position:guard

You won’t find it on Google Maps and it isn’t a member of Nato or, indeed, the EU. But it exists.

Notes from a small island : Is #Sealand an independent ’micronation’ or an illegal fortress ? - This Britain - UK - The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/notes-from-a-small-island-is-sealand-an-independent-micronation-or-an

Situé au large des côtes est de la Grande- Bretagne, constitué de quatre piliers en béton surmontés d’une plaque en métal, le mini-pays possède son propre drapeau, sa propre monnaie et sa famille royale. Reportage (repéré dans la « checklist » du 21 mai)

En lien : La mort d’un pirate. La société de l’information à l’épreuve des ondes ►http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2011/11/RIVIERE/46950

178 self-immolations in Tunisia reflect despair of jobless Mideast youth

►http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/178-self-immolations-in-tunisia-reflect-despair-of-jobless-mideast-youth-including-vendor/2013/05/11/1e430bc0-ba61-11e2-b568-6917f6ac6d9d_print.html

In Tunisia, about 230,000 university graduates are unemployed, making up one-third of the jobless, according to the National Institute of Statistics. The Union of Unemployed University Graduates puts the actual number of jobless graduates closer to 350,000, saying many have stopped looking for work.

The few jobs available are awarded through nepotism and political connections, according to union member Soheil Idoudi, 32, who has an engineering degree but never worked in his field. His four college-educated siblings survive on odd jobs.

The problem is especially acute because in the Middle East, a job is often the first building block of adult life, as Adel soon found. Without a job, a young man cannot get married. And without marriage, a couple cannot live together.

178 self-immolations in Tunisia reflect despair of jobless Mideast youth, including vendor - The Washington Post
►http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/178-self-immolations-in-tunisia-reflect-despair-of-jobless-mideast-youth-including-vendor/2013/05/11/1e430bc0-ba61-11e2-b568-6917f6ac6d9d_print.html

Adel is one of 178 people in Tunisia who have set themselves on fire since the self-immolation two years ago of another high school dropout-turned-street vendor launched the Arab Spring.

...

In Tunis, Issam briefly took over Adel’s stand, but has since returned to construction. He finds life unbearably lonely without his father and brother. He says getting married is out of the question as long as he has to support his mother and brothers.

He remembers how he and Adel talked after Bouazizi’s self-immolation.

They agreed it was “just inconceivable” that either of them would do such a thing.

Outrageous Or Smart ? Spirit Airlines Raises Its Carry On Fee To $100 - Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2012/10/02/outrageous-or-smart-spirit-airlines-raises-its-carry-on-fee-to-100

La même chose chez Spirit Airline...

Spirit Airlines is known as the Ryanair of American carriers. It charges low fares, but has come up with fees that catch many travelers off guard. And here’s one that will make disorganized travelers gasp.

Spirit will now charge $100 at the gate — more than double what fliers had to pay before — if you did not pay a carry on fee before you got to the airport. The last-minute carry on fee had been $45. The new fee takes effect Nov. 6. You can read more about this at the Detroit Free Press.

#ryanair #lowcost #transport_aérien #etats-unis

UNE PROVOCATION QUI RAPPELLE CELLE D’ ARIK SHARON QUI S’ETAIT PAVANE SUR L’ESPLANADE DES MOSQUEES, SI MON SOUVENIR EST BON; Israeli settlers enter Al-Aqsa compound under guard | Maan News Agency
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=593359

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — A group of settlers accompanied by Israeli forces entered the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Wednesday for the second consecutive day, with Muslim worshipers prevented from praying at the holy site, locals said.

Israeli police officers erected several checkpoints at entrances to the Al-Aqsa compound and prevented all Palestinian women, and men under 50, from entering, witnesses said.

Elderly men were only allowed in after they had given their identity cards to Israeli officers.

Israeli forces evacuated all young worshipers who managed to enter the mosque for dawn prayers, allowing only employees of the endowment ministry, who work at the mosque, to remain.

Over 100 settlers then entered the Al-Aqsa compound at 7 a.m., entering through the Moroccan gate accompanied by Israeli forces.

A day earlier, a group of around 40 settlers toured the compound escorted by police officers to commemorate the eve of Jerusalem Day, a controversial national holiday in Israel celebrating the “unification” of the city, or occupation of East Jerusalem.

Israeli politicians, such as Likud’s Moshe Feiglin, have in the past called for Jewish prayers at the compound, and control and access to the holy site is a particularly sensitive religious and political issue.

Earlier this year, PLO official Saeb Erekat slammed an attempt by Feiglin to enter the compound, calling it a “violation of the sanctity of the place as well as a direct provocation against Palestine, the Arab- and Muslim world.”

The Al-Aqsa compound, containing the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the third holiest site in Islam and abuts the site where Jews believe the ancient Second Temple stood.

The Egyptian opposition: from protestors to revolutionaries? | openDemocracy

http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/maha-abdelrahman/egyptian-opposition-from-protestors-to-revolutionaries

In the first decade of the 21st century, Egyptian activists within blossoming yet embryonic labour and prodemocracy movements, participated in groups and networks that were characterised by decentralised and fluid organisational structures, diffuse boundaries and dependence on members rather than a centralised leadership - all features typical of new social movements

#tradeunion #labour #prodemocracy movements #opposition #egypt

Tear gas fired as Egyptian Islamists (salafists) target security HQ in Cairo

http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/article/idUSBRE94116G20130503

Salafist preacher Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail and Islamist leader Hossam Abu El-Bokhary to be investigated after calling for protest

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/70597/Egypt/Politics-/Top-preacher-to-be-investigated-for-terrorising-Eg.aspx

#mob #salafists

The Prophets of Oak Ridge
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2013/04/29/the-prophets-of-oak-ridge

Last summer, in the dead of night, three peace activists penetrated the exterior of Y-12 in Tennessee, supposedly one of the most secure nuclear-weapons facilities in the United States. A drifter, an 82-year-old nun and a house painter. They face trial next week on charges that fall under the sabotage section of the U.S. criminal code. And if they had been terrorists armed with explosives, intent on mass destruction? That nightmare scenario underlies the government’s response to the intrusion. This is the story of two competing worldviews, of conscience vs. court, of fantasy vs. reality, of history vs. the future.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/prophets/images/2560_nuclearnun171362351073.jpg
#nucléaire #armes

Anatomy of a phish - how to spot a Man-in-the-Middle attack, and other security tips
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/04/19/anatomy-of-a-phish-how-to-spot-a-man-in-the-middle

Even if you are used to phishing scams, it still pays to take the occasional look at a scam campaign, just to remind yourself not to let your guard down. Paul Ducklin digs into a recent “tax refund” phish with an added Man-in-the-Middle attack…

http://i2.wp.com/sophosnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/scam-fake-250.png?fit=1000%2C1000

Source: Naked Security

#featured #phishing #man_in_middle #mitm #one-time_password #phish #scam #spam

A Brazilian policeman aims his tear gas gun at a protestor
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2013/04/29/pictures-of-the-week-april-29-2013/5984
http://denverpost.slideshowpro.com/albums/001/496/album-390852/cache/pow18.sJPG_950_2000_0_75_0_50_50.JPG
(AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Heu, je ne suis pas spécialiste mais ça ne ressemble pas à un tear gas gun mais plutôt à un fusil à pompe ?
#armes

Article apocalyptique dans le New York Times : Islamist Rebels’ Gains in Syria Create Dilemma for U.S.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/world/middleeast/islamist-rebels-gains-in-syria-create-dilemma-for-us.html

Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government.

Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.

(C’est moi qui souligne cette dernière phrase.)

Ne pas se méprendre : ça ne veut pas dire que c’est plus vrai que lorsque le New York Times ment dans l’autre sens… Mon intérêt ici, c’est à nouveau de remarquer qu’il y a d’un côté l’habituel discours assez simple et binaire des dirigeants (avec spectaculaire alignement du gouvernement français), mais qu’il y a aussi, quasiment depuis le début, nombre de tribunes totalement contraires dans les médias. Certes loin d’être majoritaires, mais beaucoup plus forts et présents que pour d’autres guerres. Et ces discours hétérodoxes (pendant que les gouvernements occidentaux refont le coup des armes de destruction massive) débarquent au NY Times. C’est assez curieux.

Les Syriens ne trouvent pas de refuge en Grèce

LESVOS, Greece—On this Aegean island’s shores, Syria’s refugee crisis is crashing up against Greece’s migrant-policy mess.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324096404578354100202130318.html

#Syrie #Grèce #migration #asile #réfugié #Lesvos

Web Privacy, and How Consumers Let Down Their Guard - NYTimes.com
►http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/technology/web-privacy-and-how-consumers-let-down-their-guard.html?src=recpb&pagewante

This is perhaps Mr. Acquisti’s most salient contribution to the discussion. Solutions to our leaky privacy system tend to focus on transparency and control — that our best hope is knowing what our data is being used for and choosing whether to participate. But a challenge to that conventional wisdom emerges in his research. Giving users control may be an essential step, but it may also be a bit of an illusion.

On travaille d’arrache-pied sur le séquençage du nouveau virus.

UPDATE 4-China mobilises to fight new bird flu ; Japan, HK on guard | Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/04/health-birdflu-china-idUSL3N0CR0J320130404

So far, this lack of human-to-human transmission also appears to be a feature of the H7N9 strain.

However, China has yet to find any animals infected with #H7N9, meaning how humans got it remains a mystery.

“The gene sequences confirm that this is an avian virus, and that it is a low pathogenic form (meaning it is likely to cause mild disease in birds),” said Wendy Barclay, a flu virologist at Britain’s Imperial College London.

“But what the sequences also reveal is that there are some mammalian adapting mutations in some of the genes.”

This, she said, meant the H7N9 virus has already acquired some of the genetic changes it would need to mutate into a form that could be transmitted from person to person.

Le Japon commence à sensibiliser les passagers aux aéroports…

In Japan, airports have put up posters at entry points warning all airline passengers from China to seek medical attention if they suspect they have bird flu.

… et Hong-Kong aussi :

All passengers on flights in and out of Hong Kong were being asked to notify flight attendants or airport staff if they were feeling unwell.

Mesures draconiennes, on le voit. Que répondriez-vous à l’hôtesse qui vous accueille à bord en vous demandant :

Vous sentez-vous fiévreux ?

Web Privacy, and How Consumers Let Down Their Guard - NYTimes.com
►http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/technology/web-privacy-and-how-consumers-let-down-their-guard.html?src=recpb&pagewante

This is perhaps Mr. Acquisti’s most salient contribution to the discussion. Solutions to our leaky privacy system tend to focus on transparency and control — that our best hope is knowing what our data is being used for and choosing whether to participate. But a challenge to that conventional wisdom emerges in his research. Giving users control may be an essential step, but it may also be a bit of an illusion.

Aiming to learn how consumers determine the value of their privacy, Mr. Acquisti dispatched a set of graduate students to a suburban mall on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. To some shoppers, the students offered a $10 discount card, plus an extra $2 discount in exchange for their shopping data. Half declined the extra offer — apparently, they weren’t willing to reveal the contents of their shopping cart for a mere $2.

To other shoppers, however, the students offered a different choice: a $12 discount card and the option of trading it in for $10 if they wished to keep their shopping record private. Curiously, this time, 90 percent of shoppers chose to keep the higher-value coupon — even if it meant giving away the information about what they had bought.

Mr. Acquisti took note of the paradox: fine-grained controls had led people to “share more sensitive information with larger, and possibly riskier, audiences.” He titled the paper, which he wrote with his colleagues Laura Brandimarte and George Loewenstein, “Misplaced Confidences: Privacy and the Control Paradox.”

“What worries me,” he said, “is that transparency and control are empty words that are used to push responsibility to the user for problems that are being created by others.”

Mr. Acquisti offers a sobering counterpoint. In 2011, he took snapshots with a webcam of nearly 100 students on campus. Within minutes, he had identified about one-third of them using facial recognition software. In addition, for about a fourth of the subjects whom he could identify, he found out enough about them on Facebook to guess at least a portion of their Social Security numbers.

Camp Nama: British personnel reveal horrors of secret US base in Baghdad | World news | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/01/camp-nama-iraq-human-rights-abuses

Codenamed Task Force 121, the joint US-UK special forces unit was at first deployed to detain individuals thought to have information about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. Once it was realised that Saddam’s regime had long since abandoned its WMD programme, TF 121 was re-tasked with tracking down people who might know where the deposed dictator and his loyalists might be, and then with catching al-Qaida leaders who sprang up in the country after the regime collapsed.

Suspects were brought to the secret prison at Baghdad International airport, known as Camp Nama, for questioning by US military and civilian interrogators. But the methods used were so brutal that they drew condemnation not only from a US human rights body but from a special investigator reporting to the Pentagon.

A British serviceman who served at Nama recalled: “I saw one man having his prosthetic leg being pulled off him, and being beaten about the head with it before he was thrown on to the truck.”

Hungary: National award for notorious Anti-Semite - World Socialist Web Site

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/23/hung-m23.html

Hungary: National award for notorious Anti-Semite
By Markus Salzmann
23 March 2013

On Hungary’s National Day, March 15, the right-wing TV host Ferenc Szaniszlo received the Táncsics Award, the highest state award for journalists in Hungary. On the state-run Echo TV station Szaniszlo has disseminated anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and described the Roma minority as “apes”.

#hongrie #racisme #xénophobie #extrême-droite

Syrians Find No Refuge in Greece - WSJ.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324096404578354100202130318.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Les réfugiés syriens meurent en tentant de rejoindre les îles grecques par la mer.

Over the past year, 6,500 Syrians were detected crossing into Greece illegally—about six times the level of the previous year—according to Frontex, the European Union border agency. More still went undetected, say Greek officials. An additional 1,500 were found living in Greece without the necessary permits.

An increasing number are attempting to enter by sea from Turkey’s Aegean coast, meanwhile, after Athens erected a 10-kilometer (7-mile) “security fence” along the porous northern section of the Turkish border.

Smugglers crowd migrants onto flimsy plastic or inflatable boats, often offering one of them a discount to pilot the craft, according to the Hellenic coast guard. While the distance between Turkey and the border Greek islands around here can be as short as a few miles, local currents and winter storms can be vicious. Journeys are usually made at night.

Since November, more than 100 migrants have drowned and at least a dozen bodies of Syrians have washed up on north Aegean islands, according to coast guard estimates.

#Grèce #Syrie #Réfugiés #Frontex #UNHCR

BBC News - China acknowledges ’cancer villages’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21545868

The latest report from the environment ministry is entitled “Guard against and control risks presented by chemicals to the environment during the 12th Five-Year period (2011-2015)”.

It says that the widespread production and consumption of harmful chemicals forbidden in many developed nations are still found in China.

“The toxic chemicals have caused many environmental emergencies linked to water and air pollution,” it said.

The report goes on to acknowledge that such chemicals could pose a long-term risk to human health, making a direct link to the so-called “cancer villages”.

“There are even some serious cases of health and social problems like the emergence of cancer villages in individual regions,” it said.

(...)

Last month - Beijing - and several other cities - were blanketed in smog that soared past levels considered hazardous by the World Health Organisation.

The choking pollution provoked a public outcry and led to a highly charged debate about the costs of the country’s rapid economic development, our correspondent says.

China’s dangerous brinkmanship in maritime Northeast Asia | The Strategist

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/chinas-dangerous-brinkmanship-in-maritime-northeast-asia

China’s behaviour over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute with Japan is deeply worrisome. It not only displays a level of brinkmanship which could easily lead to war, it also seems to be part of a broader maritime ‘probing’ strategy designed to constantly test the resolve of Japan and its US ally. The result could be even greater instability in Northeast Asia.

At least twice in the past two weeks, Chinese forces directed a fire-control radar at a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) vessel and helicopter. The key question is whether such dangerous crisis management reflects a deliberate strategy on the part of Beijing or if it was due to a lack of coordination among the key actors. According to media reports, the later seems closer to the truth. It seems that only now is China’s management of the dispute under direct command and coordination of a top-level task force led by General Secretary Xi Jinping.

#chine #japon #senkaku

Israel: Gaza Airstrikes Violated Laws of War

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/12/israel-gaza-airstrikes-violated-laws-war

At least 18 Israeli airstrikes during the fighting in Gaza in November 2012 were in apparent violation of the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said today after a detailed investigation into the attacks. These airstrikes killed at least 43 Palestinian civilians, including 12 children.

Human Rights Watch field investigations found 14 strikes by aerial drones or other aircraft for which there was no indication of a legitimate military target at the site at the time of the attack. In four other cases, attacks may have targeted Palestinian fighters, but appeared to use indiscriminate means or caused disproportionate harm to civilians.

Human Rights Watch did not attempt to investigate all Israeli airstrikes during the eight days of fighting called “Operation Pillar of Defense,” from November 14 to 21.

Australian Report on Israel’s ’Prisoner X’ Suggests Melbourne Man Was Mossad Agent - NYTimes.com
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/australian-report-on-israels-prisoner-x-suggests-melbourne-man-was-mossad-agent/?smid=tw-share

Last Updated, 2:53 p.m. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday that a man referred to in Israel as “Prisoner X,” who was jailed and died under mysterious circumstances in 2010, might have been an Australian-born Israeli who worked for Israel’s secret service, the Mossad.

According to the ABC, an unnamed source “with connections to Israel’s security establishment” claimed that the prisoner — whose detention and suicide at the high-security Ayalon Prison outside Tel Aviv was briefly reported on an Israeli news site in December 2010 despite a gag order — was named Ben Alon. That same month, the network reported, a man from suburban Melbourne, Ben Zygier, who had emigrated to Israel 12 years ago and changed his name to Ben Alon, died in Israel.

Although the Australian state broadcaster published video and a complete transcript of the 28-minute report online, Israeli news sites removed articles describing the ABC investigation after editors were summoned to an emergency meeting by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, Reuters reported.

via Ayman Mohyeldin https://twitter.com/AymanM/status/301421111223152640
Israel censors its Media over Australian Report on ’Prisoner X’ That Suggests Melbourne Man Was Mossad Agent http://nyti.ms/WHbmIR But why?

En septembre 2011 HRW écrivait http://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2011/09/12/afghanistan-le-gouvernement-devrait-juguler-les-milices-et-la-police-locale-afg

Les milices et certaines unités de la nouvelle Police locale afghane (ALP) soutenues [créées] par les États-Unis commettent de graves violations des droits humains (...) en toute impunité

Le « LA Times » nous apprend maintenant que le régime étatsunien va consacrer $1.2 billion pour augmenter leur nombre et les former/armer afin de s’assurer que les Taliban ne reprendront pas le pouvoir une fois les troupes étasuniennes retirées :
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-police-20130211,0,5413205,full.story

WASHINGTON — In an effort to fight the insurgency after U.S. troops leave Afghanistan by the end of next year, officials in Washington and Kabul are planning to dramatically expand a 3-year-old rural police force that has been implicated in human rights abuses and criminal activity.

The plan by the U.S. Special Operations Command would extend a financial lifeline from the Pentagon to the Afghan Local Police for at least five more years, providing $1.2 billion to train, arm and pay 45,000 fighters, up from a current force of 19,600, according to senior U.S. officials and planning documents.

#our-sob (son of a bitch) #hégémonie-bienveillante

Shining Light on American Complicity In Harboring Nazis
http://m.forward.com/articles/170231/shining-light-on-american-complicity-in-harboring

...there is the ideological horror of America’s policy of tolerance toward Nazi war criminals — toward anyone, no matter how villainous and corrupt, that some government agency thought might be useful during the Cold War.

There is the lesser-known horror of American soldiers brutally expelling Soviet prisoners of war and even civilians from displaced persons camps and other relatively safe havens, to face imprisonment, torture and death in a hostile Soviet Union. And there is the horror of the decades of silence and cover-ups that obscured these American transgressions.

Israel Hayom | Dennis Ross: If diplomacy fails, be sure the US will attack Iran
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6800

Former Obama adviser Dennis Ross says the U.S. president is not bluffing on the Iran nuclear issue • Speaking at a symposium in Jerusalem, Ross says U.S. policy on Iran will remain consistent, despite the coming changing of the guard at the Pentagon.