IS bomb on Russia plane would herald new phase in conflictby Zeina Karam | AP
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Picasso blue period portrait breaks auction record - BBC News:
The portrait is of a nude unnamed woman. Gommeuse, which translates into English as 'gummy' was a sexually charged slang word of the time for cafe-concert singers and their songs
Pictures of the day: 6 November 2015 by Telegraph Staff:
Footballers in a wall
At this stage, there is no hard evidence. But reports from the U.S. and Britain suggesting an Islamic State group bomb may have caused the Russian plane crash in Egypt are raising the alarm among experts, who say such an act would be a frightening change in tactics by the extremist group.
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Experts dismiss Carson's belief pyramids used to store grainby By JESSE J. HOLLAND and BILL BARROW
MIAMI (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Thursday stood by his belief that Egypt's great pyramids were built by the biblical figure Joseph to store grain, an assertion dismissed by experts who say it's accepted science they were tombs for pharaohs....
The hacktivist group Anonymous releases details of alleged sympathisers of the Ku Klux Klan.
 CNN |
Suspicion of terror in Russian jet crash raises questions for Obama
CNN Washington (CNN) Indications that ISIS or an affiliated terror group took down a Russian airliner over Egypt don't just raise the possibility of one of the worst terror attacks since September 11, 2001. They also represent a possible turning point in ... A Syria-First Strategy for Defeating ISISThe Atlantic all 137 news articles » |
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday it was increasingly likely a bomb brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt with the loss of 224 lives, and U.S. President Barack Obama said Washington was taking that possibility "very seriously".
President Obama says the U.S. is taking ‘very seriously’ the possibility that a bomb brought down the Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
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Netanyahu visit to U.S. next week will instead focus on what steps can be taken in the absence of talks.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- A man who flew a gyrocopter through some of America's most restricted airspace before landing outside the U.S. Capitol earlier this year will plead guilty to a felony in connection with the incident, his lawyer says....
The Pentagon’s program to train moderate Syrians to combat ISIS cost millions per fighter, according to a new report.
USA Today, citing interviews and spending figures obtained by the paper, reports the Pentagon’s program to train Syrian rebels spent $2 million dollars per fighter trained. The training program was suspended last month, but not before the U.S. government spent roughly $384 million on the initiative. The U.S. had planned to spend $500 million on the program in 2015, which it said would graduate 3,000 trained forces this year and 5,000 every year following. 180 Syrians ultimately came out of the program, of which 145 remain, according to USA Today, and only 95 fighters are currently in Syria.
The Pentagon disputes the $2 million figure, saying each fighter only cost $30,000, and argues the majority of funds were used for equipment and arms, some of which is still in storage. “Our investment in the Syria train and equip program should not be viewed purely in fiscal terms,” a spokesperson told the paper.
Read more at USA Today.
ONBOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT, South China Sea (Reuters) - As soon as the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen breached 12-nautical-mile territorial limits around one of China's man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea last week, a Chinese warship shadowing its movements began demanding answers.
World Briefing: Pentagon Chief Raises China Concernsby THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter made a subtle jab at China on Thursday by flying onto an American aircraft carrier in the contested waters of the South China Sea.
NATO Chief Says West Must Counter Russian Military Buildupby support@pangea-cms.com (RFE/RL)
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said November 5 that the alliance must counter a Russian military buildup from the Baltic to the eastern Mediterranean which could enable Moscow to control key areas in a crisis.
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Chile Interior Ministry releases statement that poet, thought to have died of cancer, was probably killed by a "third party"
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Amid waning support for Jeb Bush's U.S. presidential bid, an upcoming biography of his father, former president George H.W. Bush, is attracting widespread media attention. Of particular note in the authorized biography by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham is the elder Bush's criticism of some of the key figures in his son's administration. Zlatica Hoke reports.
Originally published at - http://www.voanews.com/media/video/3041580.html
Originally published at - http://www.voanews.com/media/video/3041580.html
Italy is morally rotten, says lawyer of one-eyed former terrorist at the start of the biggest mobster trial in modern-day Rome
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart, Feridun Sinirlioglu, discussed the search for a political solution to the Syrian crisis on the phone, Russia's foreign ministry said on Friday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for more mutual trust and cooperation with Vietnam as the two communist neighbors seek to mend ties strained by maritime disputes.
 Washington Post |
Ben Carson's stories of violence in his past questioned
Washington Post It was the 1960s. Ben Carson, 14-year-old ninth grader, was growing up rough in Detroit. And, one fateful day, the future neurosurgeon and Republican presidential contender got very, very angry. The argument, like many among teenagers, was about ... Ben Carson Lashes Out at Media Over Questions About Violent ChildhoodABC News Carson: CNN thinks I'm a 'pathological liar'The Hill (blog) Ben Carson made up his tales of youthful violence, CNN suggestsThe Week Magazine WDIV Detroit-CNSNews.com-CNN all 156 news articles » |
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 euronews |
Syrian rebels recapture village in west: monitoring group
Reuters BEIRUTSyrian rebels recaptured a village and surrounding areas in the west of the country on Friday, consolidating significant advances made the day before at the expense of pro-government forces, a monitoring group said. Fighters from the Ahrar al ... Syrian rebels capture strategic town near HamaARA News all 115 news articles » |
Pictures of the day: 6 November 2015 by Telegraph Staff
Today: Footballers in a wall, bonfire night and Jennifer Lawrence
LONDON (Reuters) - It is wrong for Britain to rely on allies to protect it from Islamic State militants, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said, calling on lawmakers to consider the case for extending air strikes to Syria from Iraq.
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Chemical weapons experts have determined that mustard gas was used in a Syrian town where Islamic State insurgents were battling another group, according to a report by an international watchdog seen by Reuters.
Even as China has assumed the role of a global power, its one-note focus on economic relations has sometimes backfired.
The Telegraph has learnt that an Isil bomb plot was uncovered by British spies, as Obama says a bomb "certainly possible" - yet Russia and Egypt insist it is too early to say
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These cannabis farmers did not abide by appropriate health and safety regulations
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Marie picked up the phone and dialed the number the detective gave her 10 days before, on the night she was raped at knifepoint outside a friend's house in New Orleans. It was the first of many calls Marie would make in an 18-year ordeal of shoddy police work and numbingly slow prosecution to track down and convict her attacker....
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Air strikes by Russian warplanes on the Islamic State-held Syrian city of Raqqa killed 42 people earlier this week, including 27 civilians, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.
 Reuters |
Russian air strikes kill 42 in Islamic State-held Raqqa, Syria: monitor
Reuters BEIRUTAir strikes by Russian warplanes on the Islamic State-held Syrian city of Raqqa killed 42 people earlier this week, including 27 civilians, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday. Fifteen Islamic State fighters ... Syria's Two-Body ProblemHuffington Post Cliché of the Moment: 'Boots on the Ground'The Atlantic To save Syria in any form, Assad must goFox News The Globe and Mail -Wall Street Journal -VICE News -CNBC.com all 369 news articles » |
A protester in Taipei holds a poster with the merged faces of President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan and President Xi Jinping of China, ahead of Saturday's meeting.
 KPRC Houston |
Police: Chicago boy was target of gang shooting
KPRC Houston A 9-year-old boy killed in Chicago this week was "lured" into an alley and shot in a gang-related attack, authorities said. "Tyshawn Lee was murdered in probably the most abhorrent, cowardly, unfathomable crime that I've witnessed in 35 years of ... and more » |
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Campaigners began compiling the list of 1,000 individuals after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson last year.
DUBAI (Reuters) - With world powers divided over the cause of a Russian jetliner crash, much rests on forensic teams as they scour a sandy trail of wreckage almost a week after 224 people died in Egypt's worst air disaster.
Obama Sees No Progress on Israeli-Palestinian Peace Dealby webdesk@voanews.com (William Gallo)
President Barack Obama has determined Israeli and Palestinian leaders will make no significant progress toward peace by the time he leaves office in early 2017, according to White House officials. The statement comes as Obama prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Monday. The summit is seen as an attempt to mend diplomatic ties and deepen the U.S. military relationship with the Israeli government, which strongly opposed the Iran nuclear...
Picasso blue period portrait breaks auction record
- 2 hours ago
- From the section Entertainment & Arts
A new record for a blue period Picasso has been set at auction in New York.
La Gommeuse achieved the top price of $67.5m (£45m) at Sotheby's, as part of their Impressionist & Modern Art sale on Thursday.
And Van Gogh's atmospheric landscape, Paysage sous un ciel mouvemente, sold for $54m (£36m), helping to take the evening's total to $306.7m (£203m).
Simon Shaw, co-head of Impressionist and modern art worldwide, called it "a small sale that packed a real punch".
He added: "Each season Picasso has the remarkable ability to surprise, and tonight was no exception, with the unusual appearance of two Blue Period works, which set new benchmarks - both in oil and on paper."
La Gommeuse, described as most the important blue period Picasso to come to the market in a generation, was painted in 1901.
The portrait is of a nude unnamed woman. Gommeuse, which translates into English as 'gummy' was a sexually charged slang word of the time for cafe-concert singers and their songs.
PICASSO'S HIGHEST AUCTION SALES
- Women of Algiers - $179.4m (2015)
- Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust - $106.5m (2010)
- Boy With a Pipe - $104.1m (2004)
- Dora Maar au Chat - $95.2m (2006)
- La Gommeuse - $67.5m (2015)
- Buste de Femme - $67.4m (2015)
- Femme aux Bras Croises - $55m (2000)
It features a second portrait on the reverse of the canvas, which was hidden for a century until its discovery in 2000 during conservation work.
The caricature of Picasso's friend Pere Manach was apparently intended as a gift for the Catalan anarchist who shared the artist's studio flat in the Boulevard de Clichy in Paris.
The painting was one of 47 works on offer, with just over three-quarters finding buyers.
At least two of the top 10 lots were bought by Asian private collectors, continuing a trend of recent seasons.
The $306.7m (£202m) total comfortably beat the $275m (£182m) low pre-sale estimate. Sotheby's had tagged the high estimate at about $370m (£244.5m).
This total brings Sotheby's sales of Impressionist & Modern Art in just the past 24 hours to $575.8m (£381m),
Earlier this year, Picasso's Women of Algiers became the most expensive painting to sell at auction, going for $160m (£102.6m) at Christie's in New York.
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A new record for a blue period Picasso is set at auction in New York as La Gommeuse sells for $67.5m.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, who has vowed to reform the Roman Catholic Church, making it leaner and simpler, has disclosed that as a little boy he wanted to become a butcher.
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Russia has vehemently condemned Charlie Hebdo after the French satirical magazine published cartoons on the passenger plane crash in Egypt.
 Ynetnews |
Israeli Army: Palestinian Shot After Driving Car Into Troops
New York Times JERUSALEM — Israel's military says a Palestinian woman intentionally drove her car toward soldiers who shot and wounded her. The military says the driver slowed down, then sped up and drove the car toward the soldiers. It says troops jumped out of the ... Palestinian government shuts Arab newspaper over report on Israel ties Reuters Stabbing, attempted car attack in West Bank: Israeli armyAsiaOne Israeli seriously wounded in West Bank stabbing attackYnetnews Palestine News Network-gulfnews.com all 132 news articles » |
Mustard gas was used in clashes between Islamic State and Syrian rebels in August, chemical weapons experts are reported to have concluded.
The head of Russia's intelligence agency says it would be "reasonable" to suspend all Russianpassenger flights to Egypt pending the results of an investigation into the cause of a plane crash on the Sinai Peninsula.
British investigators looking at what caused a Russian airliner to crash in Egypt believe a bomb was put in the hold just before take-off, the BBC has learned.
Navy engineer sentenced for passing schematics on newest nuclear aircraft carrier.
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Taxpayers could end up footing the bill for Iran’s purchase of American-manufactured planes thanks to legislation passed on Thursday that critics say facilitates U.S. support for an Iranian commercial airline sector frequently used in service of its international terrorist proxies.
If it materializes, that support would likely advance the interests of a major U.S. airline manufacturer that is eyeing business opportunities in Iran, has reported lobbying on the Iran deal, and has already benefitted tremendously from the controversial export finance agency at issue.
The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a highway support bill that reauthorizes funding for the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which finances the purchase of U.S. exports by foreign governments and corporations.
The day before, it rejected an amendment to the legislation that would have prohibited Ex-Im financing for governments that the State Department classifies as state sponsors of terrorism. There are three countries currently on that list: Syria, Sudan, and Iran.
The amendment’s opponents said it was unnecessary and duplicative of existing law. But its sponsor, Ed Royce (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, explained in a floor speech that the recent Iranian nuclear deal could allow the Obama administration to circumvent existing prohibitions on Ex-Im support for the Islamic Republic.
“These common sense prohibitions are subject to presidential waivers and we have seen the president abuse waivers to pursue his agenda over and over again on Iran no matter what Congress thinks,” Royce said in a Wednesday speech on the House floor.
According to a report on the Iran deal’s sanctions relief measures from the Congressional Research Service, the president has the authority to waive four different executive orders prohibiting Ex-Im financing of Iranian purchases of U.S. goods.
Loopholes in other laws prohibiting Ex-Im support for Iran “could result in aid being made available” through the bank, the report said.
On Wednesday evening, Ex-Im officials sent a letter to Royce saying that they would not pursue a waiver to prohibitions on financing for Iran. A spokesman said that Royce would seek legislative assurances on that front.
“The House Foreign Affairs Committee will continue to pursue options to ensure this is permanent and statutory,” said Cory Fritz in an emailed statement.
Opponents of the nuclear deal worry that the president’s commitment to improving relations with the country might precipitate a waiver that would allow that financing.
Opponents of the nuclear deal worry that the president’s commitment to improving relations with the country might precipitate a waiver that would allow that financing.
“The [deal’s] public and non-public texts commit the United States to facilitating Iran’s economic normalization and growth,” said a senior official at a group involved in the legislative fight over the Iran deal.
“Short of an explicit statute with no waivers or loopholes that prohibits Ex-Im from funneling money toward deals with Iran—which doesn’t appear to exist—the President is not just able but almost compelled to promote those deals,” the official said.
That could result in indirect U.S. taxpayer support for Iranian terrorist proxies, according to Royce.
“Iran has a long history of using its commercial airlines to support its terrorist proxies. Its commercial flights are now flying military personnel to Syria, and when I say now I mean right now,” he said in his floor speech.
As early as August, Iranian officials signaled their intention to buy scores of commercial aircraft from the U.S. airline giant Boeing and its European competitor Airbus. Boeing is one of the top beneficiaries of Ex-Im financing, and that financing is often defended on the grounds that American companies might lose out on major contracts to foreign competitors.
“There’s no doubt there is huge potential, especially for Airbus and Boeing, to sell a large number of planes,” Adam Pilarski, an aerospace consultant, told Bloomberg in July.
Boeing exercised some of its considerable lobbying muscle in the run-up to the nuclear deal. Eleven of its lobbyists at the firm Monument Policy Group reported working on the issue.
The company is also a financial contributor to lawmakers who voted to strike down the Iran financing prohibition. Of the 63 House Republicans who voted to oppose Royce’s amendment, 48 have received campaign contributions from Boeing’s political action committee this year.
The post House Rejects Measure to Bar Ex-Im Financing for Terrorism Sponsors appeared first onWashington Free Beacon.
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The Triumph of the UK Surveillance State by Nicholas Weaver
The United Kingdom is a surveillance state, one far beyond the world envisioned by George Orwell. Between the GCHQ's efforts to bulk-record Internet traffic at the UK's borders, the modern data collected and accessible to law enforcement, and the panopticon of cameras, UK citizens are already living in Orwell's nightmare. The proposed Draft Investigatory Powers Bill makes it official and further strengths the surveillance state.
The whole bill is huge, some 300 pages of legal text, explanatory notes, and scare stories designed to frighten people with terrorists, murderers, and child pornographers. Undoubtedly there are other interesting privacy landmines lurking in the text. But a bit of simple searching reveals a parade of easy to abuse horribles.
Communications Data
Communications data, what the US generally calls "metadata", is expanded in requirements, including a specific requirement that enables forcing Internet Service Providers to maintain metadata. Clause 71 enables the Home Secretary to mandate the retention of "Relevant communication data" for all customers for a year. This includes sender, recipient, time and duration, type of communication, the location, the IP address and other identifiers.
For ISPs, this requires effectively keeping both netflow records and DNS logs for all customers to create "Internet Connection Records". Netflow records "Computer X talked to computer Y at time T, transferring this many bytes", while DNS logs say "Computer X looked up name N". Although its true this isn’t "all URLs", it does represent a huge swath of a user’s web surfing. A snooper with this data doesn’t know the individual page, but does know the site and, using volume and timing, can potentially learn considerably more. It does explicitly exclude the actual URLs, so the snooper can know which porn sites a target visits but, without significant inference, won’t be able to determine what particular fetish attracts the target.
Another issue is location. The cellular companies can (and undoubtedly will) be mandated to act as a global tracker for everyone on British soil, as every SMS message, data push request, or phonecall generates a communication data record which should include the user’s location. We already know that some providers in the US maintain such data to 200m resolution, so it can be reasonable to expect British carriers to meet the same requirement.
Critically, there is no warrant or other outside oversight required for authorities to access this data, but just an affirmation to a designated individual in the particular investigatory organization responsible. And the resulting data really is massive: "everywhere a person goes, every site he visits, everyone he contacts". Clause 46 (7) details the complete conditions, including "economic wellbeing", any crime, collecting taxes, and public safety. Yes, this is effectively a general warrant for the entire picture of a person's life, without even the paperwork of a general warrant.
Wiretaps
The crypto wars are not over. Unlike CALEA, which specifically exempts providers from breaking crypto if they don’t have a key, this bill does not include such an exception. Instead clause 31 simply requires that the operator not have to take any steps which are not "reasonably practical". So under this clause, all that needs to happen is for the British government to claim that adding a backdoor to the crypto is "reasonably practical" (if insanely stupid) and they can force providers, including Apple, to include such backdoors. It also doesn’t matter where the provider is, the wiretap section claims universal jurisdiction.
Bulk Warrants
This bill legalizes what the GCHQ already does: Intercept and record, in bulk, a massive amount of content and metadata with a "one side foreign" standard for data access. So unless a communication exists entirely within the British Islands, GCHQ can sweep it up into their systems. It doesn’t represent a new power on collection, it just simply ensures that what they do is technically legal. But the use is potentially sweeping (Clause 107). Not only are bulk warrants justified for national security, but also "preventing or detecting serious crime" (something clearly outside the more restrained NSA mandate) or "in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom". To me, this reads like an invitation for what the rest of the world would call economic espionage.
Information sharing with the NSA, or any other intelligence agency, remains intact (Clause 118), as the Home Secretary can simply certify that the NSA is going to follow the same rules as the GCHQ. Finally, accessing the bulk data depends on location of the "target" (Clause 119). If the target is non-UK, even if they are communicating with a UK person or are a UK citizen just outside of the country, there is no warrant requirement for searching the data.
Bulk Personal Datasets
Probably the most scary portion, however, concerns "Bulk Personal Datasets" (clause 150), permission to use large datasets which are acquired by the intelligence agencies. The bill does not specify how the intelligence agencies can acquire such data, but once they have it, they can basically do anything they want to with it. The oversight is on acquiring the data, not using it.
So what is "Bulk Personal Datasets"? Basically anything. Drivers license data for everyone in Britain. People who’ve ever expressed an interest in gun ownership. If the GCHQ can persuade Facebook (perhaps with a suitable pile of money), they could get everybody’s page views through the Like button. The potential for abuse of these datasets is limitless. The only real constraint is how the data is acquired. The intelligence agencies can beg, borrow, buy, or steal, but this (currently) includes no mechanism to legally compel.
Overall, the British Investigatory Powers Bill appears to be a big pile of bad news for inhabitants of the British Isles. The world proposed by this bill makes Orwell’s telescreens seem comfortably quaint.
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FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds Fights Former Speaker Hastert's Plea Deal
OpEdNews The ACLU" calls her a "silenced patriot." Edmonds started the National Security Whistleblowers movement as a result of her findings and her treatment as she tried to report criminal activity within the U.S. government. The abject failure of federal ... |
Carlos Cases Named Assistant Director of International Operations Division
Federal Bureau of Investigation (press release) (blog) FBI Director James B. Comey has named Carlos Cases as the assistant director of the International Oerations Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Mr. Cases most recently served as the special agent in charge of the San Juan Division, where ... and more » |
 The Charlottesville Newsplex |
Legislation to Honor Members of CIA Precursor
The Charlottesville Newsplex WASHINGTON, D.C. (NEWSPLEX) -- Members of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee have introduced legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the members of the Office of Strategic Affairs, which was the World War II-era predecessor to the ... Members of Congress introduce resolution to award Congressional Gold Medal to ...Augusta Free Press all 2 news articles » |
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