Daily Archives: February 3, 2014

Hackers Sue German Government Over NSA Spying

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անգելա մերկելA group of computer hackers and human rights campaigners in Germany announced Monday that they are suing their government for allegedly breaking the law by aiding foreign spies.

The Chaos Computer Club and the International League for Human Rights submitted a criminal complaint to federal prosecutors claiming that Chancellor Angela Merkel, her government and security officials tolerated and even helped members of the U.S. National Security Agency and Britain’s GCHQ to spy on German citizens.

While the German government has expressed misgivings about some of the reported allegations and is seeking to negotiate a ‘no-spy’ agreement with the United States, opposition lawmakers have accused Merkel’s administration of failing to put sufficient pressure on Washington for fear of jeopardizing diplomatic relations and intelligence cooperation.

 

Dancing dragons, fantastic costumes and a feast of fireworks: Spectacular pictures from Chinese New Year across the world

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People around the world headed to the streets to celebrate the Chinese New Year, and to welcome the Year of the Horse.

Chinese New Year, which began on Friday, is the most important holiday in the country’s calendar with residents getting a week-long holiday. But this year celebrations were relatively low-key in China.

Chinese festivities normally begin with extravagant fireworks displays, which are believed to bring good luck and dispel evil spirits. However, as smog has blanketed parts of central and eastern China over the last few months, officials called on residents to buy fewer fireworks in order to lessen air pollution in the country.

Even the New Year galas, which are shown on state television, were reduced in scale in keeping with President Xi Jinping’s call for frugality, Reuters reported.

The holiday was also marked in cities around the world.

Sydney kicked off a week of festivities with a parade through the city’s centre attended by 100,000, according the City of Sydney Council.

The parade featured rocking horses, jockeys and a giant Trojan horse all moving to the sounds of pop song Horses, by Daryl Braithwaite. In keeping with the Year of the Horse celebrations, even the mounted police got a cheer from the crowd, according to AAP.

New York’s celebrations saw 5,000 participate in a parade through the streets of Chinatown. Magicians, acrobats, and dragon puppeteers spilled out into nearby streets.

Man arrested after allegedly threatening to kill George W. Bush

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A New York man armed with a rifle, boxes of ammunition and a machete was arrested Friday after allegedly threatening to kill former President George W. Bush, according to a federal court complaint.

Benjamin Smith, a resident of upstate New York, threatened to “kill, kidnap and inflict bodily harm” on Bush, the complaint said.

Smith also professed a love interest in Barbara, one of the former president’s twin daughters, according to the complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The U.S. Secret Service was alerted to the threat after Smith’s mother found a note in the home they share in which he allegedly wrote that he’s “going to work for George W. Bush and the Pentagon,” the complaint said.

Smith also allegedly wrote: “I have to slay a dragon and then Barbara Bush is mine… America is finished. Obama, Etc.”

On Friday, agents found Smith sitting in his car in Manhattan, with a loaded .38-caliber rifle, two boxes of ammunition, a container of gasoline and a machete, according to authorities.

During questioning, Smith told Secret Service agents, “I’m divorced and not currently seeing anyone, but I am working on a relationship with Barbara Bush,” the complaint said.

Threats against presidents of the United States are a federal crime.

Volcanic ash smothers part of Indonesia, kills 15

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The 15 victims simply couldn’t outrun the searing debris that billowed out of Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung.

Plumes of ash had spewed more than a mile into the sky Saturday and descended in superheated clouds. Scalding ash up to 700 degrees in temperature raced down the slope in just two to three minutes.

By the end of several eruptions, at least 15 people had been killed, a government official told CNN. It was the first time Mount Sinabung’s volcanic output had resulted in deaths, the Jakarta Post reported.

The victims, and at least three other injured people, were all found in Sukameriah, a village close to the volcano’s crater, disaster mitigation agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told CNN.

Eruptions at Mount Sinabung are becoming common. After about 400 years of minimal volcanic activity there, Sinabung erupted in 2010. It has been emitting gas since September.

The newest volcanic activity has forced people to evacuate 16 villages, the Jakarta Post reported. At least 30,000 people have been temporarily housed at 42 evacuation centers, according to Billy Sumuan, the emergency response director in Indonesia for the humanitarian group World Vision.

Former Grit Cabinet ministers could run in next election

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Sarkis AssadourianBy ABBAS RANA |

Published: Monday, 01/27/2014 12:00 am EST
(Page 2 of 2)

“As you know, there is an open nominations process. We are surely noticing a lot of interest from people to run for the Liberal Party and are looking forward to the beginning of the nomination process,” wrote Ms. Lyne-Hallé.
“This also shows that the interest of Canadians for the Liberal Party and its leader Justin Trudeau across the country is strong and increasing and that Canadians are looking for a change in politics.”
Meanwhile, three-term former Liberal MP Sarkis Assadourian, who did not seek re-election in the 2004 federal election and has since been out of federal politics, is already running a nomination campaign in the Ontario riding of Richmond Hill against Elizabeth Wilfert, wife of former Liberal MP Bryon Wilfert.
Mr. Assadourian, 66, is seeking the Liberal nomination in the Ontario riding of Richmond Hill. Currently represented by Conservative MP Costas Menegakis, the riding was previously represented by five-term former Liberal MP Bryon Wilfert. He lost the last federal election and is now working for Tactix, a government relations and public affairs firm in Ottawa as a strategic adviser.
Mr. Wilfert told The Hill Times last week that he decided not to seek re-election because he’s in the process of receiving an honorary diplomatic appointment from a foreign country in Canada, which restricts him from seeking any political office in the country.
Mr. Assadourian served as an MP from 1993 until 2004. He was first elected in the riding of Don Valley North and then twice in Brampton Centre. Prior to the 2004 federal election, then-party leader Paul Martin appointed Ruby Dhalla as a “star” Liberal candidate who served until the last election when she was defeated by Conservative MP Parm Gill.
The Martin government appointed Mr. Assadourian as a citizenship judge in 2005. Currently, he’s a member of the Ontario Deputy Judges Council.
Mr. Assadourian ran unsuccessfully in the 2010 Richmond Hill municipal election, finishing fifth out of seven candidates for a council seat.
Ms. Wilfert is currently the president of the College of Dieticians of Ontario.
As of last week, no nomination date had been fixed but already potential candidates have been campaigning.
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The Hill Times