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UK government refuses to give information about Sergei Skripal to his Russian family: 'We don't even know where he is'


RT
Wed, 28 Mar 2018 19:41 UTC
skripal police
© Henry Nicholls / Reuters
Police officers get dressed in protective suiting at a car recovery depot in Norton Enterprise Park, where Sergei Skripal's car was originally transported, in Salisbury, Britain, March 13, 2018.
The niece of poisoned ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal said she doesn't know how or where her uncle is. Her comments come after Skripal's friend and neighbor said that he has not been allowed to visit him in hospital.

On Thursday, High Court Justice David Basil Williams handed down a ruling on the medical condition of the Skripals. It contained evidence from the consultant treating them in Salisbury District Hospital, which stated that the facility had "not been approached by anyone known to the patients to enquire of their welfare."

Ross Cassidy, a haulage contractor, has been Sergei Skripal's neighbor since 2010. He said that he has been prevented from visiting Skripal and his daughter Yulia in hospital, and that he believes they are so critically ill there is no hope they will be revived.

Comment: What reasons would the British government have for blocking an ill man from seeing his friends and family? What are they hiding?

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Snakes in Suits

FTC: Facebook is under investigation over 'substantial concerns' regarding privacy practices

Lucas Nolan
Breitbart
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
StatueofLibs
© Mike Luckovich
Statue of Libs
The FTC has announced that they have opened a federal investigation into Facebook following the company's latest user data scandal, citing "substantial concerns" about Facebook's treatment of users' private data.

Axios reports that Facebook is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission following the recent user data scandal related to data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica. The FTC has now stated that they are investigating the social media companies internal user privacy practices. Tom Pahl, Acting Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, released a statement on their investigation saying:
The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers. Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises, including to comply with Privacy Shield, or that engage in unfair acts that cause substantial injury to consumers in violation of the FTC Act. Companies who have settled previous FTC actions must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements. Accordingly, the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook. Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices.
Facebook's consumer ranking has taken a huge hit since the data scandal. A poll from Reuters shows that the public is rapidly losing faith in Facebook following allegations that data firm Cambridge Analytica used the social media platform to gain access to the personal data of 50 million users.

Comment: The trust and protection of the user has to be the first commandment of such companies, not the political situation nor the favors of any particular candidate or business operation.

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Jet1

A first since Soviet era: Russian anti-sub aviation flies to North American shores via North Pole


RT
Wed, 28 Mar 2018 13:42 UTC
Russian plane
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Russian anti-submarine aviation has conducted the first training flight over the North Pole to North American shores since the Soviet era, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu says.

"For the very first time since the Soviet era, we've conducted anti-submarine aviation flights over the North Pole to the shores of the North American continent," Shoigu said on Wednesday.

The development and modernization of the Northern Fleet, as well as the Arctic in general, remains among the main priorities of the MoD. As of the beginning of this year, the share of modern weaponry and military equipment in the fleet has reached almost 50 percent, the minister stated. In 2017 alone, the Northern Fleet "received 1,090 pieces of modern hardware, including five combat speedboats, seven logistics vessels, nine aircraft and 10 anti-air radar systems."

This year, the fleet has been bolstered by further additions, including the icebreaker Ilya Muromets, while military logistics vessel Elbrus is also about to join its ranks. Several other vessels are undergoing final tests before their deployment, according to Shoigu.

Over the past few years, Russia has significantly beefed up its defensive capabilities on its northern borders, building new military facilities and refurbishing old ones, and deploying more troops and hardware to the Arctic region. Russia currently has four bases there, including the northernmost military compound, known as 'Arctic Trefoil.' The installation is the world's only permanent structure built at 80 degrees latitude north of the Equator.
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Cell Phone

Rushed US telecom database overhaul sparks fear of catastrophic failure

Adam Kredo
Washington Free Beacon
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 18:50 UTC
ajit pai telecommunications US
© Getty Images
Chairman Ajit Pai of the Federal Communications Commission
Foreign firm handling overhaul cited for national security breaches

An impending overhaul of the national U.S. telecommunications database is prompting fears the transition could spark a catastrophic failure, crippling emergency communications networks across the United States, according to industry insiders who told the Washington Free Beacon the foreign firm handling the upcoming transition may not be prepared to initiate the switch.

On April 8, a foreign firm will initiate the first phase in a Federal Communications Commission-mandated overhaul of the national telecoms database that stores and facilitates millions of American phone numbers.

The national database, known as the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC), handles 6 billion calls and texts per day, and if the system fails, no calls at all will be able to be placed. It is being taken over by a foreign-owned firm with a past of breaching U.S. national security clauses banning it from employing foreign workers, such as those tied to China.

Comment: About the Number Portability Administration Center:
The Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) is the registry that enables consumers and businesses in the U.S. and Canada to maintain their telephone numbers when they change service providers.

Administered by Neustar since its inception in 1997, the NPAC is an authoritative, trusted and neutral registry that operates with 99.999% availability.

The Dimensions of Reliability: NPAC Facts
  • It's the largest Local Number Portability registry in the world, serving more than 2,000 telecom carriers in the U.S. and Canada with 99.999% availability;
  • It facilitates the routing of more than 4 billion calls and enables more than 1 million transactions every day;
  • It executes over half a billion registry updates a year to more than 600 million registered phone numbers;
  • It supports freedom of choice for hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses, and for all the carriers that serve them.


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Attention

UK to scrutinize Tier 1 visas granted to wealthy Russians


RT
Wed, 28 Mar 2018 15:22 UTC
Amber Rudd Tier 1 visas Russians
© PA
Amber Rudd told MPs that Home Office officials were looking at how Russians who have secured so-called Tier 1 visas in order to live in the UK acquired their wealth.
The UK authorities are planning to look retrospectively at visas granted to wealthy foreign investors, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said, responding to a question about Russians who had been granted travel permits.

The question touches upon 700 Russians who had reportedly received so-called Tier 1 visas between 2008 and 2015. This type of visa is given to foreigners planning to run a business in the UK and have access to at least £50,000 (US$70,750).

"The Tier 1 was already reformed in 2015-2016 and it has been reduced by 84 percent since then," Rudd told a committee of lawmakers. "I have asked my officials to look at what reforms we may continue with and to take a look at previous ones over the past few years."

Comment: See also:

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Apple Red

Zuckerberg says he's "fundamentally uncomfortable" deciding what constitutes hate speech

Allum Bokhari
Breitbart
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 17:55 UTC
zuckerberg
© Justin Sullivan/Getty
Mark Zuckerberg says he feels "uncomfortable" acting as the world's censor, although he also claims that it is currently "his job" to do so - and mainstream journalists agree.

"I feel fundamentally uncomfortable sitting here in California at an office, making content policy decisions for people around the world," the Facebook CEO told Recode last week.

The Facebook CEO said, "There are going to be things that we never allow, right, like terrorist recruitment and ... We do, I think, in terms of the different issues that come up, a relatively very good job on making sure that terrorist content is off the platform. But things like where is the line on hate speech? I mean, who chose me to be the person that ..."

Zuckerberg then said that he has to make those decisions because he "leads" Facebook, but that he'd "rather not."

At this point, his interviewer, mainstream tech journalist Kara Swisher said she was going to "push back" on his hinted desire to remain content-neutral, saying that "companies have values." She went on to compare Facebook to the New York Times, questioning why Zuckerberg feels uncomfortable making "value decisions."

Zuckerberg responded, saying he wants "to make the decisions as well as possible."

Comment: So Zuckberberg at least has an ounce of common sense. That's refreshing. But the fact remains that Facebook does remain an arbitrary arbiter of "hate speech", penalizing individuals for relatively benign opinions and statements simply because some idiot censor or mindless algorithm finds such statements un-PC. Zuckerberg should listen to his conscience and limit censorship to the clearly illegal, e.g. terrorist recruitment. But that will never happen. The totalitarian liberal mindset is too strong in today's society to allow that much common sense.

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Heart - Black

Pakistani family lets off daughter's rapist by allowing son to rape perpetrator's sister

Guy Birchall
UK Sun
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 17:43 UTC
pakistan rape
© Getty
A rapist in Pakistan was allegedly let off by the victim's family after it was agreed her brother would do the same to the attacker's sister
A family allegedly let off their daughter's rapist after a sick trade let the victim's brother do the same to her attacker's sister. The twisted case of "revenge rape" involving two families has been uncovered by cops in Pakistan. The suspect's family had approached the victim's family for "pardon and reconciliation", according to local news reports.

Staggeringly the victim's family agreed to pardon the rapist, on the appalling condition that "her brother would commit the same act with the suspect's sister", dawn.com reports. A meeting between the two families agreed to the terms, and the brother then allegedly had sex with the suspected rapist's sister on March 21.

Cops found out about the case when the two families prepared legal documents agreeing not to press charges against each other. Pir Mahal Police Sub-Inspector Shaukat Ali Javed saw the papers and reported the families to his superiors. All 12 people at the meeting, including four women, one of which was the victim of the second rape, were arrested on Saturday.

The case has chilling similarities another incident in the southern city of Multan last July, where a village council ordered the "revenge rape" of a 16-year-old girl. The girl's brother had sexually assaulted a 12-year-old, and the attack was reportedly carried out in front of her parents and 40 members of the village council.
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Red Flag

Newly released crime statistics show fatal acts of violence in Sweden at highest ever recorded

Chris Tomlinson
Breitbart
Wed, 28 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Crime Sweden
© Getty
Newly released crime statistics from the Swedish Crime Prevention Council (Brå) show the number of fatal acts of violence in 2017 to be the highest ever recorded by the agency, while the number of rapes has also continued to rise.

Brå released the crime statistics for 2017 this week through the organisation's website and while the total number of crimes had remained largely the same, rapes and fatal violence had both increased.

According to the report, the number of fatal violent crimes totalled 113, up from 106 in 2016. "The number of cases 2017 is the highest level of reported cases of fatal violence since 2002 when Brå began to compile statistics," the organisation wrote.

Cases of fatal violence that included multiple deaths also increased from eight cases of fatal violence in four separate events in 2016 to 16 cases in 2017, including the Stockholm terror attack in which five people were killed by radical Islamic terrorist Rakhmat Akilov.

Comment: Sweden laments: It was a mistake to accept so many refugees

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Sheriff

Cops who murdered Alton Sterling will face no charges


Sputnik
Wed, 28 Mar 2018 17:26 UTC
alton sterling
© Facebook/YouTube
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has announced that the two Baton Rouge police officers who killed Alton Sterling will not face criminal charges over the 2016 killing. Louisiana's decision follows one in May 2017 by the US Department of Justice which declined to bring any civil rights charges against the officers.

Members of Sterling's family were to meet with Landry just before he announced his decision as to whether the officers would face criminal charges, but the plan was turned on its head after frustrated family members leaked the decision to reporters as they left.

​"They're not gonna bring charges on anybody. Why would they do that? This is white America," Veda Washington, Sterling's aunt, proclaimed outside the Louisiana Attorney General's office.

"Of course we're not surprised by the ruling that we have today because we're dealing with the culture of some law enforcement in our city," Arthur Reed, a Baton Rouge activist who founded Stop The Killing, Inc. and filmed the killing of Sterling told Sputnik. "I see that culture as a secret society. The Ku Klux Klan infiltrating law enforcement and becoming the 'Blue Klux Klan' with a license to kill - and are killing black men."

Comment: Previously:

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Biohazard

Baseball game in LA forced to be canceled after sewage floods stadium


RT
Wed, 28 Mar 2018 17:16 UTC
dodger stadium poop
© Jae C. Hong (Associated Press)
A baseball game was suspended and the game ultimately called off at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles after an apparent sewage pipe burst. One player described it as a "crappy way to end the spring."

In somewhat of a fetid omen ahead of the upcoming season, officials were forced to abandon play between The Dodgers and The Angels in the final pre-season game of the Freeway Series on Tuesday, following a 32-minute delay. There was reportedly a "pipe backup on two different levels" at the 57-year-old Dodger Stadium, according to Dodgers President Stan Kasten.

"We could have stayed there and tried to locate it, address it, work on the field," Kasten said, as cited by the LA Times. "We had no idea how long that would take." The leak continued after the game was called off.
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