[mafarrico]

http://rt.com/news/trash-bin-surveillance-wifi-402/

Watched from a waste bin: UK pulls plug on ‘spy’ trash cans

Published time: August 12, 2013 22:29
Edited time: August 14, 2013 12:05



The City of London has demanded that an advertising firm cease its ‘spy bin’ program which uses high-tech trash cans to track people walking through the city's financial district. The bins follow Wi-Fi signals and capture smartphone serial numbers.

Renew installed 200 bomb-proof bins with built-in Wi-Fi and digital screens inside London’s Square Mile during and after the 2012 Olympic Games. The firm initially offered to place advertisements and financial information on its “pods.” But in June, the agency started testing the bins’ wireless potential, subsequently launching a smartphone-tracking campaign.

The company’s ‘ORB’ technology scanned the streets for smartphones, indentifying the manufacturer of every device through unique media access control (MAC) addresses. It also detected the owner’s “proximity, speed and duration” of stay. Renew had hoped the program would attract advertisers and help companies in their marketing campaigns.

“The technology enables clients to accumulate data readings that will aid in compounding statistical analysis on trending demographics in high profile locations (and particularly a client’s own market share within the City relative to peers in the handheld manufacturing example),” the website’s press release said at the start of the ‘Renew ORB’ beta-testing.

The captured data – which encompassed 4,009,676 devices in just one week of testing – was to be sold to advertisers in “raw form.” Shop owners, for example, could find it very useful for analyzing their customers’ visit time and loyalty.

Instead, the program triggered a media storm, building on ‘spy bins’ hype. This was followed by public outrage and an official ban. Questions were raised regarding whether the scheme was completely legal.

Responding to the turbulent reaction, Renew’s ORB technology CEO attempted to downplay the trash bins’ data collection capabilities.

“I’m afraid that in the interest of a good headline and story there has been an emphasis on style over substance that makes our technology trial slightly more interesting than it is,” Kaveh Memari said in a Monday statement published on Renew’s website. He added that “none” of the proposed capabilities “are workable right now.”

Memari also assured that the MAC addresses collected during the pods’ beta-testing were totally “anonymized and aggregated.” He stressed that no personal details could be devised from analyzing such data, comparing the process to the work of a website counter.

Earlier, Renew promised the technology would enable it to “cookie the street.” The comment was in reference to internet cookies – tiny files created by websites to track an individual’s activity.

A City of London spokesman took a different position on the matter, saying, “Irrespective of what’s technically possible, anything that happens like this on the streets needs to be done carefully, with the backing of an informed public.”

According to the spokesman, the issue has been taken to the Information Commissioner’s Office – a UK public body dealing with data protection and freedom of information.

Renew appeared to be ready both for public discussion and for a legal battle, saying that “the law has not yet fully developed and it is our firm intention to discuss any such progressions publicly first and especially collaborate with privacy groups…to make sure we lead the charge on this as we are with the implementation of the technology.”

However, the firm admitted that such technology required “the future levels of protection” and “people being comfortable with interactive technology.”

Meanwhile, Nick Pickles of Big Brother Watch – a civil liberties and privacy pressure group - said that questions need to be asked “about how such a blatant attack on people’s privacy was able to occur.”

[mafarrico]

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/27/us/in ... ?hpt=hp_t4

Missing teen, fascinated with 'Into the Wild,' found dead

By Ed Payne and Gabriel Falcon, CNN
August 27, 2013 -- Updated 1929 GMT (0329 HKT)


(CNN) -- Before he went missing, Johnathan Croom had developed an obsession with the movie "Into the Wild," in which a young man leaves society to go live off the land.

Unfortunately, both stories had tragic endings. The body of 18-year-old Croom turned up in rural Oregon on Monday, authorities say.

It was 1,000 feet from his abandoned car, which officers found last week.

They suspect no foul play and are investigating the death as a suicide, said Dwes Hutson, public information officer for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.

"John made us feel like he was OK, but he was really hurting inside," his father, David Croom, said Tuesday. "It's really important that we pay real close attention to what our kids are saying and that we remind them that we love them, because there are influences in the world that tell them otherwise.

"John is loved by many. I appreciate all the help and what everyone has done. My instincts told me this could happen. I'm trying to be strong for my community."

In the movie based on Jon Krakauer's 1996 nonfiction book, a young man by the name of Chris McCandless disappears from society.

Over the past six months, David Croom said, his son had shown a growing interest in the movie and possibly wanted to emulate McCandless' actions.

"He's been watching the movie a lot," Croom said before his son's body was found. "Maybe he said, 'I want to do it.' That's our theory, because he kept talking about the movie."

Johnathan's green Honda CRV was found on a lonely road in the quiet country town of Riddle, Oregon, on Wednesday, two days after he was supposed to start college at Mesa Community College.

"We still don't know what happened," Croom said, "but he was lost in the wild. He got in over his head, and things didn't go well."

He was last seen at a friend's home in Seattle, where he'd been visiting. His father assumed he was driving back to Arizona through Washington and Oregon before he went missing.

The teen has been a main topic of conversation in Riddle, a logging and ranching community of about 1,300 with no traditional grocery store and no movie theater.

People had been searching their property for him, said one resident, a longtime rancher who asked that he not be identified.

"There's nothing that makes sense," he said. What happened to him does not seem to square with what happened in the movie.

Riddle is dozens of miles from the nearest wilderness area, residents say.

"It's 2½ miles from the major interstate; it's right in town in Riddle," Huston said of where Croom's car was found. "There are houses and people, and it's well-populated, so if he wanted to do an 'Into the Wild,' it wasn't the appropriate place."

Krakauer's account of McCandless' life has taken on an almost cult status among countless free spirits who dream of shedding the trappings of modern life and living off the land.

"There were similarities," Croom said of his son's disappearance.

In the book, McCandless cut off communication with his parents and traveled to Alaska, where he lived in a school bus before dying of starvation.

Like McCandless, Johnathan Croom apparently traveled with very few belongings: perhaps a small backpack and his phone, his father said. Left behind in the Honda was the teen's ID card, plus a sweatshirt, blanket and jug of water, things someone might need to survive in the wilderness.

Johnathan Croom's camping experience was limited at best, his father said, not much more than camping once or twice.

Several reports describing travelers with an apparent interest in McCandless and the abandoned "Magic Bus" parked near Healy, Alaska, outside Denali National Park, have surfaced recently.

In May, a police helicopter reportedly rescued three German men who had hiked into the wilderness looking for the bus. An Oklahoma teen inspired by the movie reportedly went missing in Oregon in March after telling his parents he wanted to "live in the wild."

In 2010, a Swiss woman reportedly drowned in an Alaska river during her trek to visit the famous bus.

[mafarrico]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... mbols.html

Da Pinchi code: police decode burglar chalk symbols

Mysterious chalk markings, which police believe have been scrawled on the sides of houses and pavements by burglars, have finally been decoded.



The "Da Pinchi Code". Photo: MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS SYNDICATION


By News agencies
8:18AM BST 05 Sep 2013

 The chalk markings - dubbed the Da Pinchi Code - were spotted on the side of a pensioner's home in Walkden.

It is believed that the marking could have been made by a would-be burglar who leaves small chalk symbols on the side of properties in preparation to commit crime. Police have now spoken to other residents and distributed leaflets in the area warning of the symbols.

The symbols have been previously been spotted in other parts of the country.

Resembling washing instructions with a series of crosses, circles and boxes, they have been found on walls and surfaces of homes as well as pavements and kerbs.

Police in Devon think they have cracked the code and have released their findings.



One sign informs of a vulnerable female resident and another sinister symbol indicates an occupant who is "nervous and afraid".

Other codes, deduced by officers, indicate households that are "wealthy", a "good target", "alarmed", "burgled before", "too risky" and "nothing worth stealing".

Salford police are now urging people who have noticed these symbols to take a picture and then wash them off the property as soon as possible.

Police launched their investigation after receiving a report from an elderly woman on Sunday, August 25.

Chief inspector Sue Downey said: "Police in Salford received a call from a woman in Walkden, who was concerned that a symbol had been marked on her house in chalk.

"Enquiries have been carried out and residents in the surrounding area have been spoken to, and we have received no further reports of any such activity.

"We always ask the public to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious activity to the police, which we will investigate. "On this occasion we can find no link between the chalk symbol at this address and any criminality."

Anyone spotting the markings should report it to police on the non-emergency police number 101.

[Lusitano89]

Malaui vai alimentar pobres com dinheiro da venda de avião presidencial


O Malaui vai utilizar 15 milhões de dólares da venda do avião a jato presidencial para alimentar os pobres e plantar cereais para combater a subnutrição, indicaram hoje fontes oficiais.
 
“Foi uma decisão coletiva do Governo que o dinheiro obtido da venda do avião seja utilizado para comprar milho localmente e algum para produção de leguminosas”, declarou Nations Msowoya, uma porta-voz do Ministério das Finanças.

Especialistas alimentares indicaram que 10 por cento dos 13 milhões de cidadãos do país se debatem com falta de comida este ano.

A Presidente, Joyce Banda, decidiu no ano passado vender o jato, comprado pelo seu antecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika por 22 milhões de dólares (16,7 milhões de euros), devido aos seus elevados custos de utilização.

A antiga potência colonial Reino Unido, o maior doador bilateral do Malaui, reduziu a sua ajuda ao país em três milhões de libras (3,5 milhões de euros) depois de o avião de 14 lugares ter sido adquirido.

Mutharika, que morreu no ano passado de enfarte do miocárdio, defendeu bastantes vezes as razões da compra da aeronave, argumentando que era mais fácil de manter e um símbolo de estatuto para a pobre nação africana.

Desde que assumiu o cargo, Banda introduziu uma série de medidas de corte de despesa e utiliza os voos comerciais para viajar para fora do país.

O avião de 14 passageiros foi leiloado e arrematado por uma empresa das Ilhas Virgens, a Bohnox Enterprise Ltd.

Lusa

[mafarrico]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 01964.html

Al-Hilli killings: One year on, mystery surrounds the quadruple murder in the Alps

But French and British investigators pledge 'absolute determination' to solve it
John Lichfield  Paris  Friday 06 September 2013






Industrial espionage is now regarded as one of three possible explanations for the the Al-Hilli killings in the French Alps a year ago this week.

French investigators today put forward for the first time the possibility that Saad Al-Hilli, a satellite engineer, might have been the target of an assassination by a “state agency” connected with technological spying.

But the Annecy prosecutor, Eric Maillaud, admitted to an anniversary press conference that the mystery of the quadruple murder on a forest lay-bay above Lake Annecy in the French Alps remained almost intact.

Despite 12 months of exhaustive investigations in France and Britain, “there is not the start of the beginning of proof” of who may have been responsible, Mr Maillaud said.

Two other lines of inquiry remained open, he said.

The first was a “violent” quarrel between Saad al-Hilli and his brother Zaid over their father’s €3-5 million inheritance. The second was a targeted hit by an unknown person or persons in Iraq, who wanted to deprive both brothers of their father’s legacy.

On 5 September last year, Saad a-Hilli, 50, a British-Iraqi satellite engineer, his wife Iqbal, 47, a dentist, and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were found shot in the head in the family BMW estate two miles from the village of Chevaline. The body of a local cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45, lay nearby.

The couple's 7-year-old daughter, Zainab al-Hilli, was found at the scene with head and shoulder injuries. Her sister, Zeena, 4, was found unharmed eight hours later hiding beneath her dead mother’s legs in the back of the car.

In June, British police arrested Mr al-Hilli’s older brother, Zaid, 54, on suspicion of ordering the killings. He was released on bail without charge.

“Zaid  should not at all be regarded as the number one suspect,” Mr Maillaud said yesterday. “He had a motive in the sense that he was in a serious conflict with his brother but there is not the shadow of an element pointing to his guilt which could justify keeping him in custody.”

Zaid al-Hilli protests his innocence and denies that there was any quarrel over their father’s will, thought to include property and cash in Britain, Switzerland, Spain and Iraq. He will be questioned again, Mr Maillaud said.

“People have been killed for less than that,” the prosecutor said. “There was a violent conflict between them. Saad was afraid of his brother.”

The prosecutor – who is no longer leading the investigation but remains its chief spokesman -  said the “family quarrel” was only one of three “equally strong” lines of inquiry. Mr Maillaud revealed that Saad al-Hilli had kept at his home in Claygate, Surrey, an “unusual” amount of documents from his work on weather-forecasting and crop-watching micro-satellites.

“His company worked for many foreign states,” Mr Maillaud said. “Any mention of foreign countries and industrial espionage inevitably raises the possibility of the involvement of secret intelligence agencies.”

“This is a very complex part of the inquiry… but investigations are far from being closed on this subject.”

On the third, Iraqi, line of inquiry, Mr Maillaud  said the authorities in Baghdad had promised to cooperate but had still not responded to an international warrant issue in November last year.

“The question is whether there is anyone in Iraq who currently controls part of the father’s inheritance who would benefit from the disappearance of both al-Hilli brothers.”

Mr Maillaud insisted that the “very complex” investigation was not “stuck” and had made some progress recently. The US authorities, after months of delay, had finally approved access to data from Saad al-Hilli’s computers, stored across the Atlantic.

The prosecutor also revealed that Mr al-Hilli had recorded all of his phone conversations and investigators were going through the tapes.  

There were still 40 French and 40 British investigators working on the case, the prosecutor said. In France alone, 3,000 witnesses had given formal statements and 107 expert reports had been commissioned. Formal requests for information had been sent to 23 countries.

The killer is known to have used an antique 7.65mm  Lugar P06 revolver, issued to the Swiss army and police in the 1920s and 1930s. Part of the handle of the gun was found at the scene.

Three clips of eight bullets were fired in a very short time, Mr Maillaud said. There were no bullet impacts on the bodywork of the car. This suggested that the attacker was an “experienced killer”  but, otherwise, investigators had been unable to create a clear profile.

The use of such an old gun – widely available locally but not a weapon of choice for professional hitmen or secret agents – is one of the great remaining mysteries of the investigation.  

Representatives of  Surrey police were also present.

Detective superintendent Nick May said: “We remain committed to finding answers to what happened that day on behalf of their (the victims') families, particularly for the two young girls who lost their parents.

“We have established a good working relationship with our French colleagues and are continuing to pursue a number of lines of inquiry in the UK.”

[mafarrico]

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/08/justi ... ?hpt=hp_t3

107-year-old man killed in police shootout in Arkansas, authorities say

By Faith Karimi, CNN
September 8, 2013 -- Updated 0707 GMT (1507 HKT)


(CNN) -- A man who police said was 107 years old was killed in a confrontation with SWAT officers.

Police were called to a home in Pine Bluff, where suspect Monroe Isadore was Saturday evening.

"When they arrived, they were able to determine that an aggravated assault had occurred against two people at the residence," said Lt. David E. Price, a Pine Bluff police spokesman.

The two victims were led out of the house.

When officers approached the bedroom where Isadore was hiding, he fired through the door, authorities said.

None of the police officers were hit by the gunfire. They retreated to a safer area and called for additional help, including SWAT officers who started negotiations with the suspect.

SWAT officers slipped a camera into the room where the suspect was holed up and saw he was armed with a handgun, Price said.

After unsuccessful negotiations, officers slipped gas into the room through a bedroom window, he said, and Isadore fired rounds at them.

The officers broke the bedroom door and hurled in a distraction device, and Isadore fired at them again, according to the spokesman.

Officers returned fire, killing him.

It's unclear what distraction device was used. No more information was immediately available. CNN called the police department, but could not reach anyone.

In 2010, there were about 53,000 people over age 100 in the United States, according to the latest Census numbers. A majority of those -- 92% -- were between ages 100 to 104.

CNN's Shane Deitert contributed to this report

[HSMW]

[mafarrico]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 16846.html

Organised crime surge in EU: Smuggling, counterfeit and internet abuse – all in a day’s work for Europol

Europe’s criminal intelligence agency is fighting unprecedented levels of crime across several fronts as gangs capitalise on new technology

PAUL GALLAGHER  Sunday 15 September 2013





The UK and the rest of Europe is dealing with an unprecedented surge in organised crime as sophisticated multinational groups, including child sex abusers and counterfeit gangs, expand their networks, according to the British head of the European Union’s criminal intelligence agency, Europol.

As MEPs on the Special Committee on Organised Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering prepare to vote on Tuesday on actions to combat the criminals, Rob Wainwright, the director  of Europol, said that thousands of gangs are capitalising on the rise of smartphone and internet technology.

“There is a changing face of crime across Europe. Everyday crime is down but more sophisticated, more dangerous forms of crime are going up,” Mr Wainwright told the IoS in an exclusive interview on the eve of the European Police Chiefs Convention last week.

“There are at least 3,600 internationally active organised crime groups in Europe. It is a multibillion-dollar industry and organised crime is diversifying and spreading out into more and more aspects of people’s lives. The gangs are making more money in ways that are clearly harmful to society and on a scale we have never seen before,” he added.

Tuesday’s publication of the MEPs’ report and their subsequent vote on it will be the culmination of nearly a decade of trying to create a Europe-wide strategy to combat the growing menace of cross-border crime.

Liberal Democrat MEP Bill Newton Dunn, who sits on the committee, said: “We hope this report will make people sit up and say, ‘My God, I had no idea [organised crime] was so big’. Around half of Europol’s investigations have links to Britain.

“There must be more action. The Mafia, for example, is now all over the place and I’m sure they’re here in the UK. There are many other gangs using the advantage of open borders. Old-fashioned crime in the UK might be falling, but new organised crime is often not counted at all. Our report is a shopping list of actions that we want to see the European Commission act on.”

He is calling for the establishment of an EU commissioner dedicated to fighting organised crime.

Mr Wainwright, Europol’s director since 2009, has overseen a rapid expansion in the agency’s activities and a move to a new headquarters in The Hague, next to the UN International Criminal Court. He cautions against the need for more legislation, however. “There is no political appetite for a ‘European FBI’,” he said. “It is still the job of national crime agencies to make arrests. Our job is to provide them with the intelligence to make it easier for them to go after the right people.”

Europol chief of staff Brian Donald, an ex-Grampian Police detective from the serious crime division, said that Britain, like other European nations, has seen an “exponential growth” in organised crime in recent years. “The difference is the effort that the UK places on dealing with these issues – there are officers here from all the major parts of UK law enforcement who are tapped into that international business. It generates a huge amount of work,” he said.

Mr Wainwright and Mr Donald have pioneered an intelligence-led policing model that has painted a clearer picture of international organised crime. Europol has fewer than 800 staff dealing with between 15,000 and 16,000 operations, and technology continues to pose huge challenges. “Cyber crime, in all its guises, is a major phenomenon,” Mr Donald said. “It has had a meteoric rise in our priorities and is a perfect example of modern international organised crime where the criminals, their servers and the victims could be anywhere in the world. One of the cyber-crime gangs reported to us had 60 nationalities identified.”

Mr Wainwright concurred. “The scale is much bigger than anything we’ve experienced. The internet is huge and a particularly difficult place to police, because of difficulties in identifying a suspect, let alone chasing him down in a jurisdiction, which might be inaccessible.”

The volume of material relating to child sex abuse available online is “staggering,” he said. “As encryption technology improves and the ‘darknet’ becomes more accessible, they are exploited to establish huge networks exchanging the worst kind of child sex abuse material you can imagine. The level of depravity has worsened and the networks have got bigger. This is the ugly side of the internet and one of the costs society has to bear. The question is whether the balance is yet right as to what extent we should be properly ‘policing’ the internet.”

When David Cameron drew criticism earlier this year for announcing a crackdown on the “corroding” influence of online pornography, Mr Wainwright supported him. “I’d like to see more from privacy campaigners as to what a proportionate response should be. ”

He warned against those advocating UK withdrawal from the EU. “The public receives a distorted view of the EU. Without a doubt, in terms of police co-operation and fighting terrorism and organised crime, the UK derives significant benefit from EU participation. The European arrest warrant has allowed 4,000 suspects – many suspected child sex offenders, rapists, murderers and drug dealers – to be arrested and extradited from the UK, by a cheap, fast and effective mechanism. I don’t see that side of the picture being presented to the public.”

Despite an annual workload increase of 15 to 20 per cent since 2009, Europol’s €84.8m (£71m) budget was cut by 5 per cent this year – the first cut in its 14-year history. Despite this, Mr Wainwright remains optimistic. “You should never lose your optimism … we focus on things that really matter in fighting international crime: information exchange and the economics of organised crime. The counterfeit sector is worth €8bn, and cigarette smuggling €11bn; we think €100bn is lost in VAT fraud.

“This has a noticeably distortive effect on a free market-based economy, and governments are being deprived of taxpayers’ revenues. I’m surprised that people  are not linking the need to fight organised crime with a need to help secure our economic recovery.”

Food and drug fakes

The spiralling rise of counterfeit “health and safety products” prompted Europol to form a new unit. Chris Vansteenkiste, from Europol’s criminal finances and technology team, told The IoS: “Gangs are moving from luxury to everyday consumer goods – washing powder, cosmetics, shampoo, razor blades, even fake condoms. How often will someone buy a fake Louis Vuitton handbag? But everyone buys washing powder and needs it regularly, so although per good the margins are smaller, it is of huge benefit overall. This is happening in the UK, in Belgium, Sweden, all over Europe.”

Gangs are also moving into the fake “life-saving drugs” market, Mr Vansteenkiste said. “More and more examples are popping up in the pharmaceutical chain. A lot of drug dealers have turned into fake consumer goods traders because they’ve seen the market is bigger.”

Lib Dem MEP Bill Newton Dunn said: “The amount of fake drugs coming in is unmeasured and gigantic. Some of these fake pharmaceuticals are so good that when you go into reputable high street chemists, you are not absolutely certain that what you buy is 100 per cent safe, but they never tell you that because public confidence would crash. Some of the fake pharmaceuticals coming in are bland but some are killing people.”

In the aftermath of the horsemeat scandal, the growing threat of fake food continues to pose a “huge threat to consumer health”, the UK government has warned. On Friday it will host an international conference to support a joint Interpol/Europol investigation. “More than 30 countries and key enforcement agencies will focus on how to tackle the growing issue of fake and substandard food and drink, which covers both ‘fake’ branding of products as well foodstuffs not subject to proper public health controls,” a government spokesman said.

[HSMW]

[Lusitano89]

Merkel terá que "dosear" austeridade


Analistas portugueses dão como certa a reeleição de Angela Merkel nas eleições legislativas, mas consideram que serão os "próprios interesses" da Alemanha a obrigar a chanceler a "dosear a austeridade" na Europa e apostar no crescimento da periferia. A poucos dias das eleições legislativas de 22 de Setembro na Alemanha, Viriato Soromenho-Marques, professor catedrático da Universidade de Lisboa e profundo conhecedor da política interna alemã, e André Freire, investigador e especialista em ciência política do ISCTE, não têm dúvidas de que serão os democratas-cristãos (CDU/CSU), de Angela Merkel, a levar a melhor na corrida eleitoral.

A "única incerteza", apontam, é qual será o parceiro de coligação escolhido por Merkel, já que os partidos que suportam a actual coligação governamental dificilmente vão conseguir formar "um governo solitário".

Os dois analistas consideram, contudo, que "qualquer que seja a aliança" que Merkel vier a estabelecer, Berlim vai acabar por "alterar" a sua estratégia para resolver a crise do euro -- uma mudança que acontecerá, no entanto, para "defender os próprios interesses alemães".

"Não vai haver uma mudança de política mas sim dos condimentos da política e da sua dosagem (...) Vamos assistir a um aligeiramento das medidas [de austeridade], até para elas continuarem a existir", refere Soromenho-Marques, para quem essa transformação poderá acontecer "durante a primeira metade do novo mandato".

Haverá, sustenta, um maior enfoque "na promoção do crescimento económico nos países da periferia", como Grécia ou Portugal, para que dessa forma a Alemanha também possa "assegurar a vitalidade das suas próprias exportações".

Este catedrático lembra que com a "previsível quebra das exportações alemãs" para os países emergentes, como a China, e para a periferia da zona euro -- que já compra menos produtos alemães -- a Alemanha corre um "risco muito forte" de a sua indústria "começar a ter uma quebra de encomendas muito desagradável" -- e quem sabe -- um dia também "entrar em recessão".

"Quando a crise for chegando ao centro, essa inflexão acabará por acontecer", acrescenta André Freire. Esse 'novo rumo' só poderá ser bem-sucedido, sublinham, se acompanhado por uma "mudança na narrativa" explicativa da crise.

A opinião pública alemã entende hoje a solidariedade como um custo e não como um investimento no futuro, que passa pelo aprofundamento da Europa, apontam.

Ambos lembram que serão temas internos como a crescente desigualdade social ou o emprego que vão fazer decidir as eleições, lembrando que a Europa tem tendência de olhar para a Alemanha como se tudo estivesse bem a nível interno, o que não é o caso.

A título de exemplo, referem a crise demográfica e o "grande problema do trabalho precário", já que os baixos níveis desemprego - uma das bandeiras de Merkel - escondem que "há 7,5 milhões de pessoas que trabalham por 400 euros nos chamados 'míni-jobs'".

Se o Partido Liberal Alemão (FDP) conseguir obter representação parlamentar, Soromenho-Marques vê "fortes probabilidades de ver a actual coligação renovada". Caso contrário, dá como "mais provável" uma coligação entre a CDU/CSU e o partido ecologista Os Verdes -- enquanto André Freire aposta "numa grande coligação com o SPD".

O catedrático lembra ainda que Os Verdes são um partido com experiencia governativa (1998-2005) e que poderão beneficiar Merkel a resolver um dos temas fracturantes: a transição energética do nuclear às renováveis, prometido pela chanceler em 2011, depois do acidente em Fukushima, mas que está "bastante atrasada e só funcionará num quadro bem europeu".

Lusa

[Lusitano89]

Renfe quer pôr maquinistas espanhóis a aprender português


Os maquinistas da transportadora ferroviária espanhola Renfe vão receber formação em língua portuguesa e normas nacionais para poderem operar em todo o trajecto do comboio directo entre Vigo, na Galiza, e Porto, disse à Lusa fonte sindical. Segundo fonte do sindicato ferroviário da Galiza, que cita informação da própria transportadora espanhola, esta formação em português é justificada com a pretensão, recusada pelos representantes daqueles trabalhadores, de os maquinistas espanhóis passarem a operar em todo o trajecto.

Segundo o sindicato, esta formação em língua portuguesa envolveria 64 trabalhadores da Renfe, transportadora pública de Espanha, colocados em Vigo, dos quais 36 são maquinistas.

Até agora, mesmo com o novo serviço directo entre as duas cidades, inaugurado a 02 de Julho e operado conjuntamente pela Renfe e pela congénere portuguesa CP, a troca de maquinistas era feita na estação de Valença.

Numa carta já enviada pelos sindicalistas galegos ao Governo de Espanha, é recusada esta pretensão, por implicar uma "redução considerável dos níveis de segurança".

O próprio sindicato recorda que a circulação em segurança no troço da Linha do Minho entre Valença, Viana do Castelo e Nine, de cerca de 90 quilómetros, está dependente da sinalização por meios mecânicos e da comunicação com os trabalhadores portugueses. Trata-se do único troço daquela linha ainda por electrificar e modernizar, existindo o compromisso do governo português de o fazer até 2016.

É precisamente devido a estas exigências de comunicação, e para permitir ter maquinistas da mesma nacionalidade para garantir toda a viagem, que a Renfe pretende formar os profissionais espanhóis na língua portuguesa e nas normas nacionais.

Prevê recorrer, para tal, a um "curso intensivo", considerado pelos sindicalistas como "insuficiente", face às necessidades de entendimento com os colegas portugueses que operam a circulação na linha.

As aulas de português terão uma duração de entre 180 a 300 horas, consoante o nível de conhecimentos de cada profissional.

Lusa

[mafarrico]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24170726

22 September 2013 Last updated at 05:48

Bo Xilai found guilty of corruption by Chinese court


A Chinese court has found disgraced former top politician Bo Xilai guilty of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

The former party chief of Chongqing was sentenced to life imprisonment, but has the right to appeal.

He had denied all the charges against him in a fiery defence at his trial.

Bo was removed from office last year amid a scandal which saw his wife convicted for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

The verdict was handed down by the Intermediate People's Court in Jinan, Shandong province.

Passing sentence the judge told Bo that he had damaged China's national interests and the interests of its people, wrongfully using his position in power to receive bribes totalling 20 million Chinese Yuan ($3.2m; £2m).

He rejected Bo's claims that his confession to the crimes was acquired through illegal means such as torture and interrogation, and said it therefore stood.

The BBC's John Sudworth, outside the court, said that the judge completely dismissed Bo's defence arguments.

During Bo's trial last month the court took the unprecedented step of releasing details about proceedings on its Weibo microblog.

Bo was sentenced to life in prison on the bribery charges, 15 years for embezzlement and seven years for abuse of power - our correspondent says that he has been politically buried. In addition all his personal wealth has been confiscated.

He has 10 days to appeal against his sentence and conviction, but correspondents say that any such move is highly unlikely to be successful.

Although his trial was conducted under an unprecedented degree of openness for China, many analysts say that the guilty verdict was always a foregone conclusion - and many see the process against him as having a very strong political dimension.

Prosecutors had said that Bo accepted the bribes and embezzled public funds from Dalian, where he used to be mayor.

He was also accused of abusing his office by using his position to cover up for his wife Gu Kailai, convicted last year of murdering Neil Heywood in 2011.

In lengthy comments in court, he said he did not illegally obtain millions of dollars or cover up Mr Heywood's killing.

He also dismissed the testimony of two key witnesses, describing his wife's statement as "ridiculous" and his former police chief Wang Lijun's testimony as "full of lies and fraud".

Political crisis

Bo's fall from power was triggered when Wang sought refuge in the US consulate in Chengdu in February 2012.

The incident prompted an investigation into the death of Mr Heywood. Wang has since been jailed for 15 years for helping Gu cover up the murder.

The Bo Xilai scandal triggered a crisis in the Communist Party, which was about to hold its once-in-a-decade leadership handover, and revealed divisions at the top of the party over how Bo should be handled.

Two years ago Bo Xilai was seen as a candidate for promotion to the Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision-making body.

His downfall was seen as the biggest political shake-up to hit China's ruling elite in decades.

But his trial also offered the public a rare glimpse into the life of China's rich and powerful, with lurid details emerging of lavish vacations and luxury villas.

Earlier this week, an overseas-based dissident Chinese news website published a letter allegedly written by Bo in prison on 12 September.


Mr Bo dismissed the testimony of Wang Lijun (left) and his own wife Gu Kailai

Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post said that unidentified insiders with close ties to Mr Bo had confirmed that the letter, addressed to Bo's family, was genuine.

"I am an innocent victim and I feel wronged," the letter read. "But I believe one day truth will prevail...I will wait quietly in jail for that day to come."

[mafarrico]

[Lusitano89]

NASA usa radar espacial para descobrir pessoas soterradas


A NASA e o departamento de Segurança Interna dos Estados Unidos desenvolveram um radar portátil capaz de detectar os batimentos cardíacos e a respiração das vítimas de um sismo ou tornado que se encontrem soterradas. O protótipo desta tecnologia chamada Finder (sigla de ‘Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response’), hoje tornado público, permite localizar pessoas soterradas até nove metros.

"Esta tecnologia da NASA usada para explorar outros planetas será usada para ajudar a salvar vidas na Terra", disse Mason Peck, responsável pela tecnologia da agência espacial norte-americana.

Já John Price, do departamento de Segurança Interna, destacou que este radar vai permitir "às equipes de resgate usar de forma mais precisa os meios de acção", que são "limitados”.

Esta tecnologia consiste na transmissão de sinais de microondas em direcção aos detritos resultantes do sismo, analisando depois as características dos sinais que são devolvidos.

Essa mesma técnica é usada pela NASA para pesquisa espacial, caso da sonda Cassini que em órbita em torno de Saturno tenta desvendar os segredos da estrutura interna de anéis do planeta.

Lusa

[mafarrico]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news ... ms-2280992

by Nigel Atkins 18 Sep 2013 00:00
   
Middle-class mum, dad and two daughters kill THIRTY victims in six-year reign of terror

The gang were dubbed a “family of monsters” who set off on their missions of murder like they were “going to the office for a day’s work”


Killer mum: Inessa shows how she shot victims

they seemed like an ordinary middle-class family with jobs that made them pillars of the community they lived in.

But dentist Roman Podkopaev, wife Inessa Tarverdiyeva and her daughter Viktoria Tarverdiyeva were in fact a ruthless gang of killers who robbed and murdered their way through a region of Russia in a six-year reign of terror.

They even roped their 13-year-old girl Anastasiya into the spree during which they shot dead or butchered at least 30 victims, including children and police officers.

The gang were dubbed a “family of monsters” who set off on their missions of murder like they were “going to the office for a day’s work”.

Podkopaev, 35, was killed in a shootout with police last week as officers finally closed in.


Killer dad: Roman Podkopayev

Former nursery nurse Inessa, 46, was badly wounded in the battle.

The family, from the Stavropol region of Russia, killed and robbed in ­neighbouring Rostov as a means of getting money, despite having a comfortable life and good home.

Vladimir Markin, of the Russian Investigative Committee, said: “They looked like a totally good, nice family.

"Imagine them... a mother, a father, two children, including an underage girl.

“I am sure when they were together one could hardly imagine they could even plan a crime.

"Looking like a housewife, Inessa says policemen were killed with a view to get extra arms. Others were shot purely for money.”


Killer daughter: 25-year-old Viktoria

Inessa confessed to police: “I am a gangster by nature.”

The family told neighbours they were going camping before they vanished on their sprees.

In one attack, they gunned down paratrooper Dmitry Chudakov, wife Irina and son Sasha, seven, before ­stabbing daughter Veronika 37 times.

They made off with a laptop, hair dryer and camera worth £950.

On another occasion the gang tortured and killed two teenage girls, gouging out their eyes.

Mr Markin said: “They didn’t pay mercy to any of the victims.”


Victims: Dmitry Chudakov and his family

Inessa, whose daughter Viktoria, 25, was from a previous marriage, confessed she hated police.

But she told officers: “It was not me who killed the children. My husband shot them.”

She then showed officers how she used a gun to snuff out her victims.

Searches of the family home ­uncovered automatic rifles, grenades, shotguns, silencers and ammunition.

Podkopaev’s sister Anastasiya, 26, and her former policeman husband Sergei Sinelnik, 31, have been held on suspicion of helping the crime family.

Inessa and Viktoria have confessed their crimes to police, which will be taken in court as a guilty plea.