A "darknet" service that allows users to share music files anonymously on the web has been launched in Sweden. Relakks, as the service is known, allows users to send and receive files through a heavily-encrypted connection. It claims to be the first commercial darknet, a virtual network set up to share files between trusted users.
The service is endorsed by political group the Pirate Party which is running for election in Sweden under a banner to reform the country's copyright laws. "There are many legitimate reasons to want to be completely anonymous on the internet," said Rickard Falkvinge, chairman of the Pirate Party. "The right to exchange information in private is fundamental to the democratic society. Without a safe and convenient way of accessing the internet anonymously, this right is rendered null and void."
A darknet is a cordoned-off, anonymised section of the net where users can meet, chat and swap data. Usually darknets are confined to small tight-knit groups such as hackers who use the secure connections to distribute information and hacking tools.
It works by giving a user's computer a new IP address, the unique number the machine uses to identify itself and communicate with other machines over the net. IP numbers allocated by your internet service provider (ISP) can be used to trace and identify a specific computer on a network. Computers using the Relakks system look like they have a Swedish IP address, no matter where they are in the world.
Users can then share files, such as music or films, with any other users. In theory anyone monitoring user's online activities will not be able to trace their geographical location.
The Pirate Party acknowledge that the service could be used to distribute copyright material or other content such as images of child abuse. "We hear the argument a lot," Mr Falkvinge told the BBC News website. "No, we don't have any control over what is being sent over the network but that's the point. "People who want to hide their activities online already have the means to do so. We're just giving those tools to the general public."
The Relakks service, they say, offers people the ability to use the internet "without fear of being monitored or logged". It costs five euro (£3) per month with some of the funds going towards supporting the Pirate Party.
However, not everyone is convinced that it is what it claims to be. Many dispute whether Relakks really is the first commercial darknet. Other services like Hamachi and Groove already offer similar services.
In a forum on the website of the US Pirate Party, an affiliated but distinct political group, a post by a user called Smirnov also questioned whether the service is really anonymous. "You can't connect to Relakks anonymously, because then they'd have no way of verifying you are a paying customer - so Relakks knows who you really are when all your traffic goes through them.
"What is the difference between trusting them and trusting my own ISP not to give me away?" If you can't trust some Swedish online cyber crime guys... why who can you trust?
Posting this could cause Islamophobia. Reading this could cause negative stereotyping of Muslims. Founding your orientation to Muslims, based on this latest assault by the tiny minority of honor-killers, could lead Muslims to conduct defensive jihad. Be nice to the religion of peace, or else.
Lahore (AsiaNews) Mgr Lawrence John Saldanha, archbishop of Lahore, has condemned the murder of Hina Saleem, which took place in Italy at the hands of her father with the complicity of her entire family. There is no justification of such killing for the sake for the familys honour, he told AsiaNews. In Pakistan honour killing remains a widespread phenomenonsome 1015 cases were reported last year.
Mohammed Saleem cut his daughters throat on August 11 because she refused an arranged marriage and instead wanted to integrate into Italian society. Not only did she work in a bar where alcoholic beverages were served but, worse of all, she had entered in a common law relationship with a 30-year-old Italian man. For her family, the scandal was too much to bear.
#3
Until the scandal of murdering your daughter is far worse than the "scandal" of her liberation, we ought to forget integration and drive them out, quickly.
Posted by: ST ||
08/19/2006 13:53 Comments ||
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#4
Honor to whom? Certainly not to the warmonger invented bloodthirsty death cult mooon god.
Also, confiscate all their money and possessions and send them all to Pakistan with just the clothes on their backs. If anyone complains about that, do the same to them too.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/19/2006 15:48 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I'm with Tony's comment - great idea. Strip them of the trappings of western society and ship back to the 8th century.
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria About 100 people have been arrested in a military crackdown on suspected militants in Nigeria's restive, petroleum-rich south, an army spokesman said Saturday. Shooting into the air, troops entered houses in a Port Harcourt neighborhood Friday, sending men and women into the streets screaming. Gunfire sounded for at least an hour. By Saturday morning, roadblocks had been set up around the city. The operation was continuing in areas raided Friday, army spokesman Maj. Sagir Musa said, without elaborating on the arrests. He said he did not know of anyone seriously injured or killed in the crackdown.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2006 15:00 ||
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#1
"militants"? The South is mainly Christian and animist IIRC. Possible the militants're seethers?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/19/2006 16:07 Comments ||
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Fuel firms responded to the government's unilateral slashing of petrol and diesel prices by turning off the pumps, resulting in long and winding queues yesterday re-emerging at the few garages that were selling fuel in Harare and surrounding towns.
Zimbabwe has grappled fuel shortages since 1999 because of an acute shortage of hard cash to pay foreign suppliers. Fuel had however remained generally available since the end of last year as the government appeared to have liberated the fuel market allowing private companies with foreign currency to import the commodity and sell at viable prices. But Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya on Thursday re-imposed controls on fuel prices declaring that with immediate effect, no garage was permitted to sell petrol and diesel at more than Z$380 and $320 per litre respectively. Garages had been charging between $600 and $800 for a litre of diesel or petrol before Nyambuya's announcement.
Oil industry officials accused the government of acting without consulting fuel firms and warned that the country could revert to the 2003 situation when motorists would spend months without diesel or petrol. But Nyambuya insisted the government would not go back on the new prices of fuel and remained adamant that the country would not run out of the key commodity because the government and its cash-strapped National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) had made ample arrangements to import fuel.
The fuel crisis is one of a litany of troubles afflicting Zimbabwe in its sixth year of economic recession. The country which has the world's highest inflation at 993.6 percent is also facing shortages of electricity, food, essential medicines, hard cash and just about every basic survival commodity.
#1
UK cops are pathetic. They do nothing when earlier in the day they had the chance to stop and arrest them or at least take names.
You try that crap even here in lefty California and you risk getting your ass shot. Those fishermen may be packing. You go waving "bats and planks" about make and threats you may get plugged and lawfully so. The least that will happen is you will be arrested.
#2
The best bet is to set up an ambush that will be irresistable to them. Then when they come rushing in, have a greater number of thugs ready to pounce.
Hard boyz love any opportunity to do some thumping for a little cash, even more so if it is in the name of "street justice."
#4
I'd love to see them show up in Idaho and disrupt a hunt.
Posted by: bk ||
08/19/2006 9:28 Comments ||
Top||
#5
"They began throwing stones at my rod and one of them said, 'It's the easy way or the hard way. You've been sabbed.'
WARNING - DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS IN GEORGIA
#7
"[T]here were no arrests and the saboteurs headed away."
WTF?! Is this the British equivalent of Barney Fife or what?!
Posted by: Dar ||
08/19/2006 10:30 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Par for the course - Britain is the country where, if a burglar invades your home, and you do anything about it besides curl up in the corner, they arrest YOU for disrupting his activities.
#11
Oh, and to my dear friends at PETA: My buddies and I will be at Medina Lake (just west of San Antonio) tomorrow from about 5:30 am. We;ll be going for Crappie and for Bass, and you are cordially invited.
Oh, almost forgot: we ALL have Concealed Carry Permits and we practice regularly.
But anyway, c'mon out. I'm sure you will have a good time.
President Hugo Chavez's challenger in the Venezuelan presidential race, Manuel Rosales, rallied tens of thousands of supporters in the streets of Caracas, promising to combat poverty that has deepened on his rival's watch.
Rosales, 52, a popular social democratic governor of western Zulia state, for a second time, was picked this month by a coalition of 26 parties and organizations to stand against Chavez, a leftist populist who has aligned himself politically with communist-ruled Cuba.
"I am the candidate of the Venezuelan fatherland," Rosales said, promising a platform centered on social justice.
He said that should he win the December 3 election, "not one more barrel of oil, not a dollar more, is leaving Venezuela as long as there is poverty and misery in this country."
and you will feed, clothe and educate the poor using what, exactly??? Your people cannot drink that stuff.
Even as oil prices have soared beyond 60 dollars a barrel, Venezuela's poor have grown to number 70-72 percent of the population, he says. It was a jab at Chavez who has financially supported Cuba with subsidized oil and engaged in many nuances of "petro-diplomacy."
ah, direct hit at Hugo
The opposition had earlier debated boycotting the December election because of Chavez's dominant role in domestic politics. Chavez in May threatened to call a national referendum on remaining in office until 2031 if the opposition failed to field a
sacrificial lamb
challenger.
Chavez, who spent two years in jail for leading a failed military coup in 1992, was first elected in 1998. He was re-elected by a landslide in July 2000 for a six-year term, and survived both an April 2002 coup and a 2004 recall vote.
Their vote engineering skills improved ... better control of ballot boxes, more stuffing, that sort of thing. Plus they had Jimmah's stamp of approval - always good for a couple extra % pts.
Rosales, who has been a career politician for the past 27 years, is one of only two opposition governors serving in Venezuela's 24 states. With 3.2 million residents, Zulia is Venezuela's most populous state. It is also rich in agricultural products and oil.
Stronger meds seem to be required.
President Hugo Chavez said Friday that Venezuela has caught four people spying for the U.S. government and has turned them over to the Americans.
Speaking at a campaign rally, Chavez referred to the four after reading aloud a news report about the U.S. naming a "mission manager" for Cuba and Venezuela to oversee U.S. intelligence efforts for the two countries.
The Venezuelan leader gave few details about the circumstances, or how recently the four cases occurred. But he said one woman was caught not long ago while taking photos - of what it remained unclear - in the north-central city of Valencia.
"I've caught four of their spies, four, and I've put them back in their hands. Not long ago we caught a very beautiful woman in Valencia, taking photos," Chavez told the rally in western Venezuela.
Chavez consistently accuses the U.S. of conspiring to oust him and often asserts the CIA is working to destabilize his government. Last year he ordered one U.S.-based missionary group out of Indian communities where they worked, accusing them of spying for the CIA.
In his latest comments, Chavez apparently was counting among the four a naval attache at the U.S. Embassy whom he accused of spying in February and ordered out of the country. The U.S. government responded to that move by expelling a Venezuelan diplomat from Washington.
A U.S. Embassy official did not immediately return calls seeking comment about Chavez's accusations.
Speaking to a sea of supporters, Chavez read the name of the official named by Negroponte to head the Cuba and Venezuela mission, 32-year intelligence veteran J. Patrick Maher, and laughed.
"They selected 'Jack the Ripper,'" Chavez said. "What a little problem this is."
"These are signs that the empire doesn't rest," Chavez said, referring to the U.S. "The plan to try to destabilize us has already begun."
He predicted the U.S. could try to discredit the results of Venezuela's Dec. 3 presidential election, in which Chavez is seeking another six-year term, or could try to provoke violent unrest around the time of the vote.
U.S. officials have denied trying to overthrow the leftist Chavez, who is Cuban President Fidel Castro's close ally and friend. President Bush's government has repeatedly labeled Chavez a threat to democracy.
Chavez warned that Venezuelans should be prepared for a "war of resistance" in case U.S. troops one day invade - a possibility Washington calls preposterous.
He also accused his opponents in the presidential race of being "the empire's candidates," and he broke out singing at one point, "Yankee go home!"
He said the Venezuelan government has followed the activities of U.S. spies closely. "I know where they go out to eat 'reina pepiada,'" Chavez said, referring to a Venezuelan dish of "arepa" corn cakes filled with avocado and chicken.
"In a way, it's an honor that they put us alongside revolutionary Cuba" in naming an espionage point man for both countries, Chavez said.
"How are you, Fidel?" he added, saying he believed the ailing Cuban leader was watching the televised speech. "Long live Fidel!"
Cuban President Fidel Castro is recovering in a ``satisfactory and gradual'' way after undergoing surgery for intestinal bleeding, his brother Raul, who is acting leader of the island nation, said.
Fidel Castro on July 31 handed power to Raul to allow him to recover from the operation, the first time he had ceded control of Cuba in 47 years. Since then, the ailing dictator appeared in photos published on his 80th birthday, on Aug. 13, and the following day. Video footage was released also. The professionalism of the doctors treating Castro ``has been a very important factor in the progressive recovery of Fidel,'' Raul said in an interview with the official Communist daily, Granma. ``His extraordinary physical and mental nature also has been essential for his satisfactory and gradual recovery.''
Since Castro's announcement that he was sick, the Cuban military has mobilized tens of thousands of reservists, in case the U.S. resorted to ``military aggression'' to oust the regime, Raul said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Castro's brother has stayed low and out of the limelight fearing his brother would interpret Raul's actions as poaching. Until now that is. I see this as further proof that Fidel Castro is a goner or is already gone. How happy that makes me feel.
h/t Ace of Spades
A group of Indian television journalists gave a man matches and diesel to help him commit suicide in order to get dramatic footage which was later broadcast on the news, police said.
The man died from severe burns to his body in hospital in Gaya town in the eastern state of Bihar on August 15, India's Independence Day.
Footage of the man, screaming and writhing in pain as he ran with his back on fire, was aired on several television channels. Police identified the man as Manoj Mishra. "We have seized footage clearly showing a group of journalists handing over matches and some inflammable substance - which we later verified to be diesel - to the victim," acting Gaya police chief P K Sinha said by telephone.
Mishra, who worked as a delivery man, was upset over what he said was a large sum of money owed to him by a state-run dairy farm whose milk he transported to customers, police said. "We have prepared charges for abetment against the journalists. There were five to six of them who were conspirators in this suicide attempt which is a criminal offence," Sinha said, adding that arrests were expected shortly.
The TV crews left the scene without aiding Mishra who suffered burns to over 70 per cent of his body, Sinha said. Indian law says a person can be sentenced to up to 10 years imprisonment for aiding a suicide.
There has been an explosion of private TV news channels in recent years in India, each competing aggressively for exclusive stories and dramatic footage. These channels often show graphic footage of victims of bomb blasts and other violence as well as partly blurred pictures of sex acts while exposing scandals as part of sting operations.
They also have shown marital spats between husbands and wives or between wives and their husbands' mistresses. Indian media... Learning fast, aren't they?
#2
A group of Indian television journalists gave a man matches and diesel to help him commit suicide in order to get dramatic footage which was later broadcast on the news, police said.
A mix of bacteria-killing viruses can be safely sprayed on cold cuts, hot dogs and sausages to combat common microbes that kill hundreds of people a year, federal health officials said Friday in granting the first-ever approval of viruses as a food additive.
The combination of six viruses is designed to be sprayed on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, including sliced ham and turkey, said John Vazzana, president and chief executive officer of manufacturer Intralytix Inc.
The special viruses, called bacteriophages, are meant to kill strains of the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium, the Food and Drug Administration said in declaring it safe to use on ready-to-eat meats prior to their packaging.
The viruses are the first to win FDA approval for use as a food additive, said Andrew Zajac, of the regulatory agency's office of food additive safety.
The bacterium the viruses target can cause a serious infection called listeriosis, primarily in pregnant women, newborns and adults with weakened immune systems. In the United States, an estimated 2,500 people become seriously ill with listeriosis each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, 500 die.
Luncheon meats are particularly vulnerable to Listeria since once purchased they typically aren't cooked or reheated, which can kill harmful bacteria like Listeria, Zajac said.
The preparation of bacteriophages -- the name is Greek for "bacteria-eater" -- attacks only strains of the Listeria bacterium and not human or plant cells, the FDA said.
"As long as it used in accordance with the regulations, we have concluded it's safe," Zajac said. People normally come into contact with phages through food, water and the environment, and they are found in our digestive tracts, the FDA said.
Consumers won't be aware that meat and poultry products have been treated with the spray, Zajac added. The Department of Agriculture will regulate the actual use of the product.
The viruses are grown in a preparation of the very bacteria they kill, and then purified. The FDA had concerns that the virus preparation potentially could contain toxic residues associated with the bacteria. However, testing did not reveal the presence of such residues, which in small quantities likely wouldn't cause health problems anyway, the FDA said.
"The FDA is applying one of the toughest food-safety standards which they have to find this is safe," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group. "They couldn't approve this product if they had questions about its safety."
Intralytix, based in Baltimore, first petitioned the FDA in 2002 to allow the viruses to be used as a food additive. It has since licensed the product to a multinational company, which intends to market it worldwide, said Intralytix president Vazzana. He declined to name the company but said he expected it to announce its plans within weeks or months.
Intralytix also plans to seek FDA approval for another bacteriophage product to kill E. coli bacteria on beef before it is ground, Vazzana said.
Scientists have long studied bacteriophages as a bacteria-fighting alternative to antibiotics.
A self-described peace activist responsible for the diversion of a London-to-Washington flight Wednesday acted bizarrely for hours, made references to al Qaeda and hijack training flights, and was restrained by two passengers after she urinated in the aisle.
Catherine C. Mayo, 59, a Vermont woman who also lives part time in Pakistan, was charged yesterday in federal court with interfering with a flight crew.
United Flight 923 was forced to make an emergency landing at Boston's Logan International Airport under escort by two military jets.
"She's got some very serious mental health problems," said Page Kelley, Mrs. Mayo's attorney, who described her client as "just barely lucid."
According to an affidavit and passenger accounts, Mrs. Mayo began pacing the plane from the front to aft lavatory and asked a flight attendant, "Is this a training flight for United Flight 93?" -- the flight hijacked on September 11, 2001, that crashed into a Pennsylvania farm field.
Mrs. Mayo demanded to speak with an air marshal, saying the contents of her bag would be of interest. Her bag contained a screwdriver, body lotion, several cigarette lighters and a bottle of water. The affidavit did not say how she smuggled the items on board, despite being screened twice at London's Heathrow Airport.
When confronted by the captain, Mrs. Mayo made a reference to bomb assembly, saying, "There are six steps to building some unspecified thing."
"She made reference to being with people associated with two words," the affidavit said. "She stated that she could not say what the two words were because the last time that she had said the two words she had been kicked off a flight in the United Arab Emirates."
The captain ordered her restrained, and the passengers and a flight attendant tackled her and placed her hands in plastic cuffs.
Officials in the United Kingdom and the U.S. are on heightened alert after dozens of British citizens were arrested last week, accused of plotting to smuggle liquid explosives aboard trans-Atlantic flights.
Mrs. Mayo told passengers she was an undercover reporter testing security to see whether she could sneak restricted items on board.
As a columnist for the Daily Times of Pakistan, Mrs. Mayo criticized President Bush -- calling him "a president not elected by the people"-- and the war in Iraq. "The folksongs of the 1960s will never be written again because of President George Bush. He has hampered the liberties of my country in the name of September 11. Songs now can only talk of patriotism they cannot mention peace," she wrote.
Passengers initially assumed the men who restrained Mrs. Mayo were federal air marshals but yesterday said they were passengers recruited by flight attendants who provided them with handcuffs.
"They were asked to be on the alert in case we need you," said Joan Bartko, a passenger who was traveling with her family.
Mrs. Mayo "took down her slacks and started taking down her underwear, and that's when they got her. They were just passengers on the plane who immediately helped," Mrs. Bartko said.
Ouch! The cognitive dissonance... Many black youths fall under a spell of "gangster mentality," preventing them from becoming leaders and making a positive impact in politics, the Rev. Al Sharpton said. The civil rights activist faulted Hollywood and the record industry for making "gangsterism" seem cool and acceptable.
I think we've allowed a whole generation of young people to feel that if they're focused, they're not black enough. If they speak well and act well, they're acting white, and there's nothing more racist than that.
"We have got to get out of this gangster mentality, acting as if gangsterism and blackness are synonymous," Sharpton said Thursday at the annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists. "I think we've allowed a whole generation of young people to feel that if they're focused, they're not black enough. If they speak well and act well, they're acting white, and there's nothing more racist than that."
The key to leadership is taking the initiative to change things, said Sharpton. He said his National Action Network is just one group willing to help young black leaders get into politics. "Nobody broke in my house in Brooklyn and dragged me out the projects and made me a leader, I wanted to do that. Clearly, we would work with young people who want to do the work," he said.
Lottie Shackelford, vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said during the same panel discussion that the time is ripe for getting more young black people involved. "So many young folks are waiting to be asked, or they say they want others to move so they can gain a slot, and I say, there's room for everybody. Let's work together," she said.
Sharpton, who competed in several Democratic primaries during a 2004 presidential bid, said he might run again in 2008 but will decide after this November's elections.
#1
The civil rights activist faulted Hollywood and the record industry for making "gangsterism" seem cool and acceptable.
Right: always someone else's fault.
If "gangterism" wasn't already cool and acceptable to a certain market Hollywood and the record companies wouldn't touch it. Now, I do believe that this kind of media overload creates a feedback loop, but the media didn't invent the original product - that was home-grown in the 'hood.
"I think we've allowed a whole generation of young people to feel that if they're focused, they're not black enough. If they speak well and act well, they're acting white, and there's nothing more racist than that."
I'll give him credit for that. He's starting to sound like The Cos.
#3
Many black youths fall under a spell of "gangster mentality," preventing them from becoming leaders and making a positive impact in politics, the Rev. Al Sharpton said
Working fine in Zim and South Africa Al, it's all in the number mate, it's all in the numbers.
#7
Lottie Shackelford, vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said during the same panel discussion that the time is ripe for getting more young black people involved. "So many young folks are waiting to be asked, or they say they want others to move so they can gain a slot, and I say, there's room for everybody. Let's work together," she said.
Unless, of course, you support Lieberman. We don't have room in our tent for the likes of him or anyone who supports him.
This from the cappo di tutti cappo of pseudo-legitimate black gangsterism. Sharpton is the master of fraud and shakedowns. Remember Tawana Brawley?
http://www.slate.com/id/2087557
The case fizzled when a security guard for Brawley's lawyers testified that the lawyers and Sharpton knew Brawley was lying. A grand jury investigation concluded in late 1988 that Brawley "was not the victim of forcible sexual assault" and that the whole thing was a hoax. The report specifically exonerated Pagones, and in 1998 Pagones won a defamation lawsuit against Sharpton, Brawley, and Brawley's lawyers. Sharpton was ordered to pay Pagones $65,000. Johnnie Cochran and other Sharpton benefactors subsidized the payment.
#11
I've seen Sharpton at the gates in Hartsfield - Jackson Airport in Atlanta. You think he doesn't have a following? He draws a crowd everywhere he goes, photos, signatures, hand shakes, the works.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria About 100 people have been arrested in a military crackdown on suspected militants in Nigeria's restive, petroleum-rich south, an army spokesman said Saturday. Shooting into the air, troops entered houses in a Port Harcourt neighborhood Friday, sending men and women into the streets screaming. Gunfire sounded for at least an hour. By Saturday morning, roadblocks had been set up around the city. The operation was continuing in areas raided Friday, army spokesman Maj. Sagir Musa said, without elaborating on the arrests. He said he did not know of anyone seriously injured or killed in the crackdown.
Fuel firms responded to the government's unilateral slashing of petrol and diesel prices by turning off the pumps, resulting in long and winding queues yesterday re-emerging at the few garages that were selling fuel in Harare and surrounding towns. 
Cuban President Fidel Castro is recovering in a ``satisfactory and gradual'' way after undergoing surgery for intestinal bleeding, his brother Raul, who is acting leader of the island nation, said. 
Many black youths fall under a spell of "gangster mentality," preventing them from becoming leaders and making a positive impact in politics, the Rev. 
