Tag: InternationalNews

{{Italian police have arrested at least 50 people in a big anti-Mafia operation in the coastal region near Rome.}}

About 500 police officers, backed by dog units, a helicopter and coastal patrol boats are involved.

A police operation was also launched in the southern Calabria region, a hotbed of ‘Ndrangheta Mafia crime.

The Rome crackdown, focused on the coastal suburb of Ostia, is said to be the largest yet in or near the capital. Three crime clans are being targeted.

Italy’s Corriere della Sera says a “mortal blow” has been delivered to the Fasciani, Triassi and D’Agati clans, who have dominated organised crime for years in that region.

The Triassi clan is reported to have close ties to the Sicilian Cosa Nostra crime network.

Police had been able to monitor the mafiosi not only as they met to settle disputes and divide up territory, but also as they planned murders, Italian media report.

The operation in the south led to 65 arrests, including doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs, Italy’s Ansa news agency reports.

Last October Italy’s central government sacked the entire council of Reggio Calabria, the biggest city in Calabria province.

The tightly-knit ‘Ndrangheta operates across Europe and has connections with Colombian drug cartels. It is seen as more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia.

BBC

{Australia’s government has issued images of refugees set for transfer to PNG where they are due to be processed}

{{The UN refugee agency has said it is troubled by Australia’s agreement with Papua New Guinea(PNG) in which any asylum-seekers attempting to reach Australia will have their claims processed in PNG and be resettled there if approved.}}

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a written statement issued on Friday that there were significant shortcomings in the legal framework for receiving and processing asylum-seekers from Australia.

“With regard to the new measures, UNHCR is troubled by the current absence of adequate protection standards and safeguards for asylum seekers and refugees in Papua New Guinea,” the statement said.

“Australia’s Regional Resettlement Arrangement (RRA) with the Government of PNG raises serious, and so far unanswered, protection questions.”

The UNHCR’s concerns follow claims by a former senior official at one of Australia’s detention camps in Papua New Guinea that asylum seekers had been raped and tortured.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Graeme McGregor, a refugee campaign coordinator for Amnesty International Australia, said that the allegations by Rod St George, the former head of occupational health and safety at the at the Manus Island processing centre should be fully investigated.

{aljazeera}

{{Japan should strengthen the ability of its military to deter and counter missile attacks, including the possible acquisition of the ability to hit enemy bases, the Defence Ministry said, but officials denied this would be used for pre-emptive strikes.}}

The proposal – Japan’s latest step away from the constraints of its pacifist constitution – is part of a review of defense policy by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government, which released an interim report on the issue on Friday. Final review conclusions are due by the end of the year.

The hawkish Abe took office in December for a rare second term, pledging to bolster the military to cope with what Japan sees as an increasingly threatening security environment, including an assertive China and an unpredictable North Korea.

The report by a defense ministry panel echoed concerns aired in Japan’s latest defense white paper about North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, and China’s military build-up and increased activity by its ships and aircraft near disputed islands in the East China Sea – where Japanese and Chinese vessels and planes have been playing cat-and-mouse.

Given Japan’s strained ties with China over the tiny islands and Tokyo’s wartime history, Beijing could react strongly to the proposals, which come after Abe cemented his grip on power with a big win in a weekend election for parliament’s upper house.

The Defence Ministry panel said it was necessary to comprehensively strengthen “the ability to deter and respond to ballistic missiles”. Officials denied, however, that this implied Japan would make pre-emptive strikes.

The line between the ability to hit enemy targets and make pre-emptive strikes is primarily political and philosophical, and Japanese officials typically avoid the latter term.

“There is no change at all to our basic policy of exclusively defensive security policy,” Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters.

“The issue of capability to strike enemy targets surfaces as we discuss what kind of defense measures we can take when multiple attacks have been mounted against our country.”

In the Japan-U.S. security alliance, Japan acted as a shield while the United States shouldered the capability to strike enemy bases, he added, but changing security risks needed study.

“Broad-based debate, including one between Japan and the United States, is needed on the issue amid the changing security environment,” Onodera said. “Of course, we are not assuming pre-emptive strikes.”

agencies

{{News from US, indicates that Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged five men responsible for a hacking and credit card fraud spree that cost companies more $300 million and two of the suspects are in custody, in the biggest cyber crime case filed in U.S. history.}}

They also disclosed a new security breach against Nasdaq, though they provided few details about the attack.

Other companies targeted by the hackers include a Visa Inc licensee, J.C. Penney Co, JetBlue Airways Corp and French retailer Carrefour SA, according to an indictment unveiled in New Jersey.

Authorities have been pursuing the hackers for years. Many of the breaches were previously reported, though it appeared the one involving Nasdaq OMX Group Inc was being disclosed for the first time.

Prosecutors said they conservatively estimate that the group of five men from Russia and Ukraine helped steal at least 160 million payment card numbers, resulting in losses in excess of $300 million.

Authorities in New Jersey charged that each of the defendants had specialized tasks: Russians Vladimir Drinkman, 32, and Alexandr Kalinin, 26, hacked into networks, while Roman Kotov, 32, mined them for data. They allegedly hid their activities using anonymous web-hosting services provided by Mikhail Rytikov, 26, of Ukraine.

Russian Dmitriy Smilianets, 29, is accused of selling the stolen data and distributing the profits. Prosecutors said he charged $10 for U.S. cards, $15 for ones from Canada and $50 for European cards, which are more expensive because they have computer chips that make them more secure.

The five hid their efforts by disabling anti-virus software of their victims and storing data on multiple hacking platforms, prosecutors said. They sold payment card numbers to resellers, who then sold them on online forums or to “cashers” who encode the numbers onto blank plastic cards.

“This type of crime is the cutting edge,” said New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman. “Those who have the expertise and the inclination to break into our computer networks threaten our economic wellbeing, our privacy and our national security.”

The indictment cited Albert Gonzalez as a co-conspirator. He is already serving 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to helping mastermind one of the biggest hacking fraud schemes in U.S. history, helping steal millions of credit and debit cards.

Prosecutors say the defendants worked with Gonzalez before his arrest in Miami, then continued on a crime spree after his capture.

Drinkman and Smilianets were arrested in June 2012, while traveling in the Netherlands, at the request of U.S. authorities. Smilianets was extradited last September and is expected to appear in New Jersey Federal court next week. Drinkman is awaiting an extradition hearing in the Netherlands.

Prosecutors declined comment on the whereabouts of the other three defendants.

Tom Kellermann, a vice president with security software maker Trend Micro, said he thinks the prospects are dim that they will be caught because authorities in some countries turn a blind eye to cyber criminals.

“There is an enormous shadow economy that exists in Eastern Europe. In some countries, sophisticated hackers are seen as national assets,” he said.

Kalinin and Drinkman were previously charged in New Jersey as “Hacker 1” and “Hacker 2” in a 2009 indictment charging Gonzalez in connection with five breaches.

wirestory

{{Pope Francis has criticised drug legalisation plans in Latin America during the inauguration of a clinic for drug addicts in Rio de Janeiro.}}

The roots of drug abuse should be tackled, he said on the third day of his visit to Brazil.

Uruguay is close to allowing the legal sale of marijuana, with other countries pondering similar liberalisation.

Earlier, the Argentine-born pontiff celebrated the first Mass of his trip, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida.

He warned tens of thousands of faithful against the “passing idols” of money, power and pleasure.

After the visit to Aparecida, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, the pope flew back to Rio de Janeiro.

At the inauguration of a drug rehabilitation clinic at the Sao Francisco hospital, he hugged former addicts and heard their stories.

{wirestory}

{{After four Dutch citizens were detained in Murmansk last weekend for “homosexual propaganda” amid repeated calls by activists for a boycott of the upcoming Olympic Games, concerns are mounting over the impact Russia’s recently passed “gay propaganda” law may have on this winter’s games in Sochi — for tourists, athletes and for Russia’s reputation abroad.}}

The strongest call for a boycott in recent days came from prominent U.S. playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein, who in an op-ed for The New York Times on Monday compared Russia to Nazi Germany.

If the international community does not put pressure on Russia over the law, he said, the consequences could be the same as the Holocaust.

The law, which stipulates fines of 4,000 rubles to one million rubles ($124 to $31,000) for promoting homosexuality among minors, was signed by President Vladimir Putin in late June, and it has been provoking a wave of criticism from Western politicians and international human rights groups ever since then.

Fierstein’s comments were republished and quoted by various Western media sources, as well as by many gay rights activists in response to the news on Tuesday that four Dutch tourists had been detained for shooting a documentary on gay rights in Russia.

After a hearing was adjourned on Monday, the Federal Migration Service banned the four Dutch tourists from coming to Russia for three years, saying they violated the law by participating in the Youth Human Rights Camp in the Murmansk region, where they interviewed a 17-year-old boy about homosexual relationships.

That was the first time the law was applied to foreigners, leading to fears that tourists in Russia could be detained for actions they may not consider to be “gay propaganda” in their own country.

Fierstein warned that anybody police suspected of being gay could be detained.

“Just six months before Russia hosts the 2014 Winter Games, Mr. Putin signed a law allowing police officers to arrest tourists and foreign nationals they suspect of being homosexual, lesbian or ‘pro-gay’ and detain them for up to 14 days. … The law could mean that any Olympic athlete, trainer, reporter, family member or fan who is gay — or suspected of being gay, or just accused of being gay — can go to jail,” he wrote.

Judging by the wording of the law, however, Fierstein’s fears may be unwarranted, as homosexual propaganda is described as “spreading information aimed at shaping non-traditional sexual behavior, promoting the attractiveness of nontraditional relations, distorting understanding of social equivalency of traditional and nontraditional sexual behavior, imposing information about nontraditional sexual relations, provoking interest in such relations.”

Although the law uses rather vague wording, it makes clear that homosexual propaganda is defined as a deliberate spreading of information, meaning if a gay tourist comes to Russia and does not plan to spread information in support of the gay lifestyle, the law restricting homosexual propaganda would not apply.

Human rights activists say it is unclear how much leeway authorities have in applying the law, however, and that any leeway is too much.

Several Western countries have warned gay travelers to be cautious if traveling to Russia.

The U.S. State Department has issued a warning saying there was widespread discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Russia and that gay individuals might be subject to harassment, threats, or violence.

A Canadian travel agency also warned gay tourists about the possible dangers of traveling to Russia.

“For Canadians — where same-sex marriage is legal — it is unfathomable that Russia’s laws permit the government to arrest and detain gay, or pro-gay, foreigners for up to 14 days before they would then be expelled from the country,” the Canadian Travel and Escape agency said in an article published on its website.

The agency asked what many others are thinking: “And how are these new laws going to impact tourism and the world’s spotlight on the upcoming 2014 Winter Games in Sochi? Will LGBT visitors — or anyone who embraces the gay community — want to visit the games?”

The Canadian Foreign Ministry also issued a statement, saying that homosexuals and their supporters can be targets of violence, perhaps a reference to the killing of a 23-year-old gay man in the southern city of Volgograd in May — a killing that investigators say was prompted by the man coming out to his friends as gay.

The Australian Olympic Committee told athletes that Australian officials could not guarantee gay athletes traveling to Sochi protection from persecution or arrest, though the IOC charter would act as a safeguard for athletes, The Australian reported Wednesday.

Boris O. Dittrich, Advocacy Director of the LGBT Rights Program run by Human Rights Watch, wrote a letter to the International Olympic Committee in June, asking the committee to put pressure on Russia so that it would withdraw the anti-gay legislation, since the law was “incompatible with the Olympic Charter’s promotion of human dignity.”

The International Olympic Committee issued a statement in response in which it said it would ensure that “the Games take place without discrimination against athletes, officials, spectators or the media.”

But according to Lilia Shevtsova, a political analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, such calls for an Olympic boycott have the larger goal of fueling international scrutiny.

“These calls are being made to draw the attention of the leaders of Western states [to the issue], not the athletes,” Shevtsova said.

“In such a way, world leaders are being encouraged to ignore the Sochi Olympics just like they ignored the UEFA Euro 2012 in Ukraine to show their dissatisfaction with former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko’s conviction.”

Shevtsova said that the anti-gay legislation was just one development damaging Russia’s reputation abroad and that other issues include the conviction of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the law requiring NGOs that receive foreign funding and engage in political activity to register as “foreign agents.”

As for whether or not a boycott was actually feasible, however, Shevtsova was skeptical, saying it was unlikely that Western leaders would ignore the Sochi Games, since Russia plays an important role in international institutions, including the U.N. Security Council.

Igor Reichlin, head of Reichlin & Partners, a company specializing in reputation management, said that even if there were a boycott, it probably would not have its intended effect.

“The calls to boycott may influence some people’s decision not to come to the Olympics, and even if some countries decided to boycott, it wouldn’t be a great tragedy, because from time to time some countries boycott the Games in other countries as well,” Reichlin said.

As for gay tourists hoping to attend the games, Reichlin said the main thing was that they be informed of the gay propaganda law.

“Gays definitely don’t correspond to the values and norms set by Russian authorities, but that doesn’t mean that when they come to Russia they must comply with Russian values, they should just be informed [by their governments] that within Russia’s political system they may be outlawed,” he said.

Both analysts agreed that it was impossible for Russia to change the attitude of Western states in the months leading up to the Olympics, regardless of the PR strategies used, because the question of Russia’s image really boils down to political differences.

In what was perhaps a strange coincidence, however, the Russian government issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the budget funds allocated to promote Russia’s image abroad would be increased significantly in the near future.

But the image makeover Russia needs may require much more than budget allocations, analysts say.

“In order to change Russia’s image, Navalny must be acquitted, the Russian government must apologize for its crackdown on NGOs and democracy must be established in this country,” Shevtsova said.

The Moscow Times

{{Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday the European Union had given Israel justification to attack Lebanon by blacklisting the armed wing of his group, and would bear responsibility for any Israeli military action.}}

The bloc agreed earlier this week to list what it described as the military wing of the Lebanon-based militant group as a terrorist organization, in response to a deadly bus bombing in Bulgaria last year and Hezbollah’s role in Syria’s civil war.

“These countries must know … that they have given legal cover to Israel for any aggression against Lebanon. Why? Because Israel can then say ‘We are waging war on terrorism’,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

“These countries have made themselves a full partner in responsibility for any Israeli aggression against Lebanon,” he said in the speech delivered by video link from an undisclosed location.

Nasrallah has been living in hiding, for fear of assassination, since his Shi’ite Muslim group fought an inconclusive month-long war with Israel in 2006, triggered by Hezbollah’s cross-border attack on an Israeli frontier patrol.

He said the EU move would have no practical effect on Hezbollah itself, laughing off the impact of any travel ban and dismissing any attempt to freeze Hezbollah funds.

Hezbollah, he said, had no money in banks – “neither as a party nor as individuals” – and no trade interests, investments or companies in Lebanon or abroad that could be affected by such measures.

“The aim of this decision is to subdue us, force us to retreat … to fear. But I say to you that through this decision you will achieve only failure and disappointment,” he said.

“Anyone who thinks that a resistance group that confronted the strongest army in the region for 33 days … would submit to a stupid decision is delusional and ignorant.”

Hezbollah denies any involvement in last July’s attack in Bulgaria, in which five Israelis and their driver died, and says the European Union surrendered to U.S. and Israeli pressure. The Bulgarian interior minister said last week Sofia had no doubt the group was behind the attack.

In support of its bid to impose sanctions, Britain also cited a four-year jail sentence handed down by a Cypriot court in March to a Hezbollah member accused of plotting to attack Israeli interests on the island.

Hezbollah has a dozen members of parliament and two ministers in Lebanon’s caretaker cabinet, as well as thousands of armed fighters. But it says it is a unified movement and makes no distinction between military or political wings.

EU diplomats have not specified which elements of Hezbollah would be targeted by the decision, nor whether Nasrallah himself is considered part of Hezbollah’s military or political operations.

{agencies}

{{A train derailed outside the ancient northwestern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela on Wednesday evening, killing at least 77 people and injuring up to 131 in one of Europe’s worst rail disasters.}}

Bodies covered in blankets lay next to the overturned carriages as smoke billowed from the wreckage. Firefighters clambered over the twisted metal trying to get survivors out of the windows, while ambulances and fire engines surrounded the scene.

The government said it was working on the assumption the derailment, which occurred on the eve of the city’s main religious festival, was an accident.

Sabotage or attack was unlikely to be involved, an official source said, though the devastation will have stirred memories of a train bombing in Madrid in 2004, carried out by Islamist extremists, that killed 191 people.

The source said speeding may be the cause of the derailment.

The Santiago de Compostela train operated by state rail company Renfe with 247 people on board derailed as the city prepared for the festival of Saint James, when thousands of Christian pilgrims from across the world pack the streets.

The city’s tourism board said all festivities, including the traditional High Mass at the centuries-old cathedral, were cancelled as the city went into mourning following the crash.

“It was going so quickly. … It seems that on a curve the train started to twist, and the wagons piled up one on top of the other,” passenger Ricardo Montesco told Cadena Ser radio station.

“A lot of people were squashed on the bottom. We tried to squeeze out of the bottom of the wagons to get out and we realized the train was burning. … I was in the second wagon and there was fire. … I saw corpses,” he added.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, will visit the site on Thursday morning, his spokeswoman said.

“In the face of a tragedy such as just happened in Santiago de Compostela on the eve of its big day, I can only express my deepest sympathy as a Spaniard and a Galician,” Rajoy said in a statement.

reuters