WATCH: Is Hockey Overtaking Baseball As The Most Gay-Friendly Pro Sport In The Nation?
March 6, 2012 No Comment
It’s been mostly baseball teams that have been making It Gets Better ads—the San Francisco Giants broke the mold last June, and since then a few more baseball teams have filmed their versions. While Tim Tebow’s Denver Broncos are a little bit behind the curve, the NHL is quickly making strides to catch up to the MLB in terms of Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Queerty Discovery Date : 02/03/2012 17:03 Number of articles : 7
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Attorney general is examining the testimony of Sue Akers amid fears her comments were potentially in contempt of court The attorney general is examining whether the head of Scotland Yard’s investigation into illegal news gathering has prejudiced fair trials for any journalists involved through her evidence to the Leveson inquiry. Dominic Grieve’s office is scrutinising the testimony made by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers 10 days ago amid concerns that her comments were potentially in contempt of court. Akers is the head of three linked inquiries into phone hacking, alleged bribes and computer hacking. She said that the Sun newspaper was responsible for creating a “network of corrupted officials” and creating a “culture of illegal payments” to officials from the police, Ministry of Defence and other public bodies. In a statement about her investigation she included details of “multiple payments” by the Sun journalists to public officials, with one individual receiving £80,000, while one journalist, she said, drew more than £150,000 over the years to pay sources, including public officials. The stories that resulted from these disclosures were “salacious gossip”, she said, and not in the public interest. She also gave details of how the relative of one arrested public official acted as a conduit to hide the cheque payment to that individual. The Guardian understands the attorney general has received at least one complaint raising concerns that Akers’s evidence – given in the midst of a criminal inquiry – could be in breach of the Contempt of Court Act and could prejudice further legal action against any of the individuals arrested. Lawyers for the attorney are investigating. A spokeswoman for the attorney general told the Guardian: “Evidence given during the Leveson inquiry has been drawn to the attention of the attorney general’s office. The attorney general will consider the concerns raised.” Eleven Sun journalists have been arrested in relation to alleged bribes to public officials; all have been named in the media. None have been charged. The attorney general’s intervention comes as a former Met commissioner warned that the move to secrecy by Scotland Yard in the wake of the phone hacking scandal threatened to increase the chance of rioting on Britain’s streets. Lord Stevens, who ran the Met from 2000-05, told Lord Justice Leveson on Tuesday that the pendulum of police and media relations had swung too far away from openness. Stevens, who as Met commissioner introduced an open door policy for the media, said he would have picked up and “tirelessly” pursued the issues raised by the Guardian in 2009 about phone hacking at the News of the World. But he said the reaction to the hacking revelations had created an unhealthy fear of the press among police officers. “From what I have heard people are absolutely terrified of picking up the phone and speaking to the press in any way,” he said. “I don’t think that is healthy. The press has their job to do, they have delivered some outstanding work, there has to be a relationship with them for the right reasons.” He said that not engaging with the press put the police at risk of not being trusted, and in turn risked causing outbreaks of rioting. “Let me make this clear, in my view this is extremely damaging to British policing,” he said. “The media need to know what the police are doing. It is absolutely essential to have transparency and openness … If there’s no engagement then the police risk not being part of the community. This will ultimately result in them being distrusted … It is precisely in these conditions that public order outbreaks occur as community tensions are heightened and there is public concern over the actions of the police.” Lord Condon, the Met commissioner from 1993 to 2000, said there should not be an overly bureaucratic response to the phone hacking revelations. “I would be worried about anything which suggested that any contact between the police and the media was almost inherently wrong, that the media are given some sort of pariah status, and almost being in the same room, or within 50 yards of them, a police officer would be required to take a note,” he said. But Condon suggested that officers accepting hospitality from journalists was a dangerous area. “In my opinion hospitality can be the start of a grooming process which can lead to unethical or inappropriate behaviour.” Both said they favoured no editors during their tenure at the Yard and their relationships with the media during their tenure had always been entirely professional. Stevens, who wrote for the News of the World after retirement from the Met, said he stopped the column after the 2007 convictions of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire over phone hacking. “I saw Colin Myler and Neil Wallis and told them I didn’t want to continue,” he said. “I never gave them reasons but from that night on I never saw them again.” Stevens said his decision to end the contract with the paper – which latterly was paying him £7,000 an article – was fuelled by other information he received about “some unethical behaviour in relation to one or two articles that had got headlines in the News of the World.” He did not elaborate. Leveson inquiry Phone hacking Sue Akers Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Press intrusion Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk
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Prime minister says Iran is planning an ‘inter-continental nuclear weapon’ but urges Israel to give sanctions more time David Cameron has warned that Iran is seeking to build an “inter-continental nuclear weapon” that threatens the west, as he urged Israel to allow time for sanctions to force the Iranians to change their strategic stance. He was speaking after the cabinet was briefed for an hour by the national security adviser, Sir Kim Darroch, on the imminence of the threat to the UK posed by Iran. It is the first time Cameron has made such an explicit warning that Iran could endanger UK security, and has faint echoes of the warnings from Tony Blair’s government that Iraq could fire weapons of mass destruction with 45 minutes’ notice. It is understood that the government’s National Security Council is also looking at potential reprisals in the UK if Israel were to launch a pre-emptive strike against an Iranian nuclear weapons site. Cameron will be briefed by President Barack Obama next week on the US approach to any such strike when the two leaders meet in Washington. Speaking to MPs on the Commons liaison committee, the prime minister said Tehran’s ambitions were dangerous for the Middle East. But Cameron also added that Iran “is a danger more broadly, not least because there are signs that the Iranians want to have some sort of inter-continental missile capability. “We have to be clear this is a threat potentially much wider than just Israel and the region.” The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told an American Jewish group in Washington on Monday that diplomacy and sanctions had failed and that “none of us can afford to wait much longer” to act against Tehran. On Tuesday six global powers agreed to resume negotiations with Iran on its nuclear programme, calling for “concrete and practical steps” to restore international trust in Tehran’s stated intentions. In a letter to Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, the EU foreign policy chief, Lady Ashton, said the negotiations should restart as soon as possible, at a venue to be decided. Writing on behalf of a negotiating group comprising the US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany, Ashton said: “Our overall goal remains a comprehensive negotiated long-term solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme, while respecting Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy consistent with the NPT [nuclear non-proliferation treaty].” The last set of talks broke down in Istanbul in January last year. Western diplomats said Jalili refused at that meeting to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear programme or any confidence-building measures previously discussed, such as an exchange of Iranian enriched uranium for foreign-made fuel rods for the Tehran research reactor. At the meeting, the Iranian negotiator laid down preconditions for talks including the lifting of all sanctions and a guarantee that Iran could continue its nuclear programme, including the most controversial element, uranium enrichment. Tehran says the programme is for purely peaceful purposes, but the west and Israel allege it is a front for an effort to build a nuclear arsenal, or at least establish the capacity to build a bomb at short notice. Jalili’s reply to Ashton was delivered in February, four months after her proposal, suggesting talks on “a spectrum of issues” including “Iran’s nuclear issue”. French officials argued that in order to satisfy Israel that all was being done to resolve the nuclear crisis by peaceful means, the international response would have to make it absolutely clear that the talks would have to end with the “full implementation” of UN security council resolutions calling for the suspension of uranium enrichment. That language was spelt out in Ashton’s latest letter. A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), presented to the agency’s board this week, said Iran had tripled its rate of production of 20%-enriched uranium – seen by the west as a particular proliferation threat – and reported that Iran had not co-operated with an inspection visit last month, refusing access to a sensitive military site known as Parchin. Iran is thought to have already developed a ballistic missile which can travel approximately 1,200 miles, but it is also working with the Koreans to turn this into a missile that can accommodate a nuclear warhead. Cameron stressed that Iran should not be seen as “a mini superpower” but as “a disastrous country” with mass unemployment and a dysfunctional economy. He said he still believed the track of sanctions should be pursued, arguing EU-wide sanctions were causing dislocation to the Iranian foreign exchange position and “should not be sniffed at”. He said the next step was to get the Indians and Chinese to also refuse to buy Iranian oil. “The more pressure we pile on Iran through sanctions the more incentive they have to take a different path – it is the best option we have”. The prime minister said that no plans were being laid at this stage to increase the UK military presence in the region. Iran Nuclear weapons Israel Middle East and North Africa David Cameron United States Julian Borger Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Liberal Radio Host Mocks Storm Victims: ‘Their God…Keeps Smashing Them Into Little Grease Spots’
March 6, 2012 No Comment
With all the talk of holding radio talk show hosts accountable lately, it’s probably worth bringing you what liberal firebrand Mike Malloy said last week as storms ravaged the South. According to a clip from his March 2 show, it seems the storms are God’s way of getting back at them for not believing in science. Or something. “Their God … keeps smashing them into little grease spots on the pavement… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Blaze Discovery Date : 05/03/2012 05:09 Number of articles : 7
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Just hours before their Super Tuesday showdown, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum strained for an edge in Ohio and braced for the 10 primaries and caucuses likely to redefine the race for the Republican presidential nomination. (March 5) Subscribe to the Associated Press: bit.ly Download AP Mobile: www.ap.org Associated Press on Facebook: apne.ws Associated Press on Twitter: apne.ws Associated Press on Google+: bit.ly
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Israel’s prime minister is vigorously asserting his country’s right to defend itself against an Iranian nuclear threat. Benjamin Netanyahu’s tough talk suggests he would attack Iranian nuclear facilities if he thinks Israel needs to do that. (March 5) Subscribe to the Associated Press: bit.ly Download AP Mobile: www.ap.org Associated Press on Facebook: apne.ws Associated Press on Twitter: apne.ws Associated Press on Google+: bit.ly
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Financier faces up to 20 years in prison after jury finds him guilty of conspiracy and 12 other charges including obstruction Allen Stanford, the Texan financier, knight of Antigua, Washington power player and billionaire benefactor of English cricket, has been found guilty of orchestrating a $7bn Ponzi scheme. After a six-week trial in Houston, Texas, a jury found him guilty of conspiracy and 12 other criminal charges including obstruction. He was acquitted of one wire fraud charge. Stanford, who turns 62 on 24 March, faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced. The jury of eight men and four women had appeared to be deadlocked on Monday and had to be given instructions by the judge, David Hittner. Outside, family members had gathered to offer their support. “I’m hoping for the best,” Stanford’s 84-year-old father, James, told the Houston Chronicle as he waited for the verdict. “We support him 100%. In fact, 150%.” During the trial prosecutors argued that Stanford used his clients’ money to fuel his “lavish lifestyle and his loser companies” in a massive Ponzi scheme that spanned two decades. Stanford, they argued, conned investors into buying certificates of deposit, or CDs, from his bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua, telling them they were a safe investment. Instead the bank was “his own personal ATM”, the prosecutor William Stellmach said. By 2008 Stanford’s bank owed depositors more than $7bn that it did not have and Stanford had blown huge chunks of that cash on luxury yachts, private jets and cricket sponsorship. In damning testimony James Davis, Stanford Financial Group’s former chief financial officer, told jurors his boss was “the chief faker” – a man who threatened to fire anyone who questioned the $2bn prosecutors say he pocketed from his Antiguan bank. The picture that emerged during Davis’s testimony was one of a long spending spree to disaster. By the end of December 2008 Stanford International Bank had only $88m in cash, but claimed to hold $1bn in assets. As worried investors pulled out their cash, Davis told the court Stanford tried to use his beloved Antigua to bail him out. He cooked the books and 1,500 undeveloped acres Stanford had bought on the island for $64m were set to be valued at $3.2bn, Davis told the court. Stanford’s attorneys argued that the bank would be solvent today if the US government had not shut it down in February 2009. They did not put the businessman on the witness stand, although Stanford had reportedly wanted to testify. Allen Stanford United States Antigua & Barbuda Financial sector Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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A 15-month-old Indiana girl who clung to life for two days after being swept up by a tornado that killed her parents and two siblings was buried along with her family Monday. (March 5) Subscribe to the Associated Press: bit.ly Download AP Mobile: www.ap.org Associated Press on Facebook: apne.ws Associated Press on Twitter: apne.ws Associated Press on Google+: bit.ly
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Hacker – real name Hector Xavier Monsegur – helped US authorities bring charges against five others The world’s most notorious computer hacker has been working as an informer for the FBI for at least the last six months, it emerged on Tuesday, providing information that has helped contribute to the charging of five others, including two Britons, for computer hacking offences. Hector Xavier Monsegur, an unemployed 28-year-old Puerto Rican living in New York, was unmasked as “Sabu”, the leader of the LulzSec hacking group that has been behind a wave of cyber raids against American corporations including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, the intelligence consultancy Stratfor, British and American law enforcement bodies, and the Irish political party Fine Gael. It was revealed that he had been charged with 12 criminal counts of conspiracy to engage in computer hacking and other crimes last summer, crimes which carry a maximum sentence of 124 years and six months in prison. According to indictments filed in a Manhattan federal court, he secretly pleaded guilty on 15 August last year. Despite that, Sabu carried on with his aggressive online persona as the LulzSec “leader”, with the father of two going so far as to deny online – the day after his secret guilty plea – that he had “snitched” on his friends. His online “hacker” activity continued until very recently, with a tweet sent by him in the last 24 hours saying: “The feds at this moment are scouring our lives without warrants. Without judges approval. This needs to change. Asap.” In a US court document, the FBI’s informant – there described as CW – “acting under the direction of the FBI” helped facilitate the publication of what was thought to be an embarrassing leak of conference call between the FBI and the UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency in February. Officers from both sides of the Atlantic were heard discussing the progress of various hacking investigations in the call. A second document shows that Monsegur – styled this time as CW-1 – provided an FBI-owned computer to facilitate the release of 5m emails taken from US security consultancy Stratfor and which are now being published by WikiLeaks. That suggests the FBI may have had an inside track on discussions between Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, and Anonymous, another hacking group, about the leaking of thousands of confidential emails and documents. The indictments mark the most significant strike by law enforcement officials against the amateur hacker groups that have sprung out of Anonymous. These groups, which include LulzSec, have cost businesses millions of pounds and exposed the credit card details and passwords of nearly 1 million people. An FBI official told Fox News, which broke the story: “This is devastating to the organisation … we’re chopping off the head of LulzSec.” But Graham Cluley, a consultant with the security company Sophos, warned news of the arrests, and of Monsegur’s betrayal, could trigger a wave of fresh attacks by furious hackers. “There are plenty of Anonymous sympathisers out there who will continue to steal information and pass it to Anonymous and WikiLeaks. LulzSec were more sophisticated than most, knew more about computer hacking. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t others out there with those skills too.” The five charged by US authorities on Tuesday – two in the UK, two in Ireland and one in Chicago – amounted to a sweep of names who are alleged to have carried out all of the most public hacking attacks in the past year. One of the people named in the indictment, Jake Davis, already faces a number of charges in the UK relating to alleged hacking by LulzSec. Davis, of Lerwick, Shetland, was on Tuesday charged in the US with two counts of computer hacking conspiracy. Ryan Ackroyd – a 23-year-old from Doncaster who is said to have used the names “kayla”, “lol” and “lolspoon” – was also charged on two counts of alleged computer hacking conspiracy. A statement from the US Attorney’s office in New York said that Ackroyd was being interviewed on Tuesday by the Metropolitan police. Each count of computer hacking conspiracy carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. Scotland Yard is also running parallel inquiries. One inquiry involves Ryan Ackroyd, Jake Davis, and two other people including a 17-year-old boy in connection with their alleged activities within LulzSec. Ackroyd was still being questioned on Tuesday night, and the 17 year old boy was charged with two computer conspiracy offences. It is understood that it is unlikely anyone would be extradited before the UK trials had concluded. LulzSec was a hacker “crew” of about 10 people whose infamous run began with an attack in May 2011 on the Fox.com site, and then on the US X-Factor competition for which they released passwords and profiles of 73,000 contestants. It quickly escalated to an attack against Sony Pictures, followed by a security company and a number of online games companies. But their downfall came after they hacked into InfraGard, a non-profit organisation affiliated with the FBI, and then attacked the websites of the CIA, the US Congress and the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency. LulzSec’s existing members began to worry about government retribution. Although they hacked into the News International systems on 18 July, changing the front page of The Sun’s website, the police and other hackers were on their tail. One called The Jester – believed to be a former member of the US military – who normally attacks jihadist websites, suggested on 24 June that Sabu was an IT consultant based in New York. The two Irish individuals charged are Darren Martyn, 25, of Galway, Ireland, on two charges of computer hacking conspiracy, Donncha O’Cearrbhail, 19, of Birr, Ireland, on one charge of computer hacking conspiracy and one charge of unlawfully intercepted wire communication, which carries a sentence of up to five years. O’Cearrbhail was arrested by Irish police on Tuesday. The fifth person charged is Jeremy Hammond, 27, of Chicago, US, who was arrested and charged on Monday for alleged offences relating to the December 2011 hacking of global intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting. He is charged with one count of computer hacking conspiracy, one count of computer hacking, and one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud. LulzSec Hacking Anonymous FBI United States Internet Charles Arthur Dan Sabbagh Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk
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Square , the mobile payments provider founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey , just launched a new iPad app called Square Register today . With an iPad and a Square card reader, you can basically throw out your cash register. You don’t have to have a separate card reader for credit cards and debit cards. Check out photos of how the app works → Card-readers and cash registers are crotchety old pieces… Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : The Business Insider Discovery Date : 05/03/2012 15:56 Number of articles : 7
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