The European Union Times |
- US police employ radar that sees through walls
- Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah dies at 90
- Facebook Censorship: What They’re Not Telling You
- Vast majority of Brazil babies delivered by Caesarean Section
- Russian spy ship in Havana ahead of US delegation’s historic visit
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Posted: 22 Jan 2015 02:21 PM PST
 Dozens of US law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have used radar devices that allow them to “see” through walls of buildings to monitor human activity, a new report states. This has led to questions regarding how legal these tactics are. The policing agencies began using the radar device more than two years ago without public disclosure and little notice from courts until a recent case in Colorado revealed its use to catch a parole violator, according to USA Today. The device’s clandestine use has raised questions about Fourth Amendment protections against unwarranted police searches. “The idea that the government can send signals through the wall of your house to figure out what’s inside is problematic,” said Christopher Soghoian of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Technologies that allow the police to look inside of a home are among the intrusive tools that police have.” Reminiscent of the heat-seeking extraterrestrial in the Hollywood movie ‘Predator,’ the device, known as the Range-R, uses radio waves to detect the exact location of movements, even breathing, from more than 50 feet away. The Range-R, made by arms company L-3 Communications, displays three-dimensional movement detection from the other side of a wall, indicating how far away any motion is, though it does not offer a picture of the action inside. L-3 Communications said it has sold approximately 200 Range-R devices to 50 law enforcement agencies for about $6,000 each. Federal records indicate that the US Marshals Service began purchasing the radars in 2012, according to USA Today, and have been spending $180,000 on them ever since. The device’s use, though, went unnoticed until December, when a federal appeals court in Denver discovered that police officers had used the radar device without a search warrant to enter a house in order to find a truant parolee. The panel judges warned, “the government’s warrantless use of such a powerful tool to search inside homes poses grave Fourth Amendment questions.” While use of the device alarmed the judges in that case, it was first time an appellate court had even referenced the technology. US Justice Department spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said officials are reviewing the court’s decision, adding that the Marshals Service “routinely pursues and arrests violent offenders based on pre-established probable cause in arrest warrants” for major crimes. According to USA Today, the Justice Department is actively funding development of systems that aim to map building interiors in order to find people inside. The devices, according to the report, were first used during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, marking yet another tool fostered for US military uses and later passed off to US law enforcement for use in everyday policing situations. The US Supreme Court has generally barred the police use of such technology to monitor the inside of one’s home without a warrant. In a 2013 case that limited use of drug dogs to sniff the exterior of homes, Justice Antonin Scalia reaffirmed the Fourth Amendment as “the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.” Source           |
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Posted: 22 Jan 2015 02:13 PM PST
 An announcement, made by state TV early on Friday, also said that his 77-year-old half brother, Salman, has succeeded him. “His Highness Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and all members of the family and the nation mourn the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who passed away at exactly 1 a.m. this morning,” said the statement. The king reportedly died at hospital, where he had been receiving medical treatment for several weeks. The late Saudi king’s funeral ceremony will be held on Friday afternoon. The official statement further noted that the late king’s half brother Muqrin has been named the new crown prince. The new Saudi king has reportedly called on the royal family’s Allegiance Council to recognize Muqrin as his crown prince and heir. King Abdullah, who was admitted to the King Abdulaziz Medical City in the capital Riyadh in late December, had been suffering from pneumonia and was reportedly breathing with the help of a tube. Examination “revealed pneumonia, which required the provisional insertion of a tube,” the Saudi royal court said in a statement on January 2. The Saudi king had two operations in October 2011 and November 2012 because of “ligament slackening” in the upper back. The Saudi king’s death has raised concerns about the future of the oil-rich country in the face of anti-government demonstrations. Salman was named Saudi crown prince in June 2012 after the death of Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz. Salman has recently represented King Abdullah at most public events because of the monarch’s ailing health. Source      |
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Posted: 22 Jan 2015 01:00 PM PST
It’s not just about ‘fake news stories’. Facebook’s new ‘flagging’ feature will allow agenda-driven political agitators, governments and corporations to control the narrative and all but silence dissent.      |
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Posted: 22 Jan 2015 02:45 AM PST
 “The epidemic of cesarean births in the country is unacceptable and it must be treated as a public health problem,” Arthur Chioro said on Sunday. According to the World Health Organization, a 15-percent occurrence of C-section is the recommended level for any country, however, official data in Brazil show the method is used to deliver an average of 56 percent of babies, with the figure reaching nearly 85 percent in private clinics. The Health Ministry warns that the procedure increases the risk of respiratory difficulties for the baby by 120 percent and also triples the risk of mother’s death. As part of the plan to control the increasing cases of C-section, as of July, Brazilian government will implement measures, including a right for the woman to request statistics of the frequency of cesarean deliveries, and a right to be informed about the health risks of undergoing an operation for delivery. Furthermore, doctors are obliged to wait for contractions to begin in order to be paid by insurance, an initiative that is deemed to control unnecessary operations. The Latin American state is the world’s fifth largest country in terms of both geographical area and population. Source      |
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Posted: 22 Jan 2015 02:00 AM PST
 The Russian Navy’s intelligence collection ship, the Viktor Leonov, has docked in Havana just a day before the arrival of an American delegation. The Russian warship is moored in open view of a pier usually used for cruise ships. The ship’s visit, unannounced by the Cuban authorities, comes as the US and Cuba are attempting to restore diplomatic ties broken in 1961. The Americans will conduct the first official negotiations with the Cuban leadership in more than half a century. The Viktor Leonov is part of Russia’s Northern Fleet and is fitted with a wide range of intelligence equipment, a crew of 220 and high-tech electronics. “It’s not unprecedented. It’s not unusual. It’s not alarming,” a US defense official told AFP. In 2014, the Viktor Leonov called at Havana at least twice, in February and March, and those visits were also unannounced. In April, the ship was spotted operating along the US East Coast, in close proximity to a nuclear missile submarine base at Kings Bay, Georgia, and other American military facilities in the area. The Soviet Union and subsequently Russia used to have a huge signal intelligence center (SIGINT facility) in Cuba’s Lourdes, located a mere 250km from continental USA. In July 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied media reports that Russia was planning to reopen the SIGINT facility in Lourdes.  Embargo remains in place The high-level talks begin in Havana on Wednesday. The US Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson is leading the American delegation, with Cuba’s head of North American affairs, Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, heading the Cuban negotiators. The talks will aim to elaborate a roadmap for putting diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US back on track, normalizing ties and re-opening embassies. The US authorities announced plans to allow American companies to offer their services in Cuba, creating infrastructure on the island and improve communication links with mainland US. America is also likely to unblock the personal accounts of Cuban citizens and companies frozen in American banks. Foreign vessels that dock off Cuba’s coasts will be allowed to call at US ports. Some revisions to the decades-old embargoes between the United States and Cuba came into effect on January 16, implementing major changes to the long-standing trade and travel restrictions between the neighboring nations. New policies, announced by the Obama administration on Thursday this week, are expected to allow American travelers within 12 categories to travel to Cuba without applying for specialized visas, alleviating restrictions that have largely excluded the US public from the island for more than 50 years. However, the US embargo placed on Cuba in 1962 will remain in place until the US Congress votes to lift it. In a statement ahead of the talks, Cuba’s Foreign Ministry noted that ties between the two countries could only be normalized when Washington drops the unilateral sanctions against Havana. Cuba’s official Granma newspaper acknowledged that “certain aspects of the blockade against Cuba are changing.” But they stressed the measures announced by the US authorities are “just a step in a right direction,” and there is still “a long way to go,” the newspaper said, as quoted by Itar-TASS. Source     |
