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The Opinion Pages | EDITORIAL
Preparing for Warfare in Cyberspace
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD - APRIL 28, 2015
Photo
The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center in Arlington, Va. Credit Evan Vucci/Associated Press
The Pentagon’s new 33-page cybersecurity strategy is an important evolution in how America proposes to address a top national security threat. It is intended to warn adversaries — especially China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — that the United States is prepared to retaliate, if necessary, against cyberattacks and is developing the weapons to do so.
As The Times recently reported, Russian hackers swept up some of President Obama’s email correspondence last year. Although the breach apparently affected only the White House’s unclassified computers, it was more intrusive and worrisome than publicly acknowledged and is a chilling example of how determined adversaries can penetrate the government system.
The United States’ cybersecurity efforts have typically focused on defending computer networks against hackers, criminals and foreign governments. Playing defense is still important, and the Obama administration has started to push Silicon Valley’s software companies to join in that fight. But the focus has shifted to developing the malware and other technologies that would give the United States offensive weapons should circumstances require disrupting an adversary’s network.
The strategy document provides some overdue transparency about a military program that is expected to increase to 6,200 workers in a few years and costs billions of dollars annually. Officials apparently hope talking more openly about America’s plans will deter adversaries who view cyberattacks as a cheap way to gather intelligence from more destructive operations.
The cyberthreat is “increasing in severity and sophistication,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said last week. Recent attacks — Russian intrusions against the Pentagon, State Department and White House as well as North Korea’s 2014 attack on Sony Pictures — have driven home that point. One worry is that investing in offensive tools and planning could militarize cyberspace and create a new front for conflict. More than a dozen other countries are making similar investments.
The new strategy, though overly broad in some of its language, begins to lay out the conditions under which the United States would use cyberweapons. Detecting and fending off routine attacks on American assets, like theft of intellectual property, would be the responsibility of private companies, which control 90 percent of the cybernetworks. In complex cases, the Department of Homeland Security would be responsible for detecting attacks and helping the private sector defend against them.
Continue reading the main story
RECENT COMMENTS
Denise Brown 2 minutes ago
If our hardware (and software) is manufactured overseas, in a country that spies on the United States, then isn't THAT a security concern? ...
Denise Brown 2 minutes ago
Good idea to plan ahead. That's something that seems to have been missing in our country for a very long time.
Hod 2 minutes ago
Solution might be something like Baruch plan" for cyberspace? ;-)http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Plan
SEE ALL COMMENTS WRITE A COMMENT
The government would have a “limited and specific role” in defending against the most serious attacks (estimated at about 2 percent of all attacks), described as involving “loss of life, significant damage to property, serious adverse U.S. foreign policy consequences or serious economic impact on the United States.”
CONTINUE READING THE MAIN STORY
88
COMMENTS
At first, the government would use network defenses, and law enforcement agencies like the F.B.I. would respond. Then, if ordered by the president, the military could conduct operations to counter “an imminent or ongoing attack against the U.S. homeland or U.S. interests in cyberspace.”
It is essential that the laws of armed conflict that govern conventional warfare, which call for proportional response and reducing harm to civilians, are followed in any offensive cyberoperations. With so many government agencies involved in cybersecurity — the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, the F.B.I. and the Pentagon — the potential for turf fights and duplication is high.
The new strategy is the latest evidence that President Obama, having given up on Congress, is putting together his own response to the challenge. Since this is a global issue, still needed are international understandings about what constitutes cyberaggression and how governments should respond.
A new strategy begins to lay out the conditions under which America would use cyberweapons.
Note: The author of these lines presented the Lennart Meri lecture to this conference via Skype. It was entitled “Restoring or Renewing the Post-1991 Order: What are the Prospects?” I will be happy to send a copy to anyone who requests one by writing me at <a href="mailto:paul.goble@gmail.com">paul.goble@gmail.com</a>.
Preparing for Warfare in Cyberspace
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD - APRIL 28, 2015
Photo
The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center in Arlington, Va. Credit Evan Vucci/Associated Press
The Pentagon’s new 33-page cybersecurity strategy is an important evolution in how America proposes to address a top national security threat. It is intended to warn adversaries — especially China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — that the United States is prepared to retaliate, if necessary, against cyberattacks and is developing the weapons to do so.
As The Times recently reported, Russian hackers swept up some of President Obama’s email correspondence last year. Although the breach apparently affected only the White House’s unclassified computers, it was more intrusive and worrisome than publicly acknowledged and is a chilling example of how determined adversaries can penetrate the government system.
The United States’ cybersecurity efforts have typically focused on defending computer networks against hackers, criminals and foreign governments. Playing defense is still important, and the Obama administration has started to push Silicon Valley’s software companies to join in that fight. But the focus has shifted to developing the malware and other technologies that would give the United States offensive weapons should circumstances require disrupting an adversary’s network.
The strategy document provides some overdue transparency about a military program that is expected to increase to 6,200 workers in a few years and costs billions of dollars annually. Officials apparently hope talking more openly about America’s plans will deter adversaries who view cyberattacks as a cheap way to gather intelligence from more destructive operations.
The cyberthreat is “increasing in severity and sophistication,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said last week. Recent attacks — Russian intrusions against the Pentagon, State Department and White House as well as North Korea’s 2014 attack on Sony Pictures — have driven home that point. One worry is that investing in offensive tools and planning could militarize cyberspace and create a new front for conflict. More than a dozen other countries are making similar investments.
The new strategy, though overly broad in some of its language, begins to lay out the conditions under which the United States would use cyberweapons. Detecting and fending off routine attacks on American assets, like theft of intellectual property, would be the responsibility of private companies, which control 90 percent of the cybernetworks. In complex cases, the Department of Homeland Security would be responsible for detecting attacks and helping the private sector defend against them.
Continue reading the main story
RECENT COMMENTS
Denise Brown 2 minutes ago
If our hardware (and software) is manufactured overseas, in a country that spies on the United States, then isn't THAT a security concern? ...
Denise Brown 2 minutes ago
Good idea to plan ahead. That's something that seems to have been missing in our country for a very long time.
Hod 2 minutes ago
Solution might be something like Baruch plan" for cyberspace? ;-)http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Plan
SEE ALL COMMENTS WRITE A COMMENT
The government would have a “limited and specific role” in defending against the most serious attacks (estimated at about 2 percent of all attacks), described as involving “loss of life, significant damage to property, serious adverse U.S. foreign policy consequences or serious economic impact on the United States.”
CONTINUE READING THE MAIN STORY
88
COMMENTS
At first, the government would use network defenses, and law enforcement agencies like the F.B.I. would respond. Then, if ordered by the president, the military could conduct operations to counter “an imminent or ongoing attack against the U.S. homeland or U.S. interests in cyberspace.”
It is essential that the laws of armed conflict that govern conventional warfare, which call for proportional response and reducing harm to civilians, are followed in any offensive cyberoperations. With so many government agencies involved in cybersecurity — the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, the F.B.I. and the Pentagon — the potential for turf fights and duplication is high.
The new strategy is the latest evidence that President Obama, having given up on Congress, is putting together his own response to the challenge. Since this is a global issue, still needed are international understandings about what constitutes cyberaggression and how governments should respond.
Preparing for Warfare in Cyberspaceby By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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Pro-Russian separatist soldiers close off a road in Donetsk Photo: AFP
Staunton, April 27 – Yesterday, Yuri Lutsenko, the leader of the Poroshenko Bloc in the Verkhova Rada, said that the probability of the renewal of military actions in eastern Ukraine was “more than 80 percent,” a statement that underscores analyst Andrey Illarionov’s argument in Tallinn that “there is no non-military solution” for the war now going on in Ukraine.
Speaking on Inter television, Lutsenko said that pro-Moscow forces in eastern Ukraine were now at the highest level of readiness for an attack they had ever been since Vladimir Putin launched his intervention in Ukraine and that it seems clear that “the fighters are preparing for an attack.”
Meanwhile, speaking at the Lennart Meri Conference in the Estonian capital, Illarionov argued that the war in Ukraine will end only as the result of the use of force: either more by Russia or by Ukraine backed by the West.
In support of his argument, the Russian analyst pointed to the very different outcomes in Putin’s war against Georgia in 2008 and his current aggression against Ukraine. In August 2008, US President George W. Bush moved American forces toward Georgia, a step that “helped stop the Georgian war.”
But, he continued, “President Barack Obama on February 27-28, 2014, excluded the use of force when Russia began the seizure of Crimea.” That constituted “a clear signal” to Putin that the West would not act and that he could continue to pursue with impunity his aggression against Ukraine more generally.
According to Illarionov, “Putin is seeking to restore the war established in 1945 in Yalta and Potsdam,” a world in which the big powers can “ignore small states” and act according to a system in which whatever any one of the great powers can act in the same way that another great power does.
“If the US does something,” in this view, “then Russia immediately acquires the right to do the same thing. If the US uses military force, Russia can use it as well. If the West recognizes Kosovo, then Russia gains the right to recognize Abkhazia and South Osetia” – and so on, Illarionov suggests.
In his remarks, the Russian analyst made two additional points worthy of note. On the one hand, he said, “Putin is dividing Europe in two: the Anglo-Saxon countries and the so-called front line states (the Baltics, Romania and Poland) who are enemies which must be subordinated, and the countries of continental Europe who are friends.”
And on the other hand, Illarionov said, “there is no other leader who has been using so any different means” to achieve his ends: military, economic, information, terrorist and so on. Putin has combined them all and with great success: By offering deals to the Europeans, he has succeeded in creating a situation in which almost no one talks about Crimea anymore.
In today’s Yezhednevny zhurnal, Aleksandr Golts suggests that the discussions at the Lennart Meri Conference may point to dramatic changes in the West’s response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, changes that Moscow has brought on itself by its actions and will have no one but itself to blame.
The Russian analyst noted that at the conference there were repeated calls for NATO to immediately make Ukraine a member of the alliance as “the only chance to stop Russian aggression.” Given that Moscow moved in Ukraine to prevent that from happening, “this nightmare” of the Kremlin is “becoming a reality.”
And that is hardly the only place where the participants in the Lennart Meri Conference pointed to more changes ahead. NATO has already agreed to put NATO forces in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on a rotating basis. At the conference, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves argued that having permanent NATO bases there should follow.
Those who think that the NATO-Russia treaty precludes this, Ilves said, are misinterpreting that agreement. And Golts said that he “suspects that the time when the alliance will agree” with President Ilves’ interpretation is “not far distant,” another way in which Moscow has produced by its actions exactly what it said it was taking them to prevent.
“Finally,” Golts writes, “in the course of the conference were expressed some truly revolutionary ideas. For example, about depriving the permanent members of the UN Security Council of a veto when they are involved in direct aggression and thus to create the possibility for their punishment.”
“Of course,” the Moscow author says, “it is quite easy to ignore all that was said at the conference in Tallinn. [NB: He spelled the Estonian capital with two N’s, not one, as Russians typically do.] What won’t these arrant Russophobes from the Baltics say! Only I suspect,” Golts continues, “this is the first attempt to respond to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.” [NB: Here he uses “na” as Putin prefers rather than “v” as Ukrainians do.]
Note: The author of these lines presented the Lennart Meri lecture to this conference via Skype. It was entitled “Restoring or Renewing the Post-1991 Order: What are the Prospects?” I will be happy to send a copy to anyone who requests one by writing me at <a href="mailto:paul.goble@gmail.com">paul.goble@gmail.com</a>.
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Curfew, state of emergency declared, National Guard deployed; "I am extremely disappointed in this beautiful city"
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President says the people responsible for violence and destruction in Baltimore should be treated as criminals
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Monday that his country will be able to meet the conditions to apply for European Union membership within five years, while European Union officials rejected his request call for an EU peace-keeping mission to eastern Ukraine, where a year of fighting between government and Russia-backed separatist forces has killed more than 6,100 people.
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Monday at a Joint Press Conference at the White House with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, President Barack Obama addressed the riots in Baltimore.
The president said, “We have seen too many instances of what appears to be police officers interacting with individuals, primarily African-American, often poor, in ways that raise trouble and questions. And it comes up it seems like once a week now. Once every couple of weeks. So I think it’s understandable why the leaders of civil rights organizations, but more importantly moms and dads across the country, might start saying this is a crisis. What I’d say is this is a slow rolling crisis that’s been going on a long time. This is not new. We shouldn’t pretend it’s new.”
Obama continued, “I think it’s going to be important for organizations like the Fraternal Order of Police and other police unions and organizations to acknowledge that this is not good for police. We have to own up to the fact there’s going to be problems here like every other occupation. There’s bad politicians who are corrupt. There are folks in the business community or on Wall Street that don’t do the right thing. Well, there are police that aren’t doing the right thing. Rather than close ranks, what we’ve seen are thoughtful police chiefs and commissioners recognize they’ve got to get their arms around this thing and work together with the community to solve the problem.”
He added, “I think there are police departments that have to do some soul searching. I think there are communities that have to do soul searching. I think we as a country have to do some soul searching. This is not new. It’s been going on decades. Without making excuses for criminal activities taking place, we also know you have impoverished communities stripped away from opportunity—where children are born into poverty. They’ve got parents, often because of substance abuse problems or incarceration or lack of education, themselves can’t do right by their kids. It’s more likely those kids end up in jail or dead than they go to college in communities where there are no fathers who can provide guidance to young men. Communities that—where there’s no investment and manufacturing has been stripped away and drugs have flooded the community and drug industry ends up being the primary employer for a lot of folks.”
“In those environments, if we think we’re going to send police to do the dirty work of containing the problems that arise there without a nation and society saying what can we do to change those communities to help lift up communities and give those kids opportunity, then we’re not going to solve this problem. We’ll go through the same cycles of periodic conflicts between the police and communities and occasional riots in the streets, and everybody will feign concern until it goes away. Then we’ll go about our business as usual.”
“But if we really want to solve the problem, if our society really wanted to solve the problem, we could,” he said. “It’s just it would require everybody saying this is important. This is significant, and that we don’t just pay attention to communities when a CVS burns. We don’t just pay attention when a young man gets shot or has his spine snapped. We’re paying attention all the time because we consider those kids our kids and think they’re important.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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Marc Lamont Hill stated on MSNBC, “There shouldn’t be calm tonight. I think there can be resistance to oppression, and when resistance occurs, you can’t circumscribe resistance.” He added that the riots should be called “uprisings. The city is not burning because of those protesters. The city is burning because the police killed Freddie Gray.” Sally Kohn of CNN tweeted, “Looting is a real shame. But FAR MORE shameful is pattern of police violence against black community! Perspective, people. #BaltimoreRising.”
Baltimore’s riots have prompted a state of emergency in the city, as well as the calling of the National Guard. But the riots should also demonstrate conclusively that leftist myths about what drives race riots are just that: myths. It turns out that all the excuses given for the riots in Ferguson simply do not apply to the situation in Baltimore.
The “White Police” Myth. As rioters tore up Ferguson last year in the aftermath of the justifiable shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson, media members rushed to explain that the disproportionate whiteness of the police force was to blame. Media outlet after media outlet aftermedia outlet after media outlet blamed the unrest on the failure of the police department to reflect the community. But as of 2010, “Half of the sworn command staff are minorities,” according to theBaltimore Sun. And in Baltimore County, 55 percent of new applicants to the police department are minority, a number the police department has been attempting to boost. Racially reflecting the community, in other words, doesn’t seem to be helping.
The “Evil Police Chief” Myth. In Ferguson, the media targeted as its chosen villain Chief Thomas Jackson, who is white. After the Department of Justice found that the Ferguson Police Department had serious racial problems thanks in part to its disproportionate whiteness, Jackson stepped down. Media found Jackson particularly galling because Jackson released footage of Michael Brown strong-arm robbing a convenience store minutes before his confrontation with Wilson. It is difficult to blame the riots in Baltimore on similar circumstances. The police chief, Anthony Batts, who is black, said in February that crime should be addressed “through social justice as a whole,” and added that “Leadership should be focused not just on crime-fighting, but tackling racism.” He then stated, “When I go to Baltimore, on the East Coast, I’m dealing with 1950s-level black-and-white racism.”
The “Evil Mayor” Myth. As Ferguson burned, media focused in on Ferguson Mayor James Knowles, a white man. They suggested that Knowles didn’t understand his own community thanks to his race, exacerbating racial tensions. He’s currently at risk of recall. The same is not true in Baltimore, where Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake runs the show. Rawlings-Blake, who is black, said a month ago, “To this day, if I go out with a mixed crowd, people are automatically suspicious, questioning: ‘How do you know this person?’ We have a long way to go…Baltimore, like many other cities, still faces the challenges of racism.” As the riots spun out of control, she infamously commented, “It’s a very delicate balancing act, because, while we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.” That didn’t stop the riots.
The “Disproportionate White Power Structure Myth.” The nation watched the recent local elections in Ferguson, Missouri, of the City Council with baited breath. That’s because the media suggested that the power structure in Ferguson, being disproportionately white, had somehow contributed to shadowy racism within the city. The Washington Post complained, “while Ferguson is 67 percent black, five of the six council members and the mayor are all white.” Not so in Baltimore, where the nine of the 15 council members are black. The mayor is black. The police chief is black. Baltimore burns anyway.
The “Not Enough Government” Myth. In Ferguson, the media and governmental actors suggested that lack of governmental intervention led to the riots. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote an open letter in December 2014 suggesting just that:
We should take away from Ferguson that we need a conversation to rebuild those relationships, throughout the country, and that need is urgent. It needs to involve everyone – our young people, our parents, our schools, our faith communities, our government officials, and the police. It needs to happen now.
Lack of government is not the problem in Baltimore. Every single member of the Baltimore City Council is a Democrat. All 15 of them. The mayor is a Democrat. Baltimore has not had a Republican mayor since 1967. The tax rates in Baltimore are astronomical; the city carries the fourth highest tax rate of any city in the nation. The poverty rate within the city is nearly 25 percent. Households in Baltimore earn approximately 56 percent of the overall state average. Crime rates, of course, are out of control.
Modern race riots do not occur because of the supposed white superstructure or a legacy of governmental underservice. They occur because valueless rioters act in valueless ways. Baltimore is evidence that glossing over lack of values with leftist pabulum about social justice doesn’t stop cities from burning.
Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the new book, The People vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against The Obama Administration (Threshold Editions, June 10, 2014). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.
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They left Iran unwillingly, often in a hurry. It was for the best for these refugees. Iran is a difficult place to be gay or lesbian.
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Keep up-to-date with the latest news, subscribe here: http://bit.ly/AFP-subscribe Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday called on Europe and the West to stay united to help stabilize...
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KIEV (Reuters) - Russian authorities have seized the assets of a confectionery factory owned by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the Russian city of Lipetsk in order to block their sale, parent company Roshen said in a statement on Tuesday.
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Keep up-to-date with the latest news, subscribe here: http://bit.ly/AFP-subscribe Israel continued repatriating its nationals from quake-hit Nepal Tuesday, including groups of babies born...
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There's no place on Earth where East and West, cardinal directions, don't meet.But, over the centuries, East and West — particularly the East in the minds of people in the West — have become terms loaded with cultural freight. For a long time in the European imagination, the divide between these spheres centered on where Christendom ended and the lands of Islam began. The history of colonialism both reinforced and reconfigured these divides.Read full article >>
Ukraine’s leaders believe Russia is preparing a broad attack on their country, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said.
Spain moves to raise minimum marriage age to 16by Ashifa Kassam in Madrid
New legislation, which would raise minimum age of marriage from 14, to be debated by senate
Lawmakers in Spain are putting the final touches to legislation to raise the minimum age for marriage from 14 to 16, after children’s advocates expressed concerns that the current law leaves children vulnerable to forced marriages and exploitation.
The new legislation, approved by a parliamentary justice commission on Tuesday, will now go to the senate where it is expected to be debated next week.
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An Israeli Boeing-747 returned from Nepal to Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, and among its 229 passengers were 15 Israeli babies, all born within the last six weeks to surrogate mothers in Nepal.
Some of the babies were with their Israeli parents and others were cared for by Israeli passengers. None of the surrogate mothers were allowed to travel.
The infants’ arrival completed the evacuation of 26 surrogate Israeli babies from Nepal, where a devastating earthquake on Saturday killed more than 4,000. The rescue process, coupled with widely published photos of the newborns being cradled by Israeli medics on the Tel Aviv tarmac, has thrust Israel’s reliance on Nepalese surrogates into the spotlight, revealing a little known link between Nepal and Israel and starting a debate here about the ethics of international surrogacy.
Only heterosexual couples can easily employ surrogate mothers in Israel. Gay couples and single parents tend to look abroad to bear children with surrogates. For many years, India — where costs are low but the standard of medical care is generally high — was the preferred surrogacy option for Israelis, but a change to the law there in 2013 prevented gay men and couples who had been married for less than two years from engaging surrogate mothers. The shift in the law caught many Israelis midway through the surrogacy process. The Indian women travelled to Nepal to give birth and the Israeli surrogacy agencies then switched their operations from India to Nepal.
The first Israeli baby was born to a surrogate mother in Nepal in January 2014, and it is now the destination of choice for Israelis who do not have access to surrogacy in Israel. Many Asian and European countries ban commercial surrogacy, and it can cost up to $150,000 in the United States and Canada but only $30,000 in Nepal.
The first Israeli baby was born to a surrogate mother in Nepal in January 2014, and it is now the destination of choice for Israelis who do not have access to surrogacy in Israel. Many Asian and European countries ban commercial surrogacy, and it can cost up to $150,000 in the United States and Canada but only $30,000 in Nepal.
But while the Israeli government scrambled to evacuate the 26 Israeli newborns and their Israeli parents from Nepal, a further 100 women, some Nepalese, some Indian, are still carrying babies for Israelis. The Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said he would allow the most heavily pregnant to be flown to Israel to give birth and outgoing Interior Minister Gilad Erdan promised to remove immigration hurdles for the rest. “We have decided to hold off on all the procedures, even if it causes a problem with the Nepalese or Indian governments, so as to bring over the babies as soon as possible,” Israeli news sources quoted him as saying on Monday.
The ordeal of the infants and their surrogates has dominated the news coverage of the quake here, with some pundits criticizing the use of government funds to send a rescue mission, and others demanding that Israel reevaluate its own surrogacy laws in the wake of the crisis. An opinion piece in the Haaretz newspaper went one step further, accusing the Israeli public of showing selective empathy by focusing only on the newborn infants, and not the women who had carried them.
“How can it be that none of the human interest stories or compassion-filled posts mentioned these women, who came from a difficult socioeconomic background … to rent their wombs … who now, like the babies they’ve just had, are also stuck in the disaster zone?” writer Alon-Lee Green asked.
Officials on Tuesday said they were continuing to explore options for evacuating the pregnant women. Meanwhile, a delegation from the Red Star of David, Israel’s national emergency medical response organization, remained on the ground in Katmandu, where Israel has set up a field hospital.
Yonatan Yagodovsky, director of the Red Star of David’s international department, said that in addition to operating the field hospital and assisting local doctors, the evacuation of the newborn children had been his organization’s top priority. On Tuesday, all of the infants underwent medical examinations in Israel, and two remained hospitalized.
The future of Israeli surrogacy in Nepal remains up in the air. “The main concern right now is lack of clean water and things like that,” said Dana Magdassi, founder of Israel’s Lotus Surrogacy Agency. “I’m not going to send someone in for treatment right now, but in one or two months, I think we can definitely reconsider.”
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- As National Guard troops responded to rioting in Baltimore, President Barack Obama said Tuesday there have been too many troubling police interactions with black citizens across American in what he called "a slow-rolling crisis." But he said there was no excuse for rioters to engage in senseless violence....
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Eight drug convicts, including two Australians, have been executed by firing squad in Indonesia, according to local media.
Iranian patrol vessels fired warning shots across the bridge of the Marshall Islands-flagged cargo vessel the Maersk Tigris Tuesday morning and seized it for trespassing in territorial waters.
How Iran's supreme leader became Instagram video supremoby Saeed Kamali Dehghan
Many Iranian users were puzzled as to how Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was able to post videos exceeding the maximum 15-second time limit. Here’s why
Many Iranian users are puzzled – how does Iran’s supreme leader manage to post videos exceeding the maximum 15 seconds on Instagram?
His videos – often longer than a minute – are not the usual Instagram fare of artfully shot scenes of the 21st century, but excerpts from the 75-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speeches on topics such as deteriorating relations with Saudi Arabia and the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme.
Continue reading... Wall Street Journal |
The Failures of Baltimore
Wall Street Journal After peaceful protests in Baltimore began giving way to riots, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake held a Saturday press conference, where she explained her thinking about law-enforcement tactics. “I work with the police and instructed them to do everything ... Mayor Reed weighs in on Baltimore protests; defends Rawlings-BlakeAtlanta Journal Constitution Baltimore Riots 'Not Going to Happen Tonight,' Governor SaysABC News Pa. Troopers May Deploy to Baltimore; No Request Yet For Philadelphia CopsCBS Local Salon -CNN -TheBlaze.com all 166 news articles » |
Troops roll in to Baltimore as Obama urges US to start 'soul-searching'by Jon Swaine, Paul Lewis and Oliver Laughland in Baltimore
- City poised for military-enforced lockdown to prevent further rioting
- Obama admits: ‘There are some police who aren’t doing the right thing’
The city of Baltimore was poised for military-enforced lockdown on Tuesday in an effort to prevent another night of rioting over the death of a young black man, as President Obama urged the US to begin “soul-searching” over its growing crisis in race and policing.
Related: Obama calls for 'soul-searching' over police violence after riots in Baltimore - live updates
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Baltimore mayor under pressure after 'space to destroy' remark
Continue reading... Telegraph.co.uk |
James Holmes comes face to face with brain damaged Colorado cinema ...
Telegraph.co.uk A woman who was nine-months pregnant at the time of the Colorado cinema massacre told how she fled the mayhem to save her unborn child after her husband was shot in the head. Katie Medley told her gravely wounded husband, "I love you" before ... and more » |
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Barack Obama discusses the unrest in Baltimore on Monday following the funeral of Freddie Gray, who died after suffering a spinal injury in police custody. Obama made his comments during a joint news conference with the Japanese prime minister on Tuesday. In a monologue that lasted more than 15 minutes, the president said the country at large bore
responsibility for the violent spectacle in Baltimore, adding that if society wants to solve the problem, everybody would need to acknowledge the issue as vitally important Continue reading...
responsibility for the violent spectacle in Baltimore, adding that if society wants to solve the problem, everybody would need to acknowledge the issue as vitally important Continue reading...
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Justice Ministry has canceled the legal registration of the Party of Progress, the ministry said on Tuesday, blocking the group's plan to run for parliament in alliance with another anti-Kremlin party.
Plaintiffs in a potentially historic court battle over gay marriage gathered on the steps of the supreme court on Tuesday, after the court heard oral arguments. They were joined by a lively crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people, with those favouring legalised gay marriage outnumbering those opposed, outside the white marble courthouse where the justices had heard two and a half hours of arguments in the landmark case, known as Obergefell v Hodges Continue reading...
Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were killed by an Indonesian firing squad shortly after midnight (6pm BST), local media is reporting.
Dajey Petros who blogs at Ukraine@War has highlighted photos taken yesterday by Alexander Ermochenko for the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) showing 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled guns on the streets of Donetsk.
 Newsweek |
Nuclear Power is Russia's New Weapon of Choice
Newsweek Analysis of recent deals secured by Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom reveals a costly drive by Moscow to lock countries including Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and ... and more » |
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Earlier today we reported on our Ukraine Live blog that a Russian military camp near the village of Kuzminka in the Rostov region, used as a staging ground for forces entering Ukraine, was rocked this morning by a series of powerful blasts.
Поможет ли Запад Украине материально? by Радио Свобода
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Каковы основные стратегии экономической, политической и идеологической помощи международного сообщества...
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From: Радио Свобода
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EU Calls for More Reforms in Ukraineby webdesk@voanews.com (Lisa Bryant)
Ukraine’s military reported Tuesday pro-Russia separatist rebels fired rockets on a government-held town in eastern Ukraine, in what appeared to be the latest violation of a shaky ceasefire. The news came just hours after the Ukrainian government and the European Union held their first formal summit in almost a year. Speaking at an investors’ conference in Kyiv that followed the talks, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko urged Western nations to remain united behind Ukraine. “We are still under the threat of war. That is a reality. Every single moment the war can be started. But we are set to make a breakthrough. There is no excuse for hesitation, or reluctance or retreat,” said Poroshenko. The European Union has promised humanitarian and other support for Ukraine. That includes $2 billion in financial assistance, along with another $77 million to help clean up the area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But the European Union has not responded to Ukraine’s call to deploy peacekeepers in the eastern part of the country. At the Kyiv summit, European Council President Donald Tusk said that for now, Brussels will only send a civilian mission to assess the security needs in the area. The EU is also pushing Ukraine’s government to speed up reforms. Kyiv has qualified to receive billions of dollars in international credit in return for cutting spending, increasing decentralization and cracking down on corruption. Jean-Claude Juncker, who currently heads the European Commission, the EU executive arm, said more work is needed. “Reform must continue. It must be credible. It must be swift, it must be sustained. You keep reforming and we keep supporting. That is the contract we make with you,” said Juncker. Ukraine last year signed an association agreement with the European Union which lays out a political and economic relationship with the 28-member block. Poroshenko says he believes his country will be able to meet EU membership conditions within five years.
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The Pentagon says Iranian forces have boarded a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship in the Persian Gulf after patrol boats fired warning shots across its bow and ordered it deeper into Iranian waters as it was traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
The controversial ex-Top Gear star is being eyed for the role of ‘a foreigner’ in new film Kot v sapogakh, aka Puss in Boots
After his stint on Top Gear ended earlier this year, Jeremy Clarkson has now received an offer to star in a new Russian film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The star is being targeted for a role in comedy Kot v Sapogakh, which translates as Puss in Boots. The film is about a young man who has been turned into a cat.
Continue reading...
 Дни.Ру |
МИД РФ сделал представление послу Польши из-за мотопробега «На Берлин!»
ИА REGNUM Польскому послу в Москве сделано представление по поводу отказа Варшавы дать разрешение на проведение мотопробега, посвященного 70-летию Победы в Великой Отечественной войне. Об этом во вторник, 28 апреля, сообщила пресс-служба МИД РФ. МИД сделал представление послу Польши из-за ситуации с «Ночными волками»РБК Послу Польши в РФ сделали представление из-за отказа пропустить «Ночных волков»НТВ.ru Послу Польши в РФ сделано представление по поводу отказа в мотопробегеРИА Новости Вести.Ru -Интерфакс -РЕН ТВ Все похожие статьи: 46 » |
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Putin ‘Repeating All Mistakes’ of 2000 Amnesty and Making New Ones as Well, Experts Sayby paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, April 28 – The Victory Day amnesty Vladimir Putin has promised “repeats all the mistakes of an analogous measure of 15 years ago, when the godfathers of organized crime along with repeat rapists and murders were released from prison” on an unsuspecting population, according to “Versia” journalist Ruslan Gorevoy and the experts he spoke with.
Indeed, they suggest that the poorly drafted amnesty plan coming from the Kremlin opens the way not only to massive corruption within the penal system but also could lead to the release of terrorists, pedophiles and cannibals as well, raising the question “haven’t we learned anything from our mistakes?” (versia.ru/po-amnistii-v-chest-70-letiya-pobedy-na-volyu-mogut-vyjti-lyudoedy-nasilniki-i-ubijcy).
The current amnesty like its predecessor in 2000 releases those who are suffering from cancer or tuberculosis, who have medical decorations, or the status of invalids. “Is this humane?” Gorevoy asks, suggesting that no one should “hurry to agree” given that could allow those guilty of the most heinous crimes to go free if they lack a leg, an arm, or can get medical certification.
This Putin amnesty, like its predecessor, features bold declarations that such things won’t happen, but it contains no legally enforceable language to prevent that – and in fact, Gorevoy suggests, it opens new possibilities for various kinds of corruption as those inside prisons work to get certified as having conditions allowing for their release.
Given that the heads of jails and camps will have the right to sign off on such certificates, Vladimir Osechkin, a human rights activist, says, this virtually guarantees that there will be “a trading in amnesties,” something that will involve exactly the kind of corruption that the criminals and their jailors won’t be able to resist.
One large group that is certain to get out under this amnesty, Eva Merkacheva, a member of Moscow’s public observer commission, will be siloviki who have been convicted for exceeding their authority by beating or killing those under arrest in order to extract confessions. She says that in her view, the current amnesty is a sell-out to the siloviki “lobby.”
But what will undoubtedly attract attention is that the current amnesty as drafted does nothing to prevent the release of those guilty of cannibalism, pedophilia and other sex crimes – even those who gained widespread attention because of the seriousness of these offenses, Gorevoy says.
Moreover, because the amnesty in 2000, Putin’s first, largely recapitulated all the mistakes of the last Soviet-era amnesty in 1987, when “more than 60,000 prisoners, three quarters of whom were bandits, were turned loose on the streets,” one result is certain beyond all others: many of those released will soon be back behind bars for new crimes against society.
In 1990, for example, at least 16,000 of the 60,000 released three years earlier were again in penal institutions, a pattern that was repeated in 2000 and is likely to be repeated, following a new outburst of crime as a result of Putin’s incautious actions in the coming years.
Two experts with whom Gorevoy spoke are disturbed by what is happening. Valery Borshchyov, a rights activist with the Moscow Helsinki Group, says that the draft amnesty plan this time around is “qualitatively” different from the two most recent mass amnesties “and not for the better” given that the new measure does not define key terms and thus invites abuse.
Pavel Krasheninnikov, chairman of the Duma committee on civil, criminal, arbitrage and procedural legislation, agrees, saying that the proposed amnesty could release as few as 60,000 or lead to the release or dropping of criminal charges against as many as 350,000 to 400,000, with all the negative consequences that could involve.
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The veteran French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen could face a formal investigation for allegedly holding more than €2m (£1.43m) – including €1.7m in gold – in a Swiss bank account.
Riga Summit Likely To Disappoint Georgia, Moldova, Ukraineby noreply@rferl.org (Rikard Jozwiak)
The latest draft of the Eastern Partnership declaration prepared for the bloc's Riga summit next month contains little good news for EU hopefuls Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, and highlights the shrinking ambitions of the European Union in its eastern neighborhood.
The latest OSCE report (dated April 27 at 19:30 Kiev time) stresses something we reported earlier — armor and heavy artillery belonging to Russian-backed separatists is within the demarcation zone with increasing frequency, Ukraine is also using heavy artillery (Ukraine maintains they’re only returning fire) and the security situation near Donetsk is deteriorating…
Спасатели Береговой охраны США by Голос Америки
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Попадают туда только сильнейшие, как телом, так и духом Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/us-coast-guard/2739580.html.
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Ограничение доллара в России? by Голос Америки
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Комментарий Сергея Алексашенко Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/aleksashenko-on-possible-dollar-limitations/2739579.html.
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Влияние организации в последнее время неуклонно растет Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/arctic-counsil/2739583.html.
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Report claims National Front founder stashed €2m in gold bars and coins in Switzerland
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