US lawmakers were poised Friday to seize a chance to take the initiative in reforming America’s vast digital surveillance network, after President Barack Obama opened the door to them. Under pressure after fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden…
Author: Admin
European stocks pulled back on Thursday, failing to gain traction from a surprise drop in US unemployment claims, while Citigroup earnings disappointed. London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index ended the day down just 0.07 percent at 6,815.42 points. Frankfurt…
US stocks finished the week modestly higher following a mixed batch of corporate earnings reports, avoiding a major retreat that had been feared early in the period. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 21.51 (0.13 percent) higher to 16,458.56. The…
Harrowing historical drama “12 Years a Slave” won best picture at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards late Thursday, while 3D space spectacular “Gravity” took seven prizes. “American Hustle” — which earlier in the day shared top Oscar nominations with…
Hollywood fired the starting gun Thursday on the most crowded Oscars race for years, with “American Hustle” and 3D space drama “Gravity” topping nominations but a wide field of movies hoping for glory on March 2. “American Hustle” and “Gravity” each…
Officials are to announce on Saturday the results of a constitutional referendum likely to set the stage for a presidential bid by the army chief who toppled Egypt’s first freely elected head of state. Initial tallies suggest this week’s two-day referendum…
Two Britons were among the 21 people killed in a Taliban attack on a popular restaurant in Kabul, the Foreign Office in London said on Saturday. “We can confirm the deaths of two British nationals in Afghanistan on the 17th of January,” a spokeswoman…
US clothing chain American Apparel has sparked controversy by putting mannequins sprouting pubic hair in the windows of their shop in New York’s boho Lower East Side. Passersby stopped to gawk, take photographs, chuckle or raise a horrified eyebrow…
DELTA State Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning, Chief Kenneth Okpara has justified the development of Economic Dashboard for the State by the Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s administration, saying it was employed as a performance monitoring tool for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). The Commissioner, who disclosed this during a press briefing to give account of the performance of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in 2013, said, the Economic Dashboard provides reports on economic performance aggregate, as well as segment and sector specific level. While saying that the performance of the MDAs is based on the key performance indicators…
Earlier today, President Obama announced a series of reforms to address abuses by the National Security Agency. We were heartened to see Obama recognized that the NSA has gone too far in trampling the privacy rights of people worldwide. In his speech, the President ensured that National Security Letters would not come with perpetual gag orders, brought new levels of transparency and fairness to the FISA court, and ended bulk collection of telephone records by the NSA. However, there is still much more to be done. We’ve put together a scorecard showing how Obama’s announcements stack up against 12 common…
President Barack Obama delivered a speech this morning on proposed reforms to the NSA’s mass surveillance program. To help illustrate what human rights and other organizations around the world are saying internationally, we have highlighted some excerpts that raise awareness of the need to protect the privacy rights of everyone everywhere, regardless of national boundaries: Cindy Cohn, Legal Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation: ”Mass non-targeted surveillance violates international human rights law. It is disproportionate because it sweeps up the communications and communications records of million of innocent people first and only sorts out second what is actually needed. Obama’s…
The Nokia-made, Android-powered smartphone codenamed “Normandy” has captured the attention of tech writers on the Internet, and a constant stream of leaks and details is keeping the spotlight on a device that may never even make it to market. First…
The Wii U’s poor sales haven’t been much of a secret in the year it’s been on store shelves. But in the run up to the 2013 holiday season, Nintendo made a bold prediction that the console would manage to have sold 9 million units by March 31,…
Yesterday, Google announced its latest crazy project that could change our world for the better: smart contact lenses. According to a post on the company’s official blog, Google is hard at work on a set of contact lenses built specifically to help…
In a speech earlier this morning from the Justice Department, President Obama discussed government surveillance in a speech that was as much a defense of the NSA’s activities as it was a response to growing discomfort with the agency’s surveillance…
Six months. That’s how long it took high-end retailer Neiman Marcus to discover that their computer network was penetrated by hackers. Turns out the retailer didn’t realize they had been the victim of cyber crime until mid-December, almost…
Iran denounced Friday as “one sided” a text released by the United States summarising the implementation of the nuclear deal Tehran struck with world powers. “The White House statement is a unilateral and one-sided interpretation of the unofficial agreements…
US President Barack Obama will head to Brussels on March 26 to attend an EU-US summit, a European source told AFP Friday. The meeting is expected to give Obama the opportunity to mend ties with the 28-nation bloc, after tensions over revelations that…
In the week leading up the two-year anniversary of the SOPA blackout protests, EFF and others are talking about key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day, we’ll take on a different piece, exploring what’s at stake and and what we need to do to make sure the law promotes creativity and innovation. We’ve put together a page where you can read and endorse the principles yourself. Let’s send a message to DC, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Brussels, and wherever else folks are making new copyright rules: We’re from the Internet, and we’re here to help. Here’s what makes a…
A top UN rights envoy in South Sudan said child soldiers are fighting in the more than month-long conflict, with mass killings reported to have taken place. “The reports that we have come across involve mass killings, extrajudicial killings, widespread…