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grayton downing

BBC News - Record number of women MPs as German parliament meets - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-europe-24626276

german parliament politics

shared by grayton downing on 22 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Germany's parliament has reconvened for the first time since September's election which saw a surge of support for Chancellor Angela Merkel.
  • She is trying to forge a deal between her Christian Democrat bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats.
  • Women make up 36% of the new MPs, where one-third of members are new to the Bundestag.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Nearly one in five of Germany's 82 million residents are either immigrants themselves, or children of immigrants who have arrived since 1950, according to Germany's federal statistics office.
  • Their talks with the Social Democrats, which may continue for weeks, are expected to focus on the introduction of a nationwide minimum wage, taxation and control of key government ministries.
  • virtually meaningless, since a successful "grand coalition" would give Mrs Merkel control over nearly 80% of the house's seats.
grayton downing

BBC News - US National Security Agency 'spied on French diplomats' - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-europe-24628947

security national agency french politics us spy

shared by grayton downing on 22 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • The US National Security Agency has spied on French diplomats in Washington and at the UN, according to the latest claims in Le Monde newspaper.
  • US spies allegedly hacked foreign networks, introducing the spyware into the software, routers and firewalls of millions of machines.
  • NSA tapped millions of phones in France.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • t claims bugs were introduced to the French Embassy in Washington (under a code name "Wabash") and to the computers of the French delegation at the UN, codenamed "Blackfoot".
  • The US was worried the French were drifting to the Brazilian side - who were opposed to implementing sanctions - when in truth they were always aligned to the US position, says our correspondent.
  • "It helped me know... the truth, and reveal other [countries'] positions on sanctions, allowing us to keep one step ahead in the negotiations."
  • I said again to John Kerry what Francois Hollande told Barack Obama, that this kind of spying conducted on a large scale by the Americans on its allies is something that is unacceptable."
  • The information he leaked led to claims of systematic spying by the NSA and CIA on a global scale. Targets included rivals like China and Russia, as well as allies like the EU and Brazil.
  • The NSA was also forced to admit it had captured email and phone data from millions of Americans.
grayton downing

Civilian Deaths in Drone Strikes Cited in Report - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...e-strikes-cited-in-report.html

civilian deaths strikes us crisis

shared by grayton downing on 22 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • The army disabled the cellphone networks, so residents scramble to higher ground to capture stray signals from Afghan networks. And Internet cafes were shut, on orders from the Taliban, after complaints that young men were watching pornography and racy movies.
  • That ban distressed families that use the Internet to communicate with relatives working in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and across the Persian Gulf states.
  • Journalists face particular risks.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • In the aftermath of drone strikes, things get worse. Many civilians hide at home, fearing masked vigilantes with the Ittehad-e-Mujahedeen Khorasan, a militant enforcement unit that hunts for American spies.
  • For some residents, the only option is to leave.
  • Civilian deaths from drone strikes will haunt him, and others in the American chain of command, for “as long as we live,” he said.
  • Last October, it says, American missiles killed a 68-year-old woman named Mamana Bibi as she picked vegetables in a field close to her grandchildren. In July 2012, 18 laborers, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed near the Afghan border.
grayton downing

Civilian Deaths in Drone Strikes Cited in Report - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...e-strikes-cited-in-report.html

civilian deaths strikes drones policy crisis

shared by grayton downing on 22 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • In the telling of some American officials, the C.I.A. drone campaign in Pakistan has been a triumph with few downsides
  • and the pace of the strikes, which officials frequently describe as “surgical” and “contained,” has dropped sharply over the past year.
  • Pakistani town that has become a virtual test laboratory for drone warfare,
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • “The drones are like the angels of death,” said Nazeer Gul, a shopkeeper in Miram Shah. “Only they know when and where they will strike.”
  • Their claims of distress are now being backed by a new Amnesty International investigation that found, among other points, that at least 19 civilians in the surrounding area of North Waziristan had been killed in just two of the drone attacks since January 2012
  • And on Friday, the drone debate is scheduled to spill onto the floor of the United Nations, whose officials have recently published reports that attacked America’s lack of transparency over drones.
  • Even when the missiles do not strike, buzzing drones hover day and night, scanning the alleys and markets with roving high-resolution cameras.
  • In theory, the Pakistani security forces should be in charge.
  • Unusually for the overall American drone campaign, the strikes in the area mostly occur in densely populated neighborhoods. The drones have hit a bakery, a disused girls’ school and a money changers’ market, residents say.
grayton downing

BBC News - Nasa reverses conference's ban on Chinese scientists - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-asia-24618824

nasa conference ban chinese us

shared by grayton downing on 22 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • The US space agency has said it will allow Chinese scientists to attend an astronomy conference in California next month, reversing an earlier ban.
  • Nasa put the earlier ban down to a misinterpretation of its policy on foreign nationals.
  • agency faced criticism from Chinese officials and US scientists who claimed Chinese students and researchers in their labs were being subjected to discrimination.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Earlier this month the US government partially shut down operations for 16 days, putting hundreds of thousands of federal employees on leave.
grayton downing

'Airpocalypse' Hits Harbin, Closing Schools - NYTimes.com - 0 views

sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/...hina-closing-schools-and-roads

china pollution smog culture closing crisis

shared by grayton downing on 21 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • School was canceled, traffic was nearly paralyzed and the airport was shut down in the northeast Chinese city of Harbin on Monday as off-the-charts pollution dropped visibility to less than 10 meters in parts of the provincial capital.
  • The Chinese government describes air with an AQI between 301 and 500 as “heavily polluted” and urges people to refrain from exercising outdoors; the elderly and other vulnerable populations are supposed to stay indoors entirely
  • “You can’t see your own fingers in front of you,”
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • “You can hear the person you are talking to, but not see him
  • A dark, gray cloud that the local weather bureau described as “heavy fog” has shrouded the city of 10 million since Thursday, but the smoke thickened significantly on Sunday,
  • between 301 and 500 as “hazardous.”
  • Beijing declared an “airpocalpyse” last January when the U.S. Embassy reported an AQI equivalent of 755, with a PM2.5 concentration of 866 milligrams per cubic meter.
  • The pollution in Harbin has caused a 30 percent surge in hospital admissions
  • In the meantime, residents were left comparing the air to something out of a horror film
grayton downing

European Court Rules Spain Must Free Terrorist - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...spain-on-terror-sentences.html

european court spain terrorist politics

shared by grayton downing on 21 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • The European Court of Human Rights ruled Monday against a Spanish law that has allowed the Madrid government to extend the imprisonment of convicted terrorists and members of ETA, the Basque separatist group.
  • In its ruling on Monday, the European court found that Spain had breached the European Convention on Human Rights, notably by applying the 2006 precedent to Ms. del Río Prada’s sentence retroactively.
  • Human rights advocates also welcomed the ruling
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • “This ruling should serve as a notice to Spain to correct continuing aberrations of justice in the name of fighting terrorism, such as incommunicado detention and limited rights of defense for terrorism suspects,”
  • Still, Madrid has refused to consider ETA’s cease-fire a sufficient act of surrender, saying that it would continue to hunt down ETA members, in cooperation with the French and other European security forces, until the group handed over all its weapons.
grayton downing

British Nuclear Bet Assumes a Role for Government - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...f-sign-nuclear-plant-deal.html

british government policy energy crisis

shared by grayton downing on 21 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • In a back-to-the-future bet on its energy policy, the British government announced a long-elusive $26 billion deal on Monday to build the first new nuclear power station in Britain since 1995.
  • Britain has been gripped by growing worries about its future power supplies, with supply falling and prices rising.
  • Mr. Davey said that Britain would need to replace about 60 percent of its generating capacity “in a relatively short time,”
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The country will also be gradually closing its mostly aging collection of nuclear plants, which now produce 19 percent of Britain’s power.
  • The overall costs of building the plants is estimated at £16 billion, or $26 billion, in 2012 terms.
  • Consumers will also wait a long time to receive electricity from the new nuclear plants,
grayton downing

Angry Protests Grow in Turkey as Police Continue Crackdown - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ead-with-plans-for-square.html

turkey protests crisis

shared by grayton downing on 01 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • a plan to remake a city park in Taksim Square into a replica Ottoman-era army barracks and mall,
  • By evening, no police officers were in sight, and most of the protesters were gathered on the lawns of the square, some drinking beer, others chanting antigovernment slogans.
  • The widening chaos here and the images it produces threaten to tarnish Turkey’s image, which Mr. Erdogan has carefully cultivated
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • “He’s crazy. No one knows what he’s doing or thinking. He’s completely crazy. Whatever he says today, he will say something different tomorrow.”
  • When he first came to power, he was a good persuader and a good speaker
  • An older man standing nearby, overhearing the conversation, yelled, “Dictator!”
  • In Istanbul, the protests turned violent on Saturday as police forces tried to disperse people with tear gas and some protesters pelted them with rocks, calling them “murderers” and “fascists.”
  • Many of the protesters complained about the lack of coverage on Turkish television, and said the silence of much of the local news media would help the protest movement grow because people, unable to see events on television, would want to see them for themselves. Some newspapers also were largely silent on the protests: on Saturday morning, the lead story in Sabah, a major pro-government newspaper
grayton downing

Sweden's Riots Put Its Identity in Question - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-its-identity-in-question.html

sweden riots identity immigration policy

shared by grayton downing on 27 May 13 - No Cached
  • In Stockholm and other towns and cities last week, bands made up mostly of young immigrants set buildings and cars ablaze in a spasm of destructive rage
  • “This is not just a police issue,” said Jimmie Akesson, the party’s leader, but “a direct result of an irresponsible immigration policy that has created deep cracks in Swedish society.”
  • “The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer,” said Barbro Sorman, an activist of the opposition Left Party. “Sweden is starting to look like the U.S.A.”
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The anger of young immigrants has bewildered and alarmed elders in their communities. After the riot police were pulled off the streets late last week, older immigrants mounted their own effort to defuse tensions. “There is no excuse for this violence,”
  • “Sweden has given me opportunities I didn’t have in Iraq,” but “I’m not treated the same as a white guy.” “I feel discrimination all the time,”
  • The recent violence has been a boon to the Swedish Democrats, the anti-immigration party. Opinion polls suggest the party is gaining in popularity, partly because of the indignation many Swedes feel about being called racists after accepting so many refugees.
  • “The police are frightened, and young people are frightened,” he said. “When frightened people meet, you only get trouble.”
grayton downing

Greece's Tangled Land Ownership Is a Hurdle in Recovery - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...p-is-a-hurdle-in-recovery.html

greece land ownership culture economic

shared by grayton downing on 27 May 13 - No Cached
  • Not long ago Leonidas Hamodrakas, a lawyer in Athens, decided to pay closer attention to his family’s land holdings
  • No clarity on boundaries or zoning. No obvious way to tell whether two people, or 10, have registered ownership of the same property.
  • As Greece tries to claw its way out of an economic crisis of historic proportions, one that has left 60 percent of young people without jobs, many experts cite the lack of a proper land registry as one of the biggest impediments to progress.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Since then, Greece has tried, and tried again. But still, less than 7 percent of the country has been properly mapped, officials say.
  • Boundaries can be the “three olive trees near the well” or the spot “where you can hear a donkey on the path.”
grayton downing

Cow Thefts on the Rise in India - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...efts-on-the-rise-in-india.html

cow rise india culture economic

shared by grayton downing on 27 May 13 - No Cached
  • But the brutal kidnappings continue, and the victims — scrawny cows, which are slowly losing their sacred status among some in India — are slaughtered and sold for meat and leather.
  • Steaks can be ordered from these illicit vendors in transactions that are carried out like drug deals.
  • Meat consumption — chicken, primarily — is becoming acceptable even among Hindus. India is now the world’s largest dairy producer, its largest cattle producer and its largest beef exporter,
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • increasingly affluent Indians develop a taste for meat, even the flesh of cows, which are considered sacred in Hinduism.
  • Bharatiya Janata Party, one of the country’s two major political parties, has demanded that laws against cow slaughter be strengthened.
  • The thieves can usually fit about 10 cows on a truck, and each fetches 5,000 rupees — about $94
  • “The social and religious status of cows has been under attack in India,”
grayton downing

In Mideast, Kerry plays down pessimism on peace - World - The Boston Globe - 0 views

www.bostonglobe.com/...story.html

mideast kerry peace palestine Isreal

shared by grayton downing on 25 May 13 - No Cached
  • As he embarked on another round of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Thursday in an effort to revitalize the peace process, Secretary of State John F. Kerry acknowledged the doubts being expressed on both sides over his chances of success
  • “It is our hope that by being methodical, careful, patient, but detailed and tenacious, that we can lay out a path ahead that could conceivably surprise people, but certainly exhaust the possibilities of peace.”
  • Palestinian officials have said that they expect Kerry to present a proposal for restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks by early June
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Israeli officials have also been quick to express their support for Kerry’s efforts while indicating that they are not convinced that the Palestinians want to return to the negotiating table.
  • Netanyahu said of the attempt to resume peace talks, “It’s something I want. It’s something you want. It’s something I hope the Palestinians want as well. And we ought to be successful for a simple reason: When there’s a will, we’ll find a way.”
grayton downing

Kerry Holds Talks in Bid to Revive Mideast Peace Process - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ive-mideast-peace-process.html

kerry talks mideast peace palestine policy

shared by grayton downing on 25 May 13 - No Cached
  • Secretary of State John Kerry held a round of meetings Thursday with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
  • Mr. Kerry has said that the next 18 to 24 months is a crucial period for achieving a breakthrough in the Middle East peace process and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
  • “Our hope is that the leaders in both Israel and the Palestinian Authority will find the way to compromise and to achieve both of their goals,” Mr. Kerry added.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Mr. Netanyahu said of the attempt to resume talks: “It’s something I want. It’s something you want. It’s something I hope the Palestinians want as well.”
grayton downing

For Obama's Global Vision, Daunting Problems - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-vision-daunting-problems.html

obama vision us politics policy

shared by grayton downing on 25 May 13 - No Cached
  • President Obama, in one of his most significant speeches since taking office, did not simply declare an end to the post-9/11 era on Thursday. He also offered a vision of America’s role in the world that he hopes could be one of his lasting legacies.
  • there are a multitude of hurdles to Mr. Obama’s goal of taking America off “perpetual war footing.”
  • Of all these threats, Mr. Rhodes said the White House was most worried about a surge of extremism in the wake of the Arab Spring. And yet the bloodiest of those conflicts, in Syria, reveals the limits of Mr. Obama’s policy.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • At the same time, Mr. Obama put renewed emphasis on diplomacy and foreign aid
  • saying
  • In a White House “fact sheet” issued Thursday about new standards for lethal operations, the administration cautioned that “these new standards and procedures do not limit the president’s authority to take action in extraordinary circumstances when doing so is both lawful and necessary to protect the United States or its allies.”
  • sayin
  • What we’re trying to do with our strategy is turn it back over to the host country and local forces,”
  • Left unsaid in Mr. Obama’s speech was one of the biggest motivations for his new focus: a desire to extricate the United States from the Middle East so that it can focus on the faster-growing region of Asia. It is a dream that has tempted presidents for a generation.
  • “We’d like to leave office with a foreign policy that is not unnecessarily consumed with a militia controlling a piece of desert.”
grayton downing

North Korea Puts Bright Face on China Visit, Despite Tensions - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...north-korea-china.html

north korea china us

shared by grayton downing on 25 May 13 - No Cached
  • North Korea gave a positive spin Saturday to the visit of its special envoy to China but made no mention of China’s push for the North to resume negotiations
  • Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, was at odds with portrayals in China’s state-run media,
  • Kim Jong-un, whose belligerent behavior has annoyed China, sent a personal letter to Mr. Xi that referred to the deep friendship between the two allies that “cannot be exchanged for anything.”
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • In the wake of the visit, China might make some humanitarian gestures, like increasing food aid
grayton downing

Russia Provides Syria With Advanced Missiles - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ia-with-advanced-missiles.html

russia provides syria US politics

shared by grayton downing on 17 May 13 - No Cached
  • Russia has sent advanced antiship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government
  • Secretary of State John Kerry has repeatedly said that it is the United States’ hope to change Mr. Assad’s “calculations”
  • “I think we’ve made it crystal clear we would prefer that Russia was not supplying assistance
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “There is now greater urgency for the U.S. to step up assistance to the moderate opposition forces who can lead Syria after Assad.”
grayton downing

Financial Times Web Site Is Hacked - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...cial-times-site-is-hacked.html

hacked web site syria

shared by grayton downing on 17 May 13 - No Cached
  • The Web site and several Twitter accounts belonging to The Financial Times were hacked on Friday by the Syrian Electronic Army
  • In The A.P. attack, the group used its access to the agency’s Twitter feed to plant a false story about explosions at the White House that sent the stock market into temporary free fall.
  • The hacker sent screenshots taken during the attack to prove the Syrian group was behind it
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “attack the media and spread truth on it” and the second is to “make damage to a specific country or to the terrorist groups in Syria by using the famous media’s social media accounts or Web sites to publish false news.”
grayton downing

Syria Names Envoys for Peace Talks - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...syria-developments.html

syria peace talks politics

shared by grayton downing on 15 May 13 - No Cached
  • President Bashar al-Assad’s government has given Russia the names of officials who would attend international talks intended to end the war in Syria,
  • leader of the Free Syrian Army, Gen. Salim Idris, to discuss the proposal for a peace conference
  • Neither side has publicly committed to attend the talks, nor has a date been set, though Mr. Kerry and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said they hoped to convene the conference within a month under the auspices of the United Nations.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “There will be additional efforts made, and unfortunately the violence will not end.
grayton downing

Pakistan Vote Revives Premier's Rivalry With Army - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...remiers-rivalry-with-army.html

pakistan US politics

shared by grayton downing on 14 May 13 - No Cached
  • Now that Mr. Sharif is poised to return as prime minister of Pakistan for the third time in 20 years
  • Since then, the military has faced several humiliations, including the American commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011,
  • For a time, he regularly hurled rhetorical broadsides at the military that made even members of his own party, who are pro-military by inclination, uncomfortable.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • In recent months, Mr. Sharif has adopted a more conciliatory tone.
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