Daily Archives: 26. März 2014


26.03.2014 - 19:52 [ Russia Today ]

Social media: Weapon of PsyWar & you’re the target

For centuries the most powerful intelligence gathering service on the planet was the Catholic rite of ‘confession’, where millions of people told vital info to the Pope on guilty acts which could then be used to blackmail them and their co-sinners.

But you’d be wrong if you thought that was mostly over with Luther and the reformation. Priest-spooks of the new church at Google and Facebook took over where the confession box left off.

26.03.2014 - 19:50 [ Itar-Tass ]

NATO to ‘review viability’ of its ties with Russia

In light of the situation around Ukraine and Crimea, NATO will review its ties with Russia, the North Atlantic alliance’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said Wednesday after talks with US President Barack Obama.

“We will review the viability of our relationship with Russia,” Rasmussen said. “We do not seek confrontation but we will not waver if challenged.”

26.03.2014 - 19:47 [ Out-Law.com ]

Information held in electronic databases not property which can be possessed, rules UK court

The Court of Appeal rejected arguments to the contrary and refused to interpret existing laws in a manner which would, it admitted, „have the beneficial effect of extending the protection of property rights in a way that would take account of recent technological developments“.

The judges said that whilst it is possible to exert control over electronic information it is not possible to gain possession of it.

26.03.2014 - 19:44 [ Techdirt ]

Mike Rogers Lies About Bulk Data Collection, Insists It‘s Necessary, Even As He Introduces Bill He Says Will Kill It

As was expected, on Tuesday morning, Rep. Mike Rogers officially introduced his new bill concerning bulk data collection by the NSA. Overnight, it appears that Rogers and his staff realized that the originally proposed name of the bill, the End Bulk Collection Act of 2014, was so bogus that they couldn‘t go forward with that. So the official bill is now called the FISA Transparency and Modernization Act. There are significant concerns about how the section on supposedly „ending“ bulk collection might actually allow for even greater searches of data.

26.03.2014 - 18:31 [ Venezuelanalysis ]

Venezuelan Human Rights Experts Call for End to ‚Media Distortion‘ of Protests and State Response

Many of these denouncements made through media or social networks are substantiated by images that don’t match the Venezuelan reality.4 Others have been debunked publicly by witnesses.5 With respect to the right to life, the number of victims attributed to security forces is significantly less than a lamentable toll of political violence between civilians. Moreover, there is a deliberate omission of the violent character of many of the protests. Together, this has created an international perception of a grave crisis in human rights in Venezuela.

26.03.2014 - 18:23 [ Independent ]

Crime does pay: Mafia’s annual income surpasses that of European Union

Speaking at a conference in Brussels, Mr Brauzzi also underlined the international dimension of Italian organised crime groups, including Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, the Calabria-based ’Ndrangheta and the Camorra of the Naples area. “They invest only 10 per cent of this budget in Italy; the rest they invest in countries in Europe and elsewhere. They have good friends everywhere,” he said.

26.03.2014 - 17:50 [ Techdirt ]

Corporate Sovereignty Provisions Called Into Question Around The World

A couple of weeks ago, we noted that Germany just threw a big spanner in the TTIP works by calling for corporate sovereignty provisions to be excluded. Although perhaps the most dramatic repudiation of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), it‘s by no means the only one. Indeed, the tide really seems turning, as country after country calls into question the need to put corporations on the same level as entire nations. For example, according to this report from the Yonhap News Agency, South Korea wants to re-visit the corporate sovereignty chapter in its trade agreement with the US:

26.03.2014 - 17:48 [ Alternative Liste Schongau ]

Tobias Kalbitzer

Ich bin Tobias Kalbitzer und wurde vor 27 Jahren in Schongau geboren. Ich habe schon viel erlebt in unserer wunderschönen Stadt am Lech. Doch die letzten Jahre machten mir zu schaffen. In mir wuchs der Wunsch an der Gestaltung unserer Stadt mitzuwirken. Dies soll mein Start in der kommunalen Politik sein. Ich möchte frischen Wind in Schongaus Stadtrat bringen und der jungen Generation Schongaus eine Stimme geben.

26.03.2014 - 17:46 [ Techdirt ]

UK Anti-Terror Powers Abused To Hunt Down Whistleblower Who Revealed Secret Government Tax Deal

The UK government continues to claim that its spying activities are lawful, without specifying exactly why. However, it‘s pretty clear that the main law it is depending on is the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). As Techdirt reported in January, there are serious doubts about whether GCHQ‘s surveillance activities are indeed covered by RIPA, but that‘s not the only problem here: the following story from The Guardian shows how RIPA is being abused — not to find terrorists trying to bring down the state, but to winkle out whistleblowers selflessly trying to help it:

26.03.2014 - 17:26 [ Ansa ]

President Napolitano visits ANSA to see new website

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Wednesday said news agencies were „essential“.

26.03.2014 - 17:23 [ Siemens ]

Siemens baut Offshore-Windkraft-Fabrik in Großbritannien

(25.03.) Der britische Premierminister David Cameron und Michael Süß, Mitglied des Vorstands der Siemens AG und CEO des Sektors Energy bekräftigen heute den Bau einer Offshore-Windkraft-Fabrik an der englischen Ostküste. Siemens investiert mehr als 190 Mio. EUR (160 Mio. GBP) in neue Offshore-Produktionsstätten in Großbritannien.