Search Results for “https:” – Page 736

Doctors Without Borders closes all operations in Somalia after 22 years

“Somalia’s embattled government, selected in November in a UN-backed process, was hailed at the time by the international community as offering the best chance for peace in Somalia since the collapse of central government in 1991. A 17,700-strong African Union force fighting alongside the national army has forced Shebab fighters from a string of towns in the past two years. But Somalia’s often rag-tag security forces, incorporating multiple militia forces into its ranks, has also been repeatedly accused by rights groups of a string of abuses.” Continue reading →

Muslim Brotherhood pushes for more protests after bloody ‘Day of Rage’

“The Muslim Brotherhood defiantly called for a week of protests across Egypt starting on Saturday, a day after more than 100 people died in clashes between Islamists and the security forces. Undeterred by the bloodshed in which about 700 have been killed since Wednesday, the Brotherhood urged its supporters back onto the streets to denounce the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and a crackdown on his followers. Saudi Arabia threw its weight behind the army-backed government on Friday, accusing its old foe the Muslim Brotherhood of trying to destabilize Egypt. The Coptic Church authority ‘strongly supports the Egyptian police and armed forces’.” Continue reading →

Federal authorities now targeting lie detector coaches

“Federal authorities have launched investigations against instructors advertising training for people looking to beat lie detector tests. ‘Nothing like this has been done before,’ one Customs official, John Schwartz, said of ‘Operation Lie Busters’ at a polygraphers’ conference in June in Charlotte, North Carolina. ‘Most certainly our nation’s security will be enhanced. There are a lot of bad people out there.’ Schwartz did acknowledge in his speech that teaching someone how to beat a polygraph test is not illegal. ‘When you identify insider threats and you eliminate insider threats, then that agency is more efficient and more effective,’ Schwartz said in June.” Continue reading →

Bloomberg endorses fingerprinting housing project residents for their own good

“New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) put forward an idea on Friday to install fingerprint scanners in the city’s Housing Authority projects. ‘If you have a stranger walking in the halls of your apartment building, don’t you want somebody to stop and say, ‘Who are you? Why’re you here?’ Bloomberg asked host John Gambling. WLNY-TV also reported on Friday that Bloomberg followed through on his promise to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that the city’s heavily-panned ‘stop and frisk’ policy was unconstitutional. ‘What does she know about policing? Absolutely zero,’ Bloomberg told Gambling, referring to District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin.” Continue reading →

PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder Phil Zimmermann on the surveillance society

“Right now Moore’s Law is being accelerated in a specific direction by policy pressures. The policy pressure of creating more surveillance as response to the 9/11 attacks. We have to work harder to push back on policies that 9/11 brought us. It is time to re-examine the Patriot Act and re-examine everything. We need engineers and technologists to guide technology in the right direction and not optimize for surveillance. I would like to see a pushback, both on the technology and policy fronts. The engineers tend to be more aware of these problems and they need to be politically aware of the dangers of developing tools of surveillance.” Continue reading →

Steve Gibson: The Lesson of Lavabit

“I am impressed that Ladar chose to shutdown his service rather than continue to promise something that he now unequivocally knew was no longer secure in the face of law enforcement’s quasi-legal incursions. It would have probably been better if he hadn’t attempted to offer security that was beyond his ability to provide. During my weekly Security Now! podcast with Leo Laporte, we use the acronym ‘TNO’ (Trust No One) to refer to any system where readily available cryptographic technology is properly employed in such a fashion that it is not necessary to trust the behavior of any third party.” Continue reading →

The Devolution of Financial Privacy

“It’s been no secret that China views FATCA very unfavorably and negotiations towards compliance are going nowhere. It seems unlikely that the US would hit China with the 30% withholding tax for non-compliance. With China holding roughly $1.2 trillion in US Treasuries, it’s not as if it lacks its own leverage over the US government. This leaves the FATCA juggernaut stuck in a Sino-US standoff. It appears the US will have to either make serious concessions to win China over or back down on the 30% non-compliance tax. Should China stand its ground and not compromise on FATCA, it would punch a massive hole in global compliance.” Continue reading →

Romanian princess indicted in northwestern U.S. cockfighting ring

“John W. Walker is a former sheriff’s deputy and the group faces charges ranging from conspiracy to violate the federal Animal Welfare Act to illegal gambling. Irina Walker is the middle daughter of Romania’s King Michael I and Queen Anne. She is fifth in line for the throne of that country. She was born in Switzerland. King Michael abdicated the throne in 1947, but the family still owns a quartet of castles in the former Soviet-occupied country. Prosecutors say that the farm where the fights took place is subject to federal forfeiture because it was used for a criminal enterprise. Irina and John Walker each face years of prison time and millions of dollars in fines.” Continue reading →