Wikileaks Has posted An Insurance File
Wikileaks has posted an encrypted file simply called Insurance the file is 1.4 GB which is larger than the original Afghan War Diaries file.
Cryptome, a separate secret-spilling site, has speculated that the new file added days later may have been posted as insurance in case something happens to the WikiLeaks website or to the organization’s founder, Julian Assange. In either scenario, WikiLeaks volunteers, under a prearranged agreement with Assange, could send out a password or passphrase to allow anyone who has downloaded the file to open it.
From the Daily Beast Pentagon investigators are trying to determine the whereabouts of the Australian-born founder of the secretive website Wikileaks for fear that he may be about to publish a huge cache of classified State Department cables that, if made public, could do serious damage to national security, government officials tell The Daily Beast.
The officials acknowledge that even if they found the website founder, Julian Assange, it is not clear what they could do to block publication of the cables on Wikileaks, which is nominally based on a server in Sweden and bills itself as a champion of whistleblowers.
Targeted Killing Is New U.S. Focus in Afghanistan
By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
Published: July 31, 2010
WASHINGTON – When President Obama announced his new war plan for Afghanistan last year, the centerpiece of the strategy – and a big part of the rationale for sending 30,000 additional troops – was to safeguard the Afghan people, provide them with a competent government and win their allegiance.
Eight months later, that counterinsurgency strategy has shown little success, as demonstrated by the flagging military and civilian operations in Marja and Kandahar and the spread of Taliban influence in other areas of the country.
More than 70 countries make being gay a crime
People are being killed for their sexual orientation, despite progress made by some nations, including Britain, to eliminate prejudice
By Emily Dugan Sunday, 1 August 2010
Acomprehensive study of global lesbian, bisexual and gay rights, seen by The Independent on Sunday, reveals the brutal – and, in many instances, fatal – price people pay around the globe for their sexuality. The research, which was conducted by the charity network the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), shows that 76 countries still prosecute people on the grounds of their sexual orientation – seven of which punish same-sex acts with death.On a global scale, the nations doing something positive for gay rights are dwarfed by those behaving negatively.
USA
Insurers hold billions in federal death benefits in unprotected accounts
By David Evans
Bloomberg News
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The package arrived at Cindy Lohman’s home in Great Mills, just two weeks after she learned that her son, Ryan P. Baumann, a 24-year-old Army sergeant, had been killed by a bomb in Afghanistan. It was a thick, 9-by-12-inch envelope from Prudential Financial, which handles life insurance for the Department of Veterans Affairs.Inside was a letter from Prudential about Ryan’s $400,000 policy. And there was something else that looked like a checkbook.
Oil-damaged wetlands may just have to wait it out
Cleanup efforts often seem futile, and some biologists suggest simply letting nature take its course.
By Alana Semuels and Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times
August 1, 2010Reporting from Terrebonne Parish, Comfort Island – Although thick, sprawling oil slicks have vanished from much of the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, pockets of goo still menace delicate wetlands and there is no effective way to clean them up, experts said.
The best hope for the soiled bayous, some biologists said, may be to wait for Mother Nature to do its own cleaning. In the meantime, some patches of marsh will probably die.
Europe
Russia brings in troops to battle wildfires
At least 30 people die in three days as hundreds of blazes reduce villages to ash in the country’s hottest summer since records began
By Mikhail Metzel in Voronezh Sunday, 1 August 2010
Russia’s armed forces mobilised yesterday to fight hundreds of wildfires that have wiped out villages and vast areas of woodland. Officials said the worst blazes were under control, but evacuations continued. The fires have killed at least 30 people in the past three days, officials said, and they are breaking out as Moscow and other regions of the country suffer their hottest summer since records began 130 years ago.All 300 of the army’s fire trucks have been dispatched to help fight blazes across at least 14 of the country’s 83 regions, including outside Moscow. The Emergencies Ministry said in a website statement that “the situation with fires… is under control”, due to preventative measures being taken.
Lone preacher: the Serb mayor who is trying to heal Bosnia’s scars of war
A reconciliation project in a town that was once notorious for its atrocities has made its mayor a target for politicians trying to exploit old hatreds, reports Colin Freeman in Foca
Published: 9:00AM BST 01 Aug 2010
The grenade that he thought might one day come his way has yet to be tossed into his mayoral parlour, but Zdravko Krsmanovic still takes a certain civic pride in being one of Bosnia’s most controversial politicians.
The 52-year-old boss of the eastern Bosnian enclave of Foca, he is the mastermind behind what is arguably one of the most daring town hall equal opportunities programme ever.
Since coming to power five years ago, he has turned what was once a notorious scene of ethnic cleansing by Bosnian Serbs back into to a town where Bosnian Muslims feel safe to live again.
Middle East
Israelis and Palestinians unite for peace – and theatre
Theatre troupe Combatants for Peace use their participatory theatre approach to find out what UK audiences would do in their shoes
Sarfraz Manzoor
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 1 August 2010 00.06 BST
Nour Shehadah and Chen Alon are both shaven-headed fathers in their forties. Shehadah is Palestinian and he spent five years in an Israeli prison for his activities as a leader of his local Fatah military. Alon is a former combat soldier and major in the Israeli army.When they were combatants, both men would have considered the other with suspicion and fear. This week, however, Shehadah and Alon have been in Britain along with fourteen other Israelis and Palestinians for a series of events in Warrington, Coventry and in London aimed at helping end the Middle East conflict.
UAE ‘moves to suspend some Blackberry services’
The United Arab Emirates is to suspend some Blackberry mobile services from October, the state news agency reports.
The BBC 1 August 2010
The move comes amid UAE concerns that data from the devices is immediately exported offshore and managed by a foreign organisation.The UAE’s telecoms regulator, TRA, said last week the devices could therefore pose a threat to national security.
It follows an alleged attempt last year by the state-run telecoms company to install spyware on Blackberry handsets.
Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has not yet commented on the latest UAE reports, which come amid a row dating back to 2007 about allowing TRA access to the code for RIM’s encrypted networks so it can monitor email and other data.
Asia
Helmand despatch: ‘Pakistan is the true enemy’
The shadow of Pakistan hangs over British-led efforts to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, reports Nick Meo in Nad-e-Ali
Published: 6:00AM BST 01 Aug 2010
The district governor of Nad-e-Ali pointed across parched fields towards a line of trees where the Taliban attacks come from.
“That’s where our enemy is,” said Habibullah Shamalany, 58, standing outside a police fortress, the ground around his feet littered with discarded cartridge cases from recent battles. “Their shadow government begins over there.”
Behind him a teenage police recruit wearing jeans and an Adidas shirt squinted down the gun sight of his machine-gun at imaginary Taliban where the governor was pointing.
Mr Shamalany is a close ally of the British soldiers who patrol the dangerous roads around Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital 20 miles away. The Taliban sow fear in the villages, he said, but it is Pakistan that is the true enemy of Afghans like him.
Thousands cut off in Pakistan flood
SUNDAY, AUGUST 01, 2010
Dry weather has allowed Pakistan’s military to deliver aid to people trapped by the worst floods in the country’s history, but forecasts warning of more rain mean thousands will remain cut off.The Pakistani army was able to reach citizens stranded in the country’s flooded northwest, where more than 900 people have been confirmed dead, during a lull in the bad weather on Saturday.
But an army spokesman warned that the government may not know the full extent of the of the flood’s damage.
Africa
Wary Rwandans choose strongman Paul Kagame – and peace – over democracy
Stability and an economic boom have made the president the overwhelming favourite to be re-elected next week, but the opposition has been brutally silenced
Matteo Fagotto
The Observer, Sunday 1 August 2010
It’s a hot afternoon in the southern rural district of Nyaruguru. On a dusty clearing overlooked by a hill already swarming with people, tens of thousands of supporters have been gathering since early morning to get a glimpse of their hero. Among them are peasants, pregnant women and toddlers, all wearing the red-white-and-blue T-shirts of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and dancing to the rhythm of a famous local singer, Masamba Intore. Suddenly a convoy of black cars appears in the distance. The crowd explodes in cheers of joy when a tall, slender figure slowly makes his way to the podium. Ready for another mass celebration of his uncontested rule of this small African country, the president of Rwanda and former liberation fighter, Paul Kagame, finally appears, greeting his supporters.
Sudan to monitor movements of UN peacekeepers
Sudan says it has instructed UN peacekeepers in Darfur to inform Khartoum of all their travel plans.
The BBC 1 August 2010
Government spokesman Rabie Abdelati told the Reuters news agency that the UN had failed to keep the peace at refugee camps in the western region.Peacekeepers will now have their bags searched at airports, and will have to inform the Sudanese government before moving on roads, even within cities.
On Friday, the UN Security Council extended their mandate for a year.
According to the UN, an estimated 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur and more than 2.6 million displaced since ethnic rebels took up arms in 2003.