WorldEuropean Governments in Crisis over US Spying Revelations
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- Published on Thursday, 13 June 2013 03:50
- Written by BC-Stuff
The latest revelations regarding the extent of US surveillance of world communications traffic has led to a chorus of protest and expressions of unease in the European media and political circles.
According to the information released last Friday by former CIA employee Edward Snowden, the NSA has collected vast amounts of information based on a global sweep of telephone and internet communication. So-called “heat maps” of the spying operation make clear that the NSA had no qualms about tapping the communications not only of countries it defines to be its enemies, but also those regarded as its long-term allies.
The NSA heat map published in the Guardian newspaper reveals that no less than 3 billion pieces of data were collected from individuals, institutions and businesses across the continent of Europe in the course of March 2013 alone. Every European state was subject to surveillance, with the continent’s biggest economy, Germany, subjected to the most scrutiny.
‘All blacks out!’: Human Rights Watch condemns ‘racist’ Greek police
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- Published on Thursday, 13 June 2013 03:47
- Written by BC-Stuff
Hum
an Rights Watch has accused Greek police of racial profiling, arbitrary detention and physical and verbal abuse of immigrants in a scathing new report. All are in violation European Union regulations, and disobey international human rights conventions.
The report by the international advocacy group, titled ‘Unwelcome Guests’, focuses on Operation Xenios Zeus, a radical police initiative commenced in August last year under which 85,000 suspected illegal immigrants have been detained and taken to police stations to have their visas checked.
It says the operation is not only illegal, but also ineffective, with only 6 per cent of those detained found to be in breach of immigration law.
Nobel laureate Pamuk ‘worried’ about Turkey’s future, lack of dialogue
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- Published on Saturday, 08 June 2013 13:04
- Written by BC-Stuff
Turkish Nobel Laureate author Orhan Pamuk has confessed to being worried about Turkey's future amid the government's uncompromising attitude toward protests sparked by the demolition of Gezi Park, a small green lung at the center of Istanbul.
"I am concerned for my country and I am following the events with sorrow. There is no signal that a peaceful solution [will be reached on] the future between the government and demonstrators," Pamuk said June 7 at a readers' event organized in Florence by the Italian daily La Repubblica.
Pakistan: Will Nawaz Sharif Be The Hero The Country Needs?
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- Published on Monday, 10 June 2013 13:10
- Written by Sufyan bin Uzayr
Back in May, Pakistan went to the polls and elected members of the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies. Nawaz Sharif’s party, the PML-N, secured a comprehensive victory in the elections.
Thus, the 63-year old steel magnate, Sharif, was recently sworn in Pakistan’s Prime Minister for the third time in his political career that spans over three decades. In his address, among other things, Sharif talked about drone bombings and terrorism. Obviously, in a country that has seen numerous casualties and a good deal of collateral damage owing to Washington’s involvement in , it only makes sense for the Prime Minister to oppose drone bombings. But the challenge that lies for Nawaz Sharif is much greater than mere words.
World Muslims March To Al-Quds
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- Published on Saturday, 08 June 2013 12:34
- Written by BC-Stuff
Arranging their efforts around the globe, thousands of activists participated on Friday, June 7, in the Global March to Al-Quds (Occupied Jerusalem), marking the 46th anniversary of the Israeli occupation.
"We need this march in light of the division," Majed al-Zeida, a spokesman for the global rally, told Ma'an news agency.
The peaceful anti-Israeli demonstrations called "The Global March to al-Quds," are expected to take place in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Egypt, US, UK, Canada, Germany, Turkey, Yemen, Indonesia and many other countries on Friday.
The rally is organized every year to mark the anniversary of the occupation of al-Quds by Israeli forces during the 1967 Six-Day War.
Turkish bloggers pose marathon run as mass protests. 15 foreign agents arrested
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- Published on Saturday, 08 June 2013 14:36
- Written by BC-Stuff
25 bloggers were detained in the Turkish city of Izmir for the distribution of false reports on mass protests in the country over social media sites and provoking clashes.
Officials from the local Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Police Department accused 38 people in total in deliberate lies and disinformation by posting false data and misleading pictures, with a clear intention to stir up unrest and riots inside the Turkish society.
13 bloggers, spreading deliberate misinformation about events in Turkey, are still on the run, report Turkish news agencies.
Pictures depicting hundreds of thousands of people passing through the Bosporus Bridge have been posted online. This is actually a picture from a marathon of 2012. As for the protests, then about 500 people actually crossed the bridge.
Surveillance Scandal Infuriates Americans
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- Published on Saturday, 08 June 2013 12:26
- Written by BC-Stuff
Privacy advocates have expressed anger over new revelations that US security agencies have been tapped directly into the servers of the nation's top Internet providers and have been collecting the phone records of millions in the US on an "ongoing, daily basis."
"Recent reports of the FBI and the National Security Agency (NSA) unconstitutionality spying on millions of American phone calls, emails, and other internet communications is unacceptable and counter to core-American values," the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a new statement .
"CAIR and other civil liberties organizations strongly suspect that the federal government is also collecting call data from all other major phone carriers."
Turkish PM shelves mall plan on Gezi Park, wants end to protests
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- Published on Saturday, 08 June 2013 13:08
- Written by BC-Stuff
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dismissed plans to build a shopping mall at the controversial Gezi Park while calling for an end to more than 10-day protests during his speech at the Ministry of European Affairs Istanbul conference on June 7.
Erdoğan repeated willingness to discuss "democratic rights," saying, "The shopping mall is not possible in the Artillery Barracks anyway, given the measures. We told them that we may build a city museum instead, and a green area that would be far better than the current park. We also wanted to turn the Atatürk Culture Center to an opera building."
The prime minister, who bids to rebuild the historic barracks there, called for an end to ongoing Gezi Park protests on his return from a four-day trip to North Africa in the early hours of June 7. "These protests must end immediately," Erdoğan said today in front of thousands of Justice and Development Party (AKP) supporters who greeted him at Istanbul's Atatürk airport. "No power but Allah can stop Turkey's rise," he said.
IMF admits: we failed to realise the damage austerity would do to Greece
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- Published on Saturday, 08 June 2013 02:05
- Written by BC & Agencies
The International Monetary Fund admitted it had failed to realise the damage austerity would do to Greece as the Washington-based organisation catalogued mistakes made during the bailout of the stricken eurozone country.
