Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/242011430?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, August 19, 2012
Thousands March In Prague Gay Pride Parade
AFP ? Thousands marched in Prague on Saturday for the climax of the Czech capital?s second gay pride festival, using the occasion to condemn the sentencing of Russia?s Pussy Riot punk band.
With many in fancy dress, blowing whistles and waving flags, they gathered on central Wenceslas Square before setting off along Prague?s main streets to the sound of music from loudspeakers mounted on vans.
The parade ended without incident on an island in the Vltava river for a series of concerts and shows.
?We estimate that between 10,000 and 15,000 people took part?
More at AFP
Source: http://180dfo.com/2012/08/thousands-march-in-prague-gay-pride-parade/
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Assange, Ecuador, and the Swedish Legal System ? M?rten Schultz.
The British Foreign Secretary William Hague was refreshingly clear when he addressed Ecuador?s decision to grant Wikileaks spokesperson Julian Assange asylum to protect him from being extradited to Sweden. He expressed his disappointment at the decision and summarized the case succinctly: ? It is important to understand that this is not about Mr Assange?s activities at Wikileaks or the attitude of the United States of America. He is wanted in Sweden to answer allegations of serious sexual offences.?
The last sentence is important but the fact it expresses seems to have been forgotten by most people, including the Government of Ecuador. The reason why Swedish authorities has asked that Mr. Assange should be extradited has nothing to do with Wikileaks or the work Mr. Assange has done for Wikileaks. In fact, before Wikileaks became a megaphone for Mr. Assange?s personal legal problems I think that most Swedish people, and especially so Swedish media, were very favorable towards the Wikileaks project.
During Mr. Assange?s visit to Sweden ? a visit that apparently came about because of the solid reputation of Sweden?s freedom of speech law that Wikileaks had taken an interest in ? events occurred that no one except of Mr. Assange and the two women that subsequently accused him of criminal activities can know anything about. What we do know, however, is that the allegations of one of the women ? that Mr. Assange had sex with her when she was asleep without her consent ? could be characterized as rape under Swedish criminal law. Yes, this falls under the section of rape in the Swedish Criminal Code. From what I understand Swedish criminal law does not differ in this definition of rape from most other countries in civilized legal orders.
These are the allegations, they are serious and they are treated seriously. Rape allegations are always treated seriously, or at least they should be. Sweden has used the European Arrest Warrent (EAW) to bring alleged rapists to the Swedish legal system most if not all years since the EAW came into force and it did the same in this case after Mr. Assange decided he did not want to co-operate fully with the investigation. He is at this time only wanted for questioning on the allegations. Whether the allegations are true is a different story. So is the Wikileaks project and the work Mr. Assange has carried out as a spokesperson for that project. However, as a result of Mr. Assange?s legal strategy in the rape case, the two will now forever be intertwined.
Will Mr. Assange be extradited from Sweden to stand trial in the U.S. if the extradition process goes through as it is supposed to? That is a question no one can answer today. There is no formal request from the U.S. and before there is a formal request it is impossible to assess what the result of such a request would be. (Sweden would never extradite someone that risks the death penalty, for instance.) Also, the construction of the EAW does not allow for Sweden to extradite Mr. Assange to the U.S. without the approval of the U.K. The power to decide over such a request from the U.S. would still be in the hands of the British authorities. Just as it has been for the last years.
What kind of legal system will Mr. Assange face if he is brought here? Sweden?s legal system, as a whole, is solid, fair, and just. But no legal systems are perfect. In fact Sweden is at this very moment in the process of a serious debate on the quality of the legal process, brought about by trustworthy accusations that Sweden?s most well-known serial killer ? Thomas Quick ? might not be a killer at all, but simply a liar. The result of this debate will hopefully make Sweden an even stronger legal system than it is today.
The upshot is this: Like all legal orders Sweden has its flaws, but it is still, in the words of Foreign Secretary Hague, ? a country with the highest standards of law and where [Assange?s] rights are guaranteed?. You don?t have to take my word, or even the word of Foreign Secretary Hague, on this. According to The World Justice Organization?s Rule of Law Index Sweden ranks among the most robust legal orders in the world, with the lowest levels of corruption and the highest degree of protection of fundamental rights. In fact according to this survey Sweden should probably be awarded the title Rule of Law Champion of the World. Ecuador, by contrast, is not included in the index.
Source: http://martenschultz.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/assange-ecuador-and-the-swedish-legal-system/
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Video: Creating 1M new jobs for young people
Expecting boom, electric car company goes bust
In 2009, Elkhart, Ind., was losing jobs faster than any other city in America. Both Democrats and Republicans promised to re-energize manufacturing in the city, backing a new electric car plant. But instead of a boom, things went bust. Sharyl Attkisson investigates.
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/cbsnews/feed/~3/iuirLya-HVc/
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Google Denies Oracle Assertion That It Paid Bloggers to Advocate in Android-Java Case
The shadowy cottage industry of companies paying bloggers to advocate for them suddenly has its slip showing.
A week ago, the San Jose, Calif. federal court that heard Oracle's recent lawsuit against Google alleging that the huge search company infringed upon its Java patents to build its Android mobile device operating system issued an order several days ago instructing the two companies to disclose the names of people commenting or reporting on the case who received money for their services.
Presiding Judge William Alsup did this, he said, because he was worried that both parties ?may have retained or paid print or internet authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have and/or may publish comments on this issues in the case.? He did not exaplin, however, how this paid blogging might have affected the outcome of the case, which Google won and that Oracle still may appeal.
In its response filed Aug. 17, Oracle revealed that it has been paying Germany-based copyright specialist Florian Mueller as a Tweeting and blogging consultant to explain its side of the story.
This was no surprise to anyone following the case, however. Mueller, who writes a well-read blog called FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) Patents, has always been upfront about his relationship with Oracle in communications with journalists.
Mueller's contract with Oracle prohibits him from spelling out exactly what Oracle pays him to do, but Mueller himself wrote that he is not paid to blog specifically about the case. ?They pay me for consulting on antitrust issues especially related to standard-essential patents,? he wrote.
For its part, Oracle also alleged in the court document that Google "maintains a network of direct and indirect 'influencers' to advance Google's intellectual property agenda." Oracle said this network is extensive and comprised of "attorneys, lobbyists, trade associations, and bloggers."
Oracle said in the response that it has identified two such Google-funded "influencers": Ed Black, the head of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, and Jonathan Band, a lobbyist who includes CCIA amongst his clients.
Not so, Google said.
In its own court response filed Aug. 17, the huge search and Web services company denied that it has paid any writer to lobby on its behalf in the blogosphere.
In a statement to the press issued the same day, Google said: ?Our reply to the court is clear. No one on our side paid journalists, bloggers, or other commentators to write about this case.?
Oracle on June 20 absorbed a second legal defeat from Google by accepting zero financial damages in the first step of its quest to sue the search engine company for using Java application programming interfaces in Android without purchasing a license for them.
In the landmark IT court case that began April 16, a federal judge ruled May 31 that Java APIs used by Google in building the now-popular mobile-device operating system are not protected by copyright.
Oracle, plaintiff in the case and maintainer of the Java programming
language as well as organizer of its open-source community, reiterated
that it will "vigorously" appeal the verdict. The company had asked for
nearly $1 billion in restitution and an injunction against Google for
using the Android OS.
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Analysis: Clashes expose India's communal divide as elections loom
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The anonymous text message on Bhumidhar Das' mobile phone was chilling: "Muslims will attack and kill our people after Ramadan. Return home."
Within hours, Das, a Hindu working at a car factory in the city of Pune, joined tens of thousands of fellow migrant workers returning to hometowns in the remote northeast after getting or hearing of similar messages.
Nearly 80 people have been killed and 400,000 displaced in fighting between Muslims and mostly Hindu Bodo tribesmen in northeastern Assam state in recent weeks. The mass flight was sparked by rumors that Muslims, a big minority in predominantly Hindu India, were seeking revenge for the Assam violence.
Normally, there is little fallout in the rest of India from bouts of violence in Assam, which borders Bangladesh and is one of seven states connected to the main bulk of the country by a 'chicken neck' of land. This time, however, the grisly scenes unfolding in the far-flung northeast may fan communal politics in a country where simmering tensions between Hindus and Muslims have often been exploited for electoral gain.
As India heads for national elections in 2014 amid a sharp slowdown in growth, religious politics, along with a loss of jobs and wealth, could be a key issue.
"The conflict in Assam is getting communalized," said Zoya Hasan, a political scientist at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and former member of the National Commission for Minorities.
"Right-wing nationalist parties are cashing in on this by calling Assam's Muslims 'foreigners' and 'illegal Bangladeshi migrants' who threaten the fabric of Indian society. They are not going to let this go so easily, especially with elections coming up and will try to make this a Hindu-Muslim issue."
The state and other parts of the northeast are home to hundreds of tribes and ethnic groups. Violence usually stems from tribal rivalries, anger against Muslim settlers from Bangladesh or from insurgencies.
While religion-driven politics has taken a backseat in the last decade of India's economic boom, there are signs Muslim discontent over the violence is spreading. While parties across the political spectrum have condemned the recent bloodshed in Assam, divisive rhetoric has come from all sides.
In India's financial capital, Mumbai, massive protests by Muslims against events in Assam turned violent earlier this month, killing two people and wounding dozens. In Pune, the city where Das was working, students from the northeast were beaten. Unrest has also been reported in Lucknow and Allahabad in the north.
Rumors of Muslim retaliation at the end of the holy month of Ramadan this week have swirled, with threats of attacks on northeast Indians carried on social media and phone text messages.
As a result, more than 30,000 migrants from the northeast working in cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad rushed in terror back to their homes. How safe they will be there is open to question - two of those fleeing were killed and nine were injured on Sunday after they were pushed from a moving train.
The Interior Ministry said on Saturday most of the text messages and website images originated in Pakistan, an Islamic state and India's arch-rival. Islamabad rejected the suggestion as "baseless and unfounded".
MASSACRES
In Assam, conflict between Bodo tribes and Muslims is not new. Decades of feuding over land rights and political power has often erupted into blood-letting, the worst of which was in 1983 when nearly 3,000 people were massacred.
Bodos say Muslims are illegal settlers from neighboring Bangladesh who take their land, reducing them to a minority.
They point to a surge in the Muslim population, which is now better organized politically under influential leaders such as Badruddin Ajmal, whose party is the main opposition in the state of tea plantations and oilfields.
Muslims say they are not illegal immigrants and that they are being marginalized by Bodos, who are economically and politically stronger.
Over time, India's two main political parties - the secular Congress, which rules the state as well as in New Delhi, and the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - have sought to benefit from conflict.
The BJP has often been accused of fomenting Hindu-Muslim violence. It supports the Bodos' claims and accuses Congress of allowing illegal immigration for electoral gains.
"The Congress Party ... does not have to import illegal immigrants to increase its votebank," Arun Jaitley, a senior BJP leader told parliament. "The government must stop this illegal immigration, the entire border must be fenced, the detection and deportation (of illegal migrants) must begin forthwith."
Congress says most Muslims in Assam are Indian citizens.
In Assam's squalid displacement camps, hundreds of thousands of Bodos and Muslims languish, too fearful to return home after seeing their villages razed, possessions looted or neighbors shot or hacked to death.
Weeks after clashes broke out, convoys of paramilitary trucks still drive through the main roads in this lush rice-growing region. A night curfew remains in place.
IDENTITY POLITICS
Fathoming what happened in Assam is critical for India, whose history is scarred with episodes of slaughter by citizens divided by ethnicity and religion.
Centuries of rule by medieval Muslim invaders drove a wedge between Hindus and Muslims, a suspicion that has only grown since the bloody birth of Pakistan, which was carved from Muslim-majority areas of India in 1947.
Up to one million people were killed in Hindu-Muslim violence when Pakistan was created, which many Indians still refer to as "Partition".
About 170 million Muslims live in India. Many are disenchanted, their alienation partly fueled by the demolition of the 16th-century Babri mosque by Hindu zealots in 1992 and communal riots in Gujarat state in 2002, when around 2,500 people, mostly Muslims, were hacked and burnt to death.
The BJP rose to prominence in the early 1990s on the back of a Hindu revivalist movement. Its leaders led the demolition of the Babri Mosque.
"The BJP is known to play up the communal issue on a much larger scale than Congress. They have an upper caste Hindu agenda," said Asghar Ali Engineer, chairman of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.
This has not automatically translated into Muslim support for Congress, which had enjoyed the Muslim vote in the years after independence from Britain.
Congress has often been accused of failing to protect Muslims, and a substantial portion of that vote has waned, going to new regional parties instead.
The Gujarat riots, however, saw the tide turn again in favor of Congress in the 2004 elections, as Muslims saw the party as the only one capable of stopping the BJP and its "Hindutva" or Hindu nationalist agenda.
Making up about 14 percent of India's 1.2 billion people, Muslims are the biggest minority group. Their vote is critical in key swing states such as Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the north, West Bengal in the east and Kerala in the south.
With a large chunk of middle class moderate Hindus put off by the Gujarat riots, the BJP has tried to reinvent itself - balancing the need for a softer Hindutva plank with a broader agenda of development and good governance.
Its leaders such as Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, under whose watch the 2002 riots took place, have in recent years adopted a softer line as they jostle to become the party's prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 elections.
ASSAM IMPACT
Just how the Assam violence is dealt with could be a deciding factor in votes in certain states.
"Incidents such as what we have witnessed in Assam are read very keenly by the Indian voter. He watches how things are managed or, in this case, mismanaged and exploited," said M.J. Akbar, editorial director of India Today magazine.
There is likely to be a return to anti-Muslim rhetoric and issues such as illegal migration as right-wing parties struggle to form vote-winning policies with an electorate fed up with an opposition that is seen as keener to bash the government than work with it as the economy slows sharply.
For Congress, the issue will be much more complicated, analysts said.
The party will have to consolidate Muslim votes won in the last elections in 2009, while at the same time reassure moderate Hindus who have been angered by the handling of the Assam violence.
"The way this violence took place, the killings and the massive displacement as well as the exodus of northeast people, is likely to lead to more polarization between Hindu and Muslims," said Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, political scientist at Kolkata's Rabindra Bharati University.
On Friday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told migrants from the northeast they were safe, while adding that India's "communal harmony" was at stake.
Many from the northeast say they need more than just words of reassurance.
Two trains from Bangalore packed with around 4,000 people arrived in Guwahati, Assam's main city, over the weekend.
"I have left due to fear. My job is important, but my life and that of my family is more precious," said security guard Binod Boro, 30, who got down from a train onto an overcrowded platform, followed by his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
(Additional reporting by Biswajyoti Das in GUWAHATI; Editing by John Chalmers and Dean Yates)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clashes-expose-indias-communal-divide-elections-loom-211211460.html
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Saturday, August 18, 2012
You Should Back Up Your Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter Accounts
Even though companies such as Google and Twitter save your data on multiple machines, that doesn?t necessarily mean it?s backed up.Photo by Christopher Robbins/Digital Vision.
When I first heard of Backupify a few years ago, I thought the service sounded unnecessary at best. The company promises to back up the data you?ve stored on various online services, scooping up all your mail and contacts from Gmail, your calendar entries from Google Calendar, plus everything you?ve got on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, and LinkedIn.
I have long been an advocate of frequent backups, but that term is usually reserved for stuff you?ve got stored on your own computer. A backup creates an extra copy, either on an external drive or online, so that when your machine bites the dust, you won?t be hosed. But Gmail isn?t stored on your own computer (you might have downloaded your mail to your desktop, but unless you?ve explicitly deleted your messages from Google?s servers, they?re still online). And Google is very good at backing things up. Like other firms that store data in the cloud, Google keeps many copies of your stuff on thousands of computers across the world. This redundancy is one of the cloud?s biggest selling points. Even if you keep your photos on three different hard drives in your house, they?re still vulnerable. (What if you?re burglarized?) But if one of Google?s data centers gets hit by a meteorite, your data will always be secure in some other center somewhere else.
That?s why Backupify sounded fishy?it seems to do what cloud services already do. It doesn?t help that the firm wants you to pay for the service, too. The company offers a free plan with 1 GB of storage, but if you want to back up even more of your cloud data, Backupify asks for $5 a month for 10 GB of storage or $20 for 50 GB. Remember that the services you?re backing up?Gmail and the rest?are free. So Backupify is asking you to open up your wallet to back up an already backed up free thing. Do they think you were born yesterday?
But in the last few weeks, I?ve seen the light. I now consider Backupify an essential part of keeping my digital life secure. In fact, signing up for its free plan is as important as choosing strong passwords and regularly backing up your local data. And, for my own data, I?m going to go even further. I?ve decided to pay for Backupify?s monthly plan to get enough space to secure all of the stuff I have in the cloud.
Why did I suddenly change my mind about Backupify? After a string of high-profile cloud mishaps, I now realize something important about how Google and other companies store people?s data. Even though the search company saves my email on multiple machines, that doesn?t really mean it?s backed up. Google?s redundancy does protect my stuff from natural disasters or mechanical failure, but it doesn?t do anything to secure my data from its worst enemy?me and other devious human beings pretending to be me.
Backupify, on the other hand, is your savior in the event of human error. If you subscribe to the service, your stuff isn?t really ever gone for good?not when you lose your data because you?ve been hacked, not when you forget your password, not because the cloud service kicked you out, and not because you just accidentally pressed delete.
Rob May, Backupify?s co-founder and CEO, says that he got the plan for the firm in 2008 when he was talking to friends about startup ideas. Someone told him, ?Hey, you should build a Flickr backup tool.? May says his first reaction was like mine: ?I thought it was a dumb idea.? But the more he thought about the idea, the more sensible it became. Lots of friends told him they were losing data in the cloud, either accidentally or through some attack. And once the data was gone, it was gone.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=14acc892e5e903135f17ac83543ba775
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