IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Facebook Ordered to Remove Paedophile Page

    {{A Facebook page set up to monitor paedophiles has been removed after a judge in Northern Ireland ruled that it risked infringing the human rights of a convicted sex offender.}}

    The man, who cannot be identified, started legal proceedings against the social networking site after discovering his photograph and threatening comments had been posted on the page.

    High Court judge Bernard McCloskey ruled some content on the page amounted to prima facie harassment of the man, known only as XY.

    The man had previously been given a six-year jail sentence for a string of child sex offences committed more than 20 years ago.

    Judge McCloskey said: “Society has dealt with the plaintiff in accordance with the rule of law.

    “He has been punished by incarceration and he is subject to substantial daily restrictions on his lifestyle.”

    The judge in his ruling gave Facebook 72 hours to take the original page down.

    A spokeswoman for Facebook said: “We are considering our next steps in light of the court judgment and we have nothing further to add at this stage.”

    The page, called ‘Keeping our kids safe from predators’, was no longer visible at 20:00GMT but a new page entitled ‘Keeping our kids safe from predators 2′ had appeared, gaining over 2,400 likes in just a few hours.

    It is not clear whether the creator of the new page is the same as the user that set up the original one.

    However, the new page’s administrator wrote in a posting at 15:30GMT: “Thats (sic) the first page gone sad day.”

    More than 5,000 people had liked the original page before its removal.
    Some of the latest posts were written after the judge made his ruling.

    Facebook is understood to have removed the man’s photo and comments made about him but his legal team insisted that the page should be shut down.

  • Israel to Build 3000 Homes in East Jerusalem

    {{Israel has authorised the construction of 3,000 more housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to Israeli officials.}}

    It is also speeding up the processing of 1,000 extra planning permissions.

    The Palestinian Authority has said it will not return to peace talks without a freeze in settlement building.

    The decision comes a day after a vote at the UN General Assembly upgraded the Palestinians’ status at the UN to that of non-member observer state.

    According to the Israeli Haaretz newspaper, some of the new units will be between Jerusalem and the settlement of Maaleh Adumim.

    Plans to build settlements in the area, known as E1, are strongly opposed by Palestinians, who say settlements will cut the West Bank in two, preventing the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.

    The move is a first indication of Israeli anger, less than 24 hours after the vote on Palestinian status was held at the UN.

    The Palestinians may well have been expecting this – or something like it – but it’s a reminder that the gulf between the two on the settlement issue remains huge, our correspondent adds.

    {Wirestory}

  • Assange Rejects Questions on Free Press

    {{WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange declined to discuss government abuse of the press by the country that has been shielding him from arrest in a press interview that was more remarkable for what he didn’t say than any revelations about his plight.}}

    In a sometimes combative interview Wednesday on “OutFront with Erin Burnett,” Assange described strategic surveillance by governments as a “sea change in politics” that puts freedoms at risk.

    When pushed about Ecuador’s press freedom record, described by the Committee to Protect Journalists as one of the worst in Latin America, Assange said: “Its people have been generous to me, but it’s not a significant world player.”

    “Whatever little things occurring in small countries are not of concern,” he said. “We must concentrate on what is happening in the entire civilization of the world.”

    Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in June to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he raped one woman and sexually molested another.

    Assange has said he fears Sweden will transfer him to the United States, where he could face the death penalty for the work of WikiLeaks.

    He has repeatedly said the allegations are politically motivated and tied to the work of his website, which facilitates the publication of secret documents. WikiLeaks has published hundreds of thousands of pages of American government diplomatic cables and assessments of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    He has not been charged in the United States, though Assange and his supporters claim a U.S. grand jury has been empanelled to consider charges against him.

    Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, 24, has been charged with leaking classified military and State Department documents while serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq.

    Assange nor WikiLeaks have ever confirmed Manning was the source.

    Assange appeared on the CNN news show to promote a new book he co-authored: “Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet,” which examines the threat of the Internet.

    He wrote the book with Jacob Appelbaum, Jeremie Zimmermann and Andy Muller-Maguhn.

    The interview turned testy when he declined to discuss Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s press freedom record.

    Correa, according to CPJ, has shuttered 11 local radio stations and had a record of filing lawsuits in civil and criminal courts as a means of intimidation.

    “It’s not the topic of what we are doing here,” Assange said, adding that he agreed to appear on the show to discuss “the surveillance state.”

    During the interview, Burnett asked Assange whether he felt any guilt about the plight of Manning or concern he might broker a plea deal that could implicate him.

    Assange deflected the questions and focused on the effort of Manning’s attorney to get the case dismissed over alleged abuse the private suffered to implicate him and WikiLeaks.

    “As far as we know, there has been no such confession.”

    Assange also declined to answer questions about his health following comments from Ecuador’s ambassador to the UK that the WikiLeaks founder is suffering a chronic lung infection.

    “I don’t think it’s important,” Assange said.

    Assange has been effectively confined for the past five months to the Ecuadorian Embassy, which granted him asylum in August. The move sparked a diplomatic row with the UK, which has said it will arrest Assange if he leaves the embassy.

    The UK says it has a legal obligation to hand Assange over to Sweden, after his legal effort to avoid extradition were rejected by British courts.

    CNN

  • Palestine Assumes UN ‘Observer State’

    {{The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday endorsed an upgraded U.N. status for the Palestinian Authority, despite intense opposition from the United States and Israel.}}

    The resolution elevates their status from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state,” the same category as the Vatican, which Palestinians hope will provide new leverage in their dealings with Israel.

    Its leaders had been working with dozens of supporting nations to develop a formal draft, enlisting the backing of European countries such as France and Spain.

    The vote was 138 delegates in favor of the measure, nine against and 41 abstentions, including Germany.

    Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the move, which many call symbolic, represents a “last chance to save the two-state solution.”

    It comes on the heels of an eight-day conflict that raged between Israel and Hamas fighters, where a series of airstrikes and rocket launches drew international attention and threatened regional stability.

    “We did not come here seeking to delegitimize a state established years ago, and that is Israel; rather we came to affirm the legitimacy of the state that must now achieve its independence, and that is Palestine,” he said.

    But Israel’s U.N. ambassador Ron Prosor said the move largely ignores the specifics of longstanding issues, such as settlements in disputed lands, and cannot substitute for direct negotiations between Jerusalem and Ramallah.

    This resolution “doesn’t pursue peace,” Prosor said, criticizing Abbas for being unable to represent the Gaza Strip, where a Hamas-controlled government presides.

    “It pushes it backwards,” he said.

    Izzat Al-Rashq, a member of the Hamas’ political bureau, welcomed the decision but made demands reflecting Hamas’ unwillingness to recognize the state of Israel.

    “We need to put this in its normal context as a part of the National Strategic vision based upon the rights and national principles without compromising an ounce of soil from our Palestinian lands extending from the Ocean to the (Jordan) river,” he posted to his Facebook page.

    He called for the establishment of a Palestinian state “with Jerusalem being its capital” on land that includes what is Israel.

    The effort stalled last year when it became apparent that the bid could not get the necessary support in the Security Council. Observer state status does not require Security Council approval, unlike full membership recognition.

    The observer status resolution needs only a majority of the U.N.’s 193 members to approve.

  • Syrian Rebels Kill Ruling Party Official with Bomb

    {{Syrian rebels bombed the house of a top member of the country’s ruling Baath party in the south on Thursday, killing him and his three body guards, activists said.}}

    The bombing took place in Daraa, where the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011.

    Since then, rebels have targeted regime figures and military commanders in the capital, Damascus, and in other places around the country.

    The increasing frequency of bombings, a hallmark of Islamic extremists like al-Qaida, has led to concerns about the growing role of Islamist militants in the civil war.

    Early Thursday, rebels detonated a car bomb near the house of Hussein Rifai in Daraa, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, killing Rifai and his bodyguards.

    The Observatory relies on reports from activists on the ground.

    Syria state-run SANA news agency reported the bombing in Daraa. It said there were casualties in the blast, but did not say if Rafai was among those killed.

    The bombing in Daraa came a day after twin suicide car bombs ripped through a Damascus suburb minutes apart, killing at least 34 people and wounding more than 80 others.

    Damascus, the seat of Assad’s power, has been the scene of scores of car bombs and mortar attacks targeting state security institutions and troops, areas with homes of wealthy Syrians, army officers, security officials and other members of the regime.

    In May, two suicide car bombers blew themselves up outside a military intelligence building in Damascus, killing at least 55 people.

    In July, a bomb hit a building in which Cabinet ministers and senior security officials were meeting, killing the defense minister and his deputy, who was Assad’s brother-in-law.

    A former defense minister also died in the attack.

    The revolt in Syria started as peaceful protests but turned into a civil war after brutal crackdowns on dissent by Assad’s forces. Activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed.

  • Adebayor Threatens to Quit International Football

    {{Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor has threatened to quit international football if his country’s football federation continues refusing to pay its players the money it owes them.}}

    Adebayor says that he and his teammates have not been paid for playing in an international friendly in Casablanca, Morocco earlier this month.

    According to the Tottenham player, the Moroccan FA has confirmed paying an amount of 35,000 Euros to the Togolese FA as payment for the players, but the president of the Togolese FA has refused to release the money to the players.

    “In our FA, everyone thinks about their own pockets. Some players have not received their money, some have received half of it.

    If this does not change, then I will retire from international football and many will stop playing for our country,” said Adebayor.

    “Players come to me to ask about their money. It is a shame. I asked the Moroccan Federation how much they paid our Togolese FA. They told me that they paid €35,000 to President Ameyi.

    The president has the money because the Moroccan FA will not lie to me. If this continues, then no one will play for others to fill their pockets.”

    Striker Emmanuel Adebayor scored the only goal of that game as Togo defeated the Moroccans 1-0 .

  • World Wont End December 21st

    {{The Maya people did not really mark their calendar for the end of the world on December 21, 2012.}}

    As tourists book hotels rooms in Mexico’s Maya Riviera and Guatemalan resorts ahead of next month’s fateful date, experts are busy debunking the doomsday myth.

    The apocalyptic prophecy that has inspired authors and filmmakers never appears in the tall T-shaped stone calendar that was carved by the Maya around the year 669 in southeastern Mexico.

    In reality, the stone recounts the life and battles of a ruler from that era, experts say. Plus, the last date on the calendar is actually December 23, 2012, not the 21st, and it merely marks the end of a cycle.

    So no need to build giant arks, because the terrible floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions depicted in the Hollywood blockbuster “2012″ were not prophesied by the Mayas.

    “The Mayas had a cyclical idea of time. They were not preoccupied with the end of the world,” Mexican archeologist Jose Romero told AFP.

    The stone, known as Monument 6, was located in El Tortuguero, an archeological site that was discovered in 1915.

    Broken in six pieces, the different fragments are exhibited in US and Mexican museums, including Tabasco’s Carlos Pellicer Camara Anthropology Museum and New York’s Metropolitan Museum.

    The first study on the stone was published by a German researcher in 1978. Since then, various archeologists have examined its significance and agree that it refers to the December 23 date.

    “The last inscription refers to December 23, 2012, but the central theme of Monument 6 is not the date, it’s not the prophecies or the end of the world. It’s the story of (then ruler) Bahlam Ajaw,” Romero said.

    The final date represents the end of a cycle in the Mayan long count calendar that began in the year 3114 before Christ. It is the completion of 13 baak t’uunes, a unit of time equivalent to 144,000 days.

    “It is not the end of the Mayan long count calendar, which is endless. It’s the beginning of a new cycle, that’s all,” said Mexican historian Erick Velasquez.

    Though the Maya made prophecies, they looked at events in the near future and were related to day-to-day concerns like rain, droughts, or harvests.

    The belief that the calendar foresees the end of the world comes from Judeo-Christian interpretations, the experts said.

    Velasquez warned against giving too much weight to Monument 6, noting that it is just one of more than 5,000 stones from the Mayan culture that have been studied.

    The Earth still has a few years left, even in eyes of the ancient Maya: Some stones refer to the year 7000.

  • Parents Learn of Daughter’s Death on Facebook

    {{In The Unite States, parents of a college freshman who was found dead on campus say they found out about her death on Facebook.}}

    Jasmine Benjamin, a 17-year-old nursing student at Valdosta State University from Lawrenceville, Ga., was found dead in a study area in her dorm on Nov. 18.

    According to CBS Atlanta, police are treating the death as a homicide, pending the results of an autopsy.

    Jasmine’s parents say the school did not inform them of her death, learning about it instead through a friend’s Facebook post.

    “For someone to be so insensitive not to reach out to the family, it’s very, very hurtful to say the least,” James Jackson, Jasmine’s stepfather, told the network.

    School officials say campus police notified Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department, which then notified her parents.

    Jackson said police told him that Jasmine “had been dead for at least 12 hours before she was found, because passers-by thought she was simply sleeping on the study room couch,” adding to the family’s frustration.

    “That’s the most disturbing part,” Jackson said. “What kind of school is this that they know someone’s laying on the couch to go check on them after a certain amount of hours?”

    The parents told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution late last week that they were initially told their daughter died of natural causes.

    “To find out it was a homicide and that somebody actually murdered our daughter changed everything,” Jackson said. “It was like hearing the news all over again.”

    In a statement released Monday, the university said it is “continuing to work with law enforcement agencies in their ongoing investigation.”

    {Wirestory}

  • Mars scientists keeping lid on discovery

    {{The Mars rover Curiosity has found something noteworthy in a pinch of Martian sand. But what is it?}}

    The scientists working on the mission are not saying. Outside that team, lots of people are guessing.

    The intrigue started last week when John Grotzinger, the mission’s project scientist, told National Public Radio: “This data is going to be one for the history books. It’s looking really good.”

    And then he declined to say anything more.

    Fossils? Living microbial Martians? Maybe the carbon-based molecules known as organics, which are the building blocks of life?

    That so much excitement could be set off by a passing hint reflects the enduring fascination of both scientists and nonscientists with Mars.

    “It could be all kinds of things,” said Peter Smith, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona who was the principal investigator for NASA’s earlier Phoenix mission to Mars. “If it’s historic, I think it’s organics. That would be historic in my book.”

    Grotzinger and other Curiosity scientists will announce their latest findings on Monday in San Francisco at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

    Do not expect pictures of Martians, though.

    Guy Webster, a spokesman for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which operates Curiosity, said the findings would be “interesting” rather than “earthshaking.”

    Whatever is revealed will be linked to the work of Curiosity’s sophisticated chemistry laboratory instrument, Sample Analysis at Mars — SAM, for short. The rover’s robotic arm dropped the first bit of sand and dust into the instrument on Nov. 9, and the scientists have been analyzing and contemplating ever since.

    One of the main goals of SAM is to identify organic molecules, but it would be a big surprise for organics to show up in a first look at a sand sample selected more as a test exercise than with the expectation of a breakthrough discovery.

    Curiosity will be headed toward layers of clays, which could be rich in organics and are believed to have formed during a warm and wet era early in the planet’s history. But Curiosity has months to drive before arriving at those locations.

    The Curiosity scientists have learned through experience that it pays to double-check their results before trumpeting them. An initial test of the Martian atmosphere by the same instrument showed the presence of methane, which would have been a major discovery, possibly indicating the presence of methane-generating microbes living on Mars today.

    But when the scientists ran the experiment again, the signs of methane disappeared, leading them to conclude that the methane found in the first test had come from air that the spacecraft had carried to Mars from its launching spot in Florida.

    Webster, who was present during the interview with NPR, said Grotzinger had been talking more generally about the quality of data coming back from Curiosity and was not suggesting that the data contained a breakthrough surprise.

    “I don’t think he had in mind, ‘Here’s some particular chemical that’s been found,’ ” Webster said. “That’s not my impression of the conversation.”

    “I do want to temper expectations,” Webster said. “But then again, I don’t know exactly what they’re going to say they’ve found.”

  • Syria Rebels Down Chopper with New Missiles

    {{Syrian rebels downed an army helicopter for the first time on Tuesday with a newly-acquired ground-to-air missile, in what a watchdog said could be a turning point in the 20-month-old conflict.}}

    “It is the first time that the rebels have shot down a helicopter with a surface-to-air missile,” Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said of the gunship, which was on a strafing run near a besieged northwestern base.

    The Sheikh Suleiman base, 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Aleppo, is the last garrison in government hands between Syria’s second city and the Turkish border.

    Amateur footage posted by activists on YouTube showed a helicopter plunging to the ground in a ball of flames as rebel fighters shouted: “We hit it, God is greatest.”

    The Observatory said the missile was part of a consignment newly received by the rebels that had the potential to change the balance of military power in the conflict.

    Little more than a week ago, the rebels seized tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, 120-mm mortars and rocket launchers when they took the government forces’ sprawling Base 46, about 12 kilometres (eight miles) west of Aleppo.

    The rebels, a mix of military defectors and armed civilians, are vastly outgunned but analysts say they are now stretching thin the capabilities of Assad’s war machine and its air supremacy by opening multiple fronts.