Plus a major crackdown on Hong Kong Occupy encampments after the jump.
We begin with American domestic security via the Associated Press:
Brown family blasts prosecutor’s handling of case
Attorneys for Michael Brown’s family on Tuesday vowed to push for federal charges against the Ferguson police officer who killed the unarmed 18-year-old, and they renewed their calls for peace following a night of violent protests in which several businesses were burned to the ground.
The attorneys said the grand jury process was rigged from the start to clear Officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 shooting death of Brown. And they criticized everything from the types of evidence St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch presented to the jury to the way it was presented and the timing of the grand jury’s decision. They also said they hope that a federal civil rights investigation will result in charges against Wilson.
“We said from the very beginning that the decision of this grand jury was going to be the direct reflection of the presentation of the evidence by the prosecutor’s office,” said attorney Anthony Gray, who suggested McCulloch presented some testimony, including from witnesses who did not see the shooting, to discredit the process.
A notable observation, from the U.N. News Center:
UN rights chief concerned over ‘disproportionate’ killings of African-Americans by US police
The decision by a Grand Jury in Missouri to absolve a police officer for the fatal shooting of an African-American teenager has spotlighted broader concerns about institutionalized discrimination across the United States, the top United Nations human rights official said today.
“I am deeply concerned at the disproportionate number of young African Americans who die in encounters with police officers, as well as the disproportionate number of African Americans in US prisons and the disproportionate number of African Americans on Death Row,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, in a statement issued by his office in Geneva this morning.
“It is clear that, at least among some sectors of the population, there is a deep and festering lack of confidence in the fairness of the justice and law enforcement systems,” Mr. Zeid continued. “I urge the US authorities to conduct in-depth examinations into how race-related issues are affecting law enforcement and the administration of justice, both at the federal and state levels.”
Another voice weighs in, via the Guardian:
French justice minister denounces US police killings after Ferguson decision
Christian Taubira tweets Bob Marley lyric ‘Kill them before they grow’ and references killings of Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice
France’s black justice minister Christiane Taubira has waded into the conflict over racially charged killings in the US, quoting reggae legend Bob Marley on Twitter to express her anger.
“Kill them before they grow,” the minister tweeted, citing Marley who sang the phrase in his 1973 hit song I Shot the Sheriff.
Taubira’s tweet came as riots erupted in the suburb of Ferguson outside St Louis after a grand jury chose not to press charges against a white officer who shot dead black teen Michael Brown in what he said was self-defence.
From the Oakland Tribune, Monday night’s totals:
Ferguson protests: Oakland mops up after 47 arrests, several officers injured
The city was cleaning up Tuesday after hundreds of protesters took to the streets, vandalizing several stores, setting fires and attacking police following a grand jury decision not to indict a white officer in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.
Most of the damage took place in Old Oakland along Broadway and three police officers were injured, including one who was hit in the face with a brick, police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said.
At a Tuesday afternoon news conference, city officials said they were disappointed that protesters had not remained peaceful all night, but praised the conduct of police in the face of hostile crowds.
And they were back out again Tuesday night, blocking a freeway again.
Another demonstration, this one in Germany, via TheLocal.de:
Anti-refugee demo reveals xenophobia
German media were almost united this weekend in condemning demonstrations against refugee housing in the Berlin suburb of Marzahn-Hellersdorf – but can far-right sentiment ever really be overcome?
Left-wing newspaper taz noted the argument of conservative Berlin politicians that ordinary people’s concerns had been hijacked by extremists, but couldn’t agree that they were unknowingly instrumentalized.
“It’s questionable whether this, without the involvement of the organized far-right, would have led to the weekly aggressive marches,” the paper argued.
It also noted that the people at the heart of the demonstrations, from those running Facebook pages to speakers, all have close links to the far-right scene, including the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD).
MintPress News covers a story to chill your spine:
How the Pentagon’s Skynet Would Automate War
Due to technological revolutions outside its control, the Department of Defense (DoD) anticipates the dawn of a bold new era of automated war within just 15 years. By then, they believe, wars could be fought entirely using intelligent robotic systems armed with advanced weapons.
Pentagon officials are worried that the US military is losing its edge compared to competitors like China, and are willing to explore almost anything to stay on top—including creating watered-down versions of the Terminator.
Due to technological revolutions outside its control, the Department of Defense (DoD) anticipates the dawn of a bold new era of automated war within just 15 years. By then, they believe, wars could be fought entirely using intelligent robotic systems armed with advanced weapons.
Last week, US defense secretary Chuck Hagel announced the ‘Defense Innovation Initiative’—a sweeping plan to identify and develop cutting edge technology breakthroughs “over the next three to five years and beyond” to maintain global US “military-technological superiority.” Areas to be covered by the DoD programme include robotics, autonomous systems, miniaturization, Big Data and advanced manufacturing, including 3D printing.
On to the military hot zone with the McClatchy Foreign Staff:
Key provincial capital in Iraq may be about to fall to Islamic State
Islamic State fighters on Tuesday penetrated to the core of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Iraq’s largest province, prompting local security officials to warn that the city was on the verge of falling to the extremists. Such a gain would be the Islamic State’s most significant victory in months.
Officials said that extremist fighters were only tens of yards away from entering the main government compound.
“The governorate building has been nearly cut off,” said a Baghdad security official in direct contact with the operations command for Anbar, the province where Ramadi lies. The official said that Islamic State forces had cut roads to the Iraqi Army’s 8th Division base to the west and the road to Habaniyya airbase to the east. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
And not so far away, via the New York Times:
As Bombing Toll Rises, Afghan Villagers Direct Anger at Government
Three years ago, villagers from the dusty Afghan district of Yahya Khel, near the Pakistani border, rose up against the Taliban, driving the insurgents away. They say they did it on their own, winning themselves a degree of security that felt tolerable.
Late Sunday afternoon, the insurgents exacted a horrific revenge. At a volleyball tournament here that drew teams and spectators from surrounding districts, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives just as fans were converging on the players to celebrate.
By Monday, the death toll had climbed to 61, according to the district governor, Musa Jan. Many were children. Some families were burying not just one member, but two.
Amid their grief, the men of Yahya Khel, a district in Paktika Province, were naturally angry at the insurgents who had sent the suicide bomber. But they were also critical of a national government they felt had offered them little over the past three years.
Getting censorious, via the London Telegraph:
Facebook ‘could have prevented Lee Rigby murder’
Facebook has been named as the internet company which failed to pass on crucial information that could have stopped the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby
Facebook failed to pass on information that could have prevented the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby and is a “safe haven for terrorists”, a report has concluded.
Michael Adebowale used the social networking site to express his “intent to murder a soldier in the most graphic and emotive manner” five months before the 2013 Woolwich attack.
The report found that Facebook had not been aware of that specific exchange.
However, Parliament’s intelligence and security committee discovered that Facebook had previously shut down Adebowale’s accounts on the site because he had discussed terrorism, but failed to relay concerns to the security services.
Rigby, 25, was run over and butchered by Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo outside Woolwich barracks in south-east London on May 22 last year.
War by other means, from TechWeek Europe:
Egyptian Cyber Group Attacks ISIS
The ‘Egyptian Cyber Army’ has joined those attacking the Islamic State’s online activities
A group of Egyptian nationalists has joined those attacking the online operations of the “Islamic State”, also known as ISIS, last week replacing a message from ISIS’ leader with a recording of a popular song.
The transcript of the message was replaced with an image recalling the Egyptian national flag, and a message in Arabic reading “Egyptian Cyber Army”.
ISIS has previously been attacked online by American and Iranian hackers, the Syrian Electronic Army and the hacktivist group Anonymous.
The New York Times covers a hack attack north of the border:
Hacker Disrupts Government Websites in Canada
Since Friday, people turning to the websites of Canada’s Parliament, its Supreme Court, the city of Ottawa and the Ottawa and Toronto police forces have been occasionally greeted by a gyrating, anthropomorphic banana or, more frequently, an error message.
The disruptions were prompted by a hacker or a small group of hackers supporting the cause of an Ottawa teenager who was charged last spring with making hoax telephone calls throughout North America. The calls led the police in a number of provinces and states to send out tactical squads in response to supposed emergencies, a practice known as swatting.
Using the name Aerith, with slight variations, the hacker claimed responsibility for the website disruptions in emails and a posting online. The sender claimed to be affiliated with the shadowy online collective Anonymous. When asked by email how many people were involved, Aerith, who said that he or she was in Brazil, replied, “We act as a group.”
Conceivably connected? Via CBC News:
Canada Revenue Agency privacy breach leaks prominent Canadians’ tax details
Business leaders, art collectors, authors and politicians among more than 200 on agency’s list of donors
Detailed tax information about the private lives of hundreds of Canadians — many of them rich and famous — was sent to CBC News by Canada’s tax agency in a major privacy breach.
The highly confidential details, including home addresses of taxpayers and the value of tax credits they were granted, are contained in a copy of a Canada Revenue Agency spreadsheet covering the years 2008 to 2013.
The 18 pages include information on donations made by such Canadian luminaries as author Margaret Atwood, former prime minister Jean Chrétien, grocery magnate Frank Sobey, cartoonist Lynn Johnston, pollster Allan Gregg, financier Stephen Bronfman, former CBC executive Richard Stursberg, Olympics chief Richard Pound and many others.
And video report on the leak from The National:
Revenue Canada privacy breach leaks prominent Canadians’ tax details
Program notes:
Detailed tax information about the private lives of hundreds of Canadians — many of them rich and famous — was sent to CBC News by Canada’s tax agency in a major privacy breach.
After the jump, major Hollywood hacks, perilous Flash-ing, the Chinese Google memory hole expands, France keeps Russian carriers in Ukrainian limbo, Colombian rebels release a pair but a general’s still Farced, the Brazilian cops’ growing civilian body count, on to Asia and allegations of torture in a Myanmar journalist’s death, a Korean naval drill provokes a Japanese rebuke, a Hong Kong Occupy crackdown — including a travel ban on its leaders, a censorious judgement from Beijing, followed by another round of arrests, China blows off criticism of its artificial island bases in contested waters, and Chinese ships cross the line. . .
Another hack, via the Los Angeles Times:
Two arrested in Britain in ‘Expendables 3′ movie leak investigation
Police officials in London have arrested two men on suspicion of leaking “The Expendables 3″ online before its U.S. and Canada wide release on Aug. 15.
A DVD-quality copy of the Lionsgate-distributed film was downloaded by millions of users after it popped up on file-sharing websites around July 25.
Officials said on Tuesday that the arrested men, ages 36 and 33, are believed to have stolen the film from a cloud-based system before uploading it to the Internet. They were taken to local police stations for questioning.
Yet another Hollywood target, from the Hollywood Reporter:
Sony Pictures Targeted by Widespread Hack
The news comes a day a group called DerpTrolling claimed that it hacked into Sony’s PlayStation Network and published the email addresses and passwords of gamers
Sony Pictures has been targeted by a widespread hack that has staffers logged off their computers while the studio investigates.
THR has confirmed that computers across the studio were breached today by a group calling itself #GOP. The group boasted, “We’ve obtained all your internal data including your secrets” and threatened to release the data to the world unless demands are met. It is unclear what the demands are or if they are evident to the studio.
Sony Pictures Entertainment spokesperson Jean Guerin gave a brief response to questions about whether a hack occurred. “Sony Pictures Entertainment experienced a system disruption, which we are working diligently to resolve,” said Guerin in a statement on Tuesday.
Perilous Flash-ing from PCWorld:
Adobe tries again to fix Flash vulnerability
Adobe released an emergency patch on Tuesday to fix a Flash Player vulnerability that was fixed last month but was quickly exploited again.
The company had issued a patch for the flaw, called CVE-2104-8439, but attackers soon found a way around that fix. The latest update to Flash adds a “mitigation” for CVE-2104-8439, a vulnerability that could lead to the installation of malware.
The latest version for Windows and Apple’s Mac OS is 15.0.0.239, and the latest for Linux is 11.2.202.424. Flash Player for Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browsers should automatically update, but the update also can be installed manually from Adobe.
The Chinese Google memory hole expands, from South China Morning Post:
Google sued by Hong Kong-based banker over extreme internet trolling
Google has agreed to a settlement with a Hong Kong-based businessman who sued the search engine firm over defamatory internet posts that were circulated across some 3,600 websites.
Daniel Hegglin, a former Morgan Stanley banker, went to Britain’s High Court to force Google to ensure posts falsely labelling him a murderer, paedophile and Nazi did not appear in search results in what was described by lawyers as an extreme example of internet trolling.
Settlement of what would have been a test case defining the US firm’s global responsibilities was announced at the High Court in London on Monday.
France keeps Russian carriers in Ukrainian limbo, via Al Jazeera America:
France suspends military shipment to Russia over Ukraine crisis
Paris had agreed to build two warships for Moscow in a deal worth $1 billion
France suspended the delivery of a warship to Russia on Tuesday, after months of speculation about what would be the biggest arms sale ever by a NATO country to the Kremlin.
The French president’s office announced the suspension “until further notice” after growing pressure from allies due to tensions over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
“The President of the Republic considers that the situation in the east of Ukraine still does not permit the delivery of the first BPC [helicopter carrying and command vessel],’ said a statement from President Francois Hollande’s office. “He has therefore decided that it is appropriate to suspend, until further notice, examination of the request for the necessary authorization to export the first BCP to the Russian Federation.”
The first of the two ships, the Vladivostok, is docked at the French port city of Saint Nazaire, where about 400 Russian sailors have spent months training aboard the vessel.
Colombian rebels release a pair but a general’s still Farced, from BBC News:
Colombia: Farc rebels release two soldiers
Colombia’s Farc rebels have released two soldiers taken hostage earlier this month, the first step in a deal to revive peace talks.
The two, Cesar Rivera and Jonathan Diaz, were captured by the rebels in the eastern border region of Arauca. Three others, including a Colombian general, were taken in a separate incident and remain captive.
The Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, suspended peace talks until the captives were freed.
The Toronto Globe and Mail covers a Brazilian body count:
Brazil’s police under scrutiny over civilian deaths
Why, when so much else in Brazil is getting better, does the rate of violence – particularly murders by guns and at the hand of police – remain so stubbornly high?
That’s the question at the forefront of public debate here, spurred by a confluence of events in recent weeks.
The Brazil Public Security Yearbook, released recently, reported that 53,646 people were killed in 2013 – one person every 10 minutes. That is a substantially higher rate of civilian death than found in Afghanistan (2,959) or Iraq (8,868) in the same period.
And the data show that, far from solving the problem, Brazil’s police are a critical part of it. They killed more than 11,000 civilians between 2008 and 2013 – an average of six people a day. And in the first nine months of this year, police killed 478 people in confrontations, twice as many as during that same period last year.
From Al Jazeera America, on to Asia and allegations of torture in a Myanmar journalist’s death:
Slaying of journalist casts doubts on Myanmar’s democratic reforms
Human rights activists suspect Par Gyi was tortured to death in military custody
Par Gyi, a 49-year-old freelance journalist, was detained by the Myanmar army on Sept. 30 in Mon state’s Kyaikmayaw township, near the border with Thailand, shortly after visiting a group of ethnic Karen rebels to cover a fresh burst of fighting. He was on his way to see his wife and daughter in northern Thailand when soldiers picked him up at a bus stop.
Five days later, he was dead.
The army, which waited three weeks to announce his death, described Par Gyi as a “communications captain” for the political wing of the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), an ethnic minority rebel faction, and said he was shot and killed while attempting to wrest a gun from a soldier in a bid to flee custody. Ma Thandar dismisses the suggestion as “unbelievable.”
She and the DKBA have denied that Par Gyi, also known as Aung Kyaw Naing, worked for the group.
Human rights advocates suspect that Par Gyi, a former pro-democracy activist who regularly contributed to Yangon-based news journals, was tortured to death in military custody and hastily buried to hide the evidence. Par Gyi was reportedly carrying a notebook with the names of ethnic Karen rebels and villagers at the time of his arrest.
A Korean naval drill provokes a Japanese rebuke, via Jiji Press:
Japan’s Suga Raps S. Korean Military Drill near Takeshima
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga spoke out Tuesday against the previous day’s South Korean military exercise near the disputed Takeshima islands off Shimane Prefecture, western Japan.
The exercise, designed to defend Takeshma, called Dokdo in South Korea, was “unacceptable and extremely regrettable” in light of Japan’s territorial claim over the group of small islets, Suga said at a press conference.
Tokyo has lodged a protest with Seoul and will protest again in bilateral talks between senior Foreign Ministry officials slated for Thursday, government officials said.
From the Washington Post, a Hong Kong Occupy crackdown:
Hong Kong police, protesters clash; 86 people arrested
Police arrested at least 86 pro-democracy protesters here on Tuesday, after an attempt to clear occupied streets descended into scuffles, confrontation and chaos.
On Tuesday morning, bailiffs and contractors wearing hard hats had removed some of the barricades in the shopping area of Mong Kok following an injunction brought by a minibus company that had complained its business was hurt. Authorities have recently begun using bailiffs and the courts as a way to whittle away at the protest sites.
The exercise began peacefully, with protesters not offering any resistance as workers removed barricades and wooden pallets blocking the road. But as they moved down the street, removing tents and other items — and as more protesters arrived on the scene — tensions began to rise.
As the day wore on, police made several attempts to force protesters back, using batons, shields and pepper spray — and hauling to the ground, handcuffing and arresting any who did not retreat fast enough. Protesters wore masks and goggles, and some even carried wooden shields to defend themselves. Some staged “mobile occupations,” blocking traffic on surrounding streets.
A video report from euronews:
Hong Kong: Arrests and scuffles as protest site cleared
Program notes:
Scuffles broke out in Hong Kong as police arrested pro-democracy demonstrators who refused to obey a court order to clear a protest site in the city’s Mong Kok district.
Demonstrators at ‘Occupy Central’ are demanding public nomination of candidates for Hong Kong’s leadership post ahead of government elections in three years.
The Washington Post covers another development:
Hong Kong protesters denied entry into China
A growing number of people in Hong Kong who have taken part in the city’s pro-democracy demonstrations are suddenly finding themselves denied entry to China. The action has shocked many and sparked the widespread belief that Chinese authorities have assembled a blacklist in recent months with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of names.
In a well-publicized incident last week, three leaders of the ongoing student protest were stopped while trying to fly to Beijing to confront Chinese leaders. Their attempted trip — staged in part as a form of protest — drew international headlines, but subsequent cases have been more surprising because they involve relative unknowns — not leaders — who merely participated in the protests, which included hundreds of thousands of others.
For some, the denials threaten their livelihoods because of how intertwined Hong Kong’s economy is with mainland China’s. They may also cast a chilling pall on freedom of expression here and have already fueled anxiety among protesters, fearful of the possible consequences of being on China’s watch lists.
From the Mainland’s state-owned Global Times, a pronouncement:
Mainland attitude sealed fate of HK protest
Hong Kong authorities on Tuesday deployed about 6,000 police officers after a court order authorized the clearance of a protest site which had remained for nearly two months in the district of Mong Kok. Police arrested about 80 protesters who refused to comply with the order, including pro-democracy activist and lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung. There was some inevitable confusion at the site, but the clearance was conducted as smoothly as expected.
With its goals appearing ridiculous and public support quickly diminishing, the Occupy Central campaign has failed. However, it does not mean the forces which plotted and instigated this movement will also lose their place in Hong Kong society. Extreme events like Occupy Central will probably recur.
But the fiasco may after all serve as a bitter lesson for both Hong Kong opposition groups and some Hong Kong residents who feel pity for these protesters. The most crucial part of the lesson should be that the odds will never be in their favor if the opposition groups engage in a direct confrontation with the central government. Their radical illusion of reshaping Hong Kong is like tilting at windmills. It will never come to pass.
And the latest, via the Japan Times:
Hong Kong student leaders arrested as police move on protest site
Hong Kong police on Wednesday arrested Joshua Wong and Lester Shum, two of the student leaders at the heart of pro-democracy protests that have shaken the Asian financial hub since August, and began swiftly clearing a major demonstration site.
Riot police scuffled with protesters trying to resist attempts to force them off the streets of the gritty Mong Kok district following clashes overnight, witnesses said.
Hundreds of protesters remained on Nathan Road, at the heart of the protest site in Mong Kok, brandishing yellow banners and chanting demands for “full democracy” in the former British colony, but were pushed back by the large number of police. Within about two hours most of the protesters’ tents had been removed.
An insular dismissal from Want China Times:
US, neighbors ‘overreacting’ to China expansion in Spratlys: PLA officer
China’s reclamation activities in the South China Sea are not going fast enough, says an unnamed People’s Liberation Army officer stationed on the Spratly Islands.
The unnamed officer made the comment to China’s nationalist tabloid, the Global Times, amid accusations from the US and other parties that China has been acting provocatively over the past year in its aggressive expansion of reefs and islets in the Spratlys, which are also claimed in whole or in part by Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
The one project in particular that has made international headlines is the construction work on Fiery Cross Reef, which according to British satellite pictures has been expanded from 0.08 sq km in size to 0.9 sq km, turning the once-tiny reef into the largest island in the Spratlys.
Insular inflation from Want China Times:
US watches as Beijing forges ahead with S China Sea oilfield plans
China’s recently published Resource Development Strategic Action Plan (2014-2020) says the country plans to establish a large oilfield in the disputed South China Sea in the next six years capable of producing around ten million tonnes of oil a year, according to Duowei News, a media outlet run by overseas Chinese.
From the end of 2013 China has accelerated land reclamation projects in the area, with Fiery Cross Reef, which is also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan, being expanded to 0.9 square kilometers as of Oct. 16, making it now the largest island in the disputed Spratlys. Estimates based on a satellite image taken on Nov. 17 suggest that the reef has now grown in area to 1.3 square km and that the reclaimed land is structured like a landing strip. Under previous administrations China had pushed for the shelving of disputes and the joint exploration of resources in the region by claimant nations out of diplomatic considerations, Duowei stated. Due to the land reclamation projects and moves to build airports as well as calls for bids to exploit oil resources by other claimants, however, the shelving of disputes is no longer on China’s agenda. Under Xi Jinping’s leadership, there has been an increased military presence in the region and moves that suggest China is moving forward with its plans to exploit resources.
And we conclude transgressively with South China Morning Post:
Chinese ships back on patrol in waters disputed with Japan
Coastguard vessels in East China Sea draw protest from Japan in wake of Xi, Abe meeting
Chinese patrol ships returned to disputed waters in the East China Sea yesterday for the first time since President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met in Beijing earlier this month.
Three China coastguard vessels “patrolled the territorial waters around the Diaoyu Islands” yesterday, the State Oceanic Administration said in a terse statement on its website.
Kyodo reported that Tokyo had filed a protest with China over the incident, citing anonymous Japanese foreign ministry sources.
