Le dernier clou est en train d’être enfoncé dans le cercueil du « patent troll » Alcatel
Federal Circuit judges typically take months, and occasionally years, to review the patent appeals that come before them. Briefs in this case were submitted last year and oral arguments were held May 10. The three-judge panel upheld Newegg’s win without comment—in just three days.
“There’s good news and there’s bad news,” said Cheng in an interview with Ars. “The good news is, we won this case on every point. The bad news is, we’re running out of lawsuits. There are fewer trolls for us to fight. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last seven years figuring out what to do with these guys. There are strategies I think would be really neat and effective that I literally can’t execute. I can’t make good law because I don’t have any appellate cases left. They [the trolls] are dismissing cases against us before any dispositive motions.”
Les circonstances de ce qui a été présenté comme la première interview d’Hosni Moubarak depuis qu’il a quitté le pouvoir restent floues.
L’interview « fabriquée » par le journaliste selon l’avocat de l’ancien président http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2013/05/12/moubarak-donne-sa-premiere-interview_3175824_3212.html
La réponse du journaliste d’Al Watan
Reporter fires back at Mubarak’s lawyer, says ‘interview is real’ -http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/13/Reporter-fires-back-at-Mubarak-s-lawyer-says-interview-is-real-.h
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.
Enfin des nouvelles du (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism) .
Titre : (Pakistani court rules CIA drone strikes are illegal)
Lien : http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/05/09/pakistani-court-rules-cia-drone-strikes-are-illegal-and-war-c
Big Data dans la Big Apple - Slate Magazine
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/03/big_data_excerpt_how_mike_flowers_revolutionized_new_york_s_building_inspecti
Un extrait du livre de Viktor Schönberger et Kenneth Cukier revient sur comment le responsable des données de la ville de New York, Mike Flowers, a transformé l’inspection des immeubles de la ville grâce à l’analyse de données en ordonnant les 25 000 plaintes annuelles que reçoivent les 200 inspecteurs du service des bâtiments qui appartiennent à la ville. La solution : un cocktail de données permettant de trouver une corrélation avec les signalement aux services d’urgences et notamment aux pompiers, (...)
US drone strikes being used as alternative to Guantánamo, lawyer says- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/02/us-drone-strikes-guantanamo
The lawyer who first drew up White House policy on lethal drone strikes has accused the Obama administration of overusing them because of its reluctance to capture prisoners that would otherwise have to be sent to Guantánamo Bay.
John Bellinger, who was responsible for drafting the legal framework for targeted drone killings while working for George W Bush after 9/11, said he believed their use had increased since because President Obama was unwilling to deal with the consequences of jailing suspected al-Qaida members.
“This government has decided that instead of detaining members of al-Qaida [at Guantánamo] they are going to kill them,” he told a conference at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Omar Khadr will appeal war crimes convictions, lawyer says - Politics - CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/04/27/pol-omar-khadr-appeal.html
Omar Khadr will appeal his plea-bargained guilty plea and war crimes convictions in a U.S. civilian federal court, his Canadian lawyer has told CBC News.
Khadr, 26, has been held in maximum-security Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont., since he was returned to Canada last September from Guantanamo Bay where he had been held for a decade.
The transfer was as a result of a plea deal reached with prosecutors in October 2010 when Khadr pleaded guilty to and was convicted of killing Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer – an American medic in the U.S. army – with a hand grenade in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15.
As part of the plea, Khadr also confessed before a military commission in Guantanamo Bay to five war crimes, including murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism, and spying.
He also agreed not to be part of any lawsuit against the United States or to enter the country after his transfer to Canadian custody or to profit from any publication of his story.
L’affaire #Omar_Khadr, #enfant_soldat au moment des faits qui lui sont reprochés, est un vrai scandale humain et juridique et illustre à quel point il est devenu risible de voir bien des dirigeants occidentaux s’ériger en parangons des #droits_humains.
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/omar_khadr.jpg
Il n’a donc été permis à cet homme de quitter Guantánamo et de rentrer dans son pays, le Canada, pour y être emprisonné qu’à la condition qu’il reconnaisse sa culpabilité.
Concernant ladite culpabilité les faits ont été exposés par le New York Times : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/us/26gitmo.html?_r=1&ref=world
Plusieurs facteurs sont inédits dans les accusations de crime de guerre contre M. Khadr.
La pièce maîtresse de l’acte d’accusation n’est pas un acte terroriste classique – cibler des civils -, mais le fait de tuer un soldat ennemi au combat. Habituellement en temps de guerre, tuer sur le champ de bataille n’est pas passible de poursuites. Mais les Etats-Unis ont soutenu que M. Khadr ne pouvait bénéficier de cette immunité parce qu’il ne portait pas d’uniforme, entre autres exigences des lois de guerre.
La question de l’uniforme a également conduit l’équipe juridique de Obama à réécrire à la hâte les règles de la Commission à la veille d’une audition de M. Khadr. Parce que les opérateurs de drones de la Central Intelligence Agency tuent également alors qu’ils ne portent pas d’uniforme [ * ], l’équipe a réécrit les règles pour déclasser « l’assassinat en violation des lois de guerre » en un délit de droit interne pour ne pas paraître admettre implicitement que la CIA commet des crimes de guerre.
En outre, les enfants soldats ne sont presque jamais poursuivis pour crimes de guerre. Cela signifie que la couverture mondiale du cas de M. Khadr a été dominée par la question de savoir si l’affaire était appropriée. Lundi, par exemple, Human Rights Watch a déclaré que les Etats-Unis « n’auraient jamais du poursuivre le cas », car condamner quelqu’un pour crimes de guerre pour des actions prises en tant que mineur, pour la première fois depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale, « crée un terrible précédent. »
* Par ailleurs, comme l’avait déclaré l’avocat canadien de Omar Khadr, « quelqu’un peut-il me dire quel uniforme portaient les membres de l’Alliance du Nord quand il ont rejoint les Américains dans leur offensive contre les talibans ? » http://thinkprogress.org/security/2010/10/26/126542/khadr-lawyer-americans-law
Pour finir, « honte au Canada ! » http://www.lapresse.ca/debats/votre-opinion/201008/18/01-4307703-proces-domar-khadr-honte-au-canada.php
« ..l’administration Obama (..) avait pourtant promis pendant sa campagne d’en finir avec la justice d’exception. » http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/khadr-plaide-coupable-l-administration-obama-s-evite-un-proces-embarrassant-
Israel tourists face email inspections
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/24/israel-tourists-email-inspections
Israel’s internal security agency has been authorised to demand “suspicious” foreign travellers open their personal email accounts for inspection on entry to the country.
Shin Bet officials have been given approval for such action in what they deem to be exceptional cases by Israel’s attorney-general, Yehuda Weinstein, despite a petition to overrule the measure by a leading civil rights group.
“The threat of using foreign citizens for terrorist purposes is a growing trend,” said Nadim Avod, a lawyer in the attorney-general’s office. “Searching an email account is to be carried out in exceptional cases only after suspicious or pertinent information has been identified.”
Samer al-Issawi obtient d’être libéré en décembre, il accepte de mettre fin à sa grève de la fin de 270 jours :
http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/5810-israel-to-release-samer-al-issawi-in-december
After a long hearing session which took place in an Israeli hospital on Monday, the Palestinian prisoner Samer al-Issawi has agreed to bring an end to his hunger strike in exchange for his release in December 2013.
Al-Issawi is currently suffering from grave deterioration in his health as a result of his 270-day hunger strike in an Israeli jail. He was admitted to Kaplan Hospital in Jerusalem several weeks ago where the Israeli Military Prosecution held a hearing session for him yesterday.
The head of the legal unit in the Prisoners’ Club, the lawyer Jawad Bolos, said in a statement that the Israeli Military Prosecution “finally” agreed to Al-Issawi’s demands. Bolos said that demands included the annulment of Al-Issawi’s previous 20 years prison sentence.
Parmi #les_films_qui_ont_changé_ma_vie, une énorme claque dans ta face avec Henry, portrait d’un serial killer. D’après IMDB, c’est daté de 1986, mais je l’ai vu beaucoup plus tard quand il est sorti en VHS :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099763
http://www.bloodygoodhorror.com/bgh/files/covers/henry_portrait_of_a_serial_killer_poster.jpg 
http://img.poptower.com/pic-63809/michael-rooker.jpg
Je ne l’ai pas revu depuis, mais je me souviens de scènes insupportables (parce qu’interrogeant notamment notre rapport plus ou moins malsain aux images), de son #les_acteurs_que_je_sais_jamais_leur_nom Michael Rooker génial. En gros, c’est exactement tout ce que C’est arrivé près de chez vous n’est pas : ultra malsain, carrément badass et surtout pas drôle.
Ça serait un peu la version ultra-fauchée de Taxi Driver (tu sais que c’est un compliment, hein ?).
Si tu aimes le genre, tu as aussi le Martin de Romero (1976), dont je crois déjà t’avoir dit que c’était un grand grand film aussi.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077914
Bon, tout ça c’est cultissime, hein, je me foule pas trop sur cette affaire.
#cinéma_barré (mais vraiment bien barré). Je te le conseille carrément si tu veux gâcher ton week-end ensoleillé. Et si tu regardes Taxi Driver, Martin et Henry dans la même semaine, il y a un algorithme spécial qui se déclenche dans ton lecteur de VHS et qui envoie ton adresse au FBI.
Moi, j’aime bien Mad Dog and Glory du même, y’a Bill Murray ; Henry, j’ai tenu à peu près 30’, même à l’ouverture j’ai eu les chocottes.
cool, j’avais loupé Martin, merci (si tu l’as pas vu, je trouve que knightriders du même Roméro vaut le cachou (ni gore ni rien, presque du jacques demy (j’adore demy hein)))
Vu à la cinémathèque à Répu y’a quelques années, j’ai souvenir d’un côté roadmovie très étrange et #pétrifiant de folie
Autour des mines mongoles, croissance, pollution et ninjas
►http://blog.mondediplo.net/2013-04-19-Autour-des-mines-mongoles-croissance-pollution-et
Comme dans de nombreux pays émergents, l’écosystème de la Mongolie subit de plein fouet les effets de ses progrès économiques, essentiellement dûs à l’exploitation « anarchique » des nombreux gisements de minerais dispersés sur un territoire équivalent à deux fois et demie celui de la France. L’essor de l’activité minière, depuis vingt ans, représente à la fois un remarquable potentiel économique et une grande menace environnementale. Cette métamorphose est porteuse d’autant de promesses que de dangers. La (...)
Il peut être utile de rappeler que S. Bayartsogt, le ministre des finances qui a signé pour la #Mongolie le Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement avec Rio Tinto et Ivanhoe Mines le 6 octobre 2009 et le Bayartsogt Sangajav cité dans les #Offshore_leaks sont une seule et même personne…
• le contenu résumé de l’accord, sur le site de la mine http://ot.mn/en/about-us/investment-agreement
• plus long, dans la presse spécialisée
What the #Oyu_Tolgoi agreement contains and what it means for Mongolia
http://en.mongolianminingjournal.com/content/19679.shtml
The Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement was signed by Peter Meredith, Deputy Chairman of #Ivanhoe_Mines, Bret Clayton, Chief Executive of Rio Tinto"s Copper and Diamonds Group, and Keith Marshall, Managing Director of Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia Inc. Signing for the Mongolian Government were Sangajav #Bayartsogt, Minister of Finance, Dashdorj Zorigt, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, and Luimed Gansukh, Minister of Environment and Tourism, all members of the government"s Working Group that negotiated the terms of the final agreement.
• offshore leaks
Leaks reveal secrets of the rich who hide cash offshore | UK news | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/03/offshore-secrets-offshore-tax-haven
Mongolia’s former finance minister. Bayartsogt Sangajav set up “Legend Plus Capital Ltd” with a Swiss bank account, while he served as finance minister of the impoverished state from 2008 to 2012. He says it was “a mistake” not to declare it, and says “I probably should consider resigning from my position”.
Décès de Carmen Weinstein chez-elle à Zamalek samedi 13/4. Election à l’unanimité de l’avocate Magda Haroun pour lui succéder à la tête de la communauté juive d’Égypte.
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/node/1646736
http://bassatine.net/bassa35.php
Patent Madness
►http://copyrightmadness.tumblr.com/post/47942224995/copyright-madness-du-7-au-13-avril-une-semaine-de
YES WE SCAN ! Les trolls des #brevets, ça ose tout, c’est même à ça qu’on les reconnaît. Celui-ci s’est mis en tête qu’il possédait un brevet valide sur les #scanners et il occupe ses journées à harceler de petites entreprises pour exiger qu’elles payent des licences à 1000 dollars par employés ! L’article dresse le portrait de ce #Patent_Troll comme il en existe beaucoup aux #Etats-Unis. Le pire, c’est que le type reste droit dans ses bottes et ne voit même pas où est le mal...
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/meet-the-nice-guy-lawyers-who-want-1000-per-worker-for-using-scanners
Dites donc, à la rédac du @diplo, z’êtes z’en règle ? ->[]
Avant de vous lancer dans une carrière d’informaticien, réfléchissez bien :
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/12/it_salary_trends
Skills shortages ? The thing in short supply is cash
As a tech careers writer I regularly receive noise about the UK IT “skills shortage", which makes as much sense as saying there’s a shortage of Ferraris.
I know this because, according to Blighty’s Office for National Statistics, the average weekly pre-tax pay in “computer programming, consultancy and related activities” in 2012 was £718.70, which is about the same as a decent Ferrari’s cost of ownership.
Ferrari, like any IT professional, will charge what it can get. This will be pushed up by demand and pushed down by competition until a rough balance is met. Anything in a short supply should really command at least a 25 per cent premium; compare the above figure to the national earnings average of £519 a week.
Egypt’s army took part in torture and killings during revolution, report shows | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/10/egypt-army-torture-killings-revolution
Le Guardian a pu se procurer un chapitre du rapport commandité par Morsi et non encore rendu public sur les crimes commis contre les manifestants pendant la révolution égyptienne.
L’armée égyptienne y est lourdement mise en cause.
The report, submitted to President Mohamed Morsi by his own hand-picked committee in January, has yet to be made public, but a chapter seen by the Guardian implicates the military in a catalogue of crimes against civilians, beginning with their first deployment to the streets.
The chapter recommends that the government investigate the highest ranks of the military to determine who was responsible.
More than 1,000 people, including many prisoners, are said to have gone missing during the 18 days of the revolt. Scores turned up in Egypt’s morgues, shot or bearing signs of torture.
Many have simply disappeared, leaving behind desperate families who hope, at best, that their loved ones are serving prison sentences that the government does not acknowledge.
The findings of the high-level investigation, implicating Egypt’s powerful military, will put pressure on Morsi, who assumed power from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces after his election in June and has declined to prosecute any officers, despite allegations that some participated in abuse.
They could also figure in the retrial of the toppled president Hosni Mubarak and his former interior minister Habib al-Adly, who are set to return to court on Saturday to face charges – perhaps supported by new evidence from the report – that they were responsible for killing protesters during the revolt.
A Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood- http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/world/asia/origins-of-cias-not-so-secret-drone-war-in-pakistan.html?pagewanted=3&_r=3&
Bon voilà : La CIA adorerait les assassinats par drones parce qu’ils lui évitent d’avoir recours à la torture, cette dernière étant passible de poursuites judiciaires.
A New Direction
As the negotiations were taking place, the C.I.A.’s inspector general, John L. Helgerson, had just finished a searing report about the abuse of detainees in the C.I.A.’s secret prisons. The report kicked out the foundation upon which the C.I.A. detention and interrogation program had rested. It was perhaps the single most important reason for the C.I.A.’s shift from capturing to killing terrorism suspects.
Mr. Helgerson raised questions about whether C.I.A. officers might face criminal prosecution for the interrogations carried out in the secret prisons, and he suggested that interrogation methods like waterboarding, sleep deprivation and the exploiting of the phobias of prisoners — like confining them in a small box with live bugs — violated the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
“The agency faces potentially serious long-term political and legal challenges as a result of the CTC detention and interrogation program,” the report concluded, given the brutality of the interrogation techniques and the “inability of the U.S. government to decide what it will ultimately do with the terrorists detained by the agency.”
The report was the beginning of the end for the program. The prisons would stay open for several more years, and new detainees were occasionally picked up and taken to secret sites, but at Langley, senior C.I.A. officers began looking for an endgame to the prison program. One C.I.A. operative told Mr. Helgerson’s team that officers from the agency might one day wind up on a “wanted list” and be tried for war crimes in an international court.
The ground had shifted, and counterterrorism officials began to rethink the strategy for the secret war. Armed drones, and targeted killings in general, offered a new direction. Killing by remote control was the antithesis of the dirty, intimate work of interrogation. Targeted killings were cheered by Republicans and Democrats alike, and using drones flown by pilots who were stationed thousands of miles away made the whole strategy seem risk-free.
Lire
Drones et kamikazes
, dans le monde diplomatique d’avril 2013
►http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2013/04/CHAMAYOU/49004
Paul Rogers: Suicide-bombs without the suicides: why drones are so cool- http://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-rogers/suicide-bombs-without-suicides-why-drones-are-so-cool
(...)
The similarity [of suicide-bombing] with armed-drones is striking. (...)
(...)
Then comes the blowback.
As paramilitary movements learn to respond, their range of options starts with the utilisation of many readily available technologies. They may be aided by support from a sympathetic regime - witness the unarmed TV-guided drones from Hizbollah, deploying Iranian technology, that have caused the Israelis such concern (see “Hizbollah’s warning flight”, 5 May 2005). Even short of that, the fusion of so many available dual-use technologies and the abilities of skilled engineers and technicians working within radical movements means that armed-drones from non-state actors will be a feature of asymmetrical, transnational war very soon (see An asymmetrical drone war", 19 August 2010).
In addition, and even without using drones, paramilitary movements should be expected to target the drone-war centres such as the Creech and Waddington bases - if not the bases themselves, then soft targets in their vicinity.
What military planners and policy-formers in the west realise least of all is that while the results of drone-warfare rarely make the western media in any depth, they are extensively reported on regional and satellite TV stations across the middle east and into Asia. Even more pertinent is the pervasive coverage of drone-attacks on the worldwide jihadist social media. Moreover, the graphic images of death and suffering on both these kinds of outlets are far grimmer than anything seen in the west (see “Every casualty: the human face of war”, 15 September 2011).
For now, the drones hold sway - but it is no more than a temporary phenomenon, a transient phase. Within a very few years, and maybe even only months, the next phase will commence as paramilitary groups respond. As with other elements of the “war on terror”, the seduction of short-term advantage disguises damaging longer-term consequences.
Cahuzac tax scandal, neo-fascist ties stagger France’s ruling Socialist Party - World Socialist Web Site
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/05/cahu-a05.html
Cahuzac tax scandal, neo-fascist ties stagger France’s ruling Socialist Party
By Alex Lantier
5 April 2013
The growing scandal over undeclared overseas bank accounts held by France’s former Budget Minister Jérôme Cahuzac has staggered the Socialist Party (PS) administration of President François Hollande.
Cahuzac—a key architect of last year’s multi-billion-euro budget cuts in France, an advocate of support for European Union (EU) austerity policies directed by Berlin, and the leader in the PS’ supposed campaign against tax evasion—apparently evaded his own taxes.
Leaks reveal secrets of the rich who hide cash offshore | UK news | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/03/offshore-secrets-offshore-tax-haven
Millions of internal records have leaked from Britain’s offshore financial industry, exposing for the first time the identities of thousands of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world, from presidents to plutocrats, the daughter of a notorious dictator and a British millionaire accused of concealing assets from his ex-wife.
The leak of 2m emails and other documents, mainly from the offshore haven of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), has the potential to cause a seismic shock worldwide to the booming offshore trade, with a former chief economist at McKinsey estimating that wealthy individuals may have as much as $32tn (£21tn) stashed in overseas havens.
#leak #paradis_fiscaux #évasion_fiscale #technocratie #ploutocratie - à suivre
http://seenthis.net/messages/127470
The names have been unearthed in a novel project by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists [ICIJ], in collaboration with the Guardian and other international media, who are jointly publishing their research results this week.
Le Monde de demain
https://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/753893457.jpg
et donc un tag : #OffshoreLeaks
A moins qu’on préfère #offshore_leaks ?
http://www.arretsurimages.net/vite.php?id=15382
Bienvenue dans l’#investigation mondialisée !
How ICIJ’s Project Team Analyzed the Offshore Files
►http://www.icij.org/offshore/how-icijs-project-team-analyzed-offshore-files
Egyptian Salafist Considers Sinai The ’Next Frontier’
By Mohamed Fadel Fahmy for Al-Monitor. (Fadel Fahmy is an Egyptian/Canadian freelance journalist and author of Baghdad Bound and Egyptian Freedom Story).
“The Egyptian revolution came as a “gift from god,” as one of the hundreds of jihadists released from prison after the uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 called it. Stockpiles of weapons have made their way into Egypt through the neighboring porous Libyan and Sudanese borders since the region has fallen into a state of lawlessness, which came with the shake-up of the security apparatuses in scarred nations searching for their new identities. Al Qaeda inspired groups in the Sinai Peninsula have puzzled the international community with their bold statements and videos posted on the net, but the various Egyptian security branches have not been able to pinpoint their direct involvement in any of the many military operations and kidnappings, or the weapons smuggling to Gaza through an intricate web of tunnels located in North Sinai, close to the Israeli border. The audacity of such militant groups has left Egypt and its neighboring countries with a national security threat that is brewing by the day, as the wave of violence and killing is broadcast on a daily basis on Egypt’s dozens of television channels and talk-shows.
Obtaining transparent information, specifically in national security cases, in Egypt has become a challenge, and the terrorism case known in the press as the “Nasr City Cell” is no exception.”
A defence lawyer in Bahrain says 21 medical personnel have been cleared of charges linked to anti-government protests but cases remain open against two others who failed to appear in court.
Lawyer Abdulla al-Shamlawi said a court on Thursday issued the acquittals, but left charges against two who did not appear in court.
Arrests of dozens of doctors and nurses were part of the crackdown by the Gulf kingdom’s Sunni rulers after an uprising began in 2011 by majority Shias seeking a greater political voice.
International medical groups denounced the arrests.
The medics, nearly all of whom were Shia, were charged with taking part in illegal protests and other acts linked to the demonstrations.
In October, five doctors lost their appeals on protest-related charges. Others have been freed or tried in absentia.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/03/2013328105647947157.html
Russian Ties Put Cyprus Banking Crisis on East-West Fault Line - NYTimes.com
LIMASSOL, Cyprus — Andreas Marangos, a Porsche-driving lawyer here, had just woken up when he heard the news that threatened to destroy his and Cyprus’s most lucrative business: setting up shell companies and providing financial services for wealthy Russians.
Nablus court jails man for depicting Abbas as soccer star
http://electronicintifada.net/content/nablus-court-jails-man-depicting-abbas-soccer-star/12275
In an extraordinary move, a civilian has been sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for posting a picture on Facebook of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas dressed in a Real Madrid soccer outfit and kicking a ball. The sentencing is among several instances of a targeting of media in Palestinian areas.
Anas Saad Awad, 26, from the northern West Bank village of Awarta near Nablus, was sentenced in the Nablus magistrate’s court, which convicted him of “criticizing the government.” Awad was unable to address the court as the conviction was carried out while he was elsewhere in the court building.
Over 100 Guantánamo Prisoners on Hunger Strike, Citing Threat of Return to “Darkest Days Under Bush” | #DemocracyNow!
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/13/over_100_guantanamo_prisoners_on_hunger
More than 100 detainees held in the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay are reportedly entering their fifth week of a hunger strike sparked by deteriorating conditions. News of the hunger strike first emerged last week, but it appears the action involves far more prisoners than previously thought. In a letter to his attorney, one detainee wrote: “We are in danger. One of the soldiers fired on one of the brothers a month ago. Before that, they send the emergency forces with M-16 weapons into one of the brothers’ cell blocks. ... Now they want to return us to the darkest days under [George W.] Bush. They said this to us. Please do something.” We’re joined by Pardiss Kebriaei, senior staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights and counsel for one of the hunger strikers. [includes rush transcript]
News of the unrest comes as U.S. military officials have confirmed a guard fired rubber bullets at detainees in January for the first time in the prison’s history. The incident took place on a soccer field for cooperative captives when, authorities say, a detainee sought the attention of a guard in a watchtower who controlled a gate leading to a pathway back to the prison. The detainee allegedly tried to scale the fence.
« #armes_non_létales » #prison
Life Inside the #Aaron_Swartz Investigation - Quinn Norton - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/13/03/life-inside-the-aaron-swartz-investigation/273654/?single_page=true
Once your life is inside a federal investigation, there is no space outside of it. The only private thing is your thoughts, and even they don’t feel safe anymore. Every word you speak or write can be used, manipulated, or played like a card against your future and the future of those you love.
#Etats-unis “#justice”