Ancient community discovered after small forest clearings detected on satellite images Brazilian authorities say they have pinpointed the location of a community of ancient and uncontacted tribespeople in one of the remotest corners of the Amazon rainforest. Fabricio Amorim, a regional co-ordinator for Brazil’s indigenous foundation, Funai , said the indigenous community had been found after three small forest clearings were detected on satellite images. Flyovers were carried out in April, confirming the community’s existence. Four straw-roofed huts, flanked by banana trees and encircled by thick jungle, can be seen in photographs taken during the flyover. The community is likely to be home to about 200 people, probably from the Pano linguistic group which straddles the border between Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, according to Funai. Amorim said the region — known as the Vale do Javari — contained “the greatest concentration of isolated groups in the Amazon and the world” but warned of growing threats to their survival. “Among the main threats to the well-being of these groups are illegal fishing, hunting, logging, mining, cattle ranching, missionary actions… and drug trafficking,” he said. Oil exploration over the border in Peru could also have a negative impact on indigenous tribes in region. Officially, Funai recognises the existence of 14 uncontacted tribes in the Vale do Javari, making up a total of at least 2,000 people. But that number is likely to rise as expeditions to this region of the western Amazon continue. Government officials currently seek to avoid direct contact with Brazil’s uncontacted tribes, instead working to identify and protect their lands from afar. But many believe limited contact may become necessary in order to protect the groups from external threats. José Carlos Meirelles, a veteran Funai official who has spent more than two decades working in the Javari region, said in 2009: ” If this situation continues, contact will become inevitable, and it is better that it happens with us than with loggers or goldpanners .” Indigenous peoples Brazil Tom Phillips guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rolls-Royce has agreed to compensate Qantas for the mid-air disintegration of an Airbus A380 engine last year. The Australian airline grounded all of its A380s for weeks after the incident last year, which investigators blamed on an oil fire caused by a manufacturing defect. The disintegration triggered an emergency landing,…
Continue reading …Wisconsin is about to become the 49th state to allow residents to carry concealed weapons in public. The law, which will require permit holders to undergo background checks and training, passed the state’s Republic-controlled assembly and is about to be signed by Gov. Scott Walker, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel…
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Prime minister insists coalition inherited DNA database ‘that had grown out of control and was without proper rights for people’ Downing Street insisted David Cameron was not going to conduct a U-turn on the retention of DNA in rape cases being required after being put under pressure on the issue by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband. The Protection of Freedoms bill requires the removal of DNA profiles from police databases after five years in all cases in which no charges are brought, but rape victims’ groups have called for DNA to be retained in exceptional cases. Speaking at prime minister’s questions, Miliband urged Cameron to make an exception of rape victims. The Labour leader asked: “Around 5,000 people each year are arrested on suspicion of rape and not charged … in certain cases these individuals have gone on to commit further offences and be convicted as a result of the DNA being held on the national database, but his proposal is that for those arrested and not charged the DNA would be disposed of straight away. “I ask him again, why is it right to discard the DNA of those arrested but not charged with rape?” It emerged that the prime minister did not know details of the proposal, which is due to return to the Commons at the bill’s report stage shortly. During rowdy exchanges in which he had to seek advice from the home secretary, Theresa May, Cameron appeared to hint that he would look at the issue again. The prime minister said the government would “look carefully” at the plans and that there was “always room to see where it can be improved”, but insisted the coalition had inherited “an unacceptable situation with a DNA database that had grown out of control and without proper rights for people”. He later said he believed the police could ask for the retention of DNA in exceptional cases, but Labour claimed the category did not apply in rape cases. DNA database PMQs Ed Miliband David Cameron Labour Conservatives House of Commons Liberal-Conservative coalition Rape Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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• Hit refresh or select our auto-refresh button for the latest • Live scoreboard: Follow all of today’s action from SW19 • Full order of play for day three at the All England Club • Email your thoughts to xan.brooks@guardian.co.uk 1.17pm: Out comes Venus Williams for her opening service game, but she’s sloppy and rusty and Date-Krumm breaks her to love. The Japanese player then claws her way out of a 0-30 deficit to hold for 2-0, finishing off with a glorious drive volley into the open court. Kimiko Date-Krumm, incidentally, played her first Wimbledon way back in 1989 – before 36 of the players in this year’s women’s draw had even been born. Back then the men’s trophy went to Boris Becker and the women’s to Steffi Graff. Back then the spectators wore top hats and returned home in horse-drawn handsome carriages and you could pick up a Centre Court ticket for three-shillings-and-sixpence, and still have change left over for a flagon of mead. It was a happier time, an age of innocence. And, so far at least, the times are a-changing back. 1.03pm: While we wait for Venus Williams (recovering from a hip injury) and Kimiko Date-Krumm (40-years-old and still with all her own teeth) to get play underway on Centre Court, here’s Matt Scott on the (alleged) Problem With Mrs Murray: So Judy Murray is more of a hindrance than a help to her son Andy’s career — according to Boris Becker — and sport’s most famous mum has felt the need to justify herself. “Between the Australian Open in January and the Italian Open [on 8 May] I did not attend a tournament,” she said, which is perhaps a reduction in her courtside commitment. But it is nowhere near as light a touch as Andy Roddick’s parents, with the American world No.10 explaining in his USA Today column: “My parents are here [at Wimbledon] with me this year for the first time since 1997. “It’s the first time they’ve ever seen me play here. I thought they might have snuck over for one of my three finals and were just sitting in the stands, but they swear they haven’t. (They never sit in the player box). I haven’t seen much of them, however. I brought them down to get credentialed a couple days ago and got them lined up for some sightseeing, but they give me my space. They know I have to play a tournament.” Number of Wimbledon finals for Roddick: 3. Number of Wimbledon finals for Murray: 0. Just saying. 12.50pm: Raining hard at Wimbledon and this is how it looks . The PA informs us that this is likely to keep up until around 3pm, after which it will be wine and roses and Monte Carlo levels of sunshine and unfettered play on every spare bit of grass. Possibly. In the meantime the roof is drawn on Centre Court, where proceedings start in about 10-minutes. First up is Venus Williams versus Kimiko Date-Krumm, the battle of the golden oldies. We’ll be covering that while also keeping an eye on the covers. What’s going on under those covers? Are the pygmy professionals of the Lilliputian Tennis Academy playing one of their brutal, unseen contests? Or do the covered courts double as a kind of dormitory for the other players, with the likes of Novak Djokovic, Caroline Wozniacki and Jurgen Melzer all slumbering on the lawns, waiting to be roused and called to battle? If this deluge keeps up, we may be forced to crawl under and find out just what’s going on. Until then we’re moseying over to Centre Court. 12.24pm: Here’s more from the great Matt Scott on today’s Elf’n’Safety controversy. Wimbledon has been publicly chastised by the health-and-safety ombudsman over its claims that Murray Mount had to be closed in heavy rain. A letter to the Lawn Tennis Association’s chief executive, Roger Draper, and his All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club counterpart, Ian Ritchie, has been made public by Judith Hackitt, the chair of the Health and Safety Executive, and it does not make for pretty reading for the pair. Hackitt’s beef is that the closure of Murray Mount at so high-profile an international event was nothing more than “an excuse”. And it is illuminating that Hackitt says sports fans are frequently subjected to similarly shabby treatment. “There is nothing in health and safety legislation which prohibits the continued broadcasting of centre court action to the crowds on the hill during the rain,” wrote Hackitt. “People have been walking up and down wet grassy slopes for years without catastrophic consequences. If the LTA was concerned about people slipping and suing for their injuries the message should have made clear the decision was ‘on insurance grounds’. “Health and safety excuses are becoming as much a feature of the British sporting calendar as the rain. You will understand that while we can do nothing about the weather, we will not let the excuses pass unchallenged.” Hackitt believes it undermines genuine interventions by the HSE on safety grounds. Wimbledon’s ill-judged decision, it’s the health & safety executive that’s gone mad. We’re now wondering if the picture above might not be of the notorious Elf and Safety. Elf calls to mind a smirking Andy Murray, while Safety resembles a placid, long-haired Roger Federer. Steer well clear. They’ve both gone utterly mad. 12.13pm: Down in the comments, Sociopol wonders why Britain’s Alex Bogdanovic missed out on a Wimbledon wild-card. I believe this is on account of the organisers refusing him one after he lost something like seven first-round matches on the trot (at least I think it was seven: it may have been fewer, like six, or more, like 15). What they gave him, by way of compensation, was a wild-card into the qualifying tournament. Bogdanovic promptly lost in the first round, in straight sets, to a player called Bastian Knittel, who in turn lost in the second round, in straight sets, to Marc Gicquel. Thanks to the Wimbledon daily report for providing such a window into the subterranean pre-history of this year’s tournament. 12.05pm: In other rain-related news, a tweet from Esther Addley: Three hrs of heavy showers, says #wimbledon officials, so no play for foreseeable. How will they stage olympic tennis here next year? 12.00pm: Is here time for an email? It transpires that there is. The courts are covered and the promised midday start rolled back to the afternoon. Wilson Beuys (presumably no relation of Joseph, the avant-garde German artist) has an issue with the Murray mask: Whoever made that Andy Murray mask had a bit of a job on their hands. Where did they find a picture of him where he’s not snarling? I can only assume they altered it in PhotoShop – which explains why it looks nothing like him. Agreed, the image is deeply unsettling. It makes me worry that Murray and Federer have fallen in love, run to seed and are just about to embark on a dead-eyed killing spree, starting at your house, as the rain falls outside. Bolt the windows. Don’t open the door. Then mail to reassure us that all is well. 11.50am: Looking on the bright side, here’s the order of the play for the two main show-courts, where play kicks off at 1pm. First up on Centre is what the tournament’s official “daily report” is dubbing “the Zimmer Frame Special”, pitting 31-year-old Venus Williams against Kimiko Date-Krumm, the Little Miss Methuselah who celebrates her 41st-birthday in September. That’s followed by Nadal versus Sweeting, after which eighth seed Andy Roddick takes on Romania’s Victor Hanescu. Over on uncovered Court One, the 2010 runner-up Thomas Berdych faces France’s Julien Benneteau. Then, all being well, we have Andy Murray battling for a place in the third round against Tobias Kamke of Germany, followed by Britain’s Anne Keothavong versus the talented Petra Kvitova, who sliced and diced her way to last year’s semi-finals. The outside courts, meantime, play host to the likes of Gael Monfils, Francesca Schiavone, Vera Zvonereva, Richard Gasquet and the redoubtable Mardy Fish. It should be a grand day of tennis. But that “should”, it must be pointed out, comes ringed by lowering clouds and trumpeted by an ominous rumble of thunder. 11.35am: Umbrellas at the ready for day three of these Wimbledon championships, where the sky is like porridge and the met office are predicting heavy showers throughout the day. Already the moisture is gathering in the air around Centre Court and the ground-staff seem as nervous and jittery as rescue-centre greyhounds, all set to bolt for the covers at the first sign of a deluge. Undeterred, Rafael Nadal is currently camped on an outside court, warming up for his second round match against Ryan Sweeting, belting topspin forehands with a blithe insouciance. Regardless of the weather, the reigning champion will be OK. He’s due on Centre, most likely beneath the roof and possibly for the benefit of the rear admiral in the royal box. So bully for him and hurrah for the admiral. But what of the other competitors, cast out in the cold of the outside courts? And what of the lowly-born non-rear admirals who have come all this way to watch them? Here at the All England Club, we are battening down for a lengthy, stuttering afternoon. Stay indoors and watch us drown. 11.26am: An early story knocking around SW19 today concerns health and safety bosses, who have criticised Wimbledon organisers for using their legislation to shut down the hill now known as ‘Murray Mount’ when it rains. History was made at SW19 on Monday when the giant screen was turned off for the first time as officials feared fans would slip and injure themselves. Judith Hackitt, chair of the Health and Safety Executive, wrote to Wimbledon and the Lawn Tennis Association complaining about the decision. The HSE clearly feels it is being wrongly scapegoated whenever there is the slightest chance of anyone getting injured. “People have been walking up and down wet grassy slopes for years without catastrophic consequences. If the LTA was concerned about people slipping and suing for their injuries the message should have made clear the decision was ‘on insurance grounds’.” • Xan will be here shortly. In the meantime, check out today’s order of play and catch up with our reports from yesterday’s matches . • Feast your eyes on the best images from day two with our award-winning photographer Tom Jenkins’s picture gallery . • If reading our Wimbledon live blog has made you want to get down and experience the action at SW19 for yourself, why not enter our competition to win VIP tickets to savour this Saturday’s action. It’s a very simple question. • And check out the weather at Wimbledon here … Wimbledon 2011 Wimbledon Tennis Xan Brooks guardian.co.uk
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President has gone uncharacteristically quiet as he recovers from surgery in Cuba, prompting rumours over his health and warnings of instability He is famed as one of the most verbose leaders on earth, a media-obsessed commander-in-chief whose adrenaline-filled speeches often stretch deep into the night. But recent weeks have seen Hugo Chávez fall silent, as the Venezuelan president recovers from emergency hip surgery in Cuba. His uncharacteristic quietness has fuelled a flurry of speculation and criticism back home. Since being admitted to hospital in Cuba on 10 June, Chávez has made just two public appearances, showing up last Friday in four photographs alongside the Cuban president, Raúl Castro, and his brother Fidel, and popping up on 12 June for a telephone interview with Venezuela’s Telesur television network. Normally a prolific tweeter, Chávez’s Twitter profile – @chavezcandanga – has not been used since 4 June. More than 1.6m Chávez followers are missing the president’s 140-character musings on anything from football results to the activities of Venezuela’s state-controlled oil firm, “the most revolutionary oil company in the world”. Even an explosive outbreak of prison violence and a growing power crisis have failed to stir Venezuela’s convalescing president, prompting criticism from the opposition, a spate of online rumours and a fierce reaction from supporters who accuse detractors of launching opportunistic attacks on a sick man. “Such poor, scarce and ambiguous medical updates inevitably trigger rumours that go from liposuction to improve his figure to a back problem that will hinder his ability to campaign, or even a more serious illness,” wrote Luis Vicente León, a columnist for the opposition El Universal, on Sunday. León rejected the idea that Chávez’s absence had created a “power vacuum”, but complained of a “vacuum of respect for Venezuelans, their traditions and their symbols”. Mystery around Chávez’s extended absence briefly thickened on Monday night when one international news agency picked up on a supposed Chávez tweet, in which the Venezuelan leader apparently admitted: “My illness is more complicated than we thought.” Fifteen minutes later, however, the agency retracted its story; the Twitter account was a fake. Supporters of Chávez, who will run for a third presidential term in elections next year, have reacted angrily to criticism of their hospitalised leader. Cilia Flores, an MP from Chávez’s United Socialist party, last week accused opponents of acting “like vampires and vultures trying to see what they can fish from troubled waters”. In a text message to the Guardian on Wednesday, Venezuela’s information minister, Andrés Izarra, said Chávez was “recovering well” but denied rumours that he would return to Caracas in the coming days. Since taking power in 1999, the president has reportedly interrupted normal television programming 2,135 times to address his nation. A briefing by London-based thinktank Latin News said: “In the glaring absence of any official comment, there is wild speculation as to what exactly is afflicting President Chávez. The government’s silence about the president’s condition and his expected return date is … bad form.” “It is absurd that the president can sign documents from Cuba,” said Robert Bottome, from the Caracas-based consultancy VenEconomy, warning that Chávez’s absence could trigger a messy scramble for power in Venezuela. “By disrespecting the constitution,we are leaving the door open to serious turmoil,” he said. Leopoldo Lopez, a prominent Chávez opponent and leader of the Popular Will party, said the furore over the president’s stay in Havana was a distraction from more pressing issues. “The discussion should centre on the key problems that affect millions of Venezuelans with regard to security, the high cost of living, employment and public services. For me, this should be the debate,” he said. Hugo Chávez Venezuela Raúl Castro Tom Phillips guardian.co.uk
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Alec Ross says ‘dictatorships are now more vulnerable than ever’ due to protest movements on Facebook and Twitter Hillary Clinton’s senior adviser for innovation at the US state department has lauded the way the internet has become “the Che Guevara of the 21st century” in the Arab Spring uprisings. Speaking at the Guardian’s Activate summit in London on Wednesday , Alec Ross said “dictatorships are now more vulnerable than ever” as disaffected citizens organise influential protest movements on Facebook and Twitter. The US has pledged to back the pro-democracy movements that have swept the Middle East and north Africa since January. Ross welcomed the “redistribution of power” from autocratic regimes to individuals, describing the internet as “wildly disruptive” during the protests in Egypt and Tunisia. “Dictatorships are now more vulnerable than they have ever been before, in part – but not entirely – because of the devolution of power from the nation state to the individual,” he said. “One thesis statement I want to emphasise is how networks disrupt the exercise of power. They devolve power from the nation state – from governments and large institutions – to individuals and small institutions. The overarching pattern is the redistribution of power from governments and large institutions to people and small institutions.” Ross said that the internet had “acted as an accelerant” in the Arab spring uprisings, pointing to the dislodging of former Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in little over a month. The internet had facilitated leaderless movements, Ross added, describing it as the “Che Guevara of the 21st century”. However, he said it was a “bridge too far” to describe the Egyptian uprising as a “Facebook revolution”. Ross added: “If hierarchies are being levelled then people at the top of those hierarchies are finding themselves on much shakier ground. What’s remarkable is the speed, this is lightning fast change taking place and I’ve got to be honest, I think this is fun. It’s going to be wildly disruptive in the next few years and net-net I think this is a good thing.” US president Barack Obama, whose 2008 election campaign Ross helped co-ordinate, threw US support behind the pro-democracy movements in a landmark speech in May. “The status quo is not sustainable,” he said, describing the movements as a “historic opportunity”. Ory Okolloh, the manager of government policy and relations at Google Africa, speaking in the Guardian Activate session, said: “A lot of these uprisings underline that young people not only frustrated – they’ve been frustrate for a long time – but the internet brings you closer to what your life could be and should be like. “We have this revolution, but what happens after the revolution? Technology cannot answer that question: it won’t give you jobs or financing, and won’t help rebuild the economy. If we get too caught up in the role of technology we will be missing a huge opportunity.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Activate conference Internet Digital media Hillary Clinton Arab and Middle East unrest Facebook Social networking Twitter Blogging US foreign policy Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
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Union gathering hears appeals for co-ordinated walkouts in first week of October if talks to reform public sector pensions collapse David Cameron faces the threat of industrial action during the Conservative party conference after members of Britain’s largest public sector union called for strikes over proposed pension changes. Delegates at Unison’s annual conference heard appeals for co-ordinated walkouts in the first week of October if talks to reform public sector pensions collapse. Amid defiant warnings that state employees will not be railroaded into changes, one council employee at the Manchester conference urged workers to stage walkouts when Cameron comes to the city for his party’s conference on 2 October. “On 2 October, we should come back to this city, and when Cameron and George Osborne get up to speak they should be met with resistance,” John McLoughlin, a Unison delegate from Tower Hamlets council, in London, said. “Wouldn’t it be better if, in that week as well, they know they are going to face the largest wave of strike action in the public sector that this country has ever seen.” Unison delegates are expected to back a motion that will give the union’s leader, Dave Prentis, the power to launch a strike ballot if the pensions talks fail. Unison represents more than 1 million public sector workers – about one-sixth of the UK total. Those discussions are due to end on Monday, and the talks process was jolted last week when the chief secretary to the treasury, Danny Alexander, sparked a union backlash by unilaterally announcing a deal including plans to increase contributions for public sector workers and raise their pension age to 66 by 2020. Jane Carolan, a member of Unison’s executive, attacked Alexander in a speech that was greeted with loud applause by 2,000 delegates. “There are lies, damned lies and the inventions of the ginger Tory poodle,” she said. “We have to be prepared to fight. A strike would be nationally co-ordinated, smart and potentially prolonged.” Prentis, who is leading the union delegation in the government talks, warned of industrial action on an unprecedented scale if ministers pushed through changes such as raising the retirement age without agreement. “This is our union’s call to arms,” he said. “When you get back to your branches, prepare for action.” Adding to recent rhetoric on historic industrial battles, Tony Phillips, a member of the London Fire and Emergency Planning service, said: “This won’t be the miners’ strike. This won’t be the general strike of 1926. This time, we are going to win.” The Unison motion calls on the union’s leadership to “build unity across Unison and with other unions to oppose current and proposed detrimental changes to pension rights and, acting within Unison rules and the law, to support service groups and sectors seeking to co-ordinate official national industrial action in defence of pensions”. Building a cross-union consensus on walkouts in the autumn will pose significant logistical challenges for Unison and its peers, because trade union legislation requires pinpoint information on voting data including the number of employees who voted and the departments in which they are employed. Unison and other unions have been scouring their membership databases for months in preparation for a major vote. . Trade unions David Cameron Conservatives Danny Alexander Liberal-Conservative coalition Public sector pensions Public services policy guardian.co.uk
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Press photographer is shot in the leg as sectarian violence erupts in the east of the cty for a second night A 20-year-old woman has been arrested on a weapons charge after the most serious rioting for years in Belfast. A press photographer was shot in the right leg by a rioter and police fired more than 60 baton rounds as sectarian rioting flared up in the east of the city for a second night. Up to 700 people attacked officers with petrol and paint bombs, masonry and laser pens. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) deployed both its helicopters, and officers brought in water cannon after bricks and bottles hit their lines. A PSNI spokesman said: “A 20-year-old female was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and assault on police. She remains in police custody.” Northern Ireland’s first minister, Peter Robinson, and his deputy, ,Martin McGuinness, have condemned the riots, as well as a separate bomb attack aimed at police in west Belfast. Robinson said: “At this time, when many are working hard to build a better and brighter future for all in Northern Ireland, it is disappointing and deeply concerning to see this level of violence return to our streets. “We have given clear commitments to continue to deliver progress for all within the community, including in those areas most at need. This type of behaviour damages the local economy and unfairly mars the reputation of the community.” McGuinness said: “A small minority of individuals are clearly determined to destabilise our communities. They will not be allowed to drag us back to the past. “I call on all those involved to take a step back and to remain calm. I support the efforts of community leaders on all sides, who have been working on the ground to restore calm in east Belfast.” The unrest followed similar disturbances on Monday night, in which two men were shot. . Several hundred people gathered near the Newtownards Road, and masked youths pelted each other with stones and fireworks. Police said around 700 people had congregated in the area, some of them carrying petrol bombs. The PSNI warned the media to stay away from the area for their own safety, shortly before the Press Association confirmed that one of its photographers had been shot in the leg and had been taken to hospital. A spokeswoman for the PSNI said three shots had been fired: “One male has been injured and taken to hospital, but the extent of his injuries is not known. Water cannon has been deployed.” Two men were also reportedly injured, suffering burn wounds, police said. “Police are continuing to engage with local community representatives and are working to restore calm. The Albert Bridge road and Temple Bridge road are now closed,” the spokeswoman added. Police said 11 shots were fired during the riot on Monday, six by nationalists and five by loyalists. Two shots fired at police vehicles were being treated as attempted murder. Petrol and smoke bombs, fireworks, bricks and stones were thrown by an estimated 500 men in masks and crash helmets as violence broke out at about 9pm in the Lower Newtownards Road and Short Strand area of the city, a mainly nationalist area. For four hours, missiles were hurled at homes on both sides of the sectarian divide along the main routes into Belfast’s city centre. The shooting happened just before 1am. Two Protestant men, both shot in a leg, were taken to hospital. One officer suffered a serious eye injury when rioters targeted police with laser pens. The PSNI confirmed that officers had fired a number of stun grenade rounds, and said the service was investigating a report of an attempted hijacking of a bus. Police said members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) had planned the violence. Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay said: “There certainly were people masked up and there were certainly people wearing surgical gloves … There was some planning around this event. It just didn’t spirit itself out of the ether.” One nationalist resident, who asked not to be named, said he had seen a gang gathering at about 3pm. “I saw all these men, not young lads, massing outside a local loyalist drinking den, all wearing crash helmets. I thought they were going on an outing, just messing around. But it was the same gang who came down later on … It’s the worst I’ve seen in years and years.” Chief Superintendent Alan McCrum of the PSNI said members of the east Belfast UVF had been involved in planning the disorder. McCrum, who appeared to rule out IRA splinter group involvement in the shooting of the two Protestants, admitted that his officers had been outnumbered on Monday but said the violence had been unexpected. “We had additional resources in the Short Strand on Monday night,” he said, “but no one could have anticipated the scale of the disorder that took place.” Northern Ireland Police Peter Robinson Martin McGuinness guardian.co.uk
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More than $9m of online currency was stolen in weekend attack on Bitcoin currency exchange that could cost members of Anonymous and LulzSec thousands of dollars each A rogue member of hacker group LulzSec is suspected to have been responsible for a hack last weekend which resulted in the theft of $9m worth of online currency. The hack focussed around a “currency exchange” called MtGox , which provides a method for swapping Bitcoins – an untraceable, cryptographically-created online-only currency favoured by online activists and hackers – for real US dollars. The attack – which could cost members of Anonymous and LulzSec thousands of dollars each – suggests other, more profit-focused hacking groups may be stepping up activity in response to the more high-profile politicised groups. LulzSec has denied any involvement in the Bitcoin hack. The group has also denied any link to attacks on the websites of games company Sega and the UK Office for National Statistics . Late on Sunday evening, MtGox was compromised when a hacker tried to sell more than 400,000 Bitcoins – 6% of all the virtual currency presently in circulation – for an initial price of $17.50 each, which would have netted $7m at a constant price. But the attempt to sell such a large volume of coins at once drove the value of the currency down almost to zero, before trading on the site was suspended. More than 60,000 users’ details were compromised in the attack and have since been posted publicly in dozens of places across the internet. Trading on the MtGox site has still not been reinstated since the attack, leaving the future of the fledgling currency in doubt. Bitcoins are produced without the involvement of any governments or banks; instead, they are generated by using software (also called Bitcoin). The idea was created in 2009 by a Japanese programmer. Bitcoins are not issued by a central authority, but instead generated by a mathematical algorithm after computers complete a certain number of complex calculations. Some of most experienced members of the Anonymous and LulzSec hacker collectives are believed to have botnets of more than 100,000 compromised computers. If that many machines were set to work generating Bitcoins, they could create up to $7,500 worth a day for as long as Bitcoins trade at current levels – meaning members of the hacker collectives could be among the biggest losers if Bitcoins’ value does not recover as and when MtGox reopens. In the hours before the hack, the total value of the currency in circulation was more than $150m. Anonymity and security are the central propositions of the currency, which has attracted controversy after being used in sites selling drugs and pornography. High-profile organisations accepting the coins include WikiLeaks and the US lobby group Electronic Frontiers Foundation, who have suspended their acceptance of Bitcoins in the wake of the hack. MtGox says access to its site was gained after a financial auditor’s computer was hacked, and insists its site was not compromised. However, Amir Taaki, who runs the rival Bitcoin exchange Britcoin.co.uk , disputes this chain of events. Developers working on his site, which runs on much of the same software as MtGox, found a security hole several days before the hack was carried out. He says MtGox was notified publicly and privately of the issue. “Due to the recent events at MTGox.com, we at Britcoin have decided to move our servers to a new location,” read a Britcoin statement. “MTGox suffered an SQL injection [a form of hacking attack that creates direct access to databases and files] which means access to the site’s funds were in the hands of the malicious hacker. As such, until we see evidence to the contrary, for security reasons we are assuming that MTGox has none of its clients’ bitcoins.” Other senior coders in the Bitcoin community claim to have been offered the full database of MtGox users days before the hack was carried out. Though they had not verified whether the database was genuine, it came from the same intermediary who has been testing interest in selling or distributing details from the Sega Pass hack. Members of Lulzsec, the hacker group whose alleged member Ryan Cleary was arrested in Essex on Tuesday , denied responsibility for the Sega Pass hack, as did several members of Anonymous. The recent spate of hacks denied by both groups – neither of which usually seeks to hide from the limelight – raises the possibility of a third, as yet unnamed, group of hackers carrying out the attacks. Lulzsec and Anonymous members stand to lose a significant amount of money if Bitcoins fail. Several members of both groups – speaking directly and through intermediaries – claim to know of others using thousands of hacked computers to generate Bitcoins. LulzSec Hacking Computing Internet Currencies Economics James Ball guardian.co.uk
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