronot daily, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon called Kerry “obsessive” and “messianic” and dismissed Kerry’s security plan as worthless.

“The only thing that might save us is if John Kerry wins the Nobel Prize and leaves us be,” Yaalon was quoted as saying.

Yaalon is a former military chief of staff and close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Since becoming defense minister last year, a position of great influence in Israel, he has been a vocal skeptic of Kerry’s peace efforts. In his public statements, he has said Israel has “no partner” for peace and questioned the Palestinian commitment to resolving years of conflict.

Asked about the report, Yaalon issued a statement saying that relations with the U.S. are “intimate and meaningful” for Israel.

“The United States is our greatest friend and our strongest ally and when there are differences they are resolved behind closed doors, including with Secretary Kerry with whom I have many conversations about the future of Israel. I will continue to determinedly, responsibly and thoughtfully protect the security of the people of Israel,” Yaalon said. His office would neither confirm nor deny the comments in Yediot, and repeated requests for additional comment were not answered.

Late Tuesday, Yaalon’s office issued a second statement in which the defense minister expressed appreciation for Kerry’ peace efforts.

“The defense minister had no intention to cause any offense to the secretary, and he apologizes if the secretary was offended by words attributed to the minister,” the statement read.

Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders scrambled to distance themselves from Yaalon, while the U.S. condemned the reported comments as “offensive and inappropriate.”

The U.S. Embassy in Israel has complained about the reported comments to the Israeli government, said a senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss the matter on the record.

Under heavy American pressure, Israel and the Palestinians resumed substantive peace talks last July for the first time in nearly five years. So far, there have been no signs of progress, and the talks have been marred by finger pointing by both sides.

With an April target date for an agreement approaching, Kerry has said he will soon return with bridging proposals for a framework deal. In recent weeks, both sides appear to have hardened their positions. During a visit to Israel this week, Vice President Joe Biden said both sides have “difficult decisions” to make.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in 1967, for an independent state. Netanyahu wants to keep parts of the West Bank and says he will not share control of east Jerusalem, home to sensitive Muslim, Jewish and Christian religious sites. He has also insisted that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, a condition they say would undermine the rights of Palestinian refugees and Israel’s own Arab minority.

In Tuesday’s report, Yaalon said there have not been any direct talks with the Palestinians in months, and that the only communications have been through American mediators. He also expressed deep skepticism about Palestinian intentions, saying peace could only be reached if the Palestinians accept Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.

But his harshest comments were on Kerry’s security proposals for the West Bank, which were drawn up by his security adviser, former Gen. John Allen, and dozens of other experts.

“The American plan for security arrangements that was shown to us isn’t worth the paper it was written on,” Yaalon is quoted as saying. “Secretary of State John Kerry — who arrived here determined, and who operates from an incomprehensible obsession and a sense of messianism — can’t teach me anything about the conflict with the Palestinians.”

The U.S. plan includes a limited Israeli presence in the West Bank, but relies heavily on sensors, satellites and drones, according to Palestinian officials. Israel has demanded it be allowed to retain an on-the-ground presence along the eastern border with Jordan to prevent weapons smuggling or potential invasion by Arab armies.

The report quoted Yaalon as telling Kerry that technology was no substitute for ground troops when confronting militants.

“What are you talking about?” the defense minister was quoted as saying. “You presented us with a plan that is based on sophisticated technology, on satellites, sensors, war rooms with television screens —without a presence of our troops on the ground. And I ask you_how will technology respond when a Salafist or Islamic Jihad cell tries to commit a terror attack against Israeli targets? … Which satellites will handle the rocket industry developing today … that will be fired at Tel Aviv and central Israel?”

“Relations between the United State and Israel are intimate and important to us. The United States is our greatest friend and most important ally, and when there are disagreements we air them inside the (discussion) room, including with Secretary of State Kerry, with whom I have held many discussions about the future of Israel,” Yaalon said in a statement to the media.

In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Yaalon’s comments, if accurate, were “offensive and inappropriate,” given everything the U.S. is doing to support Mideast peace efforts. He said Kerry and his team have been working nonstop because the U.S. is deeply concerned about and committed to Israel’s future.

“To question Secretary Kerry’s motives and distort his proposals is not something we would expect from the defense minister of a close ally,” Carney said.

It was the latest twist in what has frequently been a strained relationship between Netanyahu and the Obama White House. The two leaders have appeared uncomfortable together and often disagreed over issues like Israeli settlement construction on lands claimed by the Palestinians and American positions on the peace talks with the Palestinians. During one recent visit, Kerry said settlement construction raises questions about Israel’s commitment to peace in comments broadcast on national TV.

Netanyahu has also been an outspoken critic of the U.S.-led efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program, saying they don’t go far enough.

In a speech at parliament marking the body’s 65th anniversary Monday, Netanyahu appeared to distance himself from his defense minister. “The United States is our great ally,” he said. “Even when we have disagreements there are always related to an issue, not a person.”

President Shimon Peres also devoted his comments at the ceremony to the strong bond with the U.S. “The unusual determination of Secretary of State Kerry to reach peace reflects and serves Israel’s deep desire for peace and a chance to mutual understanding,” he said.

But dovish leaders took harsh aim at Yaalon, saying he had caused damage to the country’s most important relationship. Isaac Herzog invoked the name of Yitzhak Rabin, the former prime minister who was assassinated in 1995 by an ultranationalist Jew opposed to his peace efforts with the Palestinians.

“We will always remember the strong bond with the United States that Yitzhak Rabin believed in. He knew to give respect to our friends and supporters overseas and never call them messianic, strange and obsessive or any other offensive names,” he said.

AP

{After years living in the shadow of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to lift the 2013 Ballon d’Or at today’s award ceremony in Zurich, pipping the Argentine and Franck Ribery in the process.}

National team coaches and captains as well as journalists from around the world have voted for the winner, with an initial 23-man shortlist being reduced to three last month.

Messi is a contender to win the trophy for a fifth successive year, but few are talking about the Barcelona star this time, with Bayern Munich’s Ribery hoping his remarkable season at club level gives him the edge against the goalscoring exploits of Real Madrid and Portugal’s Ronaldo.

According to Daily Nation News, this year’s prize has been marred by a voting controversy, after the original November 15 deadline was extended by Fifa and co-organisers France Football magazine “on account of an insufficient number of votes having been received”.

{The first lady of France, Valerie Trierweiler, has been hospitalized since Friday following allegations that President Francois Hollande has been having an affair with a French actress, a top member of Trierweiler’s staff said.}

Patrice Biancone, head of Trierweiler’s Elysee office, told CNN, “She needed rest. We are hoping that she will leave the hospital at the beginning of this week.”

He said that the first lady entered a hospital after allegations surfaced in the French tabloid Closer linking Hollande romantically to actress Julie Gayet.

“We all know why she went in after the story came out,” said Biancone, clearly making the link between the revelations of the magazine and Trierweiler’s hospitalization.

Trierweiler and Hollande are not married but live together, and she makes official state appearances. They met when she was a reporter for Paris Match magazine, a publication she still works for.

Hollande, 59, left his longtime common-law wife, Segolene Royal — the mother of his four children — for Trierweiler, 48, before the 2012 presidential election.

Closer reported Hollande had been slipping out of the back door of the Elysee Palace and hopping on a motor scooter driven by a bodyguard to Gayet’s apartment. The magazine also reported the bodyguard brought croissants to the apartment one morning.

Hollande has not denied the affair but has threatened legal action.

Le Parisien first reported Trierweiler has been hospitalized since Thursday. The paper said the full story will appear in Monday’s edition.

CNN

{ Israel beefed up security for former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s funeral near the Gaza border on Monday and warned the enclave’s Palestinian rulers not to allow rocket fire during the ceremony, which U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will attend.}

Sharon died at the age of 85 on Saturday after eight years in a coma caused by a stroke. A memorial service will be held on Monday in parliament in Jerusalem and an afternoon funeral near the Sharon family farm some 10 km (6 miles) from Gaza.

The United States was among 18 countries to send delegations to the state ceremony for Sharon in Jerusalem. The White House said Biden would also travel to the burial at Sycamore Farm’s Poppy Hill, in the southern Negev desert.

An Israeli security source said Israel had “passed the message” to Gazan authorities to prevent any rocket fire during the funeral. Gaza is governed by Hamas Islamists who fought several times with Israel over the past few years.

“It was made clear to them that tomorrow would be a very bad day for anyone there to test Israel’s patience,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

There was no immediate response from the Hamas government or other armed Palestinian factions. Egyptian officials, who in the past have served as mediators between Israel and Gaza, were unavailable for comment.

A Reuters correspondent heard two explosions in northern Gaza on Monday morning which sounded like rocket impacts. An Israeli military spokeswoman said there had been no launches across the border. Israeli media said the blasts appeared to have resulted from Palestinian militants testing their weapons.

At times of heightened tension Israel steps up aerial patrols of Gaza with combat helicopters and drones designed to spot Palestinian rocket crews and hit them with guided missiles before they can carry out launches.

Security sources said Israel had deployed an Iron Dome rocket interceptor near Sycamore Farm, which has been hit by Gaza-launched rockets in the past.

The rockets are often inaccurate and carry small warheads, causing relatively little damage. When fired in salvoes they spread panic and paralyze routine life in south Israel.

BIDEN, NETANYAHU TO TALK STRATEGY

How to handle Gaza is among the sticking points in Israel’s U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas’s rival based in the occupied West Bank.

During his brief visit to Israel, Biden will discuss the so far fruitless diplomatic efforts with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, U.S. officials said.

The vice president will also seek to ease Netanyahu’s concerns about world powers’ interim nuclear deal with Israel’s arch-foe Iran, which takes effect on January 20.

Biden is seen by Israel and its U.S. supporters as one of its best friends in Washington in a career dating back to his decades on Capitol Hill, where he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before assuming the vice presidency.

He led a U.S. delegation to the funeral that included Congress members Eliot Engel of New York and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. He was also accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and former ambassador Daniel Kurtzer.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who took office in 2009 and made his first presidential visit to Israel last year, did not come. The only trip of his presidency to pay his respects to a foreign leader was last month, when he and First Lady Michelle Obama went to South Africa to attend a memorial service for former president Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon he hailed as an inspiration for his own career in public service.

Biden, who has held talks with more than half a dozen Israeli prime ministers over the years, last met Sharon in 2005.

Israel’s Army Radio said there had been no intelligence indications that Palestinians were planning to shell Sharon’s funeral. Yet authorities braced for any surprise.

“We are taking the full range of possible scenarios into account,” southern police commander Yoram Halevy told the station. “The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is prepared, informed and ready to respond if so required.”

Since a 2012 eight-day war with Israel, which killed some 170 Palestinians and six Israelis, Hamas has largely held fire but smaller militant groups have occasionally challenged its authority with their own rocket attacks into the Jewish state.

Reuters

{The body of Ariel Sharon, Israel’s hard-charging former prime minister and general will be brought to Israel’s parliament building in Jerusalem where it will lie in state, a day after his death aged 85.}

The prime minister’s office said in a statement early on Sunday that the coffin will be brought to the Knesset later in the day.

“The public will be able to pay its respects until 18:00 (16:00 GMT),” it said.

Thousands of Israelis are expected to pay tribute at the Knesset, police said.

A state memorial is planned for Monday with the participation of Israeli and world leaders, the prime minister’s office said.

US Vice President Joe Biden, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Prime Minister Jiri Rusnok, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and others will attend, it added.

Afterwards Sharon’s body will be taken by military convoy for burial at his ranch.

One of Israel’s most controversial figures, Sharon had been in a coma for eight years after a devastating stroke incapacitated him at the peak of his political power.

‘Pariah’

Celebrated as a military hero by some, recognised as a pragmatic politician by others and despised as a bloodthirsty criminal by his foes, Sharon was a polarising figure at home and abroad.

News of his death and tales of his exploits dominated Israel’s newspapers and TV stations on Sunday.

Sharon’s career stretched across Israel’s 65-year existence and his life was closely intertwined with the country’s history.

As one of Israel’s most famous generals, Sharon was known for bold tactics and an occasional refusal to obey orders.

Sharon was once known chiefly as a ruthless military leader who fought in all of Israel’s major wars, before switching to politics in 1973 and championing the development of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

He was long considered a pariah for his personal but “indirect” responsibility in the 1982 massacre of hundreds of Palestinians by Israel’s Lebanese Phalangist allies in Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

Source:
Agencies

{To Iran, the United States was the “Great Satan,” while Washington slammed Tehran as a “rogue state” that was part of an “axis of evil.” }

But as chaos engulfs the Middle East, the two are cautiously eyeing ways to work together.

An ideological chasm separates the Shiite Islamic republic from its long-time enemy in the West, yet overlapping concerns from Afghanistan to Syria and even Iraq are sowing the seeds of a hesitant rapprochement.

Restoring full diplomatic ties, severed some 35 years ago amid the 1979 storming of the US Embassy in Tehran and the painful 444-day hostage-taking, remains far off on a distant horizon.

But the willingness of the Obama administration to engage in secret negotiations in Oman last year and the new leadership of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have already borne fruit, facilitating an interim deal in November on reining in Iran’s nuclear program.

“There is a high degree of pragmatism in the way the two countries are approaching each other, and it partly arises from a lack of other options,” said John Bradshaw, executive director of the National Security Network.

“The US has strong allies, like Israel, but is looking to find other pragmatic ways to help us achieve our goals,” he told AFP.

Afghanistan is one place where the concerns of both countries converge, with neither wanting to see the Taliban regain power.

And there is historic precedent, highlighted Alireza Nader, senior international policy analyst with the RAND Corporation, pointing to their cooperation in setting up a post-Taliban government in 2001 and 2002.

Both countries are also “concerned about narcotics emanating from Afghanistan. That is a huge problem for Iran, ” he said.

“If the nuclear issue is resolved, I see that possibly as the best case for cooperation.”

Agencies

{Devyani Khobragade, an Indian diplomat whose recent arrest in New York stirred outrage in her home country, was allowed to leave the United States on Thursday after being indicted on two criminal charges related to her housekeeper.}

Khobragade, who was India’s deputy consul-general in New York, was arrested on Dec. 12 and indicted Thursday by a grand jury for visa fraud and making false statements about how much she paid her housekeeper.

The US State Department had asked India’s government to waive Khobragade’s immunity so that she could be prosecuted, a US government official said on the condition of anonymity, but the request was refused. The State Department then told her she had to leave the country.

At a court hearing late Thursday, Khobragade’s lawyer, Daniel Arshack, told US District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin that he had asked his client not to leave the country until he had informed the judge presiding over her case that she had diplomatic immunity.

Arshack said Khobragade, whose nighttime flight from Kennedy Airport was delayed a couple of hours before finally taking off, was “pleased to be returning to her country.”

“Her head is held high,” the lawyer said. “She knows she has done no wrong and she looks forward to assuring that the truth is known.”

Allegations of mistreatment

Authorities say Khobragade claimed to pay her Indian maid $4,500 per month but gave her far less than the US minimum wage. The indictment said Khobragade had made multiple false representations to US authorities, or caused them to be made, in order to obtain a visa for a personal domestic worker.

Her arrest set off protests in India after it surfaced that she had been handcuffed and strip-searched. The dispute soured broader US-India relations, leading to sanctions against American diplomats in New Delhi and the postponement of visits to India by senior US officials and another by a US business delegation.

The maid, Sangeeta Richard, said in her first public statements Thursday that she had decided to come to the US to work for a few years to support her family and then return to India.

“I never thought that things would get so bad here, that I would work so much that I did not have time to sleep or eat or have time to myself,” she said in a statement released by the anti-trafficking group Safe Horizon.

She tried to return to India because of how she’d been treated, she said, but her request was refused.

“I would like to tell other domestic workers who are suffering as I did – you have rights and do not let anyone exploit you,” said Richard, who has been vilified in India and accused of blackmailing her employer.

Khobragade has denied the accusations.

In a letter to the judge on Thursday, prosecutors said there was no need for an arraignment because Khobragade had “very recently” been given diplomatic immunity status; they also mistakenly said she’d already left the United States.

A spokesman for prosecutors later clarified that the mix-up came because the State Department advised that she was to have left the country Thursday afternoon.

The charges will remain pending until she can be brought to court to face them, through a waiver of immunity or her return to the US without immunity status, the letter from the office of US Attorney Preet Bharara said.

Arshack said he was pleased the State Department had recognized Khobragade’s diplomatic immunity.

He said the confusion over whether his client had left the country was “emblematic of the series of blunders which has contributed to the false charges brought against her.” He said Khobragade did not make any false statements and paid her domestic worker what she was entitled to be paid.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, REUTERS)