Syrians fleeing across the border into Lebanon this weekend got a rude awakening: Lebanese security forces rounded them up and sent them right back. Hundreds of residents of the town of Tell Kalakh—including some wounded in Bashar al-Assad’s violent crackdown—came across the border hoping for refuge from local…
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America funding technology to break web censorship in repressive regimes, such as China and Iran The United States is playing a game of “cat and mouse” on the web, funding new technology aimed at breaking internet censorship in repressive regimes including China and Iran, officials have said. Michael Posner, the assistant secretary of state for human rights, said that among projects being funded by the US government is a technology that acts as a “slingshot” – identifying censored material and throwing it back on to the web so that users can find it. The project is part of a $30m (£18m) state department project aimed at encouraging civil liberty online. “We’re responding with new tools. This is a cat-and-mouse game. We’re trying to stay one step ahead of the cat,” Posner said. Censored information would be redirected to email, blogs and other online sources, he said. Posner said he would not identify the recipients of funding for “reasons of security”. Posner’s comments come as the US ended two days of talks with Chinese officials amid worsening relations over censorship and crackdowns on dissidents. Chinese authorities block sites including Twitter and Facebook and censor information online. In March, Google accused China of interfering with its email service. Authorities have been censoring references to pro-democracy uprisings in the Arab world and recently blocked search results for “Hillary Clinton” after she gave a speech championing internet freedom. Posner said the US was using $19m to fund technology that would “be redirecting information back in that governments have initially blocked”. In Washington, critics have accused the state department of being slow to spend the money and kowtowing to China. Earlier this year senator Dick Lugar, a Republican on the Senate foreign relations committee, called for another government body to be put in charge of the funds. Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of GlobalVoicesOnline.org , a global organisation for bloggers, said that access to information was not the only issue people faced online. In Egypt, for example, censorship had not been a problem but surveillance had been a far bigger issue, she said. When the Egyptian revolution began, the authorities successfully closed the internet. “Circumnavigation tools don’t do much good if the government shuts down the internet,” she said. MacKinnon said other technologies that would help people avoid government scrutiny online and allow them to set up local networks should a regime pull the plug on internet access were just as valuable. In a recent interview with the Atlantic magazine, Clinton said China had a deplorable human rights record and was involved in a “fool’s errand” trying to hold off democratic changes like those sweeping the Middle East. In her speech in February, the US secretary of state called the internet “the public space of the 21st century” and hailed the way the internet had been used to support uprisings in Egypt and protests in Iran. She pledged US support for freedom of expression and association online. “For the United States, the choice is clear. On the spectrum of internet freedom, we place ourselves on the side of openness,” she said. But Clinton criticised WikiLeaks for publishing secret US cables, calling it “an act of theft”. Censorship Internet Web filtering United States US foreign policy China Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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Two earthquakes in Spain, near Lorca in the south-east, have cost three lives At least three people have died in earthquakes in the south-east of Spain. Two earthquakes in quick succession caused damage in the Murcia region, south-east Spain. An official with the Murcia regional government said the quakes had magnitudes of 4.4 and 5.2. The centre of quakes Wednesday afternoon was close to the town of Lorca, and the second earthquake followed about two hours after the first. Spain Natural disasters and extreme weather Europe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The Treasury has decided to go through with a plan to sell 300 million AIG shares, despite recent blows to the nationalized insurer’s market price, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . Given the sagging demand, the government expects to make around $9 billion in the small offering, which is on…
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Extraordinary session set to debate the bill, which in its original form would impose the death penalty Ugandan MPs will debate a bill calling for gay people to be imprisoned for life on Friday after a walkout by women MPs over an unrelated matter forced parliament’s adjournment. The controversial legislation, first put forward in 2009 , was discussed in a parliamentary committee last Friday. It was due to be debated on Wednesday but was removed from the MPs’ timetable after there was a lack of a quorum. MPs now appear set to hold an extraordinary session to debate the bill, which in its original form would impose the death penalty. If they run out of time, it could yet be reintroduced in the next parliamentary session. The bill’s author, David Bahati, has claimed a new version would not contain capital punishment, but no amended version has been released publicly. Bahati said he expected the bill to be debated and passed on Friday. John Alimadi, an MP, told the Associated Press the bill may have been dropped from the agenda because of the worldwide outcry against it. Campaigners welcomed the temporary reprieve and called for the bill to be scrapped. Frank Mugisha, the director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a gay rights group, said. “The way I saw, if the bill was debated today, it would have been passed because most MPs were in its favour,” he told the Associated Press. “We were saved by the lack of quorum.” Christopher Senyonjo , a retired Anglican bishop from Uganda, said: “We wouldn’t like this bill even to be debated. That will be dangerous because there is a lot of misinformation and excitement. Just with the bill being debated, anything can happen to LGBT people.” Gay activists say homophobia in Uganda has increased since the bill’s introduction. Last year a tabloid newspaper published the names and photos of men it alleged were gay. One cover carried the words: “Hang Them.” The bill carries harsh provisions, extending colonial-era laws that condemn anyone convicted of a homosexual act to life imprisonment. Anyone who “aids, abets, counsels or procures another to engage of acts of homosexuality” would face seven years in prison. Landlords renting rooms or homes to homosexual people could get seven years. Online petitions from the groups Avaaz and Allout said they had gathered more than 1.4 million signatures decrying the proposals. Politicians and civil rights groups around the world have criticised the bill, with Barack Obama describing it as “odious”. • This article has been amended. The previous version stated that Uganda had dropped the bill in question. This has been corrected to indicate that it may still be debated Gay rights Uganda Africa David Smith guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …America funding technology to break web censorship in repressive regimes, such as China and Iran The United States is playing a game of “cat and mouse” on the web, funding new technology aimed at breaking internet censorship in repressive regimes including China and Iran, officials have said. Michael Posner, the assistant secretary of state for human rights, said that among projects being funded by the US government is a technology that acts as a “slingshot” – identifying censored material and throwing it back on to the web so that users can find it. The project is part of a $30m (£18m) state department project aimed at encouraging civil liberty online. “We’re responding with new tools. This is a cat-and-mouse game. We’re trying to stay one step ahead of the cat,” Posner said. Censored information would be redirected to email, blogs and other online sources, he said. Posner said he would not identify the recipients of funding for “reasons of security”. Posner’s comments come as the US ended two days of talks with Chinese officials amid worsening relations over censorship and crackdowns on dissidents. Chinese authorities block sites including Twitter and Facebook and censor information online. In March, Google accused China of interfering with its email service. Authorities have been censoring references to pro-democracy uprisings in the Arab world and recently blocked search results for “Hillary Clinton” after she gave a speech championing internet freedom. Posner said the US was using $19m to fund technology that would “be redirecting information back in that governments have initially blocked”. In Washington, critics have accused the state department of being slow to spend the money and kowtowing to China. Earlier this year senator Dick Lugar, a Republican on the Senate foreign relations committee, called for another government body to be put in charge of the funds. Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of GlobalVoicesOnline.org , a global organisation for bloggers, said that access to information was not the only issue people faced online. In Egypt, for example, censorship had not been a problem but surveillance had been a far bigger issue, she said. When the Egyptian revolution began, the authorities successfully closed the internet. “Circumnavigation tools don’t do much good if the government shuts down the internet,” she said. MacKinnon said other technologies that would help people avoid government scrutiny online and allow them to set up local networks should a regime pull the plug on internet access were just as valuable. In a recent interview with the Atlantic magazine, Clinton said China had a deplorable human rights record and was involved in a “fool’s errand” trying to hold off democratic changes like those sweeping the Middle East. In her speech in February, the US secretary of state called the internet “the public space of the 21st century” and hailed the way the internet had been used to support uprisings in Egypt and protests in Iran. She pledged US support for freedom of expression and association online. “For the United States, the choice is clear. On the spectrum of internet freedom, we place ourselves on the side of openness,” she said. But Clinton criticised WikiLeaks for publishing secret US cables, calling it “an act of theft”. Censorship Internet Web filtering United States US foreign policy China Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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America funding technology to break web censorship in repressive regimes, such as China and Iran The United States is playing a game of “cat and mouse” on the web, funding new technology aimed at breaking internet censorship in repressive regimes including China and Iran, officials have said. Michael Posner, the assistant secretary of state for human rights, said that among projects being funded by the US government is a technology that acts as a “slingshot” – identifying censored material and throwing it back on to the web so that users can find it. The project is part of a $30m (£18m) state department project aimed at encouraging civil liberty online. “We’re responding with new tools. This is a cat-and-mouse game. We’re trying to stay one step ahead of the cat,” Posner said. Censored information would be redirected to email, blogs and other online sources, he said. Posner said he would not identify the recipients of funding for “reasons of security”. Posner’s comments come as the US ended two days of talks with Chinese officials amid worsening relations over censorship and crackdowns on dissidents. Chinese authorities block sites including Twitter and Facebook and censor information online. In March, Google accused China of interfering with its email service. Authorities have been censoring references to pro-democracy uprisings in the Arab world and recently blocked search results for “Hillary Clinton” after she gave a speech championing internet freedom. Posner said the US was using $19m to fund technology that would “be redirecting information back in that governments have initially blocked”. In Washington, critics have accused the state department of being slow to spend the money and kowtowing to China. Earlier this year senator Dick Lugar, a Republican on the Senate foreign relations committee, called for another government body to be put in charge of the funds. Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of GlobalVoicesOnline.org , a global organisation for bloggers, said that access to information was not the only issue people faced online. In Egypt, for example, censorship had not been a problem but surveillance had been a far bigger issue, she said. When the Egyptian revolution began, the authorities successfully closed the internet. “Circumnavigation tools don’t do much good if the government shuts down the internet,” she said. MacKinnon said other technologies that would help people avoid government scrutiny online and allow them to set up local networks should a regime pull the plug on internet access were just as valuable. In a recent interview with the Atlantic magazine, Clinton said China had a deplorable human rights record and was involved in a “fool’s errand” trying to hold off democratic changes like those sweeping the Middle East. In her speech in February, the US secretary of state called the internet “the public space of the 21st century” and hailed the way the internet had been used to support uprisings in Egypt and protests in Iran. She pledged US support for freedom of expression and association online. “For the United States, the choice is clear. On the spectrum of internet freedom, we place ourselves on the side of openness,” she said. But Clinton criticised WikiLeaks for publishing secret US cables, calling it “an act of theft”. Censorship Internet Web filtering United States US foreign policy China Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Christopher Linder persuaded the people of a small Oklahoma town to elect him as their mayor despite his criminal past, but he couldn’t persuade a clemency board in Arizona to scrub his felony convictions. The 33-year-old former gang member, convicted of transporting marijuana and taking part in a drive-by shooting…
Continue reading …Considering it was the Obama administration that managed to finally get Osama bin Laden, you’d think they’d be doing a media victory lap. But no, it’s George W. Bush’s cronies taking all the credit, Jon Stewart pointed out last night . “Eleven Bush administration officials thought to be in their last…
Continue reading …Cameron must intervene in carbon row, say businesses and campaigners | Fiona Harvey and Terry Macalister
May 11, 2011 No Comment
Without the right policies, the UK will lose green energy jobs, renewable energy industry warns warring ministers A chorus of businesses, politicians and green campaigners have called on the prime minister, David Cameron, to intervene in a deepening row over the government’s climate change targets , as warring departments have put the UK’s future emissions cuts in jeopardy. The call came as the renewable energy industry called on ministers to “put up or shut up”, after Vestas, the world’s leading wind turbine maker, dangled the possibility of creating more than 2,000 green energy manufacturing jobs in the UK – but only if the right policies were set up. The worsening Whitehall row over whether to accept the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change – which would entail a 50% emissions cut by 2027, based on 1990 levels – threatens to derail the government’s promise to be “the greenest ever”, just before the first anniversary of the pledge this weekend. Vince Cable, Lib Dem business secretary, has taken the unusual step of writing to Nick Clegg to call for a lower target . But a lower target would imperil jobs and growth, said Andrew Raingold, executive director of the Aldersgate Group of more than 30 large businesses. “David Cameron should intervene and show clear leadership. Cable’s view that jobs and growth don’t go with green targets is misguided: there is clear evidence to show stronger targets would stimulate jobs.” Huw Irranca-Davies, the shadow energy minister, said: “It needs David Cameron [to decide] – the sooner he does, the better.” These views were echoed by green campaigners. Martyn Williams of Friends of the Earth said: “Clearly, it is the job of the prime minister to settle this disagreement, and whether he accepts the recommended targets will be a test of his commitment.” Greenpeace is planning to send a team of huskies to the House of Commons on Friday, a satirical reminder of Cameron’s trip to the Arctic while in opposition. The carbon budget drawn up by the CCC, setting out the reductions that need to be made in the 2020s to meet the UK’s longer-term targets, was “robust and considered”, said David Kennedy, chief executive of the committee. He refused to be drawn on whether Cameron should intervene, but said: “We have given a very well-evidenced proposal and I am not aware of any other well-evidenced alternative that would be consistent with the Climate Change Act. We urge the government to accept our recommendation.” The renewables industry, which is likely to be the source of many of the promised green jobs, is also deeply concerned about future government policy. Turbine-maker Vestas signed a deal on Wednesday to develop land – the equivalent of 93 football pitches – on which it wants to construct a huge new North Sea turbine production facility at Sheerness in Kent. But it said the project would go ahead only if ministers took decisive action to help. “Before our customers can provide us with the needed order pipeline, they need stability in the market and a long-term political and regulatory certainty that ensures their business case,” said Anders Søe-Jensen, president of Vestas Offshore. “Making that happen lies in the hands of policymakers, so we are looking forward to seeing the UK government providing the best possible terms for the offshore wind market to truly take off and the potential jobs becoming a reality,” he added. The Vestas executive said the timing of a report from the government-established CCC on Monday , which raised questions about the high cost of offshore wind, “could not be worse for us.” Søe-Jensen warned it would be a “shame” if a great new job opportunity at Sheerness was lost. The report suggested that offshore wind might be more expensive than nuclear power, but was rebuffed by the renewables industry, which said the figures did not take account of the very high cost of dealing with nuclear waste. The industry lobby group, RenewableUK , said it was now time for ministers to stop the debate about offshore wind and come down firmly in favour of pressing ahead. “We have an unprecedented situation where some of the best-known companies in the world are queuing up to invest in the UK. The government now needs to seal the deal on offshore: it needs to bag the first 8,000 jobs and hundreds of millions of pounds already pledged, by firmly supporting the technology,” said Maria McCaffery, chief executive of RenewableUK. The same message came from Friends of the Earth. “Uncertainty over energy policy has put companies off investing in the UK for too long,” said Tony Bosworth, FoE’s national climate change campaigner. “To reassure investors, the government must guarantee long-term support for renewable energy and allow the new green bank to borrow money straight away so that it can help clean energy projects such as offshore wind farms to get off the ground now.” Vestas said it was still optimistic that it could obtain the orders from the deep-sea round 3 projects that would allow the Denmark-based company to build vast new turbines, which would be as big as the Gherkin office block in the City of London. Vestas has also built a new research and development centre on the Isle of Wight, but created controversy when it closed a facility for building smaller turbines in the summer of 2009 . The worldwide renewable energy sector has been facing tougher times as politicians worry about bigger budget cutbacks and seek to reduce subsidies to wind and solar, despite a continuing desire to cut carbon emissions and tackle global warming. But there was a boost on Tuesday from Japan, where the prime minister promised to scrap a plan to obtain half its electricity from nuclear power and said it would promote renewable energy as a result of its nuclear crisis. Naoto Kan said Japan needed to “start from scratch” on its long-term energy policy after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was heavily damaged by an earthquake on 11 March, and began leaking radiation. A United Nations report out earlier this week predicted that, if the regulatory and other conditions were right, renewables could provide nearly 80% of the world’s energy needs after 2050. Wind power Energy Renewable energy Energy industry Terry Macalister Fiona Harvey guardian.co.uk
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